My So-Called Midlife with Reshma Saujani

Best selling author and advice columnist Cheryl Strayed isn’t looking back. She’s taking a front seat to her post menopause years so much so that she’s given it a name — the “crone age.” Cheryl shares why she’s excited about this next stage of her life and what she’s learned from her iconic advice column Dear Sugar. Plus she gets real about grief and why we shouldn't wait for the “deathbed moment....

Many women take career pauses when they have children. But Neha Ruch – author of The Power Pause – wants you to know that there are so many other times and reasons to consider a pause. Perhaps a family member needs care. Perhaps you need time to explore where you want to go next in your career. Neha tells Reshma how to prepare for a pause, what to do on your pause, and how to set yourself up for s...

Katie Sturino loves her body. But the advocate, entrepreneur, and author put a lot of effort and hard work into getting to that place of body acceptance. She and Reshma dive into Katie’s accidental body acceptance journey, which began after her divorce when Katie says she just wanted to get a revenge body. They also discuss where so many of us get our insecurities from, how to shut down (mostly) w...

Zarna Garg needed a change. After 16 years as a stay-at-home mom, Zarna had lost her own ambitions and knew it wasn’t sustainable. She attempted – and failed at – a long list of businesses before she found her calling as a stand-up comic. She cracks Reshma up with stories about how soccer socks drove her to the brink of madness and shares advice for midlifers looking to make a change in their own...

Reshma Saujani and Mel Robbins have both made TIME's Women of the Year (2026) list! To celebrate, we’re revisiting their powerful conversation about courage, control, and what it really takes to change your life. At 41, Mel Robbins was at her rock bottom when a rocket launch changed the trajectory of her life. Mel tells Reshma how she got herself unstuck and began the work that would lead to becom...

With the Olympics reminding us what women’s bodies can do, we’re revisiting our conversation with Stacy Sims to talk about how everyday women, not just elite athletes, can train, fuel, and feel stronger in midlife by actually working with their hormones instead of against them. That super-intense, sweat-inducing workout you think you need to be doing to see results? Yeah, that’s not the best way t...

Ambition can sound like a dirty word for women. Too much of it and you’re aggressive. Not enough and you’re invisible. For so many of us, ambition has been shaped by proving, hustling, and chasing success in ways that don’t always feel aligned. In this episode, Reshma sits down with Rha Goddess to talk about what she calls intentional ambition — a way of pursuing your goals that is rooted in clari...

Reshma sits down with Sara Reardon, a pelvic floor physical therapist and one of the leading voices in women’s pelvic health. Known to many as The Vagina Whisperer, Sara helps women understand their bodies without shame or fear. Together, they unpack what the pelvic floor actually does, why so many women struggle in midlife, and how pain and discomfort are signals, not something we are meant to to...

Journalist and cultural critic EJ Dickson joins Reshma for a candid conversation about motherhood, guilt, and the impossible standards women are expected to meet. Drawing from her new book One Bad Mother, EJ breaks down how the idea of the “good mother” is a surprisingly recent invention, why modern parenting runs on shame and self-policing, and who actually benefits from keeping women feeling lik...

We're revisiting Reshma’s conversation with astronaut Christina Koch to mark her historic  Artemis II launch next week, a milestone moment for human spaceflight and a powerful reminder of what’s possible for women pushing boundaries at every stage of life. Astronaut Christina Koch was about to go out on her first spacewalk, staring out into a “big gaping hole of blackness,” when her heart started...

Dr. Alison Alford joins Reshma for a thoughtful conversation about what it means to be a daughter in midlife. As a psychologist and the author of Good Daughtering, Alison helps name the invisible rules, emotional labor, and guilt that so many women carry in their relationships with their parents. Together, they explore how daughters can move out of enmeshment, redefine care, and stay connected to...

Brad Meltzer, one of the most widely read authors in America, joins Reshma for a candid conversation about midlife, legacy, and learning how to be gentler with yourself. He reflects on breaking up with achievement, reexamining his relationship with his parents, and the teacher who changed his life by simply saying, “you can write.” They also talk about empathy, self forgiveness, and the ideas behi...

Fighting is not the problem. How we fight is. In this episode, Reshma welcomes back psychotherapist, writer, and divorce group leader Oona Metz for a grounded, deeply human conversation about what actually breaks marriages and what still makes them salvageable. As the new year begins and January earns its reputation as “Divorce Day,” Oona helps unpack why midlife becomes such a turning point in re...

Bozoma Saint John is the newest cast member of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and she has a take-no-shit approach to life that will motivate you to demand everything you deserve. After working in executive marketing positions for companies like Uber, Netflix, Apple and Pepsi, Boz decided to leave corporate America and do things her own way. She had experienced so much loss in her life that she...

Do you know what your purpose is? Many people do, and that can lead to an incredibly fulfilling life. But so many of us don’t. Business journalist-turned-NYU-professor Suzy Welch says midlife is a terrific time to figure this out for yourself, since you bring to it the wisdom of your years. She’s developed a methodology aimed at crafting an authentic life called Becoming You, and she tells Reshma...

Abby Phillip joins Reshma for a conversation about what it really takes to stay grounded in a world that is loud, fast, and full of opinions. She shares the freedom she has found in not caring what other people think, why kindness has been her most effective rule for navigating institutions that were not built for her, and how she handles the people who try to torpedo her along the way. They also...

Reshma sits down with world-renowned psychotherapist Esther Perel to talk about why midlife can feel so lonely — and how to rebuild community from the inside out. They unpack why independence has replaced interdependence, how motherhood turned into a performance review, and why asking for help is one of the bravest things we can do. Esther leaves us with a path back, showing how connection can be...

Tembi Locke has lived many lives, but midlife has pushed her to introduce herself in a whole new way. She tells Reshma how supporting her husband through illness and losing him reshaped everything she thought she knew about identity, ambition, and love. They talk about grief as a turning point, pulling yourself forward, and the idea of renesting (Tembi’s practice of rebuilding an inner home after...

Dr. Kelly Casperson — a urologist, sex educator, and host of a hit podcast — wants you to have great sex. And she knows you probably aren’t. A lot of that, she says, is because most of what we think we know about sex — especially in midlife — is flat-out wrong! She and Reshma get to the bottom of some fundamentals around libido, desire, and hormones, and also give you some tips on how to improve y...

Dating coach and author Damona Hoffman joins Reshma to break down the real rules of modern love in midlife. They talk about why dating feels so draining today, how to rewrite the old stories that keep women stuck, and why clarity is more powerful than chemistry. Damona shares her most practical strategies for getting offline quickly, protecting the early magic, and designing a relationship that fi...

We can’t fix what’s broken for women without fixing what’s broken for men. Gary Barker, founder and CEO of Equimundo, has spent decades studying masculinity, fatherhood, and care. He joins Reshma to talk about the crisis of connection facing young men, why nearly half say no one cares if they’re okay, and how patriarchy hurts everyone: women, men, and families alike. Together they unpack how to bu...

Most monuments celebrate power — generals cast in bronze, heroes carved in stone. Artist and sculptor Molly Gochman builds monuments to something else entirely: the invisible labor, and invisible women, holding the world together. When her father got sick, Molly became his caregiver, and that experience changed how she saw everything — art, time, and what we call valuable. She joins Reshma to talk...

Sometimes the math of modern life just doesn’t add up. Economist Corinne Low has spent her career studying how gender, marriage, and work collide (and she’s lived it, too). A Wharton professor and author of Having It All, she joins Reshma to talk about the “squeeze” so many women feel in midlife, when ambition, family, and love all seem to demand more than the day can hold. She shares what her own...

With fall sports and activities in full-swing, now's a perfect time to listen back to this episode with Dr. Becky. If your weekends are spent going from one kid’s soccer game to another kid’s dance rehearsal to another kid’s robotics tournament, Dr. Becky Kennedy wants you to know one thing: it’s your weekend, too. The psychologist, mom of three, and founder of Good Inside tells Reshma that not on...

This week, we wanted to highlight one of our favorite episodes this season! For actress, comedian and singer Margaret Cho, being 50 is hot. And she’s here to tell us all about it. Not only is she taking better care of herself these days but she’s also tapping into her goddess energy. So much so that people are paying attention! And she says she owes a lot of this midlife energy to menopause. With...