Season 4
Wednesday 23rd February 2022
Lorraine Candy
“Mum, What’s Wrong With You?”
101 Things Only Mothers of Teenage Girls Know
I kick off Season 4 with journalist, editor, co-host of “Postcards from Midlife” podcast and mum of four Lorraine Candy. Formerly the editor in chief of the Sunday Times Style magazine, Elle and Cosmopolitan, Lorraine has been writing about parenting in national newspapers and magazines for more than a decade.
In this episode, we talk about her family memoir “Mum What’s wrong with you” 101 things only mothers of girls know. In the pages of her book Lorraine is lighting the way for other mums facing life with teenage girls, just as they going through their own midlife unravelling.
Join as we talk about:-
- The many parallels between the Teenage years and the Menopause and the negative narrative that surrounds both.
- The Perfect storm of parenting teens in your mid-40s.
- The reasons why Teenagers behave as they do, and the reasons we behave as we do.
- The importance of role modelling so our Teenagers can see us caring for ourselves and also dealing and coping with a range of emotions.
- How our issues and childhood experiences can affect our parenting
- The pressure of parenting perfectionism
- How to recognise and recover from those dreadful moments in parenting life and the importance of being able to say sorry and move forward.
- The immense brain changes that occur during the Teenage years.
- The loneliness and shame that can come with parenting Teens. You are not the only person getting it wrong.
- How to deal with messy bedrooms!
- The rise of adolescent mental health
- Reforming our identity in Midlife
- The importance of eye contact and putting down our phones.
- Why you mustn’t be your child’s best friend.
- Teenagers and phones – the power of The Digital Sunset
- Mental health policies, sex education and female financial power in our schools
- How and why we experiencing “Living loss”
- “Meanagers” and “Moron Mum”
Lorraine’s book Choice
Terra Incognita, Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler
also mentioned in the epsisode
The Orchid and the Dandelion by W. Thomas Boyce
Shout85258 – free, confidential, 24/7 text-messaging support service for anyone who is struggling to cope.
Wednesday 2nd March 2022
Lucy Peach
Period Queen
Life Hack Your Cycle and Own Your Power All Month Long
In this episode, I am joined by Period preacher and author of “My Greatest Period Ever” Lucy Peach.
Lucy has performed at TEDX and toured around the globe with multiple sell-out seasons of her hilarious and heartfelt show ‘My Greatest Period Ever.’ In her own words, Lucy is changing the world “One Period at a time.”
Join us as we discuss
- Why it’s never too late to learn about your cycle
- Dream, Do, Give and Take – the 4 phases of our cycle.
- Why other women are your allies
- How to support each other by playing to the strengths in our cycle
- Stop banging on about the blood! Let’s get into the real gifts of our cycle
- Educating young women and boys are in tune with
- Educating Men about menopause
- My experience of Perimenopause
- The Key to a Merry Menopause
- How my work is evolving as my Menopause is evolving
- How managing your cycle will help you understand your stress and stop you from burning out.
- Cyclical reading!
Lucys’ book choice – Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Wednesday 9th March 2022
Cara Wheatley-McGrain
Calm Your Gut
A Mindful and Compassionate Guide to Healing IBD and IBS
My guest for this episode is Cara Wheatley-McGrain Hay House author, Mindset coach, and Educational Consultant.
Cara founded The Mindful Gut project on a mission to inspire 1 million people to become the custodians of their gut microbiome and she joins me to talk about her book “Calm your gut, a mindful and compassionate guide to healing IBD and IBS.
In this episode:
- Cara shares her story of living with Ulcerated Colitis, from her teenage years to almost losing her colon in her early 20s.
- How the shock of being so seriously ill led her to be curious about her colon and discover the changes she needed to make to prevent it from being cut out.
- Getting to know her gut, the science and the spirituality.
- Intuitive and mindful eating
- How our diet impacts our gut health
- How our gut bacteria are critical to our health and wellbeing
- The many problems of a long-term Western diet
- The global impact of the Western diet
- 1 in 5 women will have an issue with IBS
- The symptoms of IBS and IBD
- The increasing spread of IBS in Teens
- The powerful political statements we make every time we go shopping
- The dark side of the food industry
- How we used to cook and eat vs how we cook and eat today
- Understanding the importance of how we choose to prepare and cook food on our health and wellbeing
- The benefits of a kitchen disco.
- Honouring and becoming the caretakers and custodians of our inner and outer world.
Cara’s book choice
Woman and Nature by Susan Griffin
Wednesday 16th March 2022
Petra Coveney
Menopause Yoga
A Holistic Guide to Supporting Women on their Menopause Journey
My guest for this episode is Petra Coveney founder and creator of Menopause Yoga the world’s first Menopause specific yoga practice and fully accredited teacher training course.
Petra joins me to talk about her book Menopause Yoga which supports her training course and is also designed to raise awareness and share knowledge of Yoga and how it can support women on their Menopause journey.
Join us in conversation as we discuss
- Yoga and Perimenopause
- Yoga and HRT – how East meets West in the treatment and management of Menopause symptoms.
- Seeing Menopause as a real opportunity to improve our health and wellbeing and to let go of habits and behaviours that don’t serve us.
- Petra’s Perimenopause journey
- Why Perimenopause can feel like a loss and time of grief.
- The research that shows the highest rates of depression, suicide and divorce amongst women in the UK is between the ages of 45-55
- How Yoga and be such a powerful part of a holistic approach to Menopause
- Adapting our lifestyle to meet our mental and physical needs.
- The benefits of mediation and mindfulness – building the relationship with self and the wisdom deep inside that will us through our menopause and tell us what we need.
- Every woman is completely different and needs different support
- Changing and adapting our yoga practice as we age
- Yoga and Auyreveda – the doshas
- How to use your Yoga practice to manage Menopause symptoms.
- Tiredness and Menopause – our body is transforming on a cellular level as our oestrogen levels deplete, this takes up a lot of energy which is why we feel a deep need to rest.
- The benefits of lifting weights.
- Our Second Spring and the strong connection we have as women to mother nature.
Wednesday 23rd March 2022
Kate Muir
Everything You Need to know about the menopause
(but were to afraid to ask)
My guest for this episode is Kate Muir, author of “Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause (but were too afraid to ask)”
Kate is a writer, campaigner and documentary maker. She is the co-creator and producer of the revolutionary channel 4 documentary Sex, Myths and the Menopause and an activist for The Menopause Charity.
Join us in conversation as we discuss:-
- The Revolution!! Why Menopause is a feminist issue.
- Why many of us are forced to look at our lives in a cold, new light at this time and suddenly realise, what about me?
- Kate’s relatable honesty about her Perimenopause crash and how she couldn’t ‘hold it up anymore.’
- How being hormonally barren gave Kate clarity and led her to make some tough changes.
- Menopause, HRT and Alzheimer’s – Kate’s story and her mum Ella’s story.
- Mental health can be attributed to hormonal health
- Kate asks with Menopause being a long term hormonal deficiency, “why wouldn’t you take HRT?” Is the natural route not to replace your natural hormones?
- The protective benefits of Oestrogen for brain health and bone health
- Two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients are women getting diagnosed around the age of 70, with the Alzheimers decay starting 20 years previously.
- Why we should pay more attention to ‘brain fog’ especially those daughters of Alzheimer’s
- The Hormonal Glass Ceiling
- Who’s’ on HRT and not talking about it?
- Is Menopause a new feminist party?
- The economic privilege of Menopause.
- Kate gives us an insight into her next C4 programme with Davina McCall out in May 2022.
- The HRT window of opportunity
- Taking HRT at 70
- How lucky we are compared to our American sisters when it comes to Menopause awareness and the availability of HRT
