The Middle-aged Bodcast

Hiya Bodcasters, weve got a couple more weeks before Season 8, Episode 1. So for this repost we're bringing you an episode where TA and I cooked using recipes from the Poppy O'Tool "Poppy Cooks" range. We'll be dropping the trailer for Season 8 next week. So please enjoy the repost and get ready for all new episodes coming very soon.

Original episode description

In this special episode of The Middle-aged Bodcast, Raging Rich and T.A. Shelano swap takeaways for tongs and tackle a home-cooked meal each - one from a slow cooker, the other in the air fryer. Inspired by Poppy O’Toole's cookbooks, the lads step out of their culinary comfort zones and share their experiences (and mishaps) with buffalo chicken and lemon-honey skewers.

They chat about learning to cook in midlife, building confidence in the kitchen, and how these small changes tie into bigger goals around health, wellbeing, and saving money. There's humour, honesty, and a few unexpected revelations along the way (yes, Rich has a spice cupboard now).

If you're curious about simple meals, midlife motivation, or just want to hear two blokes navigate the world of home cooking, this one's for you.

The cookbooks we used!

🍟 Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook

🥘 Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cookbook

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Hiya Bodcasters, we're still getting Season 8 ready for you. So this week we're bringing you another repost where we interviewed Stacey from Stacey's Pop Culture Parlour and talked podcasting, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a lot more. Cowabunga!

Original episode description

🐢 It's Turtle Power time on The Middle-aged Bodcast!

This week, Raging Rich and T.A. Shelano welcome Stacey from Stacey's Pop Culture Parlour: a lifelong geek, wrestling fan and proud voice in UK podcasting.

From Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fandom and AEW adventures to behind-the-mic stories and celebrating 13 years of podcasting, Stacey brings humour, honesty and heart. She also speaks openly and respectfully about her experience as an asexual woman, offering an important reminder that being yourself, without apology is a superpower of its own.

🎧 A funny, thoughtful and totally turtley episode packed with nostalgia, kindness and plenty of pop-culture love.

Stacey is host of the following podcasts:

🎙️ Stacey's Pop Culture Parlour

🎬 Never Seen...

☀️ Stace and Barry in the Morning

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👉 Follow, review and share The Middle-aged Bodcast - the heroes in a half shell of midlife pop culture, fitness and fun!

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Twenty-five years ago, the doors of Wernham Hogg opened for the first time and introduced us to David Brent, Tim, Dawn, Gareth and one of the most painfully awkward workplaces in British television history.

In this Bonus Bodcast, we're headed back to Slough to celebrate 25 years of The Office. We look back at our first memories of the show, the moments and characters that made it work, the painfully relatable world of office life and how Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant helped change the style of TV comedy.

There's the Tim and Dawn story, the brilliance of the Christmas specials, David Brent's famous attempts at comedy and music, the influence The Office had on the shows that followed, and the inevitable comparison with its hugely successful American counterpart. We also ask whether The Office could even be made in the same way today, or whether Wernham Hogg would now be half empty because everyone was working from home.

Twenty-five years later, is the original UK version of The Office still one of Britain's greatest comedies?

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Hi Bodcasters, we're still preparing to bring you Season 8, so this week we're taking you back to Season 5 when we were joined by Dan H from Gaming Views to talk about his weight loss journey.

Original episode description

Raging Rich and T.A. Shelano connect with Dan H from the Gaming Views podcast for an honest, wide-ranging interview about the modern gaming landscape and health in midlife. Dan shares how Gaming Views started, what it was like interviewing TV presenter Iain Lee on a recent episode, and why indie and AA titles are becoming essential as AAA costs soar.

The episode covers gaming trends listeners search for every week: DLC pricing, battle passes, microtransactions, physical vs digital games, streaming platforms, retro gaming, censorship and media ownership. All from the perspective of three people navigating the hobby in their late 40s.

In the second half, Dan opens up about his Mounjaro weight-loss journey, living with constant food noise, losing over four stone, and how the rising UK cost of treatment affects people trying to improve their health.

Check out Dan H on Gaming Views:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• YouTube

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Transformers: The Movie turns 40, which means Rich finally has the perfect excuse to dedicate an entire Bodcast to his favourite animated film of all time.

For Rich, this is pure nostalgia. He first saw the film at the cinema with his dad back in 1986 and, 40 years later, they're heading back to the cinema together for the anniversary re-release, this time with Rich's brother joining them.

For T.A., things are slightly different. He's just watched Transformers: The Movie for the very first time.

We look back at the film, the decision to kill off Optimus Prime and the backlash that followed, whether selling a new generation of toys took priority over the characters children had grown attached to, and how differently the film lands when you're watching it as an adult without that childhood connection.

There's also the incredible 1980s soundtrack, a voice cast featuring Leonard Nimoy, Eric Idle and Orson Welles, the legacy of Peter Cullen's Optimus Prime and plenty of memories of Transformers growing up.

Can T.A. understand why the film still means so much to Rich after 40 years?

"Till all are one!"

Episode cover uses artwork from "The Transformers: The Movie: The Soundtrack: The Reformatted Edition" by Matt Ferguson.

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Hi Bodcasters, we're taking a break before Season 8 eight and so this week we're again taking you back to Season 4 where we were joined by Griffin from the Reboot Deboot podcast.

Original episode description

In this episode of The Middle-aged Bodcast, Raging Rich and T.A. Shelano welcome Griffin - host of the "Reboot Deboot" podcast, author, and Twitch streamer - for a lively and honest conversation about creativity, remakes, and turning frustration into fuel.

Griffin shares how he channels anger and irritation into something productive, whether that's podcasting without a safety net (no edits!), writing fiction, or streaming live to his audience. They explore the origins of Reboot Deboot, the craft behind reviewing remakes, and what makes a reimagined film truly worthwhile.

Also in this episode:

• Using rage as a creative tool (instead of bottling it up)
• The realities of writing and the messy road to finding your voice
• Why some remakes work - and others miss the mark
• How modern reboots can reframe old themes for new audiences
• The myth of sacred source material in Hollywood

It's an episode about honesty, hustle, and holding a mirror up to pop culture - with plenty of laughs (and a bit of righteous shouting) along the way.

Check out Reboot Deboot on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Give Reboot Deboot a follow on Twitter/X

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Hi Bodcasters, we're taking a break before Season 8, so this week we're taking you back to Season 4 when we were joined by author Suzanne Casamento.

Original episode description

In this insightful guest episode of The Middle-aged Bodcast, Rich and T.A. speak with author and energy healing practitioner Suzanne Casamento about her long and challenging journey with chronic Lyme disease.

Suzanne shares:

• How a tick bite in 2003 led to years of unexplained symptoms
• The role mould exposure may have played in triggering chronic illness
• Her frustrations with the limitations of conventional treatment
• The financial toll of managing a chronic condition in the US healthcare system
• Her discovery of PEMF therapy (pulsed electromagnetic field therapy) and how it became central to her recovery
• How she's since used PEMF to support others with stress, pain, and fatigue
• Her work as a writer – from teen magazines to novels and a memoir in progress

Suzanne also reflects on the emotional toll of feeling dismissed or misunderstood during her illness and the search for answers that eventually changed the course of her life.

This episode offers a candid look at living with a 'mystery illness', exploring holistic approaches to health, and the power of sharing your story.

For more about Suzanne visit: suzannecasamento.com

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This week on The Middle-aged Bodcast, we're joined by Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of Age UK, for the Season 7 finale and the final chapter of our support for Age UK's Act Now, Age Better campaign.

Paul joins us to talk about how the choices we make in midlife can help us stay healthier, more active and better connected as we get older.

We discuss why so many people have difficult relationships with exercise, the barriers that can stop us getting active again in middle age and why finding something you actually enjoy can make such a difference.

The conversation also explores the connection between physical and mental health, Paul's previous work as Chief Executive of Mind, how attitudes towards mental health have changed over the past decade and why social connection becomes increasingly important as we get older.

Along the way, Paul shares some of his own experiences with running, cycling and parkrun, reflects on his career in the charity sector and tells us what it was like appearing on Desert Island Discs.

This episode feels like the perfect way to round off Season 7, and talking with Paul definitely gave us plenty to think about when it comes to getting older and looking after ourselves a bit better.

Age UK website: https://www.ageuk.org.uk

Act Now, Age Better: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/get-involved/act-now/

Paul's episode of Desert Island Discs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002yvwv

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This week on The Middle-aged Bodcast, we're getting Back on Track and talking no-fly travel, Parkrun, pop culture and a general catch-up on what we've both been up to.

The Shelanos have been travelling by train again, this time heading from Birmingham to Paris, down to the South of France and then to Amsterdam. We talk about Saint-Raphaël, Nice and Cannes, why travelling by rail has really stuck with both T.A. and Mrs. Shelano, and how our Season 4 chat with Liz McClarnon is still having an impact.

Rich has also been out and about, with a trip to the National Film & Sci-Fi Museum in Milton Keynes, and a work away day featuring a Crystal Maze style team building exercise among his highlights.

The episode closes out with discussion of T.A. taking on Parkrun and Rich being keen to join in, even if he's just walking the course.

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This week on The Middle-aged Bodcast, we celebrate two years of the show. So, we're taking a look back at some of the highlights, favourite moments and most listened-to episodes from the past two years.

We go season by season, from the early days of Bliss Revisited and working out how to actually make a podcast, through to guest episodes, film specials, Christmas traditions, cooking, coffee shop rants, no-fly travel, the 12-mile charity walk for Andy's Man Club and our ongoing support for Age UK's Act Now, Age Better campaign.

There's some behind the curtain moments, and plenty of great moments to look back upon as we begin to wrap up Season 7 of the Bodcast over the next couple of weeks.

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If you've enjoyed listening, we'd love it if you could follow the podcast, leave us a review and drop us a comment. Every follow, rating and bit of feedback helps more people find the Middle-aged Bodcast.

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