Today I’m joined by everyone’s favorite poet, Kate Baer, for a tender conversation about midlife transitions, medical anxiety, and the power of female friendship.

We talk about how to orient around ideas instead of problems, and we share a few poems from Kate’s forthcoming collection, How About Now, out November 4th.

If you’ve been feeling a little lonely, uncertain, or in-between — or all three — this one is for you.

We discuss:

• How the body makes itself known in midlife
• Body neutrality, medical anxiety, and illness
• The public scrutiny around Kate’s weight loss
• Parenting in a fatphobic world
• “Menopause is when all the girls you were come out to play”
• How to cultivate female friendships — even through conflict
• The difference between community and friends
• Being erased from the male gaze as you age

More about our guest: Kate Baer is the 3x New York Times bestselling author of What Kind Of Woman, I Hope This Finds You Well, and And Yet. Her work has also been published in The New Yorker, Literary Hub, Huffington Post and The New York Times. Her next book, How About Now, is out November 4, 2025.

Connect with Kate:

• Kate’s website: www.katebaer.com
• Kate’s Instagram: @katejbaer
• Buy How About Now. Pre and early orders help authors so much: bookshop.org/p/books/how-about-now-poems-kate-baer

Mentioned in this episode:

• Katie Sturino