On today’s episode, writer, comedian and host of Mamamia's 456 Club podcast, Cathrine Mahoney joins us to share her unfiltered experience of parenting a teenager. With her trademark humour, Cathrine Mahoney offers hilarious reality checks about what's coming in the teenage years from endless food bills to impossible-to-wake mornings, and the unexpected melancholy of the parenting moments you don't realise will be your last.

Whether you're in the trenches with little ones, or watching your teenager pull away, this episode offers the perfect blend of practical wisdom and emotional validation about the parenting journey that passes all too quickly, reminding us to treasure even the challenging parts of parenting.

THE END BITS

WIN $10k to use towards a cleaner*

Visit nestlebabyandme.com.au/pausethechores to enter!
*Promotion starts between 24/03/25 (AEDT) – 31/07/25 (AEST). AU residents 18+. Max 1 entry p/person. Draw: Unit 3/2 Cross St, Brookvale NSW 2100 at 10am AEST on 05/08/25. Prize: $10,000 transferred to winner’s bank account. Winner notified and published on nestle.com.au/productnews/winners by 12/8/25. Claim prize by 5pm AEDT on 12/11/25. Unclaimed prize draw occurs 13/11/25. Promoter: Nestle Australia Ltd. Full T&Cs at www.nestlebabyandme.com.au/pausethechores. Permit No's: ACT TP 25/00355 & SA T25/260.

Head here to get a yearly subscription for just $39. and use the code MONTHOFTGM

We’re listening! Send us a voice message, email us at [email protected]

We’ve compiled all the best resources for new mums in a free newsletter. Join the mailing list.

CREDITS:

Host: Tegan Natoli, Annaliese Todd

With thanks to Cathrine Mahoney

Producer: Tina Matolov

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.

Hello 465 Club! 

You probably know Julie Goodwin’s incredible reality TV story. As the beloved MasterChef winner, cookbook author, and radio personality, she’s been a household name for years. But behind the scenes, Julie was always taking care of everyone—except herself. In this episode of our Gen X podcast MID, she opens up about her journey with mental health in recent years.

If you're discovering MID for the first time, you're in luck—we've just wrapped Season 4, meaning our entire collection of conversations is waiting for you. You can listen to more MID here. 

If this episode brings up anything for you Lifeline is always there on 13 11 14. 

Want to get yourself a copy of Julie's incredible book Your Tim Starts Now? Click here

THE END BITS 

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at [email protected] 

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

Want to go in the running to win a $50 voucher? Answer this short survey.

CREDITS:

Hosts: Holly Wainwright

Executive Producer: Talissa Bazaz

Assistant Production: Sandy McIntyre

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 to a special episode from Mamamia's podcast for Gen X women, MID. 

This episode is all about all. 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.

You can purchase Amantha's book The Health Habit here.

You can also listen to her podcast, How I Work, here.

THE END BITS: 

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.

You can listen to our episode with Divorce & Separation coach, Nikki Parkinson, here.

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at [email protected] 

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.

This episode of MID, we are bringing you a conversation that Holly says kind of changed her life. We think it will change yours, too.

Inspired by her book - and it’s really a very good book - We Are The Stars - we talk about all that loss, all those different seasons of life she’s lived through, from being a wild young girl with a baby bird in her pocket, mercilessly bullied at school, to being a starry-eyed raver at the peak of Sydney’s club scene, to being a survivalist who falls in love with a man from somewhere else, gets diagnosed with cancer at the very moment she’s about to become a mother, has three precious years with her baby girl before that sickness comes for her, too. And the woman who chose, in the aftermath of unimaginable loss, to change again, to live. And live big.

Gina Chick really does know how to look change right in the eye.

LINKS: 

• You can follow Gina on Instagram here.
• You can find Gina’s book, We Are The Stars here. 
• Listen to more MID here. 

THE END BITS: 

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at [email protected] 

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 Producers: Thom Lion & Tegan Sadler

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.

It's the last conversation of MID, Season Two, with our guest Alison Brahe Daddo.

Ali was THE Australian model of the late 80s, on every magazine cover and on many a teenage girl’s wall. She had a huge career here and overseas, and then she married the equally famous and swoon-worthy Cameron Daddo, backed right away from the industry, settled in LA and raised a family. Now, as Alison Brahe Daddo, or Ali, as very many of us know her, she’s also become just the most honest, interesting voice about midlife and menopause and all the messy challenges it brings us.

But in this episode, we’re not actually talking about that. We’re getting deep about surface stuff. Beauty, whatever it means to us - and let’s be honest, there’s a sliding scale of how much any of us can ever claim to have felt beautiful, at any age - is a beast in midlife. Because how we wear our age on our face and our bodies can feel so important, so crucial to how the outside world sees us, even as we know it’s really the silliest of all our concerns. It often doesn’t feel that way.

Listen to Holly and Ali discuss how they’re feeling, what they’re doing about, and where they stand on the mistakes they’ve made in thinking and talking about our faces and our bodies as we move on through.

Welcome to Mid, Season 2, Episode 8. Beauty, with Ali Daddo.

LINKS: 

• You can follow Ali on Instagram here.

• Find her books and other projects here.

Want more MID? Listen here

THE END BITS: 

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at [email protected] 

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: Thom Lion & Leah Porges

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.

Simmone Jade McKinnon was - and is, to many - Stevie from McLouds Daughters. She joined that iconic Australian show fresh from another era-defining TV moment, Baywatch, with a Hollywood star fiancé on her arm and a creative career in full flight.

And then everything changed.

Simmone and her son Madigan have been living in a caravan and then a shed in her family’s back paddock for the best part of a decade. She’s been making ends meet with carer’s subsidy, odd jobs like jillaroo and by starting her own small business. When she decided to step out of a dark time and back in front of a camera for a reality show earlier this year it was very clearly with one goal in mind - the prize money.

On this episode, the first MID conversation about money, you'll hear how all that's been going for Simmone. And you’ll hear what it was like to be on one of the biggest shows in the world and get fired for what you refused to do in lingerie on a beach. How she came back from crippling panic attacks during a high-profile break-up to film wedding scenes for our viewing pleasure and, most importantly, how she’s kept moving and dreaming and pushing on as she’s been parenting her son alone on a very minimal income.

Simonne is famous but she’s not rich, and we assume those things go together. Her story might not be yours, but there’s plenty of familiar territory here.

Please enjoy MID, Season 2, Episode 3: Money, with Simmone Jade Mackinnon.

LINKS: 
You can follow Simmone on Instagram here.
Find her clothing company here.
You can donate to the Council of Single Mothers here.

Want more MID? Listen here

THE END BITS: 

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at [email protected] 

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

CREDITS:

Host: Holly Wainwright

Executive Producer: Naima Brown

Audio Producer: Thom Lion

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.

 

Kylie Gillies is telling Holly Wainwright about The Shift. You know, the moment when you realise things have changed - your children were tiny, and now they’re not. Your parents were giants, and now they’re not. You were the bold young thing in the office. And now you’re not.

Kylie has been in living rooms across Australia for 17 years as co-host of The Morning Show with Larry Emdur. Not only is Kylie an experienced, engaged journalist, but she's also a MID woman perfectly placed to talk about all that shifting - kids growing up, losing and caring for much-loved parents, reflecting on your career and working out what’s next.

It's a conversation about the joy and wonder of being properly grown-up.

Welcome to MID, Season 2, Episode 2: The Shift.

You can follow Kylie Gillies here. 

Want more MID? Listen here

THE END BITS: 

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at [email protected] 

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

CREDITS:

Host: Holly Wainwright

Executive Producer: Naima Brown

Audio Producer: Thom Lion

Content Manager: Talissa Bazaz

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.

It goes so fast. Did you want to pinch the people who said that to you when your babies were small? And now you know it's true.

Welcome to the season of parenting when they're taller than you, they're eating the fridge and apparently, you've done your job right if they need you less and less every day.

This episode of MID is a reunion. Holly hosted This Glorious Mess with author, presenter and Australian icon Andrew Daddo for years. Her kids were tiny, his were teens and together they unpacked all the messes young families bring. Now Holly's are teens, Andrew's are young adults, but between the five of them, only one has actually flown the nest.

How do you navigate parenting children who are no longer children? What happens when you're not always right? And how does it feel when they actually... leave?

This is MID episode 7: Really Big Kids.

THE END BITS: 
Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at [email protected] 

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

CREDITS:

Host: Holly Wainwright

Executive Producer: Talissa Bazaz

Audio Producer: Jacob Round & Tegan Sadler

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.

By MID, you've woven a big, beautiful, messy life. Some of it joyful, some of it devastating, some of it entirely unexpected.

Today's guest, the iconic Australian musician Christine Anu has woven plenty of stories about all these things. In this very frank conversation, she talks about rebuilding herself, her life, her relationship with her kids and her career after a divorce knocked her off her feet.

Now, about to release her new album, Christine is reckoning with how all the parts of her past have brought her to a place where she's making the music of her life, free of the expectations of an industry that can be unkind to grown-up women.

This is MID, Episode 8: Everything.

THE END BITS: 

Listen to Christine's single Waku - Minaral A Minalay here

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at [email protected] 

CREDITS:

Host: Holly Wainwright

Executive Producer: Talissa Bazaz

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.

Most Gen X-ers did not grow up idolising 5am-rising yoga girlies. For many of us, drinking "like the boys" was almost an act of feminist pride, and certainly the way we knew we were having a "good time".

Holidays, celebrations, milestones. Wine o’clock, and the witching hour and the glass (or two) that marks the end of the work day... Alcohol is woven into our social lives in an almost invisible way. So what happens when you realise that the habit you thought of as your little helper is actually making everything worse?

On this episode, we're talking to Shanna Whan from Sober In The Country about why Generation X women drink so damn much. Shanna says that 90% of the people who seek support from her peer-to-peer organisation are women aged between 40 and 60. That's us, friends.

So why do Gen X women drink so damn much? How do you know if you’ve got a problem? And if it isn't you you're worried about, how do you talk to people in your life about their drinking?

This is MID episode 3: Alcohol.

Want more MID? Listen here

If this episode raised anything for you, here are some incredible resources: 
Sober In The Country
Hello Sunday Morning
Alcoholics Anonymous
Life Line
Drink Wise

Want to hear Shanna's interview with Mia Freedman on No Filter? Click here
Read more about Shanna's story here

THE END BITS 

Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at [email protected] 

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

CREDITS:

Host: Holly Wainwright

Executive Producer: Talissa Bazaz

Assistant Production: Sandy McIntyre

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.