The Big Four Oh: The Podcast About Turning 40

In this compelling episode of the Forty Drinks Podcast, Stephanie sits down with Karen McMahon to delve into the challenges she faced in her marriage and how they transformed her into a stronger, more self-aware individual. Karen discusses her turbulent childhood in an emotionally volatile household, her string of unfulfilling relationships, and the tumultuous marriage that mirrored her parents' d...

In this episode, Dhruv Sethi shares his experiences of immigrating from India to Sweden at age six and then moving to London in his 20s. He talks about the cultural and familial expectations of the life path he was supposed to follow, which led to his tumultuous first marriage, the subsequent challenging divorce, and its profound effect on his trust of women and in relationships. As a result, Dhru...

Today, Stephanie chats with Yvonne Marchese, host of the Late Bloomer Living podcast, about her journey of self-discovery and transition at midlife. Yvonne shares her story, from pursuing her early dreams of a theater career in New York until she realized at 35 that it just didn’t feel as fun as it used to. She talks about her struggles, including an identity crisis, career shifts, and bouts of de...

Today, Lauren Schenck shares her brave journey from being trapped in a toxic, narcissistic marriage to rebuilding her life and discovering self-love in her 40s. Lauren recounts the challenges she faced as a solo parent, navigating through divorce while 3,000 miles away from family and friends. Her story takes us through the hurdles of identifying narcissistic abuse, reclaiming passions like yoga a...

Today, Stephanie sits down with Shana Francesca, who shares her harrowing journey through a traumatic childhood raised inside an evangelical Christian cult. Shana's talks about growing up in an environment where curiosity was punished, intuition was stifled, and survival required constant self-protection. She discusses her path to breaking free at 26, learning to trust herself, and discovering wha...

In this moving episode of the Forty Drinks Podcast, host Stephanie McLaughlin talks with Rita Bliven about her tumultuous early life, marked by a messy parental divorce, being kidnapped by her father, and reunion with her mother. This early instability led to deep attachment issues that shaped Rita's relationships and personal growth. Rita shares how therapeutic counseling in her teens, reconnecti...

In the 100th episode of the Forty Drinks Podcast, Stephanie welcomes her longtime friend Adrian Walker for a heartfelt and reflective conversation. They reminisce about their first meeting at Fenway Park in 1991, tracing the evolution of their enduring friendship and the significant life transitions they've experienced. Adrian shares insights into his career as a journalist, including impactful pr...

Julie Hutsell-Starling was in her mid 30s and in the middle of a toxic relationship she couldn’t extract herself from when she heard a song that changed everything. It was the catalyst to finally leave this relationship and start the healing process. When she started dating again, she was so clear on what she wanted that the dates were actually interviews. After roughly 50 first dates she met the...

Corey Stulce from the Family Twist podcast hosts a special "pod swap" episode of the Forty Drinks podcast with guest Jordan Elizabeth Braxton. In this engaging conversation, Jordan shares the intimate and powerful story of her transition journey. From her early realizations and the challenges faced within a religious family to the life-changing moment of discovering she was intersex, Jordan opens...

In this week’s episode of Forty Drinks, Stephanie talks with Erik DeRosa about his profound midlife transition and struggle with mental health. Erik grew up with severe anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, masking it under a facade for 25 years while pursuing a high-pressure career on Wall Street. At age 33, a dissociative episode forced him to confront his mental health issues and seek ther...

In today’s episode, Jeff Glauser shares his transformative journey from feeling stuck and unfulfilled in his mid-thirties to finding purpose and stability in his forties. Coming from a background in sports journalism, Jeff struggled with imposter syndrome and missed opportunities. Faced with financial hardships and personal setbacks, including a bankruptcy and his marriage ending, Jeff sought a pa...

In this episode of the Forty Drinks Podcast, Gregory Halpen discusses his transformative journey from a tumultuous youth to finding stability and purpose in midlife. Gregory shares his struggles with substance misuse, the allure and challenges of life in New York City, and a life-altering battle with cancer at age 46, which led him to reevaluate his life, ultimately grounding himself and pursuing...

When she was 31, Laura Ballet met a man 11 years her junior that she would spend the next decade with. He acted mature for his age and she acted a little young, so they met in the middle on many  things. The relationship was mostly wonderful, but she put blinders on to avoid the things she felt were missing. However, once she started asking herself the hard questions, she couldn’t deny that s...

As a former "fat kid," Lauren Herskovic had deep seated insecurities that led her to choose professional roles that didn’t give her what she needed because she didn’t think she deserved it. She spent seven years as the COO of a startup where the founders made her feel like she was good at her job and dangled the carrot of the “big payoff,” but it came with severely compromised boundaries. Ultimate...

As Ginny Priem approached 40, she was focused on her career and enjoying the life she had built for herself. Then she met “Chad,” who worked his way into her heart and home with his two kids. A year later she met a friend who presented her with evidence that “Chad” had been seeing someone else the whole time. One of the alleged instances occurred when Ginny knew she was overriding a sense that som...

Sara Letorneau is a writer, editor, poet and writing coach who will turn 40 later this year. She grew up in a “normal” happy family in a working class suburb in Massachusetts where she was taught that the traditional life milestones would make her “happy:” go to college, get a job, find a boyfriend, get married and have kids. But we all know that it’s not that easy. Sara has made her way through s...

David Hankins spent 20 years in the Army working in logistics. He retired at 42 and had to figure out what his next act was going to be. There would be stability to support his family, but he would also chase his dream of becoming a professional writer. Despite David’s midlife transition looking pretty smooth, there has been a lot of uncertainty. In both his search for a civilian job and his effor...

Allison Doss has a multi-faceted midlife transition that took her through several harrowing phases. She moved to the “big city” after high school and was quickly recruited to become a stripper. She went from stripper to high-priced escort to homeless and drug addicted, prostituting to pay for her fix. At 40 she got into recovery but quickly replaced her pursuit of drugs with the pursuit of a man,...

Karl Beckstrand was exposed to gay sex at age 8 by a male peer. Because of that experience at such a tender age, Karl developed a dysfunctional relationship with sex. He became hypersexual from that first encounter at age 8 until he was about 40, at which point he went to the other extreme and became a recluse for a decade. Here, he tells the story of how he learned to get his emotional needs met...

Joe Scales approached 40 wondering why he wasn’t happier. He had a job that paid well, two incredible kids and he had been married for 20 years. He wondered why he didn’t have “it” all figured out yet (when it seemed like everyone else did), which led him to questioning many of his decisions along the way. He realized that the problem was himself and his focus on questions that began with “why.” T...

John Lawyer spent more than a decade as a warrior in the Middle East and, upon his return to civilian life in the United States, struggled with his identity and how to engage with the world. He went from someone who was “important” in the desert - someone who directed where troops and airplanes went - to being just another person living in what he thought was a muted world that moved in slow motio...

Welcome to Season 5 of the Forty Drinks Podcast. I’m kicking off the season with an exploration of transition versus change, which are entirely different things according to William Bridges, PhD in his best-selling book, Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes.   Transition vs. Change: Navigating the Midlife Transition Stephanie McLaughlin kicks off season five of the Forty Drinks Podcast...

Stephanie Rose checked off a huge number of major life events in her early 30s, in a bit of a whirlwind fashion. She met and married her husband, bought her first home, gave birth two her two kids, and experienced the death of her mom. Then, at 39, she started a business and realized she didn’t really have a frame of reference for who she was any more and felt like she needed to get to know hersel...

Vince Kramer ignored three major wake up calls in his 40s, before the Universe - or whatever you prefer to call it - finally got his attention. First, he narrowly missed piloting one of the United flights on 9/11. Then, he experienced a major financial setback due to United Airlines declaring bankruptcy. And, finally, his marriage ended and he realized he needed to stop ignoring these signs and fi...

Susie Castellanos Hansley is a first-generation Mexican American who was raised by her grandmother from the age of two after her mother died, along with her siblings and cousins. Susie found school was a refuge and something she was good at. She followed the school path straight through a Ph. D. and postdoctoral studies only to find that teaching didn’t suit her, which led to years of trying to fi...