Rachel Griffiths says she just got through her "peak mid-hell years" and she's here to tell us how.

The actor, producer, and director has had many eras - from the "fast start" of Muriel's Wedding to being a Hollywood awards darling, a big-deal US TV star, the director of the Australian classic movie Ride Like A Girl, the co-creator of Total Control and now, the star of the TV show Madam. Through all that, she was also wrestling with the relatable MID dramas - parenting teens and young adults, a diagnosis that made sense of so much, caring for ageing relatives and trying to keep a long-term marriage going. No wonder, as she tells host Holly Wainwright, she and her husband needed a sabbatical.

This conversation also veers off into ageing, the Hollywood stars Rachel used to envy but no longer does, how to stay optimistic in a tumultuous world and the relief of finding out she's "ADHD AF".

You can follow Rachel Griffiths here.

You can watch Madam here: Watch Madam Season 1, Catch Up TV

THE END BITS:

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au

Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.

Mamamia's new podcast BIZ is rewriting the rules of work with no generic advice - just real strategies from women who've actually been there. Listen here.

CREDITS:

Host: Holly Wainwright

Executive Producer: Naima Brown

Senior Producer: Grace Rouvray

Producer: Tahli Blackman

Audio Producer: Jacob Round

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s episode is about love.

Specifically, it’s about finding it in your MID years. Maybe for the second, fourth, first time.

This is a story about Dr Amantha Imber, an organisational psychologist who got divorced a few years ago. When Amantha knew she wanted to re-partner, she went about it with a typical approach to efficiency - going on more than 50 first dates in her first stint of online dating.

Those dates had strict rules and boundaries, time limits and schedules and… they didn’t work. So then, Amantha drew up a brief and cold-called a long list of people in her circle who might know the person she was looking for…. But… well, that didn’t work either.

You can learn more about Amantha and follow her work here: https://www.instagram.com/amanthai/

You can listen to our second ever episode was called the Mid Life Dating Pool Has Wee In it, and it was about Catherine Mahoney’s chaotic app-dating world and it was very very funny here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mid-life-dating-pool-has-wee-in-it/id1745638926?i=1000656178600&l=zh-Hant-TW

You can listen to our episode with Divorce & Separation coach, Nikki Parkinson, here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/nikkis-divorce-began-with-a-midnight-email/id1745638926?i=1000676532443

THE END BITS:

Mamamia's new podcast BIZ is rewriting the rules of work with no generic advice - just real strategies from women who've actually been there. Listen here.

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au

Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.

CREDITS:

Host: Holly Wainwright

Executive Producer: Naima Brown

Senior Producer: Grace Rouvray

Producer: Tahli Blackman

Audio Producer: Jacob Round

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mia Freedman, longtime friend of Holly and co-host of Mamamia Out Loud, has stepped down from hosting No Filter after an incredible decade. She’s passing the torch to the incredibly talented Kate Langbroek, who is the perfect fit to take over a show with such a rich legacy.

Over the past 10 years, Mia has interviewed everyone from celebrities and prime ministers to people with the most jaw-dropping stories—stories you’d want to share in your group chat. In this episode, Mia and Kate sit down to talk about why Mia’s stepping away, her struggles with burnout, what’s next, and what it really takes to sit across from someone, hold space for their vulnerability, and share their story with you.

Here’s Mia’s final No Filter interview!

You can find Holly's No Filter episodes below.

What Is ‘Grey Area Drinking’... And Are You Doing It?

How To Protect Yourself Against A Narcissist

THE END BITS:

Listen to more No Filter interviews here and follow us on Instagram here.

Discover more Mamamia podcasts here.

Feedback: podcast@mamamia.com.au

Share your story, feedback, or dilemma! Send us a voice message, and one of our Podcast Producers will get back to you ASAP.

Rate or review us on Apple by clicking on the three dots in the top right-hand corner, click Go To Show then scroll down to the bottom of the page, click on the stars at the bottom and write a review

CREDITS:

Host: Kate Langbroek

You can find Mia on Instagram here and get her newsletter here.

Executive Producer: Naima Brown

Senior Producer: Grace Rouvray

Audio Producer: Jacob Round

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back, MIDs, and please send this episode to your best friend immediately. Because it's about the power of the most important relationships in many of our lives - the one we have with our great mates.

You know Amanda Keller from her many decades as an Australian television and radio presenter, comedian, writer, actress and journalist. You might be meeting her best friend forensic psychologist Anita McGregor for the first time, but once you have, you'll know exactly why these two have been inseparable since they first met, 17 years ago.

This conversation goes everywhere from the things your friends can hold your hand through and what they can't. When and if you should offer your best friend "feedback", and what happens to your relationships with everyone and everything - from your friends to your work and your grown-up kids, as you move more into Mid.

You can listen to Amanda and Anita on their podcast, Double A Chattery, here

THE END BITS:

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au

Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.

CREDITS:

Host: Holly Wainwright

Executive Producer: Naima Brown

Senior Producer: Grace Rouvray

Producer: Tahli Blackman

Audio Producer: Jacob Round

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MID is coming back to your ears on Tuesday 4th Feb.

While you're waiting... Holly has some thoughts on Nicole Kidman's "controversial" new film, Babygirl, and the fact that Gen X's most iconic actresses are dominating Hollywood ATM.

Is it because "old" no longer looks "old"? Or is it because... they're incredible?

THE END BITS:

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au

Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.

CREDITS:

Host: Holly Wainwright

Executive Producer: Naima Brown

Producer: Tahli Blackman

Audio Producer: Jacob Round

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MIDs, I couldn't sign off for the year without one more little moment with you, the women who have made my year by joining me here on this podcast for Gen X women who are anything but...so please enjoy this end-of-year wrap-up and contemplation on what seems to have been a year when MID women have taken centre stage. Here's to more of us in 2025 - meet you there. xo Holly

THE END BITS:

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au

Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.

CREDITS:

Host: Holly Wainwright

Executive Producer: Naima Brown

Producer: Tahli Blackman

Audio Producer: Jacob Round

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if it took you until MID life to say out loud something that you’ve been trying to find the words for your whole life.

Something like: “Yes, I know I am a mother, married to a man, but I am also bisexual…and I’m ready to date women.”That’s the story of today’s guest, the novelist Julie Cohen.

Julie was in her 40s when she came out as bisexual. She tells Holly Wainwright that some people asked her why she bothered. As if age, itself, rendered her sexuality irrelevant. Others suggested that just as an adolescent’s sexuality can be dismissed as a “phase” - perhaps hers was simply a mid-life crisis.

Dating after divorce, navigating the apps and the first post-long-term relationship sexual encounters are interesting and nerve-wracking for anyone, and Julie says that was no different for her. You’re going to hear how it all went, the pleasures of post-penis sex, what she found the differences in dating men and women to be, and just how it felt to be living the version of herself that, as Julie says, she didn’t even have a word for when she was growing up.

You can follow Julie Cohen on Instagram here.

You can find Julie’s books here.

THE END BITS:

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au

Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.

CREDITS:

Host: Holly Wainwright

Executive Producer: Naima Brown

Producer: Tahli Blackman

Audio Producer: Jacob Round

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Does ambition die in midlife, or are we just getting started? And what happens when your drive is as strong as ever, but your body is screaming 'stop'?

Holly Wainwright is interviewing Bruna Papandrea, one of the most successful women in Hollywood. One of the most successful people in Hollywood, full stop.

The Australian super-producer came from a working-class background in Adelaide to be in the rooms where things happen - namely bringing massive movies and TV shows to the screen, from Gone Girl and Wild to Big Little Lies and Strife and The Dry.

But Bruna’s “ambition” story isn’t a simple one. Her success exists alongside her management of Lupus, a chronic auto-immune disease. Like other forms of insidious, invisible conditions, it makes everything harder, and the hormonal flares of midlife don't help.

Listen to more from Bruna on this episode of No Filter with Mia Freedman from 2016 here.

Find out more about Bruna’s projects, here.

THE END BITS:

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au

Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.

CREDITS:

Host: Holly Wainwright

Executive Producer: Naima Brown

Producer: Tahli Blackman

Audio Producer: Jacob Round

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.