Midlifing

Send us Fan Mail Lee and Simon discuss overload: storms, sickness, media saturation, and a growing sense that attention itself is the battleground. They land on “what we ignore” as a survival skill, using sport, news, and desire as case studies for selective blindness and unexpected meaning. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net . --- The Midlifing logo is adapted from an original...

Send us Fan Mail Lee and Simon reflect on ageing through ordinary shocks – driving at night, learning languages badly in public, and realising your social stamina has quietly changed. The episode circles the relief of opting out (sleep, simple food, cinema marathons) versus the effort of keeping up, without pretending either choice is noble. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net ....

Send us Fan Mail Lee and Simon reflect on the turn of the year not through resolutions but through attention to time, labour, and value – what feels worth doing, and what quietly drains energy. The conversation circles embodied work, intergenerational thinking, and the midlife urge to spend less time reacting and more time building things that outlast you. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@m...

Send us Fan Mail Lee and Simon circle from Christmas silliness to showers, cocktails, bureaucracy, and grief, using humour to hold off the end-of-the-world feeling while letting something tender through. Beneath the ramble, the episode quietly lands on memory, loss, and the strange intimacy of ordinary rituals. Related link: I Asked 64,182 People About “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells”. Here's Wh...

Send us Fan Mail Lee and Simon circle around the messy line between saying “no” (as self-respect) and staying relational, using condominum meetings, Portuguese/Italian slips, and a post office queue as lived examples of how “transactional” life can feel. They land on the idea that some exchanges (kindness, levity, basic decency) aren’t quid-pro-quo at all – and then veer into unfiltered joy at Oli...

Send us Fan Mail Simon and Lee spiral from the weird intimacy of recording their friendship into the horror of AI-fuelled “chatfishing” and the prospect of being “back on the market” after loss. They end up sitting with ageing, death, and the line between cherished solitude, unacknowledged loneliness, and the hunger for simple physical affection. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.n...

Send us Fan Mail Lee talks about realising how “thin-skinned” he is at home and at work, and how that sensitivity both hurts (wanting to cry over a throwaway comment about his clothes) and helps him get more quickly to the truth of what’s actually going on emotionally. He and Simon fold this into a wider question of whether you want to be “a radiator or a drain” in relationships, and how different...

Send us Fan Mail Simon and Lee chew over how trauma and pain can’t really be compared or ranked, even inside cushioned-but-precarious academic lives where people still don’t feel safe. They then push a fraught hypothetical about raising a daughter into a misogynist world. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net . --- The Midlifing logo is adapted from an original image by H.L.I.T: ht...

Send us Fan Mail Lee and Simon meet in person for the first time in three years and move from gallbladder scares and overstretched health systems into a reflection on post-pandemic disconnection, social capital and the erosion of community. They sit with the discomfort of feeling more willing to be “a doer, the joiner” abroad than in the UK, and the unsettling knowledge that not joining in also he...

Send us Fan Mail Lee’s rebellious gallbladder and the realisation that he’s not “a box with a brain in it” spark a conversation about midlife bodies that can no longer be ignored. From Lisbon-airport dehydration to shamelessly helping-while-queue-jumping anxious Americans, they sit with the mix of pride, shame and “curiosity, not judgement” toward other people’s (and their own) fragilities. Get in...

Send us Fan Mail Lee and Simon explore what it means to remove yourself – physically and psychically – from one life while tentatively building another. A wardrobe installation in Sassari becomes an existential reflection on identity, work and the quiet liberation of decoupling. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net . --- The Midlifing logo is adapted from an original image by H.L....

Send us Fan Mail A lively riff on “Good luck to you Leo Grande” becomes a tender meditation on grief, intimacy and how performances can feel “mannered” or disappear into truth. Plus a quick detour into house anatomy -- those elusive eaves and the ever-misnamed “Gabel end.” Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net . --- The Midlifing logo is adapted from an original image by H.L.I.T: h...

Send us Fan Mail Lee arrives wildly apologetic (sugar hangover and “pre-arranged lateness”), then recounts a calm immigration-enforcement raid spotted on a dog walk where Jeff and Poppy bristled first. The pair unpack the crowd’s quiet “witnessing,” the shaky economics versus the “beautifully shiny ideology” of such raids, and how immigration talk often masks racism. Get in touch with Lee and Simo...

Send us Fan Mail Simon’s grim HMO viewing – “a cupboard with a toilet in it” – kicks off a sharp rant about rent, greed and our own complicity in gentrification (yes, palazzo included). Lee’s just out of Covid, still “quite brain foggy,” as they juggle setup jitters, wool-winding, and the uneasy balance of rights vs responsibilities. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net . --- The...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode sits between worlds: Lee’s COVID-brain-fog ramble collides with Simon’s identity shift as Sardinia becomes a “forever home.” The mood is excited but tender: new kitchen colours, shallow washing machines, and the coat of academia starting not to fit. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net . --- The Midlifing logo is adapted from an original image by H...

Send us Fan Mail Early-morning chaos (Jefrey’s squeaky-toy alarms and “Dr. Claggy” cinnamon-bun focaccia) spirals into a tender-but-fiery riff on migration, tribalism, and the everyday bureaucracy of moving lives across borders. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net . --- The Midlifing logo is adapted from an original image by H.L.I.T: https://www.flickr.com/photos/29311691@N05/857...

Send us Fan Mail The chat spins from joking about posthumous albums into a deep dive on Bowie, The Beatles, and Peter Jackson’s Get Back, with Simon realizing he might be the “Paul McCartney” of his work life. Meanwhile, the two reflect on trust, apologies, and which Beatle they’d most like to be. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net . --- The Midlifing logo is adapted from an ori...

Send us Fan Mail A tummy bug led to a missed call, sending Simon into a gently comic spiral of catastrophising while Lee nursed ginger ale. They laugh about phones, worry, and how fast our minds jump to worst-case scenarios. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net . --- The Midlifing logo is adapted from an original image by H.L.I.T: https://www.flickr.com/photos/29311691@N05/8571921...

Send us Fan Mail From crocodile-flatbread daydreams to bake-off blunders, the chat lands on pressure and nerves: how we choke in high-stakes moments yet sail when we’re wearing a role. A gentle riff on anxiety, agency and tiny cues (like “6.9 minutes”) that make being human weirdly manageable. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net . --- The Midlifing logo is adapted from an origina...

Send us Fan Mail Lee and Simon chat about how being “smart” has turned into a bit of a buzzword, popping up everywhere from phones to fabrics to how people talk about each other. They wonder if it’s really that important, especially when things like reliability and good questions often matter more. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net . --- The Midlifing logo is adapted from an or...

Send us Fan Mail Lee and Simon drift from lighthearted chatter about films, music, and horror-comedies into a deeper reflection on fairness, empathy, and how business rules affect personal relationships. What begins with K-pop demon hunters and Coen Brothers ends with a heartfelt unpacking of hurt, rules, and the weight of being treated “just like everyone else.” Get in touch with Lee and Simon at...

Send us Fan Mail Lee and Simon muse on the strangeness of plastic-covered furniture and saving things for best, linking it to habits of consumerism and care. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net . --- The Midlifing logo is adapted from an original image by H.L.I.T: https://www.flickr.com/photos/29311691@N05/8571921679 (CC BY 2.0)

Send us Fan Mail Lee and Simon discuss how their understanding of success has changed, from youthful drive and ambition to the satisfaction of doing things well. Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net . --- The Midlifing logo is adapted from an original image by H.L.I.T: https://www.flickr.com/photos/29311691@N05/8571921679 (CC BY 2.0)

Send us Fan Mail Lee and Simon discuss podcast recording quirks, Italian language and food, the difficulty of finding good restaurants in Rome, and the virtues of immigrant-run eateries. They detour into cocktail adventures, running habits, architectural quirks in old houses, and auditory remedies involving bad covers of Sade's Smooth Operator.  Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifi...

Send us Fan Mail Lee and Simon reflect warmly and self-critically on moments of unintended unkindness, exploring how irony, tone, and long-honed habits can cause harm even when the intention is to connect. They discuss the complexities of authenticity, performance, and informality—especially in academic or professional contexts—while gently mocking themselves and each other with characteristic aff...