Middling Along

Join me this time as I talk to Sam Evans, co-owner, with her husband Paul, of Jo Divine - an online store selling skin-safe sex toys and irritant-free lubricants. (Content warning, there will be sex chat!) From the earliest days of Jo Divine (featuring the Trolley of Love, tune in to find out about that...) to her starring appearance in the famed Davina documentary on menopause (and the subsequent 'Davina-effect' of a sell-out on the toy that featured in said documentary...) we cover a LOT.

For Sam herself, using the products they stock led to the discovery that ingredients in the lubes she had been using were the cause of her recurrent thrush and other infections, which cleared up within a week of using 'skin-safe' products. Tune in to find out why glycerin, parabens, and polypropylene glycol are all things you do NOT want on your lady parts...  I mean, most of us are pretty choosy about what we slap on our faces, so why wouldn't we be equally discerning about what we apply to one of the most  sensitive (and absorbent) parts of our bodies?? 

As a trained nurse, and now writer on sexual health and pleasure, Sam dispenses advice not just on her Instagram account, but daily through the Jo Divine email and phone line. With happy customers well into their 90s, Jo Divine is proof that the fun doesn't have to stop, if you have the right tools!

We also talk about 'Honest', the new book that Sam and Paul's daughter Millie Evans has written for teens and young adults, covering the kind of inclusive, frank, open and honest sex-ed that we wish we all could have had in our formative years.

You can find Sam on Instagram @samtalkssex and @jo.divine and the website is https://www.jodivine.com/

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

 

Join me this time as I chat to Heather Jackson, one of the co-founders of GenM (the menopause partner for brands). Heather talks us through her own perimenopause experience, including a scary episode where she genuinely thought she was having a heart attack, she reveals how utterly unprepared she was for perimenopause and why that in turn inspired her and Sam Simister to create GenM.

As Heather rightly points out, we wouldn't enter a marathon without the right kit and preparation, and yet every year millions of women enter perimenopause totally unprepared. GenM is helping to move the needle, by engaging with brands (large and small) to both support their own employees, but also to ensure that they are catering appropriately to what is effectively 20% of their market share (when you look at it like that, it's a no-brainer).

Brands, Heather tells me, are taking notice and adapting, but it takes time, and campaigns are planned a long way in advance so visible change is slow to bloom.

But there's also action we can take ourselves - we don't have to wait for the companies we work for to wake up to this: as Heather says, we can Be The Change and be the catalyst for those conversations to happen! 

You can find Gen M at https://gen-m.com/mission/  and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/genm_official

 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

 

Join me this time as I chat to Bethan Thomas (no relation!) - who is one half of Hot Tea Mama - we talk about founding and growing the company with good friend Kate, initially with teas to support pregnancy and nursing mamas, but then more recently expanding the range to support those experiencing perimenopausal symptoms.

We cover Bethan's fascinating journey to become the first non-Chinese person to get a degree in Tea Science from the University of Agriculture and Forestry in Fujian, after more than 15 years of working as a tea buyer and blender. We look at the active ingredients in the Take a Pause tea (green tea, raspberry leaf, gingko biloba, ginseng, valerian, sage and liquorice, if you're curious) and how each of those can help as part of a 'Perimenopause Toolkit'.

Hot Tea Mama is also working with Gen M on changing the way brands think, talk and act about menopause, and we discuss the wider societal changes impacting on how products for those of us going through this life stage are marketed and sold.

 

You can find Hot Tea Mama at https://www.hotteamama.com/  and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hotteamama/

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

 

In this episode I'm joined by menopause specialist and founder of Oxford Menopause, Dr Katie Barber, to bust some menopause myths and misconceptions. Join me as Katie walks us though some of the most common of them: including being told we're 'too young' to be in perimenopause, that we can't be in perimenopause because we 'still have periods' or 'the blood tests seem fine'...we also talk about understanding risks (eg for breast cancer), why testosterone is generally prescribed in addition to HRT and not on its own (and why it's such an important hormone for women), as well as what to expect if you decide to stop taking HRT later in life, (and why you might want to stay on it for longer than you might think).

 

You can find out more about the services offered by Oxford Menopause clinic here: https://www.oxfordmenopause.com/ 

 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

In this episode, I chat to Louise Lewis, whose own experiences of stress and burnout earlier in her career now inform her approach to helping stressed out, frazzled women (I'm sure many of us can identify with that!) reclaim their energy and restore calm through nutrition and lifestyle changes. We cover the effects of stress and the stress hormones on our bodies, the impact of the last two years of the pandemic - aka collective trauma - and how a permanent "doing vs being" mode with no downtime prevents our bodies from recovering. The good news is, even small pockets of calm in our busy lifestyles can help us to get back on an even keel. Tune in to find out more - and if you find it helpful, why not share with a frazzled friend?!

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

 

Join me as I talk to Mona Eltahawy, journalist, activist and author. (Note that there is liberal use of the F word throughout - as Mona herself proclaims, profanity is one of the ways she claims her power!)  We discuss her last book "The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls" - including why it is so critical we stop teaching girls to express anger. Here's one of my favourite quotes from the book: “What if we nurtured and encouraged the expression of anger in girls the same way we encourage reading skills: as necessary for their navigation of the world? What if we believed that, just as reading and writing help a girl to understand the world around her and to express herself within it, expressing her anger was also a necessary tool for a girl making her way through life.”

We then move on to talk about the anthology she is currently working on entitled "Bloody Hell! And Other Stories: Adventures in Menopause from Across the Personal and Political Spectrum" a much needed lens on a subject where many of the voices we hear are White, Western, and straight. We cover Mona's own disbelief at how unprepared she was for perimenopause, why global, and gender-expansive voices and stories are so important, and why the patriarchy really (really) hates it when older women discover their power and become shameless...and how it tries to silence and shame us all the more. Oh...and why we all talk about moisturising our faces...but heaven forbid we should talk about moisturising our v@ginas!

You can find Mona on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/monaeltahawy/

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

Join me this time as I chat to Sam Rice, author of The Midlife Cookbook and The Midlife Method as we talk all things food and nutrition. We discuss food strategies for dealing with 'nutritional "shoulds" overwhelm', how meal planning is one of the best things you can do to help set yourself up for success, and her favourite 'food hacks' for those of us who feel like we struggle to find the time to eat a healthy balanced diet - particularly pertinent as we approach the Christmas festivities and all the opportunities that presents to over-indulge! 

You can find Sam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/midlifekitchen/ where she posts load of enticing recipe ideas! 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

My guest this time is Rachel Hope, who walked away from the high life in Dubai, her job, and her marriage, to start over at 50. Unfortunately for her, her initial false start - combined with the surprise appearance of a menopause she decribes as "hell on wheels" - meant that her glorious reinvention took some time coming. Her experiences however did lead her to setting up Soul Sisters Community, and she now runs retreats for women feeling 'stuck', just as she was, and helping them find a clearer path through to their new chapters. Join us to find out how journalling her way out of a bleak time helped Rachel, and can help us too, and why tarot might not be entirely what you thought it was...

 

You can find out more about Rachel's retreats at https://www.soulsisterscommunity.com/

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

My guest on this episode is a well-known voice in the UK menopause community and a hero to many (though she'd be far too humble to accept the accolade I'm sure): Diane Danzebrink.

She and her campaign, #MakeMenopauseMatter have been instrumental in changing the dialogue around menopause, and campaigning for better education - in schools, in workplaces, and yes, for our GPs too.  She talks about how her own surgical menopause brought her to the darkest of places, and how her experience - and her rage at how many other women were suffering needlessly - led her to start the non-profit organisation Menopause Support from her kitchen table. We talk about how much has changed since she started out in 2015 as a lone (and often lonely) voice speaking out about her experience and campaigning for change, the recent successes, her plans for the future and what she hopes the menopause landscape will look like in 2027...

Diane's non-profit Menopause Support which offers a wide range of free resources and 1-1 support can be found at https://menopausesupport.co.uk/

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

In this Episode, I chat to writer Elizabeth Joseph about navigating perimenopause with humour, and a lot of trial and error via natural/alternative/complementary therapies and products aimed at menopausal midlifers. You name it, she's tried it so we don't have to: from cold water therapy to sound baths, mouth taping to EFT tapping, cacao ceremonies to RTT (rapid transformational therapy), Elizabeth writes with candour, dry wit and down to earth honesty about what has and hasn't worked for her symptoms. We also talk about how rubbish many of us are at prioritising ourselves and how that needs to change in midlife. There's also a lot of giggling and silliness, just in case you thought that all sounded terribly serious - enjoy!

 

You can find Elizabeth at https://www.instagram.com/elizabethjosephnavigating/ 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/