PODCAST

Conversations for women navigating midlife.

We’re Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi, hosts of Midrising Conversations.

Midrising Conversations is where we talk honestly about the work of midlife — the part nobody gives you a manual for. Changing careers. Rebuilding confidence. Rethinking identity and relationships. Figuring out what actually matters now, and what comes next.

Real conversations. No hype, no hustle, no polished answers. Just frank, funny and useful discussions about the messy, confronting and unexpectedly liberating middle chapter of life.
Midrising Conversations Episode 13 cover: Your Head Is Too Full, featuring hosts Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi.
Episode 13: Your Head Is Too Full: 5 Questions to Clear the Noise
Your head is full. Work, kids, parents, relationships, health, life admin and the constant question of what comes next. In this solo episode, Gill works through five questions to clear... Read more...
Episode 12 cover for Midrising Conversations featuring two smiling women beside the words “Protein. Steps. Supplements. Enough.” with a background of broccoli, supplements and healthy food.
Episode 12: Do We Really Need to Optimise the Sh*t Out of Midlife?
When did being healthy become another full-time job? Gill and Barbara talk protein, steps, supplements, strength, frozen shoulders, longevity and the ever-growing midlife health checklist, while asking whether looking after... Read more...
Episode 11: Midlife Is When You Stop Performing
Episode 11: Midlife Is When You Stop Performing
At some point in midlife, you stop wanting to audition for your own life. Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi talk about people pleasing, friendship changes, being told you’re “too much”,... Read more...
Episode 10: Building Your Second Career in Your Third Chapter
Episode 10: Building Your Second Career in Your Third Chapter
What does it take to change careers in midlife without feeling as though you’re starting all over again? Gill and Barbara talk about experience, identity, confidence and building work that... Read more...
Episode 9: Why Younger Women Are Playing a Different Game
Episode 9: Why Younger Women Are Playing a Different Game
Why do younger women seem to approach work, ambition and success so differently? Gill and Barbara talk about boundaries, confidence, experience and what different generations of women can learn from... Read more...
Episode 8: You Can’t Declutter This With a Bin Bag
Episode 8: You Can’t Declutter This With a Bin Bag
You can declutter your house and still feel completely overwhelmed. Gill and Barbara talk about mental load, decision fatigue and the invisible list women carry around in their heads. Read more...
Episode 7 of Midrising Conversations, Are You Living on Autopilot Without Realising It?, hosted by Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi.
Episode 7: Are You Living on Autopilot Without Realising It?
Your life can look perfectly functional from the outside while, underneath it all, you’ve quietly stopped choosing it. In Episode 7 of Midrising Conversations, Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi talk... Read more...
Episode 6 of Midrising Conversations, What's happening to me, hosted by Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi.
Episode 6: Is This Perimenopause or Am I Just Losing It?
Brain fog, forgotten words, changing moods and disrupted sleep can make you wonder whether it’s perimenopause, ordinary life or both arriving at once. In Episode 6 of Midrising Conversations, Gill... Read more...
Episode 5 of Midrising Conversations, Losing Control: When the Old Blueprint Stops Fitting, hosted by Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi.
Episode 5: Losing Control – When the Old Blueprint Stops Fitting
What happens when the plans, roles and identities that once made life feel secure stop fitting? In Episode 5 of Midrising Conversations, Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi talk about career... Read more...
Episode 4 of Midrising Conversations, You Don’t Want a New Life — You Want to Feel Awake in This One, hosted by Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi.
Episode 4: You Don’t Want a New Life — You Want to Feel Awake in This One
You may not want to blow up your life or become someone completely different. You may simply want to feel more awake, present and fully yourself inside the life you... Read more...
Episode 3 of Midrising Conversations, It’s Not Too Late: Reinventing Yourself in Midlife, hosted by Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi.
Episode 3: It’s Not Too Late: Reinventing Yourself in Midlife
Midlife doesn’t mean your biggest decisions are behind you. In Episode 3 of Midrising Conversations, Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi talk about reinvention, agency and what it means to change... Read more...
Episode 2 of Midrising Conversations, Identity: It’s Not a Crisis, It’s a Shift, hosted by Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi.
Episode 2: Identity: It’s Not a Crisis, It’s a Shift
“I don’t know who I am anymore” doesn’t always mean something has gone wrong. In Episode 2 of Midrising Conversations, Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi talk about identity, changing roles... Read more...
Episode 1 of Midrising Conversations, How Did We Get Here? Midrising, hosted by Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi.
Episode 1: How Did We Get Here? Midrising
Midlife doesn’t always arrive as a crisis. Sometimes it begins with the quiet sense that something no longer fits. In the first episode of Midrising Conversations, Gill Townsend and Barbara... Read more...