A true icon joins us this week - one of the most enduring Asian-American actresses of the last thirty plus years, but let’s focus on what she has been doing in her 50’s and now 60’s - early 50’s she was one of the longest-running female leads on a Marvel show: Agents of Shield, around 55 Began publicly arguing for the “Tom Cruise effect” — that women, especially women of color, deserve long careers built on craft, not age, the first asian woman to be designated a Disney Legend at 56, rolled right into the assassin Fennec Shand across The Mandalorian/Star Wars franchise, got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 59, and at 62 she has not slowed down: played the mother in Karate Kid: Legends, became the new voice of Gwen Ling on American Dad,  joined Percy Jackson as the matriarch Hera, has 3 indie features: Better Life, Whatcha Want and Persephone in the wings and is publishing her first cookbook Have You Eaten Yet?: Family Recipes from a Restaurant Daughter which drops in October. we have so much to talk about,so give a listen to the amazing Ming Na

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She is a Chicago-born film, stage and TV actress and most known for her role as Sarah Pfefferman in the Emmy and Golden Globe and SAG Award-Winning series TRANSPARENT, not to mention, Handmaid’s Tale and Your Honor. What Amy Landecker is doing in her 50’s is inspiring..She directed her first short, Then Wrote her first feature, Directed, starred and produced it at 55. Released at 56  When most actresses are wondering am i too old, SHE is defying the narrative. Her film For Worse, is a MIDLIFE romantic comedy about a newly divorced sober mom who goes to a wedding with a much younger date and behaves, to put it mildly, like a drunk 25-year-old bridesmaid.  It Won Best Comedy at the San Diego International Film Festival and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Wisconsin Film Festival. At 56 she couldn't find the role she wanted to play in her 50s, so she wrote it, financed it and shot it in 11 days. If that doesn’t inspire you I don’t know what would.

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Julie Bowen is an actress, producer, and director who spent eleven seasons as America’s most type-A TV mom on “Modern Family.” The show ended as she turned 50, but that didn’t stop her. She directed and produced her first short film, launched a production company ‘Bowen and sons’ with a first look deal at Universal television. She continues to rack up more fun characters with Hysteria! on Peacock; expanded her range with the horror-comedy “Totally Killer,” reprised her role in Happy Gilmore 2, made her stage debut in “Fake It Until You Make It” at the Mark Taper Forum, and has an NBC comedy “Taste” in development through her production company. She is open and raw and honest about what being in her fifties has meant to her. Another must not miss!!

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She spent over two decades as one of TV's most recognizable faces — on Angel and Law & Order, but its now in her 50’s that she is in the middle of the busiest creative stretch of her career . Elisabeth Rohm has turned into one of Lifetime's most prolific female-forward true-crime directors, she co-founded a production company Rohm Feifer Entertainment with Kara Feifer, and has created 50+ projects in two years. Elisabeth has said the best thing about turning 50 is finally being able to be generous — with time, attention, and helping younger women succeed. She's living that out by literally building infrastructure for female-forward storytelling and we couldn’t be more excited to talk to her.

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This is our very first and only guest this season who has not yet hit fifty BUT we did it for a reason. She calls Perimenopause the amuse bouche to an old cooch and featured those words in her brilliant, brutally honest, and constantly sold out show about the challenges of aging called “Nobody Cares.”  Laura Benanti stepped on to a Broadway stage  at age 18 playing Maria Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. is a 5 time Tony award nominee and won the Tony for her role of Louise in Gypsy. She’s been in scores of tv shows from the revival of Gossip Girl to The Gilded Age  and the coming of age film No Hard Feelings but you may know her most for the world's best Melania Trump impersonation.

We're talking losing the male gaze and started a witches coven so tune in!!!

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A funny raw incredibly honest conversation about midlife dating, acting and having no fucks left to give from the wildly talented actress Justina Machado. She has been in the business for over 30 years and is still crushing it at the top of her fifties.  Starring in 3 seasons of the reboot "One Day at a Time", the lead in Amazon’s black-comedy-horror The Horror of Dolores Roach, and having a full circle moment as she transitioned from playing the DAUGHTER on stage in her 20’s in Real Women Have Curves - to getting a TONY nom 32 years later playing the Mother. She tells us that “Dreams Don't Have an Expiration Date” and she is proof of that.

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We first saw this wonder woman in the very first documentary about menopause called the M Factor and she said so many eye opening facts it blew our minds … like - “menopause isn’t a moment it’s the rest of your life.” wow.   A board certified obgyn and menopause practitioner - she spent 35 years in the exam room before entering private practice because she said she was done being quiet.  She frames midlife as “a medical emergency masquerading as a life stage” and now  fully dedicAtes her life to advocacy, education, AND addressing racial disparities in healthcare .  She wrote a NY Times bestselling book “Grown Woman Talk: your guide to getting and staying healthy,” is the host of “The Second Opinion” podcast,  was named to the Forbes 50 over 50 in 2024, and wants to reshape the healthcare landscape for midlife women with some pretty powerful help from one of her best girlfriends former first lady Michelle Obama.  Please give a listen to the powerhouse that is Dr. Sharon Malone.

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She is a SAG Award–winning actress, producer, voice over talent, activist and advocate for many causes including reproductive rights, a self-described “eco-emissary” who started an eco fashion zero waste initiative, Livari.  She had seven seasons on Orange Is the New Black as the villainess “Fig” before deciding the stories she wanted to tell about women weren’t going to tell themselves.

In her 50’s alone she finished five seasons as Sunny on “Better Things,” worked on numerous shows including Ms. Marvel, Shining Vale, Law and Order, The Diplomat and launched her sex and pleasure column in FLOW magazine, became a Spirit award nominee for “the feeling that the time for doing something has passed.”

She is actively building a creative identity around midlife: producing and starring in stories about women at this stage. Starring in “ramona in Midlife” and “one day in Sedona” an over 40 rom-com. She also sits on numerous boards like the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media as well as singing at protests with the Resistance Revival Chorus, and is a licensed volunteer firefighter — because, as she’s explained, if everyone keeps saying the world is a dumpster fire, she figured she should learn to fight fires. She does not have a midlife angle. She is the midlife angle.

Please give a listen to the astonishing Alysia Reiner

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She is true comedy legend who has been delivering absolute gold non stop from a stand up stage for over 40 years while also pumping out award winning one woman shows like “Twenty Five Question for a Jewish Mother” and “The Judy show my life as a sitcom.” Her television writing on The Rosie O'Donnell Show won her two Daytime Emmys.  On screen she's appeared in Better Things, Madame Secretary, 30 Rock, Sex and the City, Law & Order, and so many more. She had the privilege of calling Joan Rivers a personal mentor - and hosted the very popular and funny podcast Kill Me Now for a decade.

Now at 63 she is touring her newest number one book from 2020 “Yes I can Say That: When they Come for the Comedians We are All in Trouble” - a defense of comedy and free speech and you will see her in the new Mindy Kaling Hulu comedy series “Not suitable for work.” 

She is a mother of two grown sons, openly lesbian, openly opinionated and openly stomach hurtingly funny 6’3” powerhouse who says she is fearless and wise and that is a good combination.  

Get ready for the remarkably funny Judy Gold!

#women #comedy #lesbian

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She left one of America's top food shows and created her own brand new reality hit. Padma Lakshmi on taking risks in midlife and creating new opportunities after 50!!

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