What’s gotten unexpectedly better with age?

At 49, Gillian is noticing that getting older isn’t making her less interested in life, it’s making her more selective about what actually feels good, matters, and lights her up.

In this short solo episode, she talks about deep female friendships, early bedtimes, disco in the kitchen, heirloom beans, thrift-store art, and yes… some very good orgasms.

It’s a funny, personal reflection on the little things that get better, the things that matter more, and the stuff you finally stop caring so much about.

If your priorities have quietly changed, and you're liking the new version of yourself, this one’s for you.

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Follow Gillian on Instagram: @gillianchristie

At 49, I’m still ambitious. I still want big things.

But lately I’ve been thinking a lot more about what actually deserves my time.

Inspired by Four Thousand Weeks and a few uncomfortable realizations about my own relationship with success, I’m looking at the difference between ambition and proving, the things we think we’re supposed to want, and what happens when you finally start asking: Do I actually want this?

This is a solo episode about ambition, motherhood, success, time and why I think midlife is making me much more selective about what gets the best of me.

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We get into what it means to want big things without wanting everything, why “not now” doesn’t always mean “no,” and a few of the very random ways I’m realizing I may still be following rules I don’t even believe in.

And yes, somehow a Porsche makes its way into this conversation.

🎧 Listen now, and send this one to a friend who might also be asking herself: What’s actually worth my time now?

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Instagram: @gillianchristie

Mentioned in this episode:
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

Disclaimer: Personal stories and opinions shared on Highly Flammable are not medical advice. Talk to your own provider about your individual health and medical needs.

Erin Keating didn’t build a life she secretly wanted to escape. She wanted the career, the marriage, the family, the successful grown-up life she had worked so hard to create.

And then, somewhere along the way, being incredibly good at carrying all of it stopped being enough.

This conversation is funny, candid, a little spicy, and much less about blowing up your life than it is about coming back into it as yourself.

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Erin and I talk about outgrowing a life you genuinely chose, why pleasure became a way back to herself, ambition, motherhood, body image, dating, emotional availability, and what it means to still wonder whether you’ve really gone for it.

We also talk about why, after 135 episodes of Hotter Than Ever, Erin decided it was time to reinvent again and build Broad Collective.

Connect with Erin

Broad Collective: broadcollective.com
Substack: broadcollective.substack.com

Stay Connected with Highly Flammable

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If this episode made you think of a woman in your life, send it to her. ❤️‍🔥

This isn’t a transition. It’s a takeover.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and reflects the personal experiences and opinions of the host and guests. It is not intended as medical, mental health, legal, or financial advice.

Lisa Jimenez and Gillian met nearly twenty years ago, when both were living very different versions of their lives. This conversation is the first time they’ve really sat down and caught up in years and there was a lot of life to catch up on.

After decades in corporate America, Lisa went on to create She Is Me Global, a community built around giving women space to tell their stories, be heard, and support one another.

In this episode, Lisa shares how that work grew out of her own experiences, why women need spaces to gather outside of work and home, and what she has learned about creativity, perfectionism, joy, self-forgiveness, and saying no.

They also talk about returning to parts of yourself you may have left behind and the things we can keep carrying long after we actually need them.

Content note: This conversation includes discussion of domestic violence, abusive relationships, and growing up around alcoholism.

We get into:

• Why women need a “third place”
• The connection between creativity and letting go of perfection
• Finding joy in ordinary things
• Anger, powerlessness, and self-forgiveness
• Returning to parts of yourself you left behind
• Saying no more often
• Creating the kind of community you wish already existed

Connect with Lisa:
She Is Me Global: Sheismeglobal.com
Lisa’s book: The Woman the Water Made

Join the Highly Flammable VIP list: Get on the list babe!

Make sure you’re following or subscribed to Highly Flammable so you don’t miss what’s next, and if you’ve been loving the show, leaving a rating or review helps more women find us.

Highly Flammable is rooted in personal stories and lived experiences. Nothing in this episode is medical advice. Please talk with your own doctor, therapist, or qualified provider about what’s right for your body, your health, and your life.

We see who a woman is now.

The career. The confidence. The family. The life that looks settled.

What we don’t always see are the years it took to get there.

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In this episode of Highly Flammable, Gillian sits down with her cousin Gen Yanulavich as she approaches 50 and looks back at the pieces of a life that didn’t always make sense while she was living them.

Gen talks about becoming a mother young, building a career while raising her family, navigating a relationship that slowly wore her down, and the moment she realized something in her life had to change.

She also opens up about the years behind the success people see today—the financial stress, the uncertainty, and the private moments when she wondered how her life was going to turn out.

Now, with grown children, grandbabies, a career she’s proud of, and a marriage that feels completely different, Gen has enough distance to look back with a perspective she didn’t have while she was in the middle of it.

This conversation is about the wisdom that can come with midlife: connecting some of the pieces, making peace with the versions of yourself that came before, and realizing you don’t have to have everything figured out for your life to still be moving somewhere good.

In this episode:

• Approaching 50 and seeing age differently than we once did

• Becoming a mother young and taking a very different path than the one she expected

• Building a career while raising a family

• Recognizing when a relationship was taking more from her than she realized

• Making the decision that something had to change

• Discovering what a calmer kind of love can feel like

• The invisible years behind visible success

• Financial uncertainty and the pressure of building a life without knowing how it would turn out

• Looking back without wishing away the past

• What her children and grandchildren get from the woman she became

• Growing up alongside your child

• The perspective midlife can give us on earlier seasons of our lives

• Learning to make yourself a priority, even when you’re used to taking care of everyone else

If this episode made you think of another woman, send it to her.

Stay connected

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Follow Gillian on Instagram: @gillianchristie

And if you’re enjoying Highly Flammable, follow or subscribe wherever you listen and leave a rating or review to help more women find the show.

Highly Flammable shares personal stories and lived experiences. Nothing in this episode is intended as medical, mental health, legal, or financial advice.

What if feeling uprooted in midlife doesn’t mean something has gone wrong?

In this episode of Highly Flammable, Gillian sits down with Alison Ritchie, a Traditional Birth Keeper, Postpartum Wellness Practitioner, and herbalist specializing in women’s health, for a conversation about the strange in-between season so many women find themselves in during midlife.

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Alison describes midlife as a season of shedding — a time when the version of ourselves that spent years holding everything together may no longer fit, but the woman we’re becoming hasn’t fully arrived yet.

In this conversation, Alison and Gillian talk about the pressure women feel to keep performing and producing, why this season can feel so disorienting, the grief that can come with changing identities, and what happens when we finally start asking what — and who — actually gets to come with us into the second half of our lives.

The conversation also explores reclaiming self-trust, learning to listen to yourself again, and how anger can sometimes become the energy that helps us restructure a life that has been working for everyone except ourselves.

In this episode:

• Why midlife can feel like being uprooted
• The seasons of shedding and letting go
• What happens after years of holding everything down
• Grief, anger, and allowing the full range of our emotions
• Reclaiming self-trust and personal authority
• Learning to listen to yourself again
• Why feeling uprooted doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong
• Making room for the woman you’re becoming

Connect with Alison:

Website: https://www.alisonritchie.com
Instagram: @this_grand_voyage_

Stay connected with Gillian and Highly Flammable:

Follow Gillian on Instagram: @gillianchristie

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Get behind-the-scenes notes plus first access to live workshops, events, and future community offerings.

If this conversation made you think of another woman somewhere in her own messy middle, send it to her.

And if you’re loving Highly Flammable, follow the show, subscribe, and leave a review. It helps more women find these conversations.

Disclaimer: Highly Flammable is rooted in personal stories and lived experiences. Nothing in this episode is medical advice. Please talk with your own doctor, therapist, or qualified provider about what's right for your body, your health, and your life.

At 55, Lisa Topoleski decided to step onto a bodybuilding stage in a bikini, not because she needed to reinvent herself, but because she wanted a new challenge.

Lisa is a longtime teacher, yoga instructor, runner, lifter, wife and mom, and in this episode we talk about what happens when you make room for something that is just for you.

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We get into why lifting heavy became non-negotiable for Lisa in midlife, what made bodybuilding feel like the right next challenge, the confidence it took to step onstage, and the unexpected “what now?” that came after the competition was over.

Lisa also talks about letting go of perfection, caring less about what other people think, and why she doesn’t see the woman onstage as the best version of herself — just one expression of who she is.

In this episode:

• Becoming a yoga teacher even though she never planned to teach

• Why lifting heavy is non-negotiable in midlife

• Choosing a bodybuilding competition as her next challenge

• The discipline behind preparing for the stage

• Going from worrying about wearing a sports bra to competing in a bikini

• “I am not skinny. I am fit.”

• The unexpected post-show “what now?”

• Letting go of perfection and people pleasing

• Protecting your energy

• “My physique is gonna change, but the growth is gonna stay.”

• What doing something hard taught Lisa about herself

Connect with Lisa
Instagram: @callmeleese

Stay connected with Gillian and Highly Flammable
Instagram: @gillianchristie
Join the VIP list: Join the VIP list

If this episode made you think of a woman who needs to hear it, send it her way.

This isn’t a transition. It’s a takeover.

Disclaimer: This podcast shares personal stories, opinions, and experiences for informational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult your own qualified healthcare provider regarding your health and treatment decisions.

What happens when the life you worked so hard to build no longer feels like your life?

Sarah Taub is the creator of Fig and Whiskey, a lifestyle brand rooted in ritual, intentional living, sensuality, and the belief that women do not have to choose between the different parts of themselves.

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In this episode, Sarah opens up about the pressure to keep performing inside a life that looked beautiful from the outside but had stopped feeling aligned on the inside.

We talk about the discomfort of outgrowing an identity, the messy middle between who you were and who you are becoming, and why transformation cannot always be rushed into a neat plan.

Sarah also shares how ritual, movement, sensuality, and small moments of pleasure helped her begin reconnecting with herself and why women deserve permission to feel responsible, grounded, joyful, rebellious, and fully alive at the same time.

In this conversation:

• When success stops feeling like success
• Outgrowing an identity you once felt proud of
• The pressure women carry to do everything well
• Making room for uncertainty and reinvention
• Ritual as a way back to yourself
• Why sensuality is bigger than sexuality
• Reclaiming joy without waiting for permission
• Being gentle with yourself in the messy middle

This is a conversation about what happens when you stop forcing the old life to fit and begin listening for what wants to come next.

Connect with Sarah and Fig and Whiskey:
Instagram: @figandwhiskey

Follow Gillian and Highly Flammable:
Instagram: @gillianchristie

New episodes every Tuesday.

This podcast shares personal stories and opinions for informational and entertainment purposes and is not medical advice. Please speak with your own qualified healthcare provider about your individual needs.

Jamie Perez thought she was losing her mind.

Usually optimistic, playful, and quick to find the bright side, she suddenly felt angry, short-tempered, and unlike herself—until a conversation with her girlfriends gave her a word no doctor had: perimenopause.

Jamie became a wife and mom at 19. Now, at 40, she’s raising a blended family of six, living in a century-old Victorian named Novala, building a life with a professional magician, and proudly answering to the title “Queen of Side Quests.”

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In this episode, Jamie talks honestly about the rage, 3 a.m. wake-ups, body changes, and “static” that made her feel like a stranger to herself. She also shares what happened when she looked for answers and was told she was a “medical mystery.”

We also talk about rebuilding after divorce, choosing experiences over things, staying connected to family in unconventional ways, learning to genuinely like yourself, giving an ever-changing body grace, reclaiming wonder, practicing boundaries, and why the laundry can wait when a side quest is calling.

In this episode:

• Becoming a wife and mother at 19
• Rebuilding after divorce
• Choosing experiences over things
• Learning about perimenopause from girlfriends
• Feeling dismissed while searching for answers
• The car conversation that made Jamie realize how much she had changed
• Giving grace to a body that has carried, healed, and kept going
• Reclaiming play, imagination, and wonder
• Setting boundaries without guilt
• Saying yes to the experiences that make life feel bigger

Jamie’s reminder: “We’re not too busy. Say yes. We have time.”

Connect with Jamie:
Instagram: @ridesinheels
Molo Magic: @jmolomagic

Connect with Gillian and Highly Flammable:
Instagram: @gillianchristie
Join the Highly Flammable VIP list: Go VIP!

This podcast shares personal stories and lived experiences and is not medical advice. Please speak with your own doctor or qualified healthcare provider about what is right for your health and body.

Marie Joachim became a mom at 47 after seven years of trying, and she has zero interest in living a life that asks her to disappear, over-sacrifice, or wait for permission.

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In the first episode of Highly Flammable, Marie talks with Gillian about ambition, infertility, motherhood, career, friendship, family expectations, hot flashes, and the midlife clarity that comes when you realize nobody is handing out cookies for being exhausted and unhappy.

This conversation is bold, funny, honest, and full of permission to choose your life while you’re still living it.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Becoming a mom at 47 after a seven-year infertility journey

• The tension between loving your work and choosing your family

• What Marie’s mother’s illness revealed about the cost of certain choices

• Redefining success in midlife

• Letting go of friendships, traditions, and family expectations that no longer fit

• Hot flashes, champagne, and choosing the moment anyway

• Why every woman needs a “board of directors”

• The freedom of realizing you still get to choose yourself

The Line That Stays With Us: “By the time I’m done with this life, it will owe me nothing.”

Keep the Fire Going:

Follow Gillian on Instagram: @gillianchristie

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Loved this episode? Follow or subscribe to Highly Flammable wherever you listen, and send this episode to a woman who needs a reminder that there is still time to choose herself.

Disclaimer: This episode is rooted in personal stories and lived experiences. Nothing in this conversation is medical advice. Please talk with your own doctor, therapist, or qualified provider about what’s right for your body, your health, and your life.