I'm Absolutely Fine! by The Midult

I'm Absolutely Fine! by The Midult

The Midult

Do you feel like a fully-functional human person? Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan of The Midult look at all the glamour and indignity of being a grown-up, while rummaging through the handbags, emotional knicker drawers and lives of some extraordinary people.For advertising enquiries, email sales@auddy.co

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 36:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 36:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. This week we talk about Emilie turning 50 and why transitions are weird. Speaking of weird transitions, this is the last episode of the podcast for now. After three million downloads, six years and 237 episodes, we are taking a break in order to focus on some other, exciting things. Please join us on Instagram, where we’ll stil

Nov 22, 2024 • 16:49

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 35:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 35:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Are you a functioning panic-aholic? Are we reaching our panic rock bottom? Or is it bottomless panic like bottomless brunch but very much less fun? We discuss this and why fairy lights might be the only things lighting our souls right now. Plus an eyeliner trick to make your eyes pop - in a good way… Learn more about your ad ch

Nov 15, 2024 • 11:06

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 34:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 34:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Anyway this week we talk about how we are almost unable to cope with the sheer volume of feedback/surveys/opinions demanded of us via email and text and phone: ‘TELL US HOW WE DID” they ask, then beg, then order us. Couldn’t they just wait for us to complain - which we can’t be bothered to do? To distract us we talk ab

Nov 8, 2024 • 17:36

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 33:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 33:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. This week we go retro and talk about Rivals: unashamedly joyful romp or uncomfortable reminder of the inequities of the 80s? How much has really changed? Also - are there any Midults out there not devoted to lip balm? Do you have one in every desk drawer, coat pocket, bottom of bag? Is it less a lip balm, more a balm f

Nov 1, 2024 • 18:54

PODCAST FROM THE VAULT: POETRY FOR THE SOUL

PODCAST FROM THE VAULT: POETRY FOR THE SOUL

This week we’re taking a break from rifling through Annabel’s beauty drawers - instead we’ve gone to the vault and an episode we recorded last year about poetry. Because let’s face it, we are a little desperate for a corner of calm that we can tuck ourselves into; a mini-escape that is not demanding or exhausting or expensive. Our guest Allie Esiri found a way to calm the wild voices in her head; she is a poetry anthologist who harnesses our extraordinary literary resources to offer - i

Oct 24, 2024 • 35:22

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 31:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 31:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Ok so Annabel is teaching Emilie to darn. YES, DARN. Because, MOTHS. But it’s not all rock ‘n roll. We also talk about parties (not dreading at all) and Annabel delivers a Midiot’s guide to blusher, so we don’t go out into the world looking like Victorian consumptives/Aunt Sally. She recommends Merit Flush Balm Cheek C

Oct 18, 2024 • 18:29

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 30:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 30:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. This week we discuss little pick me ups - Emilie tried culottes and she can tell you right now that they did not pick her up. AVOID AVOID…Instead Annabel recommends lip gloss and lots of it (yes, very Rivals)…We talk about Ciate’s Glow Dewy Gloss, Clarins’ Lip Perfector and Chanel’s Rouge Coco Flash as well as Annabel’

Oct 11, 2024 • 14:47

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 29:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 29:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Emilie is just back from her 30 year university reunion. 30 years!!! We discuss ALL THE FEELINGS around that particular craziness. Plus the triggering nature of musicals *howls*. And the power of baths, particularly when powered by Olverum... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 3, 2024 • 14:12

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 28:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 28:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Ok so it turns out that Annabel has been keeping secrets from Emilie… in the form of RapidBrow Eyebrow Enhancing Serum… Hey, a girl’s got to have her secrets, and also fantastic eyebrows… apparently this stuff really works! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 26, 2024 • 12:58

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 27:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 27:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. So guys, how are you doing? Are you enjoying our tweakment? This week we’re all about tinted moisturiser which Annabel is practically drinking and Emilie is predictably frightened of. Can she face her fear? Annabel attacks her with Charlotte Tilbury Unisex Healthy Glow, Summer Fridays Sheer Skin Tint, Ilia Super Serum Skin Tint

Sep 19, 2024 • 14:55

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 26:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 26:

New term, same shit: Ok we’re back. But given how close to the edge we actually are, we are actually having a tweakment and making a change to Podcast from the Edge. Emilie is sick of staring at the howling horror of her face. Annabel is a beauty expert so she is going to talk us through one or two products a week: simple things that might make life a little easier and hopefully make us all feel a little more like a fully functioning human women…First up eye stuff! Starring Sali Hughes

Sep 12, 2024 • 11:07

Episode 200: THIS IS NOT A SELF-HELP PODCAST

Episode 200: THIS IS NOT A SELF-HELP PODCAST

We’re absolutely fine but…we might have a bit of September dread. Not that shiny new term feeling, with a fat pencil case and a fresh notebook, but more of a 'holy fuck it is only four months until 2025 and what have we achieved!?!’ kinda thing. Anyway to lessen the load we put together the best bits from two wise souls we talked to this year. Psychotherapist Emma Reed Turrell, whose book What Am I Missing? is about why, after years of therapy, we sometimes still find ourselves stuck. S

Aug 28, 2024 • 40:27

Episode 199: Just Another Manic Mash-up

Episode 199: Just Another Manic Mash-up

Ok we’re back, August is in full flow and we have stitched together our favourite bits from Podcast from the Edge: remember the time we gave up complaining? Or all the alternative facts for Midults that serve us well? In this Frankenstein’s monster of an episode there are random acts of kindness, some unserious wisdom and rookie errors. We also talk about underwear and our beards, and why this year we fully embraced our CRONE ERA. Brat girl summer? Hot girl summer? Come on old girls, it’s a Midu

Aug 14, 2024 • 38:48

Episode 198: The Summer Sessions

Episode 198: The Summer Sessions

Hi everyone, it’s podcast mash-up time! We’re starting with two of our favourite guests from the past year. First up is the incomparable Sophie Williams: There are few people as fluent, compassionate and authoritative and she came on the podcast to talk about her latest book, The Glass Cliff: Why Women in Power are Undermined and How To Fight Back. She was of course sensational; making us a little angry and lot more informed. Brace yourselves and have a listen...After Sophie Williams, there’s an

Jul 31, 2024 • 41:27

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 25:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 25:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. So guys, how are you doing? Are you fiiiiiiiine or are you hurtling towards an inevitable pre-holiday collapse? Are you no longer able to reply to anything? Does every communication feel as if it is landing at 5:30pm on a Friday? Do you keep dropping things or bumping into things? Are you boring yourself every time you

Jul 18, 2024 • 12:05

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 24:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 24:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. THIS WEEK we’re all about the backhanded compliment… “You’re ageing gracefully”. Translation: your entire face is falling off and, oddly, you don't seem to mind. “It’s very you”. Translation: No one but you would be stupid enough to wear that. “I love how discerning you are”. Translation: God you’re a pain in the arse

Jul 4, 2024 • 12:30

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 23:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 23:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. THIS WEEK…Are you at the end of your tether? Do you keep making idle threats such as “Don’t make me say it again” or “I swear I will kill you if you…”? Do you keep setting boundaries (because we are so mentally healthy) and then watching as the boundary crumbles? Are you going to need a bigger boundary? Then this is th

Jun 28, 2024 • 13:45

Episode 197: Politics and Rabbits with Hugo Rifkind

Episode 197: Politics and Rabbits with Hugo Rifkind

We are delighted Hugo Rifkind found some space for us during this busy election time… because in between skewering politicians and offering searing commentary in both his Times column and radio show, Hugo Rifkind has written a novel, called Rabbits, which is out now. It’s been variously described as everything from Saltburn with kilts, Trainspotting meets The Secret History – it’s set in the 90s in Scotland and it’s really excellent, so order it now for your holiday. Sorry to be bossy.

Jun 20, 2024 • 1:06:00

Episode 196: Love, loss and belonging with Clover Stroud

Episode 196: Love, loss and belonging with Clover Stroud

Here at The Midult we’re slightly obsessed with Clover Stroud and her beautiful, brutal (brutiful?) books. So we are thrilled to say she’s back on the podcast to talk about her latest, The Giant on The Skyline, which is about home, belonging and learning to let go. Clover’s writing is full of ghosts, memories, life and death, and we talk about all these big things, as well as what it’s like to uproot your family and move from Wiltshire to Washington, at the tender age of 48. Adventure o

Jun 12, 2024 • 54:57

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 22:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 22:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. This week we have decided to let go of hot girl summer and are celebrating OLD GIRL SUMMER. As in, wear a bikini or don’t, old girl. As in, be gentle with yourself. As in, who cares if your leg hair is making friends with the leg hair of the person next door to you on the commute. As in, you have never actually been hot

Jun 6, 2024 • 15:50

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 21:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 21:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. This week we’re all about BIG CRONE ENERGY…Have we entered our crone era? Maybe…wisdom, inner knowing, intuition, perspective and a generally disagreeable manner? Let’s reclaim the crone…PS: The book Emilie was talking about is A History of Women in 101 Objects by Annabelle Hirsch Learn more about your ad choic

May 23, 2024 • 13:15

Episode 195: DIY with Katherine Ormerod (don't be scared)

Episode 195: DIY with Katherine Ormerod (don't be scared)

Katherine Ormerod is a writer, journalist, content creator and influencer. If you’ve encountered her sharp bob and soigné style, it won’t surprise you that her home is also super slick. But it might surprise you to know that Katherine is a renter, and she has been decorating her rental homes with more zeal than we have come to expect even from owners. We’re talking DIY, upholstery, shelving, all with such elan that she’s written a book on it, Your Not Forever Home, out now. But it’s not

May 15, 2024 • 45:28

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 20:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 20:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. This week we talk all the tiny, micro-traumas we experience that leave us feeling all wonky. You know, like when someone points a phone at you mid-Facetime. Or a ball lands at your feet in the park and you are clearly expected to kick it, or throw it or…sorry just passed out there for a second…or the doorbell r

May 9, 2024 • 15:06

Episode 194: Brilliant Books by Esther Coren

Episode 194: Brilliant Books by Esther Coren

OK Annabel is still OOO, so Emilie has roped in a friend of the pod, the marvellous Esther Coren to help. Esther has her own podcast, Giles Coren Has No Idea and a Substack called The Spike and she also gives excellent book recommendations. Given we’re all feeling mad, bad and dangerous to know (not in a swashbuckling-Byronic-way but in a teetering on The-Brink-kind-of-way) perhaps books can soothe us tiny bit: little umbrellas for the mind. We talk about The Paleo Life by Clare Foges (out June

May 1, 2024 • 30:55

Episode 193: The Entrepreneurial Issue

Episode 193: The Entrepreneurial Issue

Who doesn’t love a solution story? The tale of a grown-up woman who had a problem and thought, ‘You know what? I am not going to wait for some fucker to fix this – I am just going to do it myself’? This week we have two such stories from the podvault – first up is Sahar Hashemi who smashed through many a ceiling and is still busy opening lots of doors for women: she founded Coffee Republic - three years before Starbucks landed on our shores; for the past couple of years, she’s been putt

Apr 24, 2024 • 45:51

Episode 192: Hadley Freeman

Episode 192: Hadley Freeman

You will have heard of Hadley Freeman, The Sunday Times columnist who writes about feminism, the arts, politics and, she says, anything else that takes her fancy. She is also the author of several acclaimed books – including Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia, just out in paperback. It’s a searing record of her own illness, illuminating the dark corners of this most brutal of mental health disorders, with her deft blend of forensic detail and humour. Please note we talk frankly about this

Apr 17, 2024 • 44:36

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 19:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 19:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. This week we talk about all the terrible things that happen to our faces and bodies in pictures: one huge eye bulging next to a normal-sized one; extra leg/hand/foot (who does that belong to?!?), limbs that look like hams - is it because we’re terrible people? Also we’re announcing a change. Sorry. We hate chan

Apr 11, 2024 • 9:14

Episode 191: What Are You Missing? with Emma Reed Turrell

Episode 191: What Are You Missing? with Emma Reed Turrell

Are you near burn out? Do you find yourself having the same arguments over and over again? Have you had therapy and still find yourself stuck down the same emotional cul-de-sac? In other words, what are you missing? Well, this week we are thrilled to welcome psychotherapist Emma Reed Turrell back to the podcast. She’s written another banger of a book, What Am I Missing?, about our blind spots and how they hold us back. We talk about whether we are Rocks, Gladiators, Hustlers or Bridges;

Apr 3, 2024 • 47:03

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 18:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 18:

Happy Good Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. This podshot is all about the anti-bucket list: things we plan never to do again. Are we all moving from our “Yes please!” era to our “Are you f***ing joking?” era? Hell, yes. Ouzo (just hearing the word makes us gag a little), organised fun, bikini waxes, segways and more… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit m

Mar 29, 2024 • 11:38

Episode 190: Saira Khan

Episode 190: Saira Khan

"When you talk about women like me, there comes a whole host of other things: 'what religion is she? What caste is she? Does she eat pork? Why is she holding champagne? Why is she wearing those clothes?' Then come death threats. And if you're not wearing a headscarf, if you're not talking about religion, you're in no man's land. They say 'you're Asian and you're acting mainstream, what the heck's that about?'"This week on the podcast, the indomitable Saira Khan on the reality of being an Asian w

Mar 21, 2024 • 35:04

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 17:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 17:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. Anyway, needless to say, 2024 is kicking our arses…So what does fun even look like, these days? Sitting in the car outside the house? Going home to get ugly? Rubbing our cracked heels together like decrepit crickets? Sending everyone masses of love… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 15, 2024 • 13:02

Episode 189: Let's Talk About Sex

Episode 189: Let's Talk About Sex

Ok guys, time to talk about sex. Are we doing it right/enough? Is the sex we’re having good/interesting/naughty enough? Are we good/interesting/naughty enough? And what to do when it feels as though it’s all gone wrong. THE PRESSURE. So we roped in a psychosexual therapist, and not just any psychosexual therapist: Kate Moyle is also the host of The Sexual Wellness Sessions Podcast and she’s written a book called The Science of Sex: Every Question About Your Sex Life Answered. We discuss

Mar 7, 2024 • 44:32

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 16:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 16:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. This week we are asking: are you a kitchen criminal? Do you gouge the butter rather than scrape? Do you try to shove the rubbish down in to the bin again and again in order to avoid taking it out? Do you put the milk bottle back in the fridge with a pointlessly minuscule amount left in it? Time to confess… Learn more ab

Mar 1, 2024 • 10:16

Episode 188: Have You Fallen off the Glass Cliff? with Sophie Williams

Episode 188: Have You Fallen off the Glass Cliff? with Sophie Williams

You’ve heard of the glass ceiling, of course. You may have bumped your head on it - or even smashed through it. But have you heard of the glass cliff? This is the phenomenon where female leaders are much more likely to be given the opportunity to step into leadership roles within businesses that are already in a prolonged period of poor performance. And therefore, set up for organisational failure. Well, the wondrous Sophie Williams (author of Anti-Racist Ally and Millennial Black) is t

Feb 22, 2024 • 44:29

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 15:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 15:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. Recently we asked for your best advice - in just four words. As usual you were amazing: “Arrange your alibi first”, said @samanthaddv, “I charge for that” said @duckettlist, “Try not to worry” said @laura_bradley…Tune in for more...    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 16, 2024 • 12:15

Episode 187: Should We Stop Complaining?

Episode 187: Should We Stop Complaining?

Annabel was talking to a friend the other day who - sounding improbably zen - confessed that she had given up complaining. Not coffee, not booze, not sugar. But complaining. And we could immediately see the point: imagine not relying on all the negativity and panic and self-doubt for conversation? Imagine…So move over manifesting, we’re sharing this hot tip, because we are bottomlessly kind. So kind that we scream at other drivers when we’re in our cars, to keep them safe and alert on t

Feb 8, 2024 • 25:53

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 14:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 14:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. This episode we are all about conversational responses for February. Mostly “No”. But also “Gosh” - for when a response is required but you don’t know what to say. And maybe “I don’t care”. Because, let’s face it…  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 2, 2024 • 8:03

Episode 186: Grief Myths with Cariad Lloyd

Episode 186: Grief Myths with Cariad Lloyd

Our guest this week is a member of the DDC – the Dead Dad Club. Just like us. Sadly, Cariad Lloyd has been a member since she was 15, when her father died suddenly. After years of floundering, she took her grief and turned it into a beautiful living thing – by talking about it on her award-winning podcast Griefcast and writing about it in her wonderful book You Are Not Alone, out in paperback on the 1st February. She talks to people about their experience of grief and death and in doing

Jan 25, 2024 • 47:56

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 13:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 13:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. This week we talk about THINGS YOU KNOW IF YOU’RE A GROWN-UP. Like: You should never buy the smallest size you can squeeze into (it is not the victory it once seemed to be); moths and leaks make you panic; something always hurts (knee.. back… soul); fitted sheets are having a laugh and you know more and less at

Jan 19, 2024 • 12:26

Episode 185: 2024 - Time to Celebrate Our Failings

Episode 185: 2024 - Time to Celebrate Our Failings

New Year's Resolutions seem to have criticism and judgement woven through them? How can I be better? Do better? How can I improve myself? Eurgh. So instead in 2024 we are going to aim for self-acceptance, rather than self-improvement. Let’s celebrate our bits of disgustingness and our flaws and our failings. In this episode we ask all the deep questions, such as: How often do you wash your bra? When you eat a steak, these days, do you feel like you are a boa constrictor digesting a vill

Jan 11, 2024 • 30:13

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 12:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 12:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. In this weird opening-of-the-year week, we talk about what to say when people ask you about your New Year’s Resolutions. An intolerable question. Perhaps you plan to be slightly worse this year? Become a dark force? A bad omen? Or will you be taking up spiritual veganism? There’s everything to play for.   Learn

Jan 5, 2024 • 8:54

Episode 184: How To Be Happier

Episode 184: How To Be Happier

Hi everyone!! We’re coming to you direct from the perineum of the year…So that’s nice…Don’t know what day it is…Don’t know what to eat next but I’m sure we’ll be eating something imminently. We just wanted to pop up and share with you one of our most popular episodes of 2023, clearly because it’s called How To Be Happier. Professor Cassie Holmes is a happiness teacher. At UCLA. To MBAs. She is also an award-winning academic and social psychologist, who, nearly defeated by the grind, dec

Dec 28, 2023 • 44:53

Episode 183: Divorce & Flex Appeal with Anna Whitehouse

Episode 183: Divorce & Flex Appeal with Anna Whitehouse

2023 has been huge for Anna Whitehouse, also known as Mother Pukka. She’s been fighting for flexible working rights for eight years and last week it was announced that her bill will become law in 2024. Her Heart FM radio show is going from strength to strength with over 11 million listeners. She’s also written a pair of books about childcare and flexible working called Divide and Conquer - and the person with whom she wrote these books is her soon-to-be ex-husband. And they are plotting

Dec 21, 2023 • 41:49

Episode 182: How To Fear Less with Trinny

Episode 182: How To Fear Less with Trinny

Does today’s guest really need an introduction? After all, who didn’t watch What Not To Wear in the early Noughties and cry and laugh with the women Trinny and Susannah transformed? Who hasn’t marvelled at the success of her beauty brand Trinny London, and the way she's made Instagram her own? This is a woman who has made a career out of trying to help women feel better about themselves. Over the years, she has learnt to feel fearless - and now she’s written the book on it. We were thri

Dec 14, 2023 • 39:51

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 11:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 11:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. This week we talk about party season. Are you dreading it? Do you have the energy for it? If so, how? Incidentally we recorded this podcast lying on the floor…nearly there…🤣❤️ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 8, 2023 • 8:36

Episode 181: A History of Women and their...things!

Episode 181: A History of Women and their...things!

Regular listeners of the podcast will know that we absolutely love a book that revolves around women’s stories; that reclaims/wrestles the narrative from the petty patriarchal posturers of history. So we were delighted when Annabelle Hirsch’s 'A History of Women in 101 Objects' landed on our doormats. The book tells stories of female history through ‘things’; through the quiet power of their everyday items: perfumed gloves, thumbscrews, sewing machines, the Brontës’ miniature books, the contrace

Nov 30, 2023 • 35:21

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 10:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 10:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. This week it’s all about the rookie errors. Yes we are seasoned, experienced, wise, broken in, been around (WILL YOU STOP NOW) but we are still making basic balls ups. Like putting on our coats ten minutes before we leave the house so we end up in a muck sweat, wearing g-strings and being surprised that we spend the who

Nov 24, 2023 • 8:49

Episode 180: Beauty Special

Episode 180: Beauty Special

How to look like a fully-functioning woman? The odds are against us BUT…'tis the season of miracles after all. So, Annabel has a rummage through her drawers to put together a beauty box selection of old favourites and new wonders to try and fix our faces. And bodies. And spirits. Emilie falls in love with Sun Bum’s Glow 30. We get transported back to our late 20s by REN’s Moroccan Rose Otto, and find that every woman needs a bit of Clarins, Charlotte Tilbury and Glossier in her arsenal. There’s

Nov 16, 2023 • 32:35

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 9:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 9:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. Ok so Emilie was on the tube when a nice young man politely offered her his seat. IT’S HAPPENING… Annabel got into a swearing match with a much older woman, both from the comfort of their cars. Are you turning into “THAT WOMAN”? The harridan? The banshee? Please send comforting examples…because if we’re not in

Nov 10, 2023 • 8:38

Episode 179: Why is Everything a Scam?

Episode 179: Why is Everything a Scam?

Water. Water is meant to give us good skin, improved mental health and more energy. What does it actually give us? Pee. We all know we’re supposed to get eight hours sleep a night or - they tell us again and again - we may go mad and die. How many of us manage? How many times in the past week, month, year have you woken up at 2am, 3am, 4am and then started the useless, desperate process of trying to get back to sleep? Why is sleep such a scam? It turns out there are a lot of things that

Nov 2, 2023 • 22:41

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 8:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 8:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. Anyway, it’s spooky season and we imagine some terrifying haunted house scenarios: a room where your WhatsApp groups have all come to life; another room where there’s a party and people keep saying ‘So, tell me about you…’; a hall of mirrors where each one reflects your mother back at you. And she’s always saying someth

Oct 26, 2023 • 9:33

Episode 178: Poetry for the Soul

Episode 178: Poetry for the Soul

Desperate for a little corner of calm that you can tuck yourself into? A mini-escape that is not demanding or exhausting or expensive? We are delighted that this week’s guest has found a way to calm the wild voices in her head… Poetry. Allie Esiri is a poetry anthologist and her wonderful new book 365 Poems for Life harnesses our extraordinary literary resources to offer - if not a solution - then a balm for the soul. Of course, you might be thinking, ‘How is reading a poem a day going

Oct 18, 2023 • 39:14

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 7:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 7:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before you have to get through the next week. Oh God. Anyway, this week we decide to become local legends. But how? By wearing cloaks? Adopting a treachery of ravens? Maybe a monkey? Emilie thinks replenishing everyone’s stock of recycling bags would do it. Annabel thinks more majesty is required… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 12, 2023 • 10:09

Episode 177: Politics on the Edge with Hugo Rifkind

Episode 177: Politics on the Edge with Hugo Rifkind

Are you reaching the edge of reason? Do you find yourself shouting at the Today programme, slamming your laptop shut after reading the Sunday papers, cursing wildly at how insane the news cycle is: the politics, the fuckery, the backstabbing, and the actual stabbings. Our next guest is at the frontline of the news – he has to watch everything, listen to everything, talk about everything and try not to shout or lose his mind. We’re not sure how he does it. Hugo Rifkind, writer, broadcast

Oct 4, 2023 • 39:10

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 6:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 6:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before you have to get through the next week. Oh God. Anyway, in this episode, we get all nostalgic/nauseous about all the lies we told our parents when we were 15/16. All the shady places we went. The many dodgy vehicles we got into and the European waiters we kissed. How are we still alive? OOF… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 28, 2023 • 9:55

Episode 176: What Happens When Cancer Happens To You...

Episode 176: What Happens When Cancer Happens To You...

This is a very personal conversation with our friend Mandy Saligari where she allows us all the privilege of bearing witness to her experience of a recent stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Longtime listeners of the podcast will know Mandy is someone who we hold in extremely high regard: an addictions therapist, founder of Charter Harley Street, and all-round badass, who has given us and many others life-changing advice over the years. Five weeks ago, she was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and, las

Sep 20, 2023 • 33:57

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 5:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 5:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before you have to get through the next week. Oh God. Anyway, in this episode, Emilie has swapped oppressive cheerfulness for gnawing anxiety and Annabel is trying to cheer her up with three-word happy stories…So you can imagine how that went… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 14, 2023 • 9:17

Episode 175: New Term, Same Attitude

Episode 175: New Term, Same Attitude

So we recorded this week’s podcast schvitzing in our stupid summer dresses, fretting about what we can bear to put on our bodies for Autumn. It’s like all the ghosts of our fashion past are out there: the return of the Sienna Miller-style coin belt; massive blazers and baggy jeans a la Eternal, as well kitten heels. How do we feel about wearing something with the word ‘kitten’ in it? They say hair is everything but it’s also everywhere - sprouting erratically, so Annabel pays homage to

Sep 6, 2023 • 29:24

Episode 174: No Wonder You're Pissed Off

Episode 174: No Wonder You're Pissed Off

Sometimes we need reminding that we aren’t failing. The entire fucking system is against us. We have interviewed three brilliant American women who have dedicated their careers to looking at the patriarchy: Ada Calhoun with her Generation X defining book, Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis. Eve Rodsky’s manifest for female creativity: Find Your Unicorn Space. Elise Loehnen’s primal roar that is On Our Best Behaviour. Presumably you are already angry. Have a listen, get angri

Aug 23, 2023 • 49:58

Episode 173: This Might Make You Feel Less Weird

Episode 173: This Might Make You Feel Less Weird

Hopefully you are fully engaged in a wonderful holiday, spending joyous time immersed in the glorious slipstream of your family dynamics. If so GOOD FOR YOU. If, however, you feel that you are on the brink, near the overwhelm or just unbelievably tired, have we got an episode to you… We’ve gathered together some self-preserving thoughts from therapy titans, Julia Samuel, Mandy Saligari and Sam Akbar, to talk you down off the emotional cliff. Note: these are highlights, not new recording

Aug 16, 2023 • 48:16

Episode 172: The Really Useful Beauty Episode

Episode 172: The Really Useful Beauty Episode

Here at I’m Absolutely Fine we have gathered the finest beauty minds for a Beauty 101. Nadine Baggott brought us her Skincare SOS kit: she decodes the ingredients to look out for and keeps budget front of mind. Sali Hughes, who has launched her wildly successful skincare range with Revolution (Emilie is a devotee of her Daily Exfoliant), opened up her make-up bag, uncovering treasure, and Annabel rifled through her bathroom to share her summer sensations…NOTE: These are highlights not n

Aug 9, 2023 • 44:13

Episode 171: Isn't Summer Relaxing?

Episode 171: Isn't Summer Relaxing?

Summer is here. Maybe you are leaping into August with the enthusiasm of a newborn deer or maybe you feel as if you are about to be culled and mounted on the living room wall. We are veering wildly from wanting to scamper and scurry the streets, eating snacks and generally channelling rat girl energy; and spending so long in the bath that we turn ourselves into broths. Either way we will not be replying to emails in a hurry: Sorry for the delayed response but….I’m Absolutely Fine podcast is taki

Jul 26, 2023 • 28:27

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 4:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 4:

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before you have to get through the next week. Oh God. So this week we asked you the question: You’re a burglar…but you can only steal things that MILDLY INCONVENIENCE your victims. What are you taking? 700 of you responded with mildly inconveniencing horrors…Long story short, we are not the bigger person... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adc

Jul 20, 2023 • 13:02

Episode 170: With Anna Richardson

Episode 170: With Anna Richardson

Our guest this week is Anna Richardson - host of Channel 4’s Naked Attraction and the recently-launched podcast It Can’t Just Be Me: a sex and relationships podcast where she answers all kinds of problems about anything from ‘Can you be friend with an ex?’ to ‘how do I cope partner’s depression?’. Anna has seen more naked people than anyone else we know, so we ask her about the dynamics of attraction and what she’s learned about bodies from looking at so many of them. She’s also making

Jul 19, 2023 • 36:35

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 3:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 3:

Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before you have to get through the next week. Oh God. This week we talk about JULY WEIRDNESS. July is the waiting room of summer, and waiting rooms are weird: you don’t know your life is about to change for the good or for the bad. As a result we find ourselves thinking the same thing over and over… ‘Disappointed, but not surprised’. And we have also discovered a good catch-all for whe

Jul 13, 2023 • 8:31

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 2:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 2:

Welcome to a Podcast From The Edge - I’m Absolutely Fine but…mini! Five-ish minutes, broadcast live from The Edge…The Brink… The Overwhelm…The Vortex - that slips into your feed every Friday. Not ‘That Friday Feeling' but, rather, all the fucking feelings. Just to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before you have to get through the next week. Oh God. Here we go: This week we’ve chewed over some of the DANGEROUS ACTIVITIES FOR MIDULTS. Like... looking

Jul 6, 2023 • 9:46

Episode 169: Bodies Bodies Bodies (and books) With Daisy Buchanan

Episode 169: Bodies Bodies Bodies (and books) With Daisy Buchanan

Our guest this week is novelist and all-round treasure Daisy Buchanan - who is no stranger to this podcast because now and again we ask her to come on and tell us what we need to be reading. She hosts the literary You’re Booked podcast and has just written another great novel - Limelight - which is about women and bodies and bodies and shame and sex and bodies and how we take up space in the world. We talk about how we are trained to look at ourselves and why things like sex and photographs are

Jul 5, 2023 • 39:11

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE:

PODCAST FROM THE EDGE:

Welcome to a Podcast From The Edge - I’m Absolutely Fine but…mini! Five-ish minutes, broadcast live from The Edge…The Brink… The Overwhelm…The Vortex - that slips into your feed every Friday. Not ‘That Friday Feeling' but, rather, all the fucking feelings. Just to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before you have to get through the next week. Oh God. Here we go: All the ways we’ve been undignified this week - revolving door panic, dribble (b

Jun 29, 2023 • 8:57

Episode 168: Travels Around The UK With Melinda Stevens

Episode 168: Travels Around The UK With Melinda Stevens

We used to get on planes as though they were buses but, these days, that feels a bit more complicated, expensive and wrong. So what do you do if you long for adventure? Pine for discovery? But you feel grounded - and not in the good way? Well, we have our friend Melinda Stevens on the podcast this week – she’s about as expert as travel experts get. She edited Conde Nast Traveller UK and US for years and she’s just launched Loupe - a new initiative entirely designed to give us a new way

Jun 21, 2023 • 47:06

Episode 167: What If We Stop Trying To Be Good? With Elise Loehnen

Episode 167: What If We Stop Trying To Be Good? With Elise Loehnen

Envy, Gluttony, Anger, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Lust… Elise Loehnen has written On Our Best Behaviour: What Happens When We Stop Trying To Be Good? It’s about the way women have been caged by the patriarchy, by fake morality, by the seven deadly sins and by our feeling that if we are obedient enough, we will be protected. It is a fascinating, overwhelming read and she’s our sensational guest this week. Is it an uncomfortable truth that the more we try to be to the world, the less we can be

Jun 7, 2023 • 48:08

Episode 166: The Success Myth With Emma Gannon

Episode 166: The Success Myth With Emma Gannon

Do you feel a bit 'off' about work? A bit 'off’ about yourself? Perhaps - on paper - you seem successful enough, but you don’t feel successful? Are you chasing goals but, when you get there, you do not feel any better? Well, if this is you - and we think it’s a lot of us - then this week’s guest is just the tonic. Writer Emma Gannon became the poster girl for hustle culture when she released her bestselling business book The Multi-Hyphen Method. But things were not all they seemed: she

May 24, 2023 • 34:33

Episode 165: The Shame Game

Episode 165: The Shame Game

Our guest this week is a campaigner, a warrior, an author, a one-woman dancing dynamo. Her mission? To free us from the shame that surrounds us: Body shame, sexual shame, you name, it we’ve been ashamed of it. You know her on Instagram as the sensational Style Me Sunday, and we talk to Natalie about all the big changes she made when she was at a emotional dead end, the heartbreak of friendship ruptures and the evil of WhatsApp.PS: This podcast was bravely brought to you by Symprove. Get

May 18, 2023 • 32:58

Episode 164: Bring On The Glimmers

Episode 164: Bring On The Glimmers

We often talk about triggers, don’t we? The tiny stabs that strike at the heart of a regret or a fear or a grief or a resentment. Sometimes we can pivot from merry to murderous in a nano-second and we are left angry and or sad but unable to identify the trigger that sent us there. It is, we think, why so many of us feel so irritable so much of the time. We stumbled, the other day, on the concept of glimmers. And even the idea of glimmers is gently soul-warming. Glimmers are the exact op

May 4, 2023 • 46:41

Episode 163: Dress Porn With Isabel Spearman

Episode 163: Dress Porn With Isabel Spearman

Why are we all obsessed with dresses? SEPARATES scream the fashion pages. SUITS they howl. But the thing about dresses is - there’s only one thing to decide on in the morning. And once that decision is made then boots and belts and shoes and earrings are just fun and games. Considering we lean so hard on dresses, we are thrilled to have the dress queen on the podcast today: the authority, the grand fromage of frocks. Isabel Spearman styled fashion luminaries and worked for big, beautifu

Apr 26, 2023 • 37:04

Episode 162: Are You Having A Midlife Crisis? You Probably Are...

Episode 162: Are You Having A Midlife Crisis? You Probably Are...

Are you feeling a bit lost? A bit broken? A bit bored? Do you feel stuck? Trapped? Disconnected from any sense of joy? Do you yearn for change but feel terrified of it at the same time? Could you possibly be experiencing a midlife crisis? The midlife crisis gets a bad rap. It’s become a much-maligned term but that doesn’t make it any less real or any less painful. But maybe this identity storm is not a disaster…maybe it’s an opportunity? This is what psychologist Dr Julie Hannan, author

Apr 19, 2023 • 41:15

Episode 161: Are You Disappearing Into The Things?

Episode 161: Are You Disappearing Into The Things?

We recently received an email from someone who apologised for her delayed reply: she had ‘disappeared into the things’. HARD RELATE. We are constantly in danger of disappearing into the things: the sadness, the panic, the phone. So in this episode we talk about the strange things that are happening with our sense of self at the moment… plus all the mini identity shifts that send us from Diary Of An Edwardian Lady Lady (‘Gosh, is that a Golden Crested Bum Puncher?) to Bleeding Heart to H

Apr 5, 2023 • 34:01

Episode 160: From Rage To Riches With Joanna Jensen

Episode 160: From Rage To Riches With Joanna Jensen

Who doesn’t love a solution story: the tale of a grown-up woman who had a problem and thought ‘You know what? I am not going to wait for some fucker to fix this – I am just going to do it myself’. This is true of today's guest. Joanna Jensen suffered from eczema as a child and, when her own children were born with the same condition, she decided ‘enough is enough’. In 2010 she created Child’s Farm from her kitchen table and, by the end of the decade, it was the UK’s number one baby and

Mar 23, 2023 • 46:41

Episode 159: How Tired Are You?

Episode 159: How Tired Are You?

Last night we slept so badly that Annabel put hairspray under her arms and Emilie put her contact lenses in twice. This week the podcast is dedicated to the recognition that so many of us are so exhausted. How many times - today - have you thought ‘I am so tired’? Did you wake up thinking, ‘I am so tired’? Did you spend ten minutes sitting on the side of the bed, wrapped in a towel, staring at the wall, thinking, ‘How am I going to manage?’ Did you think, just as you woke up, ‘I can’t w

Mar 16, 2023 • 28:17

Episode 158: Do You Know How To Behave?

Episode 158: Do You Know How To Behave?

Are you being rude? Do you even know any more? Do you even care? This week on the podcast we discuss when it’s acceptable to ignore people (airports, for a start); what to do when you forget someone’s name for the millionth time; the question you should never ask and whether diary invitations are helpful or just annoying. And, now that it’s March and the sun’s a little bit out, our wardrobes feel very unfresh. So we wonder about all the dangerous clothes we‘re hankering after… We used t

Mar 2, 2023 • 40:50

Episode 157: With Sahar Hashemi

Episode 157: With Sahar Hashemi

Regular listeners will know that we often slip ’the patriarchy’ into the conversation around what holds us back. From diet culture keeping us hungry while feeding our self-loathing; to medical misogyny. So it’s a privilege really to have entrepreneur Sahar Hashemi on the podcast this week. Sahar has smashed through many a ceiling and is still busy opening lots of doors for women: she founded Coffee Republic - three years before Starbucks landed on our shores; for the past couple of years, she’s

Feb 16, 2023 • 47:01

Episode 156: Unleash Your Inner Weirdo

Episode 156: Unleash Your Inner Weirdo

All those years trying to fit in. The energy wasted wondering if we were loveable enough. The box ticking: professional, ambitious, presentable. And yet here we find ourselves, at the sharp end of 2023, weirder than ever before. So, we did some…research, and it turns out you lot are up to all sorts of micro-weirdnesses. Maybe it’s time to unleash your inner weirdo on the world. She is bursting to be set free. We talk about the support groups we need: one for those who’ve been asked to ‘

Feb 2, 2023 • 38:52

Episode 155: How To Be Happier

Episode 155: How To Be Happier

So…January. Only 2000 years of it left. Just a joy of a month isn’t? Everyone is feeling fantastic, right? Well if, like us, you are wading through quicksand, then this is the episode for you. This week’s guest is a happiness teacher. At UCLA. To MBAs. Professor Cassie Holmes is an award-winning academic and social psychologist, who, nearly defeated by the grind, decided to learn how to have a more fulfilling existence. And - spoiler alert - it’s mostly about how we manage our time. Hap

Jan 19, 2023 • 49:11

Episode 154: It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like F*** This

Episode 154: It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like F*** This

Not to be dramatic but it’s nearly fucking Christmas...Anyone else feeling exhausted/deranged/burnt-out? We thought we’d share some of the best advice (and weirdest) we’ve received from you guys, from ‘Nothing good comes from a drink you have set on fire’ to ’Never trust a man called Tim’. We talk about all the modes we might slip into during the perineum of the year, from Goblin Mode to Donkey Mode. And how we would decorate the perfect Midult Christmas tree: a tiny vortex to scream in

Dec 22, 2022 • 37:19

Episode 153: Happy Scummy Christmas

Episode 153: Happy Scummy Christmas

So buckle up for the best kind of Christmas chaos…with our friends and yours, The Scummy Mummies. Helen talks about navigating the single life while Ellie owns up to a Christmas loo brush (is it acceptable to clean it in the dishwasher?) and a hefty midlife crisis purchase. And here’s the burning Midult question this Christmas: Bublé or Tucci? Only a few more breakdowns ‘til Christmas guys... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 15, 2022 • 45:35

Episode 152: With Fran Littlewood

Episode 152: With Fran Littlewood

Do you feel as though you are about to explode with ALL THE THINGS? Ageing parents, health, money, a social life, trying to stay hydrated, sober and sane, and sleep for more than 45 minutes? Well someone else who understands the ferocity of the rush hour of life is novelist Fran Littlewood – she’s here with us today to talk about her brilliant book Amazing Grace Adams; the story of a perimenopausal woman going on a rampage. It’s a raging read, out in January and it’s already been option

Dec 8, 2022 • 39:47

Episode 151: Books To Give You Hope With Daisy Buchanan

Episode 151: Books To Give You Hope With Daisy Buchanan

Everything in the world is making us want to retreat to our beds with a book right now. But what to read? Enter our guest this week, Daisy Buchanan. Daisy is a writer of naughty books and heartwarming books and books that can help us to look at ourselves with more generosity – from her hot novel Insatiable to the most recent Careering. She also has a mini-book out with The Pound Project called Burn Before Reading which is full of books to hold on to when you are in the emotional quicksa

Dec 1, 2022 • 50:27

Episode 150: With Bay Garnett

Episode 150: With Bay Garnett

Bay Garnett is the woman who turned second hand into vintage. She is the person to talk to right now, when money is tight, fashion feels oppressive and we want to stop contributing to the fast fashion phenomenon that just feeds our greed for new…more…now. In this episode, the Queen Of Thrift talks to us about how to plug into the thrift circuit, how shopping can also be activism and why secondhand clothes can help us tell our own style stories. Rather than the ones that are just…sold to

Nov 24, 2022 • 41:01

Episode 149: Welcome To The Midultverse

Episode 149: Welcome To The Midultverse

We all kind of agree that (despite the amazing skin elasticity and ability to metabolise alcohol) our 20s were the fucking trenches. So here we are in our 30s, 40s, 50s trying to decide which bits of our personalities to hold on to and which bits to let go of. Who to be, basically. Well maybe we could start with who we’d like to be in a very micro way. This week we start a campaign to be the people who…. organise 6:30pm dinners and no longer compliment people on losing weight. Tiny step

Nov 17, 2022 • 28:25

Episode 148: Politics! Politics! Politics! With Hugo Rifkind

Episode 148: Politics! Politics! Politics! With Hugo Rifkind

If you are anything like us, you will have been driven half mad tracking the chaos - the sheer wildness - of the last few months in politics. So have we got a treat for you. This week our guest is the sensational Hugo Rifkind, Times star columnist and radio presenter - his Saturday morning show on Times Radio is a must-listen. He unpacks his red box of weirdness for us as we talk about the maddest things that have happened in this Autumn term of politics. Given we are in fast moving tim

Nov 10, 2022 • 43:27

Episode 147: Hair Loss & Beyond With Jo Jones

Episode 147: Hair Loss & Beyond With Jo Jones

Here we all are, wrestling with the shifting sands of our identity. Who are we? What are we doing? Is this what we wanted? And alongside these panickings, there are times when our physical selves change and challenge us in ways that can make us feel desperate. Today’s guest opened the floodgates for people to take about their experience of hair loss when she started documenting her own situation. And the solutions she sought. Because Jo Jones is a woman of action – she co-founded Beauty

Nov 3, 2022 • 44:10

Episode 146: Do You Have A Happy Vagina?

Episode 146: Do You Have A Happy Vagina?

Do you have a happy vagina? Do you even know what would make it happy? Content? Perhaps equal pay and a health industry that prioritises its well-being? This is why activist and advocate Mika Simmons wrote her book, The Happy Vagina, to empower us to talk openly about health, relationships and pleasure. In this episode we talk to her about why vulvas need a rebrand, medical gaslighting, the stupid term ‘hysteria’ and get a bit fucking furious and a tiny bit hopeful.  Learn more about yo

Oct 26, 2022 • 40:13

Episode 145: Live Laugh Leave

Episode 145: Live Laugh Leave

So last week we posted a Gemma Collins meme about those motivational slogans - printed and framed - that are somehow too much to bear. You lot shared all of your love-to-hate motivational sayings and now we’ve done a podcast about it. As well as Emilie’s most recent undignified moment, how late-onset rudeness has crept on us and why you should never EVER look in a lift mirror. Also we chat to the fabulous founder of Blink Brow Bar, Vanita Parti, about why brows are everything...PS: This

Oct 19, 2022 • 38:17

Episode 144: With Nadine Baggott

Episode 144: With Nadine Baggott

Are you scared of mascara? Bruised by blusher? Disconcerted by dark circles? Do you want to look like you know what you’re doing with makeup? Or maybe you’ve set the bar lower, and you just want to look a little less corpse-like as Winter beds in. This week we called in our friend and general sensation, Nadine Baggott, to talk all things make up. Because Nadine – who seamlessly transitioned from veteran health and beauty journalist to YouTuber with 23 million views - is a proper expert.

Oct 12, 2022 • 45:59

Episode 143: Fashion Issues With Lucinda Chambers and Serena Hood

Episode 143: Fashion Issues With Lucinda Chambers and Serena Hood

Most of us live in a constant state of despair around how to get dressed. Office clothes now feel like fancy dress. Trying to look a little bit swishy for a night out feels like a Sisyphian struggle. We want to look together but casual at the weekends but mostly we look like pile of old laundry. So the question is: how to look relevant and comfortable - and even a little bit dangerous - when you’ve slightly lost your way? This week we’ve brought in some heavy hitters. Ex-Vogue fashion e

Oct 5, 2022 • 37:49

Episode 142: How's Your Social Battery?

Episode 142: How's Your Social Battery?

Is your social battery dead? The Social Battery is the latest excuse-slash-label-slash-diagnosis for why we are so tired and can hardly bear to see anyone, do anything. So this week we discuss all the different batteries we could use and what would happen if we actually became fully-charged human women. WHAT THE HELL THEN? We also offer some translations for every day sayings like "I’ve had a bit of day" (I have just had the most intensely terrible experience of my life) and "Have you s

Sep 28, 2022 • 31:35

Episode 141: With Donna Lancaster

Episode 141: With Donna Lancaster

Paralysing grief, collective dread, crushing anxiety, acute self-loathing, debilitating panic - are you feeling it all right now? Well, we have an authority on the podcast this week. Donna Lancaster is a therapist, facilitator and healer. She has 30 years of experience in her back pocket: she was head of teaching at the Hoffman Institute and is a co-creator of the Bridge Retreat, a six-day personal development experience where you can overcome grief and loss and step into wholehearted l

Sep 21, 2022 • 37:09

Episode 140: With Alex Light

Episode 140: With Alex Light

How do you feel about your body? Can you celebrate its wondrous function? Do you high five yourself every time you tie your shoelaces or carry a heavy thing? Do you admire your favourite bits and embrace your other bits? Are you happy with your size and shape or do you often see yourself as a …before picture "If only I were thinner, more toned, had bigger/smaller/perkier boobs?”We have run the daily gamut of diet culture for years, a happiness-threatening - hell, life-threatening - obse

Sep 14, 2022 • 1:06:32

Episode 139: The September Issues

Episode 139: The September Issues

We’re back. And we’re fine *laughs for days*. So fine. This new term does not have that hopeful September flavour, does it? What with The Great Exhaustion, raw sewage in our seas, Truss & Trump, energy bills, war, floods and all the other global horror. The unnamed dread we’ve been pointlessly carrying around for years has now become very much named dread. Oof. Anyway, to celebrate our return, we have made a desperate attempt to put some good energy into the world to combat the coll

Sep 7, 2022 • 38:54

Episode 138: Blame It On The Circumstances

Episode 138: Blame It On The Circumstances

Maybe we should just refer to this period in history as "The Circumstances". Because, let’s face it, we have been around the block a few times (!) and we have never experienced a time when there have been so many “circumstances”. Doesn’t seem much point in listing all the things – personal, financial, ecological, socio-economic, cultural, political. Doesn’t seem much point in breaking them all down and having to absorb the horror and understand the nuances and process the feelings. Mayb

Jul 28, 2022 • 28:52

Episode 137: The Big Quit With Anniki Sommerville

Episode 137: The Big Quit With Anniki Sommerville

Maybe you love your job. Or maybe you spend an alarming amount of time crying in the loo/working in the evenings to meet deadlines/feeling under-appreciated and trapped/hoping meditation will sort it all out. If you are constantly teetering on the brink or staring into the overwhelm – well we have a guest for you. Anniki Sommerville is an author and journalist, podcaster and woman familiar with… the edge. She ditched her toxic work environment, set about finding that elusive life-work balance an

Jul 20, 2022 • 43:19

Episode 136: It's A Beauty Special

Episode 136: It's A Beauty Special

Listen, it's all pretty hideous/hopeless out there. But buying beauty bits can be properly feel good. Annabel rifles through her drawers to find her current beauty stars - some are new, some are classics. Some are budget, others are treats. All will blur, blend and burnish where we need them to. Head to TheMidult.com for all the shoppable links, but we discuss: Botanico Vida Omega Oil Kopari Deodorant Oskia Renaissance Mask Naked Sundays Collagen Glow 100% Mineral Sunscreen Rose Inc. Blush

Jul 13, 2022 • 33:54

Episode 135: How To Be Stressilient With Sam Akbar

Episode 135: How To Be Stressilient With Sam Akbar

We all feel stressed, right? We feel dread-full. We’ve done Pilates and lit a candle and had a bath and, in Annabel’s case, fallen asleep in it. But still. The panic. WE NEED SOLUTIONS. So this week we’re thrilled to have Dr Sam Akbar on the podcast. She's at the frontline of serious, heart-breaking stress; a clinical psychologist who treats refugees and survivors of torture with post-traumatic stress disorder. Now Sam is applying those hard-won skills to our everyday flavours of stress

Jul 6, 2022 • 46:40

Episode 134: With Sali Hughes

Episode 134: With Sali Hughes

Are you worried about the wreckage that is your face? We are. This week we have one of the country’s foremost beauty experts on the podcast…. whether it's writing her unmissable Guardian beauty columns, building the charitable initiative Beauty Banks or breaking the internet with her decision to go fully grey, Sali Hughes is honest and outspoken about beauty standards and how the beauty industry makes us feel about ourselves. She’s just launched her own brand in partnership with Revolut

Jun 29, 2022 • 55:43

Episode 133: With Veronica Dearly

Episode 133: With Veronica Dearly

Regular listeners of the podcast will know how totally demotivating we find motivational quotes – however there is one exception to this rule… Veronica Dearly, whose whole-hearted warmth and empathy is at the cornerstone of her illustrations. Veronica's funny blend of stress and self-awareness is a lovely corner of the internet - she stares into the abyss and finds a little bit of hope there. Her new book How to Do Hard Things is out now: an illustrated guide to embracing change and cha

Jun 22, 2022 • 34:33

Episode 132: With Thomasina Miers

Episode 132: With Thomasina Miers

Are you so bored of cooking that you’d quite happily throw all the utensils out of the window? Have you abandoned any attempt at culinary imagination? Are you worried about how to feed everybody, let alone with any kind of flair, without going insane and bankrupting yourself? Well, we are delighted to welcome the delicious Thomasina Miers to the podcast. She won Masterchef (FFS!) before founding Wahaca and her latest book, Meat-Free Mexican is an absolute goldmine. We talk about anxiety

Jun 15, 2022 • 45:50

Episode 131: With Abi Morgan

Episode 131: With Abi Morgan

We are slightly awestruck by our guest this week – she’s a BAFTA and Emmy award-winning screenwriter of such magnificences as The Hour, The Split, Iron Lady and Suffragette. But she’s soon to be famous for her bestseller This is Not A Pity Memoir. Ok, so we should warn you that this is a book about a series of heart-breaking events: her husband had a catastrophic reaction to MS drugs; he woke up from a six months’ long coma and she was the only person he didn’t recognise. Then, while ca

Jun 8, 2022 • 50:04

Episode 130: Bonus Bank Holiday Episode

Episode 130: Bonus Bank Holiday Episode

Recently someone said to us – as they do – just go with the flow. Our first thought – obviously – was…’Have you ever met us?’ Swiftly followed by, ‘What time does the flow start?’ And ‘What do we wear?' We have never knowingly or unknowingly gone with the flow. Anyway, we are unlikely to tell anyone to go with the flow, but there are a lot of things we are currently saying to people who have annoyed us like, ‘I’m just going to leave that with you’ and ‘Wow, you have given that a lot of

Jun 3, 2022 • 48:29

Episode 130: Will We Ever Find The Flow?

Episode 130: Will We Ever Find The Flow?

Recently someone said to us – as they do – just go with the flow. Our first thought – obviously – was…’Have you ever met us?’ Swiftly followed by, ‘What time does the flow start?’ And ‘What do we wear?' We have never knowingly or unknowingly gone with the flow. Anyway, we are unlikely to tell anyone to go with the flow, but there are a lot of things we are currently saying to people who have annoyed us like, ‘I’m just going to leave that with you’ and ‘Wow, you have given that a lot of thought.’

Jun 1, 2022 • 10:43

Episode 129: With Steph McGovern

Episode 129: With Steph McGovern

This week we’ve got a veritable powerhouse of a guest. Maybe you started needlepointing during lockdown? Or baked a dodgy sourdough loaf or two? But if you’re Steph McGovern, you started a whole television show…. from your front room. In fact, Steph’s Packed Lunch, was just nominated for a BAFTA. We talk about our dire knicker situation, dealing with IBS and what it’s like to be a northerner who doesn't like tea. PS: This podcast was bravely brought to you by Symprove. You can sign up f

May 25, 2022 • 34:15

Episode 128: With Em Clarkson

Episode 128: With Em Clarkson

If you are ever depressed about the chilly perfection of Instagram then we have the antidote…. Em Clarkson, who uses this platform to call out the constant cultural undermining of women and to smash our own internalised misogyny one awkward-yet-joyful post at a time. We talk about the power of changing your mind, what will happen if we just keep letting ourselves be coated in shame and judgement, and why we shouldn’t try to be liked by everyone. Warning: Contains ranting. Link in bio. P

May 18, 2022 • 42:05

Episode 127: Is It Just Our Horrible Personalities?

Episode 127: Is It Just Our Horrible Personalities?

We have a question: at what point does your ‘manner’ become your horrible personality? Because – somewhere – we all have a horrible personality. Even Emilie. This week we discuss why we need to own our anger, and why all our inner people - Inner Warrior, Child and Diva - are malfunctioning at the moment. Plus lots of ways to get Midult high AND ways to say no without saying no - because we are, after all, only here to help…tune in for Big Midult Energy…. Learn more about your ad choices

May 12, 2022 • 32:12

Episode 126: Let's Talk About Consent, Baby

Episode 126: Let's Talk About Consent, Baby

Has there ever been a better time to talk about sex education? Girls, women and their bodies are under siege. Supposed protectors of laws and rights are watching porn in the Commons. Young people are deluged with mixed messages about what they should and shouldn’t expect. There’s an orgasm gap, along with all the other gaps FFS. It’s enough to make you want to start burning everything down. So this week we are thrilled to welcome journalist Sophia Smith Galer to the podcast to talk abou

May 4, 2022 • 44:25

Episode 125: What Was I Saying?

Episode 125: What Was I Saying?

What’s the word for when you’re very clever but can’t remember anything and know literally nothing…? Because that’s where we live now. This week on the podcast we talk about why we need entire essay prompts to remember anything; all the stuff we shall never understand (like why does watching documentaries about serial killers help us to relax); and why we are low-level suspicious of anyone who looks forward to a long weekend. Plus there’s a chat with Doctor Seaweed himself…PS: This epis

Apr 27, 2022 • 37:17

Episode 124: Mid-Life Mayhem With Karen Arthur

Episode 124: Mid-Life Mayhem With Karen Arthur

Sometimes it’s hard to even feel like ourselves. Pressure. Confusion. Exhaustion. And then we wonder about menopause and how we are going to handle the storms ahead… so this week we asked Karen Arthur to join us, to talk to us about those choppy waters. Karen was a teacher until menopause floored her, robbed her of her sense of self and led her down a path of anxiety and depression. She left her job, her relationship and, after a ton of therapy, found her new life - as a speaker, podcas

Apr 20, 2022 • 45:09

Episode 123: How To Get Dressed With Kat Farmer

Episode 123: How To Get Dressed With Kat Farmer

All this 'going out’ business…well, we are sorely out of practice and in danger of falling at the first hurdle: what to wear. Half of the exhaustion of 'going out' is the bit before. The getting ready. *shudders* So we are delighted that our old friend Kat Farmer has written Get Changed, a book about how to leave the house without leaving your sanity. We talk about bags, belts, budgets and if you are feeling lost, where to begin. Spoiler alert - never start with going shopping….PS: This

Apr 6, 2022 • 44:38

Episode 122: How To Crack Your Creativity With Eve Rodsky

Episode 122: How To Crack Your Creativity With Eve Rodsky

If someone asked you what you did for fun, would you have a full body panic? Are you living at the intersection where overwhelm meets boredom? Well, LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST with writer and revolutionary, Eve Rodsky. With her latest book, Find Your Unicorn Space, Eve is helping us reclaim time, reclaim energy and reconnect with our creativity. No small task. But this is a woman undaunted by such things. We talk about daily flourishing, martyr syndrome, why chasing happiness

Mar 30, 2022 • 50:46

Episode 121: Why Is Money So Hard?

Episode 121: Why Is Money So Hard?

This week’s podcast is all about how and why money makes us crazy. Rising costs are crunching us and we know that financial planning is sensible, so why are we resistant? Can’t afford to do the roof and yet still addicted to athleisurewear that will never witness any athleticism. We talk about money regret: waxing, the futile hunt for the perfect capsule wardrobe, highlights. And, at the end, there is a 10 minute chat with Pension Bee’s Clare Reilly about how to…get started.PS: This pod

Mar 24, 2022 • 40:41

Episode 120: With Julia Samuel

Episode 120: With Julia Samuel

We don’t think anyone was prepared for the idea that 2022 might be worse than all the rest put together. So, seeing as so many of us are feeling terrible and guilty and frightened, we are thrilled (and a little relieved ) to welcome Julia Samuel back to the podcast. Julia is a psychotherapist specialising in bereavement and a bestselling author. Her warmth and wisdom has helped thousands. Her latest book, Every Family Has a Story, is an examination - built around case studies - into how

Mar 17, 2022 • 48:04

Episode 119: Money Madness

Episode 119: Money Madness

One of the areas where we feel we could be more grown-up is... money. Some people are unemotional, practical and organised when it comes to money. Not us. So we are delighted that our guest this week is a money grown-up. Georgie Frost is an award-winning financial journalist and she’s here to tell us how to initiate a financial MOT…and maybe help us calm the money madness in our minds. We talk about pensions, savings and how the best thing to do is just get started. Gulp.PS: This podcas

Mar 10, 2022 • 36:06

Episode 118: What Does It All Mean?

Episode 118: What Does It All Mean?

Listen, all things considered, we weren’t sure whether to record a podcast this week. But we did…so APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE for all the weirdness. We talk about Spider Ma’am and other reluctant superheroes who might not actually be prepared to pull on the spandex. We talk about all the flare-ups - from emotional incontinence to accessorising. And we wonder what the fuck Meatloaf wouldn’t do for love... Who knows? Who knows anything anymore? It’s all very frightening, so go easy… xxx  Click Here for

Mar 3, 2022 • 29:47

Episode 117: Clover Stroud

Episode 117: Clover Stroud

This week we are delighted to welcome a true voyager to the podcast – Clover Stroud travels to the very sharpest edges of human emotion in her writing, taking us with her through the dark woods of grief, loss and what it means to love. You are going to be hearing so much about her book, The Red of My Blood (which is about the death of her sister - out on March 10th) because it is brilliant, truthful, unflinching and devastating – the sort of writing that is sparklingly easy to read and

Feb 24, 2022 • 51:39

Episode 116: Books To Bring You Back To Life

Episode 116: Books To Bring You Back To Life

Our guest this week is the sensational Daisy Buchanan; novelist, journalist. podcaster and an authority on both books and sex. She writes brilliantly sexy books and her latest is called Careering about magazines, millennials and masturbation. Sometimes at once. But today she’s Doctor Daisy – giving us her book prescriptions for all our emotional ailments. Because, wow, do we need them…A book for when you need to be soothed, unravelled and made sense of - These Precious Days by Ann Patch

Feb 17, 2022 • 42:39

Episode 115: How To Heal A Broken Heart

Episode 115: How To Heal A Broken Heart

If you’ve ever been heartbroken you will remember the agony. It can be enough to stop you from embarking on new relationships. ‘Can I survive that again?’ you wonder. We very much hope that no one listening to the podcast is going through this right now, but if you are, there is a resource. Our guests this week are psychologist Alice Haddon and writer Ruth Field who founded The Heartbreak Hotel, a retreat where you can go and put yourself back together. We talk about power, possibility

Feb 10, 2022 • 36:05

Episode 114: Welcome To... The Panicdemic

Episode 114: Welcome To... The Panicdemic

We’re not being dramatic but… we're under threat from… The Panic Variant. This week we talk about how we are navigating the panicdemic; essential conversations we have with our friends (burial or cremation? Big knickers or bigger knickers?) and whether we are meant to feel bad because Downing Street has hosted more parties in the last two years than we have been to in our entire lives… plus the Midult Eighties Kitchen Disco Playlist, designed to take you from empty, to euphoric. PS: Thi

Feb 3, 2022 • 31:53

Episode 113: How To Get A Pay Rise (And The Rest) With Helena Morrissey

Episode 113: How To Get A Pay Rise (And The Rest) With Helena Morrissey

If anyone can shake us out of our January torpor it’s our guest this week. Is there anything that Helena Morrissey can’t do? She runs banks, advocates for women in business, writes books, and has nine children. She’s also a Dame and only 55. Maybe you need a lie down now? Anyway, Helena talks movingly about how the menopause ambushed her and rocked her confidence; how to ask for a pay-rise and why fitting-in doesn’t matter but finding allies does… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon

Jan 27, 2022 • 37:24

Episode 112: Don't Panic, It's Only *Insert As Appropriate*

Episode 112: Don't Panic, It's Only *Insert As Appropriate*

Not sure we know a Midult who isn’t currently experiencing that heady mix of exhaustion and panic - what will this year look like? Can I be bothered to care? Am I up to it? Do I look good in high-waisted jeans? Have I turned the gas off? Have I? So this podcast is about all the myriad Januarys we are having and why adulthood is currently not recommended. Yes we’re capable grown-ups (*coughs*) but sometimes even putting your phone down so you can focus on the telly feels like a major win

Jan 20, 2022 • 29:47

Episode 111: Supplements...The Truth! With Lucy Goff

Episode 111: Supplements...The Truth! With Lucy Goff

What happens if you are on the floor, dreaming of a padded cell, a noise-cancelled life and as little interaction with the world as possible? Well, you can consult an expert on how to feel human again. This magical creature does actually have a human form, her name is Lucy Goff and she is the founder of super supplement LYMA. She came on the podcast to tell us where to spend and where to scrimp, what works and what doesn’t….Also we are hosting an Insta live with Lucy next Monday (the 17

Jan 13, 2022 • 33:21

Episode 110: Manifest That Shit With Cherry Healey

Episode 110: Manifest That Shit With Cherry Healey

We can’t think of a better way to start the year than with a dose of sunshine in the form of telly’s Cherry Healey. She presents Inside the Factory, makes everyone cry on 10 Years Younger and is on a mission to help us all get our heart’s desire with her straight-talking manifesting course: Manifest That Shit, created with Instagram sensation @StyleMeSunday aka Natalie Lee. We talk about finding out what we really want, quietening all the interference and how manifesting changed Cherry’

Jan 6, 2022 • 42:33

Episode 109: The Perineum of The Year!

Episode 109: The Perineum of The Year!

Maybe you feel like the human equivalent of tangled fairy lights? If only we paused for thought as much as we pause for cheese. This week we talk about acts of selfishness transforming into acts of service: if I eat all the biscuits I am saying to everyone else in the house: "I love you. I alone am taking the sugar hit." Plus how raging in the car is our civic duty, to keep sleepy drivers safe and alert. Then there are all the different flavours of headache plus a few Midult mantras to

Dec 26, 2021 • 24:02

Episode 108: Happy Christmess

Episode 108: Happy Christmess

Sure, we’re supposed to be happy, shiny, excited, horny at this time of year. But what if we’re actually tired, angry, lonely, psychotic? Christmas is like a box of chocolates - you never know which feeling you are going to get. We talk about aggressive carols (Deck The Halls? Too bossy - stop telling us what to do); why we may never forgive Alan Rickman for breaking Emma Thompson’s heart in Love Actually AND why, when it comes to Christmas invitations, everyone needs a ‘soft no’ in the

Dec 9, 2021 • 21:35

Episode 107: Have We Got News For You With Hugo Rifkind

Episode 107: Have We Got News For You With Hugo Rifkind

Maybe you’re super well-informed, when it comes to all the political action. Or maybe you’ve been too tired holding the world up and haven’t got a clue any more. So, we called an old friend with a brilliant brain to come and tell his favourite news stories of the year. Hugo Rifkind is the hugely popular Times columnist and he takes us through his 2021 highlights including Dylan Johnson’s balls and Rishi Sunak’s tendresse for Mexican Coke. It’s Mock The Year 2021...PS: Here’s Rishi’s Mex

Dec 2, 2021 • 43:29

Episode 106: Why Men Win At Work

Episode 106: Why Men Win At Work

We should probably apologise in advance because this podcast might make you a bit angry. But maybe that’s a good thing. Last week was Equal Pay Day - which marks the day in the year where women stop earning relative to men - because of the gender pay gap. Yes, we are all mostly working for free until the end of the year, on top of every other thing. So we asked Gill Whitty Collins, career coach and author of ‘Why Men Win At Work’ to come and coach the hell out of us all. We talk about c

Nov 25, 2021 • 40:35

Episode 105: From Crazed To Catatonic...And Back Again

Episode 105: From Crazed To Catatonic...And Back Again

Life is a journey, right? Trust the process, ok? Resilience is everything, apparently. This week we talk about why the current self-help buzzwords make us feel like we’re failing. So we decide to add injury to insult and set a series of challenges for grown-ups - introducing Squidult Games. We also discuss why we are constantly vacillating between frenzied hyperworkmode and a near-catatonic state of existential dread and avoidance. Oh, and we interview the delightful Simon Gaisford, Professor of

Nov 18, 2021 • 39:20

Episode 104: Skincare SOS With Nadine Baggott

Episode 104: Skincare SOS With Nadine Baggott

OUR FACES. WTAF!?! So we had an emergency meeting with the incomparable Nadine Baggott. Now Nadine has been a titan among beauty editors for many years, but in 2016 she launched a YouTube channel with the specific intention of talking to grown-up women about beauty…. beauty with no bull, no facetune and no filters. Five years in she’s got hundreds of thousands of devoted followers who have entrusted her with all their beauty decisions. Because what Nadine doesn’t know about skin and make-up isn’

Nov 11, 2021 • 43:53

Episode 103: Hormone Havoc With Lisa Snowdon

Episode 103: Hormone Havoc With Lisa Snowdon

So. The hormones. The horror. The havoc. The what the hell is going on? Well this week we are thrilled to welcome broadcaster and general sensation Lisa Snowdon on the podcast to walk us through the fuckery of our forties - from peri-menopausal symptoms to imposter syndrome and everything in between…We talk about how Lisa found love second time around, why Emilie is having night panics and why you should always head to the doctor armed with a list of symptoms and a bucketload of research. Ok lad

Nov 4, 2021 • 38:22

Episode 102: Halloween Hysterics

Episode 102: Halloween Hysterics

Obviously we’re all absolutely fine…but…isn’t everything a bit nuts right now? This week we imagine a Midult House of Horrors where we are assaulted by voice notes and chin hairs. Apps that we actually need – like ones that warn us we are about to be the arsehole or let us know when an ex-boyfriend is going to appear. And we wonder if it’s nearly time to switch from our regular anxiety to our shiny Christmas anxiety…. Oh God. P.S. This week’s podcast is bravely sponsored by carbon neutral jewell

Oct 27, 2021 • 27:44

Episode 101: Solo Motherhood With Liv Thorne

Episode 101: Solo Motherhood With Liv Thorne

We don’t normally talk about babies or children on the podcast. But what happens when things get interesting? When you get to 37 and you're single, and being a mother is the only thing you’ve ever really wanted to be? Our guest this week is Liv Thorne who made the increasingly popular and brave decision to go it alone. She bought some Danish sperm and off she went. Simple? Not really. Liv has charted her journey to motherhood in her brilliant book, Liv’s Alone. We talk everything you’ve

Oct 20, 2021 • 46:38

Episode 100: Are We Having Fun Yet?

Episode 100: Are We Having Fun Yet?

We’ve shamelessly stolen the title of this week's podcast from our guest, writer and columnist Lucy Mangan whose book Are We Having Fun Yet? is out today. You will have read her TV column in The Guardian, you will have nodded in vehement recognition at her columns in Weekend and Stylist, and now here’s her first novel, a frank and fizzy look at family life – it’s funny, heartfelt writing with sharp corners that you bump into and go ouch, yes! That’s me! We talk about the female load, feminism, a

Oct 14, 2021 • 48:18

Episode 99: The Horror

Episode 99: The Horror

Since we started recording this podcast we have always zoned in on the little worries. No tiny worry stone has gone unturned. But, just as there is a difference between being Big Tired and Little Tired, there is a difference, isn't there, between Big Worried and Little Worried? And isn’t there a fuck-load to worry about? So, this week, in our 99th episode, we worry about peeing. And women. And life. We talk about Halloween costumes for 2021, which turned out to be a rich seam to plunder

Oct 6, 2021 • 22:33

Episode 98: Let's Talk About Sex

Episode 98: Let's Talk About Sex

Are you getting enough sex? What even is enough sex? Are you having good sex? How good is good enough? Are you intimidated by sex? Do you want more sex? Less sex? Any sex? Sex, sex, sex. This week we get down to business with Suzi Godson, one of the country’s best-loved sex columnists and talk about how to spice up your sex life or even just raise it from the dead….Plus some bonus wisdom from pelvic floor expert Dr Ruth Maher.PS: This podcast was bravely brought to you by pelvic floor t

Sep 29, 2021 • 54:26

Episode 97: The Panic Point

Episode 97: The Panic Point

In this episode, we're 90% panicking, About energy: mental energy, emotional energy, physical energy. Will we ever have any again? About temperature. About everything breaking. About the new rhythm of life and we're meant to be dancing to the beat of what drum exactly? *cue Darth Vader theme tune*P.S. This week’s podcast is bravely sponsored by carbon neutral jewellery sensation @AnaLuisa. Go to https://shop.analuisa.com/absolutelyfine and use the code ABSOLUTELYFINE for a 10% discount.

Sep 22, 2021 • 30:23

Episode 96: Autumn Beauty Special

Episode 96: Autumn Beauty Special

This week it’s all about stuff to make life feel a little…easier. How about that? Annabel rifles around in her beauty drawers to talk about what might give you that bit of up, up and away as we step (stagger?) into Autumn...featuring:HairstoryLiving Proof Advanced CleanBatiste Dry Shampoo and VolumeKlorane Dry ShampooKristen Ess Working Texture and Loose Styling Powder Saltee Daily Protection Formula SPF 50La Roche Posay Anthelios Age CorrectAmanda Harrington The Face SetOskia Adaptive

Sep 15, 2021 • 30:38

Episode 95: It's September! WTF?!?

Episode 95: It's September! WTF?!?

Welcome back to your life. Oh God. This week we talk about what we need in our Back to Life pencil cases (a rubber to erase all the times you were a dick?), the weird ways we receive compliments (This old thing? I found it in the skip) and the little domestic fantasies that keep us going. We take our thrills where we can find them... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 8, 2021 • 28:47

Episode 94: Having a Break(down)?

Episode 94: Having a Break(down)?

We are going on holiday. We think. But as we prepare to leave the building/consciousness we wonder if we are grown-ups? Or teenagers? About the little lies we tell every day and our own, personal pingdemic. This episode is so mad that our delightful producer @chesleyxmoore emailed us to asked if we were OK. Who knows? See you in September you lovely lot… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 28, 2021 • 41:23

Episode 93: Hannah Martin

Episode 93: Hannah Martin

Everyone we talk to is exhausted - desperate for a holiday/a break/a month lying down in a darkened room. And we are all sick of looking at our faces: newly etched and grey from all the WFH: Worrying from Home. So we are delighted that the renowned make-up artist Hannah Martin came on the podcast with a ton of tips and tricks for make-up to make us look like we’re having a break. Not a break down.PS: She’s developed the perfect lip oil for My Beauty Brand - and there’s 30% all her produ

Jul 22, 2021 • 42:27

Episode 92: Appy ever after?

Episode 92: Appy ever after?

Dating apps. Minefield or smorgasbord? Necessary evil or delicious distraction? Our guest today is writer Phoebe Luckhurst, a seasoned dater with her fingers on the swipe button. We tell tales from the dating frontline, ask whether punctuation is a deal breaker and why digital connection can end up meaning personal disconnection. Phoebe’s first novel The Lock In is out next week.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 15, 2021 • 40:36

Episode 91: Stacey Duguid

Episode 91: Stacey Duguid

Some resets you plan, some ambush you. What happens when you are 47, you get divorced, you lose your house, you lose your dog and you get an unexpected diagnosis? Maybe you spend the next few years in a darkened room. Or if are our guest this week, fashion editor and columnist Stacey Duguid, you look life right in the eye and decide you want to embrace the second half with, as she puts it, "the kind of high-level enthusiasm you might find on centre court during the finals.” And that inc

Jul 7, 2021 • 41:58

Episode 90: Unlocking for some

Episode 90: Unlocking for some

Is anyone else finding that doing the things we used to do feels 1000 times more exhausting than before the pandemic? How is that possible? This week, on the podcast, we wonder if we are doing anything right and why sometimes it feels as if our lives are at the mercy of some evil writers who keep shouting PLOT TWIST…. Plus all the ways we feel 90 years-old: Annabel’s head torch makes a comeback and Emilie embraces the sturdy (orthopaedic) shoe. #rockstars This podcast is bravely brough

Jun 23, 2021 • 28:46

Episode 89: Helen Thorn

Episode 89: Helen Thorn

Everyone in the world had a bit of a shocker in March 2020. But few more so than our guest, Helen Thorn whose marriage suddenly ended 3 weeks before lockdown. So, what happens when you find that you’ve fallen out of marriage and fallen in love with being single via dating, drinking, lawyers, video sexting, single parenting, wanking and female friendship? Not all at the same time. She’s one half of the brilliant Scummy Mummies comedy duo and her book Get Divorced, Be Happy is out next mo

Jun 16, 2021 • 39:55

Episode 88: Esther Coren

Episode 88: Esther Coren

Are you out in the world, attacking the day or do you just want to lie in bed staring at the wall? Well, the brilliant Esther Coren is here this week, armed with a book list to get through this languishing low. She’s a writer, podcaster and voracious reader who has an arsenal of brilliant books for our every wild and crazy thought… of which there are MANY... This podcast is bravely brought to you by @readly. Heard about Readly? It’s a digital subscription service for magazines and news

Jun 10, 2021 • 36:33

Episode 87: Navigating the unlocking with Julia Samuel

Episode 87: Navigating the unlocking with Julia Samuel

Don’t know about you, but we are trying to find some even footing in a year where we’ve alternated between stagnation and panic - sometimes both at the same time. And now we are expected to deal with more change - to rise to meet the re-opening of the world. But we are still…stuck. So this week we asked our old friend Julia Samuel to come and talk to us because she wrote the book on change - literally. She’s a bereavement psychotherapist whose book, This Too Shall Pass, is out in paperb

May 26, 2021 • 39:36

Episode 86: Going Out - of our minds

Episode 86: Going Out - of our minds

This week things are meant to be near-normal. laughs hysterically Not this end. We talk about how we no longer understand diaries; the things you shouldn’t say when you are finally exposed to fellow humans - and we ask you: are you languishing? Because we sure as hell are... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 19, 2021 • 24:40

Episode 85: It's time to go woo woo

Episode 85: It's time to go woo woo

Haven’t you found that, over the past year or so, your old tricks have stopped working? Your trusted emotional fallbacks have fallen short. You have become a stranger to yourself and to others. Yes… it's been heavy. And many of us are wondering if it might be time to… go another way. So this week we are delighted to welcome a little light into the studio. Estelle Bingham has been described as ‘The Heart Whisperer’ and she has been helping people find love, purpose and connection for ove

May 12, 2021 • 36:29

Episode 84: Anya Hindmarch

Episode 84: Anya Hindmarch

Are you suffering from an acute case of doubt? Then, according to this week’s guest, it’s time to wash your hair. Anya Hindmarch is the poster girl for kindness in an industry not renowned for its compassion. A leader in her field and a few others - Anya is brilliance in human form: creative, generous, innovative, organised. She has written a book called If In Doubt, Wash Your Hair, a guide to being kind to yourself and living a little more boldly. And who doesn’t need a dose of that? L

May 6, 2021 • 37:52

Episode 83: Beauty bits to make you feel better

Episode 83: Beauty bits to make you feel better

This week we’re broadcasting from the edge… the brink… the overwhelm. Sometimes when you are feeling truly weird, a bit of a beauty tip can help. So Annabel has a rummage around in her drawers again to help you face the world. All products listed below… Cinema Secrets Professional Make Up Brush Cleaner, 473ml, £21.99 CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser for Normal to Dry Skin, 473ml, £15.00 CeraVe Moisturising Cream, 177ml, £9.00 Beauty Pie Super Healthy Skin Deep Purifying Cleanser, 100ml, £7

Apr 28, 2021 • 31:33

Episode 82: How to stop people pleasing with Emma Reed Turrell

Episode 82: How to stop people pleasing with Emma Reed Turrell

These are turbulent times, aren’t they? We have bent ourselves in all sorts of shapes over the last year and not in a fun way. Now that we are slowly blinking in the sunlight we are not sure who we are anymore and - in particular - who we are in relation to everyone else. Thankfully our guest this week is Emma Reed Turrell, a psychotherapist who has written the definitive book on people pleasing, called Please Yourself, which is out now. Are you a people pleaser? There are few different

Apr 21, 2021 • 43:48

Episode 81: How mental are we anyway?

Episode 81: How mental are we anyway?

Hasn’t this been a huge week? Have we finally lost it? Will we ever get off the emotional Coronacoaster? Now that we are expected to put on our human suits and go out into the world again, we talk about the weird behaviours, the paranoias and the terrible conversational habits we’ve picked up… Are we ready? Doesn’t look like it… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 14, 2021 • 26:47

Episode 80: How to get dressed with Kat Farmer

Episode 80: How to get dressed with Kat Farmer

Anyone else forgotten how to get dressed? Having spent a year in elasticated waists, we felt the need to call our friend Kat Farmer, also known as Does My Bum Look 40, an authority on wearable, affordable clothes. We talk about why this is not the time to reinvent ourselves and find that there is a halfway house between troll who hasn’t left the house for a year and fully functioning fashion-aware female. This podcast was bravely sponsored by Meg&Bee - beautiful bags for all the women that you

Apr 7, 2021 • 39:24

Episode 79: Talking dirty with Lynsey Queen of Clean

Episode 79: Talking dirty with Lynsey Queen of Clean

At the tail end of lockdown, we’ve never been so grimly aware of the dust, dirt and clutter in our homes. So we are thrilled that our guest this week is Lynsey Crombie, also known as Lynsey Queen of Clean. We get filthy about cleaning and why it both drives us mad and keeps us sane. Lynsey’s latest book The 15 Minute Clean is out today… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 31, 2021 • 32:08

Episode 78: The end is nigh!

Episode 78: The end is nigh!

After a year of panicking about lockdown, we are now deranged with panic about post-lockdown. I mean who even are we anymore and what on earth happens next… #AD This podcast was brought to you by Diet Coke. They have teamed up with magazine app Readly to give you two months FREE subscription to lots of amazing magazines! Pick up a Diet Coke and unlock your free two-month Readly subscription code via the ring pull… Grab #YourDietCokeBreak…@dietcokegb @readly Learn more about your ad cho

Mar 25, 2021 • 23:20

Episode 77: WTF's for dinner with Skye Gyngell

Episode 77: WTF's for dinner with Skye Gyngell

Anyone else eating the same thing every night? We can’t remember a time when we’ve been more obsessed yet exhausted by food - so thank goodness our guest this week is the sensational chef and restaurateur Skye Gyngell. We beg for her help… Warning: may cause hunger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 18, 2021 • 45:15

Episode 76: What's normal anyway?

Episode 76: What's normal anyway?

This week we talk about the panic/excitement/panic around the return to our old lives: Eye contact? Packing? Restaurants? Oh my... We think about the mood-loop of the past year and how it’s messed with our sense of identity. Who even are we? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 11, 2021 • 21:43

Episode 75: We haven't got this

Episode 75: We haven't got this

Are we slowly grinding to a halt? This week we talk about all the terrible conversations we’ve been having (favourite pasta shapes, the state of our feet); why you must never overthink a loo brush; all the lockdown phases we’ve been through and why we might just be a week away from doing something dramatic to our hair and/or never getting out of bed again... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 4, 2021 • 28:08

Episode 74: How to be an anti-racist ally

Episode 74: How to be an anti-racist ally

This week we are thrilled to have Sophie Williams on the podcast. Sophie is a leading anti-racism advocate, activist and the author of Anti-Racist Ally and the upcoming Millennial Black (out in April). We talk to her about what we can do to be authentic allies and how perfection isn’t the aim, but progress is... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 25, 2021 • 41:06

Episode 73: The Vagina Dialogues

Episode 73: The Vagina Dialogues

It’s amazing how little we know about our vaginas. We may have had sex, we may have had babies, we may have had scares, but there remains a kind of insidious ignorance and confusion about our own anatomy. This week we thought we’d take a deep dive with our guest, the fearless Dr Hedieh Asadi. What she doesn’t know about female bits and pieces is not worth knowing so we tackle vulva myths, how to look after vaginal health, to lube or not to lube and why a happy vagina means a happy woman

Feb 11, 2021 • 35:34

Episode 72: Lockdown rage

Episode 72: Lockdown rage

This week we talk about the tiny things threatening to tip us over the edge, virtual micro-aggressions and why Sunday carbs and Thursday vodka don't count… They just don’t. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 4, 2021 • 24:01

Episode 71: Are we nearly mad yet?

Episode 71: Are we nearly mad yet?

This week we talk about box sets in the bath (party for one), Zoom panic and spiralling social anxiety. On the plus side, we haven’t had to deal with a missed delivery slip for months… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 28, 2021 • 26:29

Episode 70: Podcast from the edge

Episode 70: Podcast from the edge

Anyone else feeling full-on feral? This week we talk about bed jumpers; run through the technicolour spectrum of walks we are taking and roll around in the ways we’ve aged since March 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 21, 2021 • 29:12

Episode 69: Mandy Saligari

Episode 69: Mandy Saligari

This time last year, we recorded a podcast with phenomenal therapist Mandy Saligari about self-esteem and how we can meet the demands that life throws at us without constantly running on empty. Little did we bloody know! Anyway now that we have nothing left to give - and yet more and more is asked of us - we thought we’d bring Mandy back. Because she’s a badass who helps people untangle their demons. We talk about how to feel your feelings, conquer that insidious personal isolation and

Jan 14, 2021 • 38:37

Episode 68: Post-Christmess Special with A&E

Episode 68: Post-Christmess Special with A&E

As we enter the perineum of the year, we talk about all the things we’ve learned in 2020, ineffective stress busters and why we are all still rockstars on the inside - despite the 9pm bedtimes…. Thank you for all your wonderfulness this year… see you on the other side. P.S. This episode is bravely sponsored by Skin + Me - personalised skincare, prescribed just for you, delivered to your door. Skin + Me are offering listeners their first month for free using the code MIDULT1220 (minus

Dec 26, 2020 • 27:09

Episode 67: Happy Stressmas beauty special

Episode 67: Happy Stressmas beauty special

It’s beginning to look a lot like… Stressmas and we are acting out in all sorts of strange and uninteresting ways. So Annabel has rifled through her drawers (oh yes she has) to unearth some bath, skin and make-up discoveries to brighten up the most ruthless time of year. Finds include… Chanel No.5 Le Deodorant Soaper Duper Nourishing Coconut Body Wash Aroma Active Laboratories Muscle Recovery Soak Neighbourhood Botanicals Face Off Cleanser Facial Oil Dr Dennis Gross All-in-One Cleanse

Dec 10, 2020 • 29:29

Episode 66: Daisy Buchanan

Episode 66: Daisy Buchanan

This week we have the glorious Daisy Buchanan with us - a woman we trust with everything but most particularly books. Daisy is a wonderful author and host of the hugely popular literary podcast You're Booked and is a bit of an expert of the high brow and the low brow and the everything in between brow. And, right now, what do we need more than little, affordable portals of escape? A book - the most joyful way to think outside of yourself. Even when you’re stuck inside contemplating the

Dec 3, 2020 • 43:59

Episode 65: Claudia Winkleman

Episode 65: Claudia Winkleman

In this week’s episode of I’m Absolutely Fine!, we talk guilt, girlfriends and gravy with the incomparable Claudia Winkleman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 26, 2020 • 36:02

Episode 64: Andrea McLean

Episode 64: Andrea McLean

This week we get personal about the panic. Our guest is the magnificent Andrea McLean, Loose Woman, award-winning broadcaster and writer of bestsellers. She talks to us with shattering honesty about the very dark place she went to last year and why it led her to write her book, This Girl Is On Fire. If anyone listening to this episode is experiencing any of the feelings discussed please reach out and get help. You are not alone and you are worth it. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis

Nov 19, 2020 • 50:09

Episode 63: Marcia Kilgore

Episode 63: Marcia Kilgore

This week our guest is the extraordinary entrepreneur Marcia Kilgore, founder of beauty brand after beauty brand. Her most recent incarnation is Beauty Pie, the disruptive buyer’s club that changed the way we think about beauty shopping. We talk self-doubt, skin and why this might actually be the best time to unleash your creativity… P.S. Beauty Pie is offering you lovely lot your first month's membership free. Your code is MIDULTSENTME* *T&Cs apply Learn more about your ad choice

Nov 12, 2020 • 36:40

Episode 62: Anna Mathur

Episode 62: Anna Mathur

This week we are going to have a little light lockdown therapy: our guest Anna Mathur is a psychotherapist, bestselling author and podcaster. We talk about all the fucking feelings, micro needs, big anxiety and small panics and why it is so hard to wade through it all at the moment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 5, 2020 • 32:31

Episode 61: Scummy Mummies

Episode 61: Scummy Mummies

This week it’s the superb Scummy Mummies - and it's chaos! We had them round Annabel’s kitchen table one evening - back when such things were allowed - to talk terrible sex injuries and why we’re all feeling so insane. They are properly funny stand-ups, properly famous podcasters and properly brilliant human beings: we love Helen Thorn and Ellie Gibson so excuse the swearing, the snorting and the general mayhem of this recording. It was just bliss to do. Learn more about your ad choices

Oct 29, 2020 • 40:46

Episode 60: Samantha Cameron

Episode 60: Samantha Cameron

On the podcast this week we have a guest with a unique perspective on the horrors of getting dressed in the morning. It’s hard enough when you only have yourself to answer to. Imagine, if you can bear it, knowing that the eyes of the world will be on you, poised to criticise your figure and your fashion choices. Well, Samantha Cameron had years of those terrifying camera flashes and, since then, she has amalgamated her experience and channelled it into her own label, Cefinn, renowned fo

Oct 21, 2020 • 28:29

Episode 59: Anna Murphy

Episode 59: Anna Murphy

Today we are delighted to have a real fashion authority with us. Anna Murphy is Fashion Director of The Times and renowned for her stylish, real life approach to getting dressed; drawing our attention to wearable, relevant clothes as well as new and interesting brands with all sorts of creative, sustainable, ethical and fantastical stories to tell. Thanks to her we might all find it a little less traumatic to get dressed this winter… P.S. We’re very happy that this podcast is brought t

Oct 14, 2020 • 40:57

Episode 58: Caroline Issa

Episode 58: Caroline Issa

In these strange times, when we are so unsure, it’s reassuring to talk to experts. So, taking a break from weeping into our wardrobes, we talked to the peerless Caroline Issa: fashion super force, publisher of Tank magazine, consultant for beautiful brand after beautiful brand, street-style queen, on every best dressed list for ever. Because if anyone can navigate us through these choppy wardrobe waters it is this lady. P.S. We’re very happy that this podcast is brought to you by Label

Oct 7, 2020 • 38:47

Episode 57: Loud Black Girls with Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinene

Episode 57: Loud Black Girls with Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinene

Way back in the mists of time - 2018 - the authors of the bestselling Slay in Your Lane: The Black Girl’s Bible, came on our podcast. It opened our eyes. So, as soon as there was a whisper of a new book, we booked them in. So yes, Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinene are back with Loud Black Girls, an anthology of 20 black British women writers asking what’s next… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 1, 2020 • 31:00

Episode 56: Dr Suha Kersh

Episode 56: Dr Suha Kersh

Do you suspect that you may have aged 1000 years in the last six months? Well you probably have…. stress + environment + everything = skinpocalypse. So we talked to one of London’s leading cosmetic doctors Dr Suha Kersh about life, lines and how to get your face back on track. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 24, 2020 • 27:19

Episode 55: Sophia Money-Coutts

Episode 55: Sophia Money-Coutts

Today's guest is the sensational Sophia Money-Coutts who is an actual person and a writer, not a made-up character. She is the author of best-selling, sexy novels; a journalist and now the host of a new podcast about freezing her eggs called Freezing Time. We probed her on every single detail - legs in stirrups please. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 16, 2020 • 39:13

Episode 54: September beauty special

Episode 54: September beauty special

We’re back! Are we though? Oh God. Everything is so crazy. So... to counter the moaning, the madness, the uncertainty, the sheer precariousness of everything, Annabel takes us for a romp around her bathroom cupboard. This week we are all about September Beauty Heroes from a soothing cleanser to a sensational new mascara via the best bath oil and glowy skin stuff... @drunkelephant @oskiaskincare @katesomervilleskincare @afrohairandskinco @weledauk @skinceuticals_uki @malinandgoetz @suqq

Sep 9, 2020 • 29:30

Episode 53: Ada Calhoun

Episode 53: Ada Calhoun

Are you a bit miserable? Do you feel as though you’re failing? As though you’ve missed the life you could have had. Because most grown-up women are finding themselves living in a total shit show. But – as we always say – if we’re not in it together, we’re not in it at all. So, it’s very exciting that just before we fully surrender to our nervous breakdowns, we have a real authority on the line. Ada Calhoun has written the definitive analysis about why Generation X women feel so close to

Jul 29, 2020 • 32:40

Episode 52: Jules von Hep

Episode 52: Jules von Hep

This week our guest is sunshine in man form. Jules Von Hep has worked in the tanning industry for over 10 years, bronzing up Hollywood’s finest, getting models golden backstage at fashion week, always on and off TV sets, including Strictly and The X Factor – you name it, he’s seen them naked and at their most vulnerable. So it’s no surprise that he is also obsessed with body positivity, inclusivity and making people feel really good about themselves… ENJOY Learn more about your ad choic

Jul 22, 2020 • 38:51

Episode 51: Eve Kalinik

Episode 51: Eve Kalinik

We all have a super weird relationship with food, don’t we? Well, this week we’ve got a rosé-drinking, no-nonsense nutritional therapist, the wonderful Eve Kalinik on the line. With her realistic approach to gut health and food fads, she talks sugar, gluten, caffeine - all the big guns - and what the perfect poo should look like. It’s a gut ‘un… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 15, 2020 • 39:54

Episode 50: The rubbish new normal with Hugo Rifkind

Episode 50: The rubbish new normal with Hugo Rifkind

This week we talk to the brilliant columnist, satirist and broadcaster Hugo Rifkind about the rubbish new normal - from the threat of 'space weather' to Donald Trump sex dreams, via our old friend Brexit (remember him?) and our even older friend impostor syndrome. P.S. This week’s episode is sponsored by the fun-fact-filled magazine, The Week Junior. You know how when you are a kid you think, 'I can’t wait to be an adult and then I will know everything'? Obviously, that didn’t pan out,

Jul 8, 2020 • 37:08

Episode 49: Coky Giedroyc

Episode 49: Coky Giedroyc

This week we have a real, live female film director here. The magnificent Coky Giedroyc is known as the queen of costume drama: she’s made Wuthering Heights, Oliver Twist, The Virgin Queen, all with Tom Hardy coughs. Also Harlots and The Hour to name but a few… Her latest film is How to Build A Girl, an adaptation of Caitlin Moran’s book, which lands on Amazon Prime on the 24th July. In lockdown she’s also been Zooming with Take That because she’s making Greatest Days, a film about thei

Jul 1, 2020 • 40:18

Episode 48: Beauty Special with Emma Guns

Episode 48: Beauty Special with Emma Guns

This week we talk to a proper beauty expert, the delightful Emma Guns, about everything from our terrible toes to our terrible hair, via stretch marks and beards. P.S. This was recorded remotely so please forgive us if it’s a bit rough and mad. Here are all her top tip products... Boots Foot File https://bit.ly/3euumWD Philips Lumea https://amzn.to/318ewgd Braun Silk-Epil https://amzn.to/2V80vva Body Brush https://bit.ly/383HyiD No7 Hydration Masks https://bit.ly/2B55wxW Kate Some

Jun 24, 2020 • 50:57

Episode 47: The new abnormal

Episode 47: The new abnormal

This week we talk about quicksand, office a***holes and daily malpractices - from Manifestering to adopting a Positively Mental Attitude... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jun 17, 2020 • 25:57

Episode 46: Are you wearing your Big Girl Pants?

Episode 46: Are you wearing your Big Girl Pants?

From suspender belts to knee supports, this week’s episode of I’m Absolutely Fine! is all about the multiple personalities of our knicker drawers. Bravely sponsored by Stripe & Stare - who are offering all of you 20% off with the code FINE10 (until 31st July) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jun 10, 2020 • 33:41

Episode 45: Lockdown special 9

Episode 45: Lockdown special 9

This week we discuss living in The Overwhelm, on The Brink, in Denial, deckchair panic and how we've forgotten how to be civilised members of society. P.S. All these episodes are recorded remotely so please forgive us if they are a bit rough and mad. Love A&E x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 28, 2020 • 28:14

Episode 44: Lockdown special 8

Episode 44: Lockdown special 8

This week we talk about what would happen if Midults did Love Island, Locktail hour, and all the therapy we are going to need when this madness is over. P.S. All these episodes are recorded remotely so please forgive us if they are a bit rough and mad. Love, A&E x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 20, 2020 • 31:16

Episode 43: Lockdown special 7 with Gavanndra Hodge

Episode 43: Lockdown special 7 with Gavanndra Hodge

This week we are deranged with joy to welcome our very dear friend Gavanndra Hodge to the podcast. Her new book, The Consequences of Love, is about love, addiction, trauma, parties, grief and the eventual understanding that, if we are brave enough to look at long ago loss, we can change our lives. Listen to her. Then read the book. Trust us x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 13, 2020 • 42:42

Episode 42: Lockdown special 6

Episode 42: Lockdown special 6

This week we’re back on the Corona-coaster talking about all the different flavours of panic, insomnia and some of the times we disgraced ourselves… P.S. All these episodes are recorded remotely so please forgive us if they are a bit rough and mad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 6, 2020 • 31:34

Episode 41: Lockdown special 5

Episode 41: Lockdown special 5

This week Annabel and Emilie talk about The Tiredness, micro horror stories and games you can play to keep the madness at bay. Sort of… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 29, 2020 • 25:49

Episode 40: Lockdown special 4

Episode 40: Lockdown special 4

This week Annabel and Emilie comb through the remnants of their former lives, from past-their-sell-by-date condoms to hair balls to secret copies of The Rules... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 22, 2020 • 30:04

Episode 39: Lockdown special 3

Episode 39: Lockdown special 3

It’s Episode 3 from reality 2020. This week we discuss the erosion of our sense of self and how our fantasy life is getting out of control - in all directions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 16, 2020 • 35:10

Episode 38: Lockdown special 2

Episode 38: Lockdown special 2

We’re absolutely fine but… we’ve gone lockdown loco. It’s our second dispatch from the new normal. We talk about the magimix of feelings, the terrible sex dreams and how it’s possible to feel lonely and claustrophobic AT THE SAME TIME. Love A&E x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 8, 2020 • 29:02

Episode 37: Lockdown special

Episode 37: Lockdown special

We’re absolutely fine but…. we’re in lockdown. This is our first episode from Reality 2.0. Join us as we share some of our wildest thoughts in these strange times… P.S. This was recorded remotely, on our phones - which are now actually fused to our hands - so forgive the glitches… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 1, 2020 • 26:32

Episode 36: Mandy Saligari

Episode 36: Mandy Saligari

Mandy Saligari is complete badass: an addictions therapist whose TedTalk is titled 'Handle feelings before they handle you'. She is a multi-hyphenate who has helped thousands untangle their demons in order to learn to live a fuller life. She looks at self-esteem, the frightening areas of vulnerability, fear and how we can meet the demands that life throws at us without constantly running on empty. Sound familiar? She is wisdom in motion… this is an important 40 minutes. P.S. This podcast was rec

Mar 26, 2020 • 42:06

Episode 35: Kat Farmer

Episode 35: Kat Farmer

If you haven’t heard of @DoesMyBumLook40 then you’re about to. For years she’s been a badly-kept fashion secret: doling out tips and tricks on Instagram. She combs through the tat and shares the treasures. Now she is leaping from your iPhone screen to your TV screen in BBC1’s Prime Time show You Are What You Wear next Thursday. We are so grateful to you Kat Farmer, for helping us get dressed in the most human way. P.S. This episode was recorded two weeks ago when the world was a little

Mar 19, 2020 • 33:57

Episode 34: Kate Silverton

Episode 34: Kate Silverton

This week Annabel and Emilie are dazzled by Kate Silverton. One of our most popular and versatile journalists, this woman is BRAVE. So versatile that she has been a war reporter, competed in 2018’s Strictly Come Dancing and tackled some of the UK’s most perilous rivers by kayak. She’s clearly a maniac. But she also looks inwards and her Panorama about childhood trauma and toxic stress is out later this month. Warning: this podcast made us cry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit meg

Mar 12, 2020 • 44:14

Episode 33: Julia Samuel

Episode 33: Julia Samuel

This week’s guest is Julia Samuel, one of Britain’s leading psychotherapists - she is also one those people who changes the temperature of the room, who makes it a kinder, safer space. Her speciality is grief - can you imagine the things she has seen and heard? The feelings she has witnessed? The pain that she has had to process? Known for her whole-heartedness, she helped to launch the remarkable charity, Child Bereavement UK and has worked both with the NHS and in private practice for over thi

Mar 5, 2020 • 45:40

Episode 32: Dr Martin Galy

Episode 32: Dr Martin Galy

Hormones. Hormones. Hormones. The horror. The magic. The conspiracy of silence. The almost institutionalised ignorance. Lady chemicals. It’s time to take back some hormonal power. This week on I’m Absolutely Fine!, Annabel and Emilie chat to Doctor Martin Galy - the renowned hormones specialist. Women who have been treated by him call him The Magician. He has helped thousands of women to take back control of their bodies And if anyone can blow away some of the myth and mystery - and d

Feb 27, 2020 • 39:43

Episode 31: Grace Woodward

Episode 31: Grace Woodward

This week Annabel and Emilie get naked with Grace Woodward. The former Britain’s Next Top Model judge and X-Factor stylist talks about the toxic fashion world and how it nearly broke her. But she staged a comeback to ask the question: why as women do we feel so terrible about ourselves? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 20, 2020 • 35:38

Episode 30: Galentine's Day with A&E

Episode 30: Galentine's Day with A&E

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I’m Absolutely Fine!, are now here weekly. Happy Galentine’s Day - this week Annabel and Emilie get romantic about friendship, tears, identity and all the different kinds of Midult porn. From property porn to cancel porn: cancel me, cancel me, cancel me harder! Oh God, that’s good…. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 13, 2020 • 35:34

Episode 29: Josh Wood

Episode 29: Josh Wood

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I’m Absolutely Fine!, are now here weekly. This week we hop into Josh Wood’s chair. We talk to the world’s most famous hair colourist about how women feel when they look in the mirror and cope with the ever-evolving creature that looks back at them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 6, 2020 • 39:08

Episode 28: Deborah James

Episode 28: Deborah James

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I’m Absolutely Fine!, are now here weekly. This week we meet a bit of a super hero… Because not all heroes wear capes. Sometimes they wear very short skirts. They get cancer and instead of hiding away they film and photograph themselves at all their lowest, most brutally intimate moments. They show the world how you can live, love, dance, cry, suffer and survive. Thank goodness for Deborah James… Learn more about your

Jan 30, 2020 • 40:17

Episode 27: Sophie Heawood

Episode 27: Sophie Heawood

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I’m Absolutely Fine!, are now here weekly. This week we are on the frontline of solo parenting with writer Sophie Heawood. talking about what it feels like to exist outside the nuclear narrative… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 23, 2020 • 38:40

Episode 26: Daisy Buchanan

Episode 26: Daisy Buchanan

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I’m Absolutely Fine!, are now here weekly. This week we’ve made an appointment with the book doctor. We talk to writer, podcaster and professional bookworm Daisy Buchanan about her literary prescriptions for heartbreak, trauma, envy, loneliness and money panic. P.S. Here are all the books we talked about… ENVY Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth Crazy Salad & Scribble Scribble by Nora Ephron Little Women by Louisa May A

Jan 16, 2020 • 44:11

Episode 25: Steph Douglas

Episode 25: Steph Douglas

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I’m Absolutely Fine!, are now here weekly. This week we are rifling through the emotional knicker drawer and talking house moves, growing businesses and seizing every napportunity with Steph Douglas, founder of Don't Buy Her Flowers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 9, 2020 • 38:53

Episode 24: Anna Whitehouse a.k.a Mother Pukka

Episode 24: Anna Whitehouse a.k.a Mother Pukka

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I’m Absolutely Fine!, are now here weekly. This week we are rifling through the emotional knicker drawer and getting lubed up with the brilliant Anna Whitehouse a.k.a Mother Pukka. This podcast is bravely sponsored by Habito, on a mission to make mortgages easier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 2, 2020 • 45:41

Episode 23: In bed with A&E

Episode 23: In bed with A&E

Welcome to the perineum of the year. Join Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I’m Absolutely Fine!, in bed. This podcast is bravely sponsored by Habito, on a mission to make mortgages easier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 26, 2019 • 40:01

Episode 22: Hugo Rifkind

Episode 22: Hugo Rifkind

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I’m Absolutely Fine!, are now here weekly. This episode they are joined by the sensational satirist Hugo Rifkind, talking about the personal and political chaos of the last week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 19, 2019 • 37:54

Episode 21: A&E are not talking about the election

Episode 21: A&E are not talking about the election

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I’m Absolutely Fine!, are now here weekly! This week they are not talking about the election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 12, 2019 • 37:40

Series 3 Episode 3: Clemmie Telford

Series 3 Episode 3: Clemmie Telford

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I’m Absolutely Fine!, are back with a mini series about marriage, divorce and all the mess in between! Join them for the final episode where they talk to Clemmie Telford about how she brought her marriage back from the brink... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 5, 2019 • 45:06

Series 3 Episode 2: Sandra Davis

Series 3 Episode 2: Sandra Davis

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I’m Absolutely Fine!, are back with a mini series about marriage, divorce and all the mess in between! Join them for the second episode where they do a deep, dirty dive into divorce with the legendary lawyer, Mishcon de Reya’s Sandra Davis. Notebooks at the ready! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 28, 2019 • 37:07

Series 3 Episode 1: Giles & Esther Coren

Series 3 Episode 1: Giles & Esther Coren

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I’m Absolutely Fine!, are back with a mini series about marriage, divorce and all the mess in between! Join them for the first episode where they rifle through the lively marriage of Giles and Esther Coren… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 21, 2019 • 47:09

Series 2 Episode 8: The Guilty Feminist

Series 2 Episode 8: The Guilty Feminist

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I'm Absolutely Fine!, are back with a second series. Join them for the final episode of Season 2 where they rifle through the brain and handbag of the heroic Deborah Frances-White, the woman behind the game-changing Guilty Feminist podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 17, 2019 • 49:10

Series 2 Episode 7: Mother of Daughters

Series 2 Episode 7: Mother of Daughters

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I'm Absolutely Fine!, are back with a second series. Join them for episode seven where they rifle through the emotional knicker drawer and handbag of midwife, author and mother of all influencers, Clemmie Hooper, a.k.a Mother of Daughters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 10, 2019 • 44:32

Series 2 Episode 6: Emma Gannon

Series 2 Episode 6: Emma Gannon

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I'm Absolutely Fine!, are back with a second series. Join them for episode six where they rifle through the emotional knicker drawer and handbag of the ultimate multi-hyphenate Emma Gannon. Plus how we get dressed, with the Creative Director of Hush. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 3, 2019 • 45:50

Series 2 Episode 5: Rita Konig

Series 2 Episode 5: Rita Konig

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I'm Absolutely Fine!, are back with a second series. Join them for episode five where they rifle through the emotional knicker drawer and handbag of interiors sorceress Rita Konig. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 28, 2019 • 40:59

Series 2 Episode 4: Slay In Your Lane

Series 2 Episode 4: Slay In Your Lane

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I'm Absolutely Fine!, are back with a second series. Join them for episode four where they rifle through the emotional knicker drawer and handbags of Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené, the game-changing authors of Slay In Your Line: The Black Girl Bible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 21, 2019 • 37:21

Series 2 Episode 3: Thomasina Miers

Series 2 Episode 3: Thomasina Miers

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I'm Absolutely Fine!, are back with a second series. Join them for episode three where they rifle through the emotional knicker drawer and handbag of Masterchef winner, restaurateur and all-round sensation Thomasina Miers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 14, 2019 • 38:58

Series 2 Episode 2: Cherry Healey

Series 2 Episode 2: Cherry Healey

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I'm Absolutely Fine!, are back with a second series. Join them for episode two where they rifle through the emotional knicker drawer and handbag of television presenter and wonderwoman Cherry Healey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 7, 2019 • 39:40

Series 2 Episode 1: Welcome to Midulthood

Series 2 Episode 1: Welcome to Midulthood

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I'm Absolutely Fine!, are back with a second series. Join them for episode one where they rifle through their emotional knicker drawers, their handbags and their murky pasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 28, 2019 • 37:20

Series 1 Boxing Day Special - Bryony Gordon

Series 1 Boxing Day Special - Bryony Gordon

In this Boxing Day Special we talk to Bryony Gordon about addiction, the trouble with huge boobs and the never-ending chaos in our heads. Plus all the things we didn't get for Christmas... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 26, 2018 • 36:17

Series 1 Episode 8 - Girl Stole London

Series 1 Episode 8 - Girl Stole London

For the last episode of this series, we talk to the amazing badass Lauren Mahon a.k.a influencer Girl Stole London. On her podcast, You, Me & The Big C, Lauren and her co-hosts turned a cancer diagnosis into a game-changing conversation. We also talk about sex, mothers and make-up. So there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 22, 2018 • 44:31

Series 1 Episode 7 - Martha Lane Fox

Series 1 Episode 7 - Martha Lane Fox

Not all heroes wear capes. Some are never without false eyelashes. In episode 7 of our podcast we meet the utterly inspirational Martha Lane Fox to talk CONFIDENCE. Because we could all learn a thing or two from her... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 15, 2018 • 33:14

Series 1 Episode 6 - Katherine Ormerod

Series 1 Episode 6 - Katherine Ormerod

I'm Absolutely Fine but is social media ruining my life? Hmmmm. On this week's podcast we talk to the whipsmart Katherine Ormerod about this thorny issue - because she wrote the actual book. Plus some useful beauty tips - because who DOESN'T need those? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 8, 2018 • 37:01

Series 1 Episode 5 - Style Me Sunday

Series 1 Episode 5 - Style Me Sunday

Do you ever feel perfection is being pedalled at you from every platform? This week, Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan of The Midult sit down with diversity and body confidence champion Natalie Lee, a.k.a the influencer Style Me Sunday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 1, 2018 • 39:17

Series 1 Episode 4 - Bella Freud

Series 1 Episode 4 - Bella Freud

Ever feel as though dry shampoo and concealer are the only things making you feel like a fully-functioning human woman? Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan look at all the glamour and indignity of being a grown-up. In this episode, they talk to the designer Bella Freud about mood, identity and gratitude. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 25, 2018 • 39:10

Series 1 Episode 3 - Scummy Mummies

Series 1 Episode 3 - Scummy Mummies

Things get real when Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan of The Midult get down and dirty with comedians Ellie Gibson and Helen Thorn (a.k.a. the Scummy Mummies). You don't have to be crazy to listen, but it helps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 17, 2018 • 42:59

Series 1 Episode 2 - Anya Hindmarch

Series 1 Episode 2 - Anya Hindmarch

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan of The Midult talk to designer Anya Hindmarch about how she grew into her face and body: the triumphs, the disasters and how she got organised. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 11, 2018 • 34:20

Series 1 Episode 1 - Welcome to Midulthood

Series 1 Episode 1 - Welcome to Midulthood

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, authors of the best-selling book I'm Absolutely Fine!, rifle through their emotional knicker drawers, their make-up bags and their murky pasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 3, 2018 • 35:15

Series 1 Trailer

Series 1 Trailer

Do you feel like a fully-functional human woman? Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan of The Midult look at all the glamour and indignity of being a grown-up. With glorious guests talking about how they grew into their faces, their bodies and their lives. Plus some properly useful beauty tips. Because who doesn’t need those? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 24, 2018 • 1:59

Switch to the Fountain App