The Spinster Life Podcast

If you're a childfree person who's been told "You'll die alone!" buckle up because Kat Vellos and I are about to reveal the secret to living a life surrounded by people who love and care about you -- friends! I had an amazing conversation with Kat, a friendship expert and author of the book, We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships. You can read Kat's writing in over 10...

The holidays are tough, but especially for single people. Too much family togetherness and too many questions into your personal life can instill dread in the heart of even the staunchest singelton. So how can you get through it? I asked solo life expert Mary Delia Allen for her hot take on self-care during the holiday season. Here's Mary Delia If you’re a visual person, you can check out this vid...

Happy Single Holidays! And I don’t mean eating a Swanson turkey TV dinner by yourself on Thanksgiving. I’m talking about the two international holidays in November celebrating singleness in their own unique institutional way, St. Catherine's Day, and Singles Day 11/11. So let’s contrast and compare the two and examine how they’re both great and problematic in different ways. You can watch the full...

I’m not a big Halloween person, but one gruesome thing I enjoy year-round is true crime stories. First, who doesn’t love a mystery? And second, stories of murdering husbands reveal the not-so-sunny side of marriage and one of the upsides of staying single. True crime stories also help me feel safer, revealing troubling patterns of behavior to watch for in any situation. Betty and Glen Wolsieffer w...

What do you think when I say hormones? You probably think about the symptoms of PMS like mood swings and bloating, and you probably think of estrogen. But hormones are so much more. These complex chemical reactions inside our body not only bring on changes like puberty or menopause, but play a crucial role in helping us sleep, regulating our moods, and just..keeping us alive. That’s right, hormone...

**post updated 10/6/23** No discussion of cat ladies would be complete without discussing how the crazy got into the cat lady stereotype in the first place, and, how hard it is to remove it today. Even for cat ladies themselves! Today I’m talking to Lucy Meggeson, host of The Spinsterhood Reimagined Podcast, and Haley Shapley, Author of Strong Like Her, to continue our conversation about cat ladie...

Diane Keaton is an American treasure who just keeps on giving. From her memorable film roles in Annie Hall, The Godfather, First Wives Club, Somethings Got To Give, Book Club, and many more, to her strong Instagram game, to her iconic fashion sense, Keaton is a walking advertisement for staying single and thriving. In today’s episode, I’m taking a deep dive into what makes Diane Keaton’s memorable...

Michele Wispelwey is back! As the founder of Femgevity, a digital telehealth platform for women, Michele channels her experience in the healthcare industry to help women fight back against the traditional ways doctors have health with women as they age. She’s on a mission to extend women’s health spans and prevent the side effects holding them back from enjoying their golden years. Most doctors do...

It’s time to check back in with three of my favorite cat ladies to discuss the cats vs kids debate. Are cats just a substitute for kids? Or, do people, single, married, divorced, etc, have cats because they like cats and get value from their lives because Let’s find out! I’m so pleased to welcome Leysan, Lucy, and Haley back to the podcast to talk about pets, children, and the different ways we al...

Natalie Bevans is a master esthetician who has been helping women feel beautiful in their own skin for 20 years. Today she’s joining me to get real about aging and to tear down some of our assumptions about being less beautiful the older we get. It’s easy to get caught in the trap of comparing ourselves to other women and feeling like you come up short in comparison. Natalie has some tips for you...

I’m so pleased to welcome Michele Wispelway to the show. Michele is on a mission to revolutionize women's health through her digital telemedicine platform FemGevity. With her extensive experience and unwavering passion, she's here to empower women, tackle menopause, and unleash feminine longevity. For women, the thought of getting older is terrifying. We’re inundated with stories about the decay o...

Shana Francesca is the founder of Concinnate World where she uses the principles of life design to help her clients live more joyful and fulfilled lives. In the second part of our conversation, we take on the world! Why do we believe the things we do? And what can we do to dismantle belief systems that have existed for thousands of years? Call out inequalities when we see them, keep talking about...

Picture it: 2020, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. A gorgeous young redhead hunches over a laptop, listening intently to the final cut of her passion project, a podcast about single women. Her finger hovers indecisively over the post button. Will she launch the podcast, or will she let it languish on her hard drive? That redhead was me. And that podcast was The Spinster Life Podcast. I did, of...

This nimbly-bimbly little kitten lived in a trash pile behind my apartment building and was the impetus for helping an entire colony of feral cats. The brand Cat Lady has come to symbolize singleness, is usually preceded by the word crazy, and is generally not a compliment. If you’re a single woman who has a cat, or two cats, or five cats, you have probably seen some eye rolls and been told that m...

I’ve got to take myself on more dates! This year I undertook a very vulnerable and public look back at my years on the dating scene I call the 300 First Dates Project. Throughout the short life of this project, I’ve reflected on mistakes I’ve made and the bad behavior I’ve witnessed. Years later, I’m still traumatized. But I think I’ve figured out how to heal. The only antidote to going on bad dat...

Patricia Smith Griffin is a historian, genealogist, podcaster, and the keeper of a rich family history. She is descended from early Ohio settler Charity Davis Ceasar Broady and was told the story of her family’s legacy, passed down through the generations by the women in her family, since the time she was born. To honor her family and keep the stories alive, Patricia founded Charity’s Children Pro...

Shana Francesca is a  speaker, writer, and entrepreneur.  She helps people live more joyful and connected lives through the principles of life design.  Shana believes our present and future are transformed when we infuse our lives with intention, we design our lives, and realize the power in accepting ourselves as the author of our story.  This week, we’re talking about our homes, the one sanctuar...

When you think of romcoms, which rom-com star comes to mind? Julia Roberts? Meg Ryan? Reese Witherspoon? Today on the podcast, the right answer is Sandra Bullock. Lucy and I are taking a look at 3 of Sandy’s classic rom-com roles from 1995 - 2009; Lucy in While You Were Sleeping, Lucy in Two Weeks Notice, and Margaret in The Proposal. How have these movies aged? Does the portrayal of women get bet...

My guest Kira Sabin is a Positive Psychology Practitioner, Certified Life Coach, and the Troop Leader of Love at the Relationship-Quotient.com . For the past 14 years she’s been unleashing her no-nonsense wisdom to coach singles on building the relationship they need. She is obsessed with understanding how love and relationships work from a psychological, emotional, and scientific point of view. S...

This week, Amie is joined by Chantelle Dyson, a love and life coach. She helps singles find confidence in their relationship with themselves so they can find a healthy, fulfilling relationship with someone else. If that’s what they’re after, that is. Chantelle is the host of the podcast The Single Girl’s Guide To Life and the founder of The Single Girls Club, a space for single women to create com...

I’m joined again by Lucy Rivers for some of her hot takes on how women are portrayed in the media. In this episode, we take a deep dive into the women of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (or the MCU, ifykyk). At first glance, it seems like Marvel has made huge strides in bringing more female-identifying characters into its heavily male-dominated universe, and made the movies more watchable for female...

Happy New Year! Most people make resolutions to move on from their past. But this year, I’m going to confront and revisit my past in order to move forward. Before I became a spinster, I went on a lot of dates. Some were great, some were so-so, and some were living nightmares. But I learned something from each and every one of those approximately 300 first dates. What exactly did I learn? Every Fri...

So you’re single this December. Happy Solo Holidays! This whole season is both wondrous and stressful for everyone, but it can be especially difficult for those who are not currently partnered. How do you navigate the big feelings and the endless questions about your personal life from well-meaning friends and family? Friend of the show Mary Delia Allen, author of the book Enjoy Your Solo is back...

Amie is joined this week by Mary Delia Allen, the author of Enjoy Your Solo: How To Be Great At Being Single. Traditionally, we’re all told to couple up because being a part of a couple meant security and prosperity, especially for women. But how times have changed! Single people are the fastest growing demographic. 48% of US adults are single, 30% of US of US households are people living alone! B...

Welcome back to the podcast! You can also watch this episode on YouTube. It’s never been easy to be a woman. But in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was especially treacherous. Childfree, unmarried, and other “weird” women were accused of witchcraft and executed in retaliation for being themselves. The Sanderson sisters, the main characters in the Hocus Pocus movies, were outcasts, weird women who...