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Middling Along is the podcast for ‘midults‘ who want to spend their middle years thriving, not just surviving. Voted as one of the Top 25 podcasts for midlife and menopause at https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/podcasts-about-the-menopause/ - Emma speaks to a wide range of guests who entertain, inform, and inspire in equal measure!
Episodes
Saturday Oct 15, 2022
Saturday Oct 15, 2022
Join me today as I chat to women’s health coach Kate Rowe-Ham about her journey to founding the Owning Your Menopause app.
Kate started out offering free workouts on Instagram to time-pressed parents after struggling to find the time to work out following the birth of her third child. The build up of (what she now knows were perimenopause) symptoms - serious joint pain, night sweats, panic attacks and palpitations - left her feeling desperate. Unable to get a clear diagnosis from her own GP, she was forced to seek private medical advice to get her perimenopause diagnosis and on to HRT.
This led her to pivot her business and to the development of the Owning Your Menopause app, which offers daily workouts, plus advice from experts in nutrition, sleep, breathwork, and access to specialist GP advice. We talk about how critical strength training is for this midlife transition (and beyond) for preventing osteoporosis, improving cardiovascular health, strengthening our joints, and reversing the decline in muscle mass that begins after we turn 30 (increasing muscle mass in turn elevates our resting metabolic rate).
We also discuss the importance of rest, and adopting a sustainable approach to exercise - plus how to start when you really don’t feel like you can do anything at all, if symptoms are all-consuming. As busy parents we both know how challenging it can be to fit in a daily workout - the Owning Your Menopause app helps make that less of a chore with encouragement from like-minded members who are all there cheering one another on - and offering empathy on bad days…
You can find Kate at https://www.instagram.com/katerh_fitness and Owning Your Menopause at https://owningyourmenopauseapp.com/gym/Owning-Your-Menopause/
Don't forget to follow us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ or find out more/listen to past episodes/subscribe to the newsletter at https://middlingalong.com
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts to share the love!
You can also find me at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer coaching and workplace training.
Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
My guest on today’s episode is Sally Mueller, CEO and founder of the Womaness brand with her co-founder Michelle Jacobs. Sally talks about her own journey through menopause, and her dawning realisation that with her understanding of the retail industry she could create some much more appealing options than the lacklustre products recommended by her own doctor at the time.
We talk about why and how Womaness chose to develop specific products to tackle the issues we might face in menopause and why the products we’re used to using might not work for us at this time of life.
We touch also on the community that Womaness is trying to build - both through their 'After Party' community on Facebook, and through live events this October in celebration of Menopause Awareness Month.
Tune in to find out what one thing Sally wishes she had known before going through menopause...
You can find Womaness at www.womaness.com and for the month of October UK listeners can get 20% off their first order using the discount code MIDDLING20
They're also on Instagram @mywomaness, to join the After Party just search for the group on Facebook
Don't forget to follow us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ or find out more/listen to past episodes/subscribe to the newsletter at https://middlingalong.com
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts to share the love!
You can also find me at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer coaching and workplace training.
Wednesday Oct 05, 2022
Wednesday Oct 05, 2022
Welcome back to episode 30 of the podcast - woot! This time we welcome photographer Jenny Smith.
Jenny followed her long-held dream of working as a photographer after the birth of her son following IVF treatment. Several year later, after muddling through with a range of perimenopause symptoms, it was a moment of sheer rage - over something as silly as chicken wings - combined with a lucky moment listening in to a podcast, that led her to realise she was in perimenopause and seek help.
Since then, she's started the Dear Hormones podcast - a confessional of all the bonkers things our hormones have made us say or do - because sometimes if you don't laugh, you cry! We also talk about her passion project - 40 Over 40 - a series of stunning photographic tributes to women over 40 who are making a difference to the lives of other women. Having started out firmly in the menopause sphere, it was since pivoted to have a broader focus - but that's the beauty of this kind of project, you just go where you feel like it!!
You can find Jenny at https://www.jennysmithphotography.co.uk/ and on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jennysmithphoto/
The Dear Hormones podcast is at https://www.instagram.com/dearhormones/
Don't forget to follow us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ or find out more/listen to past episodes/subscribe to the newsletter at https://middlingalong.com
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts to share the love!
You can also find me at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer coaching and workplace training.
Wednesday Sep 21, 2022
Wednesday Sep 21, 2022
In this episode I chat to writer, blogger, influencer and content creator Gabrielle Blair, aka Design Mom herself, from award-winning blog DesignMom.com, about her new book 'Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion.'
After writing a (deliberately provocative) stream of Tweets in 2018 on why men are responsible for 100% of unplanned pregnancies which (of course) went viral, Gabrielle has been parrying responses (both positive and negative) ever since.
After four years of additional research, she's turned her thoughts into a small, but perfectly-formed book (road tested on all 6 of her children!) which she hopes will radically shift the focus of the abortion debate (a hot topic since Roe v Wade was overturned) on to preventing unwanted pregnancies.
We talk about why women have for years shouldered the vast majority of responsibility for contraception, why making this a 50/50 responsibility seems so radical but actually makes a whole lot of sense, given the facts around mens' fertility, and why this is a perfect time to reframe the debate, given how impossible it is to have nuanced discussion around abortion and bodily autonomy.
We also talk about how and why we need male allies to step up in support of the ideas in the book, and how critical it is that teens and young people engage with the topic.
You can find Gabrielle at www.designmom.com on Twitter https://twitter.com/designmom and on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/designmom/
Ejaculate Responsibly is published by Workman Publishing and is out on 4th October: https://www.workman.com/products/ejaculate-responsibly/paperback
Don't forget to follow us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ or find out more/listen to past episodes/subscribe to the newsletter at https://middlingalong.com
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts to share the love!
You can also find me at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer coaching and workplace training.
Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
In this episode of the podcast I speak with Coral Short (they/their) - a somatic therapy practitioner and performance artist. After some persuading on the part of their partner, Coral decided to celebrate their menopause transition with a menopause party earlier this year. We talk about why rituals and celebrations like this are such an important way of breaking through the stigma around menopause and aging, and modeling to future generations that this can be a time of great joy and possibility. In the face of society's fear of aging, taking up space and unapologetically claiming our wisdom, power, and experience is a rebellious act! We also talk about how the pandemic made many of us re-evaluate what we want out of our lives, and also promted us to reconnect to nature - so many of us feel disconnected from both nature and our own bodies, and this transitional time can be a key turning point for rediscovering those connections. Why not listen to this one in a forest near you!
You can find Coral at www.coralshort.com and on Instagram @coralshort
Don't forget to follow us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ or find out more/listen to past episodes/subscribe to the newsletter at https://middlingalong.com
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts to share the love!
You can also find me at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer coaching and workplace training.
Wednesday Jul 06, 2022
Wednesday Jul 06, 2022
Join me as I chat to Jo Moseley, who describes herself as a ‘joy encourager, midlife adventurer, and beach cleaner’. Jo came to stand-up paddleboarding at the age of fifty-one and has built a reputation as a speaker, magazine contributor and as host of The Joy of SUP – The Paddleboarding Sunshine Podcast.
In 2019, she became the first woman to paddleboard coast to coast, raising funds for 2MinuteBeachClean and The Wave Project along the way. A film about her journey, entitled 'Brave Enough – A Journey Home to Joy' has been shown at various festivals.
We talk about her own journey through menopause (though for years she attributed her symptoms to stress), a biscuit-aisle breakdown that finally prompted her to reach out to a friend for help, and how that lead to her many paddleboarding adventures - before SUP was everywhere!
We cover everything from basic tips for those of us taking up SUP to navigating loss and injury, to her rebellion against the 'empty nester lonely mum trope.'
Jo's book 'Stand Up Paddleboarding in Great Britain' can be ordered at
You can find her on Instagram @healthyhappy50 and on her website https://www.jomoseley.com/
Don't forget to follow us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ or find out more/listen to past episodes/subscribe to the newsletter at https://middlingalong.com
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts to share the love!
You can also find me at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer coaching and workplace training.
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
My guest this time is Angelika Buettner, a professional fashion and beauty photographer, who gradually became disillusioned with the lack of representation of older women in the shoots and campaigns she was working on, and decided to do something about it. The result, her seven-year labour of love, is the stunning book entitled 'I AM: Celebrating the Perfect Imperfect' which features the nude portraits and stories of 121 women over 40, redefining our ideas of age and beauty.
Having started off shooting her close friends, she gradually won over the trust of each of her subjects, finding the right locations and giving the women an opportunity to tell their own stories in their own words alongside these stunning images. Most of her subjects had never posed for nude photos before and many found the process transformational in accepting and appreciating their bodies. Each of these stunning images is a love letter to the female form in all it's many shapes, colours and textures...
Her latest project will be interviewing mothers and daughters, exploring the impact of social media on body image, and we talk a little about that too. In a world that profits from making us feel bad about our bodies, our appearance and our age, loving ourselves exactly as we are is a radical act!
You can find Angelika's work, and buy her book, over at https://www.iam-themovement.com/the-book and on Instagram @iam_by_angelikabuettner
Don't forget to follow us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ or find out more/listen to past episodes/subscribe to the newsletter at https://middlingalong.com
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts to share the love!
You can also find me at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer coaching and workplace training.
Thursday Jun 16, 2022
Thursday Jun 16, 2022
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/
Don't forget to follow us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ or find out more/listen to past episodes/subscribe to the newsletter at https://middlingalong.com
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts to share the love!
You can also find me at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer coaching and workplace training.
Friday Jun 10, 2022
Friday Jun 10, 2022
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
Don't forget to follow us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ or find out more/listen to past episodes/subscribe to the newsletter at https://middlingalong.com
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts to share the love!
You can also find me at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer coaching and workplace training.
Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
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/
Don't forget to follow us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ or find out more/listen to past episodes/subscribe to the newsletter at https://middlingalong.com
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts to share the love!
You can also find me at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer coaching and workplace training.