Midlife Unfiltered: The Season Of Me

In this very open and honest conversation, Barbara shares with me her remarkable story of caring for 5 loved ones who had dementia. Her mother-in-law, her mum, a dear aunty, her aunty’s close friend, and her husband Peter. She wanted to share her story with you so that if you’re also caring from someone with dementia it might give you some light in the darkness. If you are yet to care for someone...

Kiki Hart (Louise Cooper) and I are bringing conversations that explore what it means to be human in a fast-evolving, fast-paced digital world. And how Kiki is here to help. Curiosity in the Age of AI In this episode, we explore one of the most important questions of our time: how do we stay genuinely curious and human, in a world increasingly shaped by AI? We talk about AI as a tool. Not a replac...

Hello and welcome to another episode of Midlife Unfiltered. We are so glad you’re here. Erica and I are very excited to bring you this episode because it’s a topic that brings together many popular conversations we’ve spoken of here in the podcast, with a brilliant woman who has dedicated decades to it. As a best-selling author, award-winning teacher and PhD researcher in women’s spirituality Mega...

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease of the thyroid gland, named after Dr. Hakaru Hashimoto, the Japanese physician who first identified it in 1912. It’s thought to affect between 1 in 6 to 1 in 8 women, with a peak onset between the ages of 45 and 55. Symptoms like fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, low mood and hair loss are routinely dismissed as just ‘life’ or perimenopause. Without...

Shouldland. You know it well. We know you do because we feel it too — that all too familiar place where we should do this, should do that. Feel as if we should because […]. You fill in the blank. Erica and I don’t know any midlife women who have not felt the weight of ‘shoulds’. In midlife especially, they feel overwhelming and heavy, as if we’re surrounded by them, with demands lobbing in from ev...

These problems are far more common than most of us realise and far less talked about than they should be. There’s a group of muscles working hard for us every single day that most of us never give a second thought to, until something goes wrong. Problems more common than you might think. Almost 4 in 10 women and 2 in 10 men experience urinary incontinence - with 7 in 10 of those people under 65. A...

Personas are nothing new. But they’re not found in abundance in the ‘real world’ either - the offline world we Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers are familiar with. Ask a Gen Z or Alpha and they'll likely just stare blankly. Not because they don't know what you mean, but because for them, it's just...normal Because for them, in their predominantly online world, they are mainstream. Meet Kiki Hart Kiki is...

Did you know that up to 62% of women between 50 and 69 in Australia have poor bone health — and most have no idea? Bone loss doesn’t start in your 70s. It starts around our late 20’s and accelerates during the menopause transition, quietly and without symptoms, long before the health system thinks to check. In this Midlife Unfiltered podcast episode, Anita draws on her own lived experience — a ret...

Hello. This is a very raw and open episode as Erica shares her story. It may be triggering for those of you who are donor conceived, think you might be or if someone you love is. About This Episode The stories about those who are donor conceived are often quite shocking and sensationalised because…well…they make for a ‘good story’. But behind those stories are real people. People, more often than...

Eating healthy food doesn't automatically mean your body is absorbing it. I was munching raw spinach for years thinking I was doing my then osteoporotic bones a favour — but only a fraction of that calcium was actually getting in. This episode is about understanding why, and what to do about it. We're diving into Bioavailability. In This Episode of the Midlife Unfiltered Podcast We Talk About * Wh...

In this chat with Andrea Dahr from Switch Natural we talk about common harmful chemicals that are in soooo many products we use on our skin, cook with, eat and drink in. So sneaky that we are not aware that they’re there, that we’re taking them in. Every. Single. Day. Andrea’s mission is simple. Share information that’s grounded in studies about these toxic chemicals so that you can make an inform...

This is one of the most fascinating and eye opening conversations I’ve had on the podcast. Because let’s be honest. It’s not a topic we openly talk about, not even with our besties. Jane is one of Australia’s leading Trichologists who looks at scalps and hair all day long. What she doesn’t know about our thinning hair quite frankly, is not worth knowing. In this brilliant chat Jane and I talk abou...

Dementia is now the #1 cause of death for women and men in Australia. It’s terminal with no known cure for its various form of which there are over 100. The form of dementia most often spoken of is Alzheimer’s. In this series our aim is to share real life experiences so that if you find yourself on this journey, or if you already are, you feel less isolated and alone. That others understand and se...

You’re struggling to understand who you are in the midst of all the changes you feel inside and those you are drawn to from the outside. Discovering your place in the world, how and where to fit in, guided by your instincts and those around you. The learning curve is steep at times and if you’re lucky, you get to experience it surrounded by love and support. Sound familiar? Those were our teenage...

When you devour a book because you find it hard to put down, it’s a sign that it’s a bloody good one. When you can’t wait to share and chat about it, it’s a sign that it has resonated with you deeply. That’s the impact Mind Your Body: A Revolutionary Programme to Release Chronic Pain and Anxiety, had on Erica and why we chose to chat about it on the podcast. It’s a book you simply must know about!...

A conversation on her podcast with gut guru Dr Steven Gundry literally changed her life. It set Shawna on a new trajectory to research, learn and join the dots about her Dad’s health condition. This was now personal. Dementia. It’s a cruel neuro-degenerative condition of the brain for which there is currently no cure. All we ultimately have to offer those with it, is comfort. Shawna’s Dad had been...

Aging with power. Not grace. Power. What does that mean for you? And how do we do it? In this podcast episode on Midlife Unfiltered, Anita explores what it means for women in midlife to age with power. Taking back our agency, advocating for health. Because there are GAPS. Lifespan - Health span = 10-15 year Gap: We may be living longer but we are not living well, longer. Statistically (Australian...

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As we say goodbye to a challenging 2025, Erica & I talk about 2025's most popular podcast topics and why they've resonated so much and how they resonated with us personally as we reflect upon them. Rest. Identity & Values. We record weekly so have banked about 50 episodes in 2025, moving to launch from Substack at the end of 2024. Still finding our feet in many ways but loving it here. From Substa...

How do we rest when we’re restless? In this week’s podcast chat, Erica and I discover that our relationship with Rest is at either ends of the rest spectrum. That relationship very much determines how we rest and when we do. With the ‘silly season’ and the mad rush to year’s end upon us, we felt Rest was something that might be helpful to talk about. Rest is also the theme of Erica’s SelfKind hub...

In this week’s podcast episode we are talking about the books we are currently reading or have read. Books we are enjoying and why. We also deep dive into one favourite so you can work out if it’s for you. We both read quite a few books at the same time. Maybe that’s a love of reading. Maybe that’s our ADHD speaking. :) Erica’s Fab 4 Books: are a mix of fiction and non-fiction. Books she reads to...

Perhaps a rather unusual topic to chat about but with such a large post WW2 migrant population in Australia and other countries, perhaps not so niche. Many are elderly now and many more have died, so the want to take them back home, is greater now than ever before. Have you taken a loved one’s ashes back to their home town, to a country outside of where they lived most of their life? The last time...

“People like you don’t Retire!” In this episode of Midlife Unfiltered, we welcome special guest Tracey Bode. Tracey shares her journey of stepping back from her business after a 45-year career, and the fulfillment she has found in being present in her everyday life post-retirement. We talk about the importance of planning for retirement, what the big ‘R’, retirement even means now, what it means f...

In the tumultuous change of midlife, it makes perfect sense that at times, we’ll feel lost. Often a loss of a sense of self - of who we are. And with that, the confidence to dress in a way that feels authentic. Erica has had times when she looks in the mirror and the image of the person looking back at her feels…well…rather alien. We talked about this in a previous episode here in Midlife Unfilter...

It’s not often that women’s health is given a mega spotlight. Not like this. It’s indeed rare to have 4 powerhouses of women’s health around the same table, sharing their knowledge, their wisdom with the goal of making us more aware of how our body works, what it needs to work well now, and for Future Us. Steven Bartlett on his podcast Diary Of A CEO recently facilitated a very thoughtful, compreh...