Thrive Solo

Send us Fan Mail My wonderful guest on the podcast this week is Alison Leiby, a comedian, writer, and author of the brilliant book, 'I’m Alot: Surviving Myself & All The People I’ve Been', which came out in July.  The book is essentially a memoir-in-essays, which unpacks some of the different identities that make up who Alison is, including being single, being an only child, being a...

Send us Fan Mail In Part 2 of Reasons I’ll Probably Be Single Forever, I’m looking at the other side of the equation: everything single life gives me. From autonomy, peace and solitude, to loving my own company, not envying couples, not needing male validation and no longer seeing romantic partnership as a goal, I’m talking about why my life already feels full exactly as it is. Because maybe stayi...

Send us Fan Mail This week on Thursday’s Thoughts, Polly and I are talking about optimisation, and whether our constant quest to look and feel better might actually be making us feel worse. We’re bombarded on social media with advice on how to optimise almost every area of our health and wellbeing. Add in wearables and apps tracking everything from sleep and steps to heart rate and recovery, and i...

Send us Fan Mail JOIN ME FOR A THRIVE SOLO TRIP TO ITALY IN APRIL 2027! https://www.explore.co.uk/thrivesolo-italy My fabulous guest on this week's episode is aesthetic practitioner and content creator, Nadiya Bekar. Nadiya is 54, single, childfree, lives in North London with her sausage dog, Chilli, and is loving her single life.  Those of you who follow me on Instagram might have seen a ree...

Send us Fan Mail In this week’s minisode, I’m sharing some of the reasons I genuinely think I may be single forever — and why that prospect doesn’t bother me in the slightest. From my almost non-existent tolerance for bullshit and my love of independence, to the compromises, emotional responsibility and risk of losing yourself that can come with relationships, I’m exploring why partnership simply...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's Thursday Thoughts, Polly and I are talking about our tendency to keep striving for the next thing, rather than appreciating what we already have. We talk about the ‘hedonic treadmill’ - the idea that even when we achieve something we really wanted, the happiness it brings often doesn’t last, and before long we’re looking towards the next goal. Polly shares how...

Send us Fan Mail JOIN ME FOR A THRIVE SOLO TRIP TO ITALY IN APRIL 2027! https://www.explore.co.uk/thrivesolo-italy My gorgeous guest on this week's episode of Thrive Solo is advertising executive, Sammy Hibbard-Daniels. Thirty-seven, single, and childfree, Sammy lives with her sausage dog, Frank. She was in a ten year relationship until a few years ago when her and her partner parted ways - s...

Send us Fan Mail JOIN ME FOR A THRIVE SOLO TRIP TO ITALY IN APRIL 2027!   https://www.explore.co.uk/thrivesolo-italy In Part 2 of this minisode series, I’m getting into the nitty gritty of exactly what I’ve been doing to get fitter, stronger and leaner at 50. I’m talking you through my three weekly strength-training sessions, progressive overload, how I get around 100g of protein a day, what I act...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's Thursday Thoughts, Polly and I are talking about cultivating a beginner’s mindset, as well as the difference between fixed and growth mindsets. In our conversation, we talk about how people often avoid trying new things because they're worried about not being good immediately, when the truth is that we all start knowing nothing — and we learn through effor...

Send us Fan Mail My guest on the podcast this week is a force of nature, and I’m sure many of you will already know who she is. Her name is Regena Thomashauer and she is a feminist icon, the founder of The School of Womanly Arts, as well of the author of several books including the New York Times best seller, Pussy: A Reclamation, and the author of her brand new book, On Our Knees: Loving Your Lif...

Send us Fan Mail JOIN ME FOR A THRIVE SOLO TRIP TO ITALY IN APRIL 2027!   https://www.explore.co.uk/thrivesolo-italy In the first of this two-part minisode, I’m sharing the story behind why I completely changed the way I look after my body at 50. From discovering I’d gone through early menopause and being diagnosed with osteopenia, to gaining weight, losing confidence and eventually reaching a poi...

Send us Fan Mail JOIN ME FOR A THRIVE SOLO TRIP TO ITALY IN APRIL 2027!  https://www.explore.co.uk/thrivesolo-italy On this week's Thursday Thoughts, Polly and I are talking about the ego and how it can hold us back from taking action. We explore how the ego often comes from a place of fear and judgement, making it one of the loudest voices in our minds. We also share ways to become more awar...

Send us Fan Mail JOIN ME FOR A THRIVE SOLO TRIP TO ITALY IN APRIL 2027!  https://www.explore.co.uk/thrivesolo-italy I met my fabulous guest on this week’s episode because we appeared together on Jo Good’s BBC Radio London show, and when I found out he was single I was like “Will you come on the podcast?!” and he said yes. His name is Frank Loman, he is 57 years old, single, childfree, lives in Lon...

Send us Fan Mail JOIN ME FOR A THRIVE SOLO TRIP TO ITALY IN APRIL 2027!  https://www.explore.co.uk/thrivesolo-italy In this week's minisode, I'm reminding you of five of the most underrated gifts of being single. Not the obvious ones, but the quieter ones that can completely transform the quality of your everyday life: the absence of constant arguments, the peace that comes from living a...

Send us Fan Mail JOIN ME FOR A THRIVE SOLO TRIP TO ITALY IN APRIL 2027!  https://www.explore.co.uk/thrivesolo-italy On this week's Thursday Thoughts, Polly and I are talking all about confidence and how to build more of it. We share why we prefer to think of confidence as a verb rather than a noun. Confidence isn't something you magically have before you start – it's something you c...

Send us Fan Mail JOIN ME FOR A THRIVE SOLO TRIP TO ITALY IN APRIL 2027!    https://www.explore.co.uk/thrivesolo-italy This week’s episode is Part 2 of my conversation with Kristy Halvorsen, full-time nomad, coach and author of Perfect Unfolding: Seven Years of Life-Changing Solo Adventure, One Year That Broke Me Open — a book that I read and absolutely loved. If you haven’t yet listened to last we...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's minisode, I'm challenging the idea that being in a relationship somehow gives you access to a richer or more meaningful version of life. So often, single people are made to feel as though they're waiting on the sidelines while everyone else is experiencing the "real" human experience — but I simply don't believe that's true. We all...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s Thursday Thoughts, Polly and I are talking about comparison. As the saying goes, comparison is the thief of joy, but we can all be guilty of it to a greater or lesser extent. And it’s even harder to keep it under control in this age of screens and social media. Rather than comparing ourselves to others and allowing them to make us feel bad about ourselves, let’s use com...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s episode is Part 1 of a 2-parter with the fabulous Kristy Halvorsen, a full-time nomad and author.  If "normal" is a way of being, Kristy is most definitely not that. In 2017, she sold pretty much everything she owned including her house, she left her career as a firefighting, and she hit the road in her Airstream trailer, Coddie. For nearly nine years, Kristy...

Send us Fan Mail In this week's minisode, I'm exploring one of my favourite mindset quotes, attributed to Henry Ford: "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." We all tell ourselves stories about who we are and what we're capable of, but what if many of those stories aren't actually facts at all? From confidence and careers to relatio...

Send us Fan Mail On this week’s Monday Motivation, Polly and I are talking about taking responsibility. How often do you avoid doing the hard thing, even though you know it’s exactly what needs to be done? The truth is, no one else can do it for us. We all have to choose our hard. Taking responsibility isn’t about blame or pressure – it’s about recognising the incredible power you already have to...

Send us Fan Mail I'm excited for you to hear my wonderful guest this week because she’s talking all about something that we don’t talk about enough — and I’ve only had one other guest on the podcast talking about this particular thing.  Hennie Thomson is a single woman in her 30s living and working in Oxfordshire. She has been long-term single and a few years ago she realised that her lack of...

Send us Fan Mail In this week's minisode, I'm asking a question that I've genuinely been wondering about for a long, long time: are human beings actually meant to spend 20, 30, 40 or 50 years with the same romantic partner? I'm not questioning love or relationships themselves, but the societal expectation that we're all supposed to couple up, get married and stay together...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's Thursday's Thoughts, Polly and I are talking about the mistake that so many of us make which is thinking that things will be better when… We’ve all done it, haven’t we? Things will better when I’m earning more money; things will be better when I’ve started the new job; things will be better once I move into the new home. Ultimately, those ‘big’ moments in...

Send us Fan Mail On this week’s episode, I’m talking to the fabulous Désirée Cyganek, a single and childfree photographer and former dancer, the daughter of a French father and an African mother who was born in the Ivory Coast and raised in France.  Having moved to Florida when she met the man she subsequently married, Désirée now lives in Jersey City — just across the water from Manhattan — with...