This one’s a little different—in the best way.

In the first-ever Hot, Hormonal & Highly Opinionated episode, I’m skipping the neat little box and giving you the real, unfiltered version of what’s been on my mind lately. Think of it like we’re sitting across from each other with coffee… and I’m telling you everything.

We’re talking about what self-care actually looks like in midlife (hint: it’s not always spa days), getting very real about my perimenopause and HRT journey, and ending with a pop culture moment that celebrates women—because honestly, they deserve it.

If you’ve been feeling off, overwhelmed, unheard, or just not like yourself lately… this one is for you.

• The difference between performative self-care and what actually helps
• Why self-care can feel selfish—and why it’s not
• Simple, real-life ways to take care of yourself without spending money or hours of time
• Why going to the doctor is one of the most important forms of self-care

• What perimenopause has actually felt like for me
• Symptoms that were dismissed—and why I knew something wasn’t right
• Navigating doctors, testing, and finally finding someone who listened
• My current HRT protocol (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone)
• The gut health connection—and why I’m committing to AIP
• The reality: it’s expensive, overwhelming… and still worth it

• Why 90s women in music are having a major moment again
• Artists still creating, evolving, and doing it on their terms
• What it means to step into your “second act” in midlife

• The Lamar Odom documentary and why Khloé Kardashian surprised me
• A real conversation about showing up for people—even when it’s complicated
• Why we’re allowed to care about pop culture and real-world issues

• The WNBA turning 30
• The rise of global women’s sports
• Why this isn’t a trend—it’s a movement
• Why it matters for the next generation of women

Women are doing the real work—on themselves, for others, in their careers, and in their lives… even when no one is watching or giving them credit.

That’s midlife.
And when you start paying attention—it’s powerful.

If this episode hit home for you, I want to hear about it.

• DM me on Instagram: @thejenweinstein
• Follow along on TikTok
• Email: [email protected]

• 🎶 Follow the playlist: The Midlife Edit Co on Spotify
• 💌 Join the Backstage Pass newsletter (weekly + no spam, ever)

Share it with a friend, send it to someone who needs to hear it, or leave a review—it helps more women find this space.

What happens when a classically trained actress, mom, and midlife woman hits perimenopause… and decides to tell the truth about it?

In this episode, Jen sits down with Beth Crosby—aka The Garbage Mom—to talk about the messy, hilarious, and very real side of midlife. From viral TikToks to perimenopausal rage, body image healing, and the freedom of not giving a f*ck anymore… nothing is off limits.

Beth shares her journey from musical theater and Hollywood auditions to becoming a relatable voice for women navigating motherhood, identity shifts, and hormonal chaos. Together, Jen and Beth unpack what it actually feels like to be in perimenopause—and why more women need to start talking about it.

This conversation is honest, funny, validating, and the reminder every midlife woman needs: you are not crazy—and you are definitely not alone.

🔥 In This Episode, We Cover:

•  How Beth went from actor to viral creator during the pandemic 
•  Why “The Garbage Mom” resonates with so many women 
•  The reality of perimenopause (anxiety, rage, insomnia, and more) 
•  Growing up in 80s/90s diet culture—and healing body image 
•  Why midlife is the most freeing (and loudest) chapter yet 
•  Marriage, motherhood, and navigating hormones at the same time 
•  Talking to daughters about periods, bodies, and perimenopause 
•  Social media, vulnerability, and staying authentic online 
•  The story behind Perimenopausalpalooza (and why we need it IRL) 
•  Why women in midlife are DONE staying quiet 

💬 Favorite Quotes

🧠 Let’s Talk About It

If you’ve ever:

•  Woken up at 3am with your mind racing 
•  Looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize yourself 
•  Felt rage over something small (like… shaving in a clean sink 😅) 
•  Wondered if this is just you or something bigger 

This episode is your validation.

🎤 About Beth Crosby (The Garbage Mom)

Beth Crosby is an actress, writer, and viral content creator known as The Garbage Mom. With a background in musical theater and comedy (including The Groundlings), she creates raw, relatable content about motherhood, perimenopause, and midlife identity.

Her work has resonated with millions of women—and even caught the attention of icons like Alanis Morissette.

🔗 Connect with Beth

Instagram @thegarbagemom & TikTok: @garbagemom

💌 Connect with Jen & The Midlife Edit

Website: www.themidlifeeditco.com

Podcast: The Midlife Edit
Instagram: @thejenweinstein

⭐️ If You Loved This Episode

Share it with a friend who needs to hear:
 “You’re not losing it… it’s perimenopause.”

And don’t forget to follow, rate, and review—it helps more women find these conversations.

Have you ever looked around at your full, busy life and realized you can't remember the last time you had a real conversation with a real friend?

Not a text. Not a reaction on Instagram. An actual conversation where someone asked how you were really doing — and waited for the answer.

In this episode, Jen names something that so many women in midlife are feeling but rarely say out loud: the quiet, creeping loneliness that comes not from being unlikable or broken — but from living in a season of life that nobody warned us about.

We're calling it the Friendship Recession. And it's more common than you think.

In this episode:

• Why midlife women are experiencing a measurable decline in close friendships — and why it makes complete sense
• The three reasons friendship gets so much harder after 40 (hint: it's not you)
• Why the invisible load we carry leaves almost nothing for the relationships that matter most
• Why vulnerability gets scarier the older we get — and what that's actually costing us
• What genuinely helps — and it's not "join a club"
• Why grieving the friendships that ran their course might be the most important thing you do this year

This one is personal. This one is honest. And this one is for every woman who has ever felt lonely in a life that looks full from the outside.

DM Jen on Instagram @thejenweinstein or reply to this week's Backstage Pass newsletter and tell her: when's the last time you felt truly connected to a friend?

Follow The Midlife Edit: Instagram: @thejenweinstein TikTok: @thejenweinstein Website: www.themidlifeeditco.com Newsletter: Click Here to Join!

We celebrate strong women.

The bold ones.
The loud ones.
The ones who take up space and break the rules.

But if you’re a Gen X or millennial woman…
you probably weren’t raised to be her.

You were raised to admire her.

To be likable.
To be easy.
To go with the flow.
To say, “I’m good with anything.”

In this episode, I’m talking about what that actually did to us—
how we learned to fit in instead of figure ourselves out,
and why so many of us are just now asking:

what do I actually want?

As Women's History Month comes to a close, this is a different kind of conversation—
about the gap between the women we celebrate…
and the way we were taught to be.

If you’ve ever felt like you’ve been shape-shifting your whole life just to belong—

this one’s for you.

Lately, I’ve had a thought I almost didn’t want to say out loud…

What if I’m just tired of working on myself?

In this solo episode, I’m talking about the constant pressure to fix, optimize, and improve every part of our lives—and how exhausting that can become, especially in midlife.

From conflicting health advice to mindset overload, it feels like there’s always something we should be doing better. And at some point, it stops feeling helpful… and starts feeling overwhelming.

I’m also sharing a bit about my own reset right now—what I’m changing, why I’m doing it, and how this time feels different. Not from a place of “fixing,” but from a place of wanting to feel like me again.

If you’ve been feeling off, overwhelmed, or just tired of trying to do everything “right”… this one’s for you.

•  Why self-improvement can start to feel like pressure instead of growth 
•  The overwhelming amount of conflicting advice in health, mindset, and life 
•  How we internalize the idea that we must be doing something wrong 
•  The reality of perimenopause symptoms and why so many women feel “off” 
•  My personal reset (AIP, hormones, and getting back to basics) 
•  Why not everything needs to be optimized—or even healed 
•  Learning to trust yourself again instead of every voice online 

•  You are not broken—you might just be overloaded 
•  Not everything needs fixing, optimizing, or healing 
•  It’s okay to question the constant pressure to improve 
•  Your experience is valid, even if no one has clear answers 
•  Sometimes the goal isn’t to become someone new—it’s to come back to yourself 

•  “Grey Street” – Dave Matthews Band

Instagram: @TheJenWeinstein
 TikTok: @TheJenWeinstein

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend who needs to hear it.
 And if you haven’t already—follow, rate, and review The Midlife Edit so we can keep growing this community together.

This is your midlife edit—
 so let’s make it a damn good chapter.

What happens when two punk-loving rebels from high school reconnect decades later?

In this episode of The Midlife Edit, I sit down with musical theatre writer Nicolette Blount and author Sirena Grey to talk about Riot Grrrl, feminism, motherhood, and what it looks like to reclaim your creative voice in midlife.

Nicolette is a Chickasaw musical theatre writer, composer, lyricist, and producer whose work includes Savage: The Unconquerable Wanda Savage, a powerful musical inspired by the true story of her great-grandmother - a vaudeville sharpshooter and silent film actress who refused to conform to the expectations placed on women in the early 1900s.

Sirena Grey is a writer and editor who spent years raising three boys before returning to her creative work - a journey many women will recognize. Together, Nicolette and Sirena are currently writing Riot Grrrl: The Punk Anti-Musical, a new project inspired by the feminist punk movement that challenged the music industry and gave women a louder voice in the 1990s.

In this conversation, we talk about:

 • rediscovering creativity after motherhood
 • starting (or restarting) a creative career later in life
 • the Riot Grrrl movement and feminist punk culture
 • what it takes to build a musical from the ground up
 • why women’s stories still struggle to find space in the arts
 • how music, storytelling, and rebellion often go hand-in-hand

We also dive into the behind-the-scenes reality of creating a musical - from writing and development to the hustle of getting a show produced.

If you’ve ever felt like you lost a piece of yourself somewhere along the way, this episode is a reminder that it’s never too late to come back to who you are.

Links & Resources

Follow the Riot Grrrl Anti-Musical journey:
 https://riotgrrrlmusical.com

Sirena Grey’s writing:
 https://thewritingsirena.com

Follow Nicolette Blount:
 https://nicoletteblount.com

Learn more about Savage: The Unconquerable Wanda Savage
https://savagethemusical.com

Connect with The Midlife Edit

Follow the podcast and join the conversation:

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/thejenweinstein

Website:
https://www.themidlifeeditco.com

March is Women’s History Month, and while it’s a time to celebrate the progress women have made, it’s also a time to step back and realize something surprising:

Many of the rights women have today didn’t happen centuries ago.

They happened in our parents’ lifetime.

In this episode of The Midlife Edit, Jen talks about why so many women reach midlife and suddenly feel angry, frustrated, or ready to question everything they were taught growing up.

Because for decades, many women were raised with a cultural rulebook that said:

Be agreeable.
Trust authority.
Don’t rock the boat.
Don’t question doctors.
Don’t speak up too loudly.

But midlife has a way of changing that.

Jen reflects on several moments in women’s history that reveal how recent many fundamental rights actually are — from financial independence to healthcare research — and shares her own personal experience navigating years of medical gaslighting before finally being diagnosed with endometriosis and receiving a hysterectomy that changed her life.

Because sometimes midlife isn’t a crisis.

It’s the moment women start rewriting the rules.

In This Episode

• Why women couldn’t open credit cards or mortgages in their own name until 1974
 • Why women were excluded from medical research until the 1990s
 • The long history of healthcare gaslighting toward women
 • Jen’s personal experience with undiagnosed endometriosis and hysterectomy
 • The cultural “rulebook” many women were raised with
 • Why midlife often becomes the moment women find their voice

If This Episode Resonated

If you enjoyed this conversation:

⭐ Follow and subscribe to The Midlife Edit Podcast
⭐ Share this episode with a friend
⭐ Leave a review to help more women find the show

Connect With Jen

Website:
 https://themidlifeeditco.com

Instagram:
@thejenweinstein

TikTok:
@thejenweinstein

Thirty years ago, Mother Mother became an anthem - raw, emotional, unapologetic.

In this episode of The Midlife Edit, I sit down with Tracy Bonham to talk about what it really meant to be labeled “the angry woman” in the 90s - and what it looks like to reclaim that voice in midlife.

This conversation goes far beyond nostalgia.

We talk about:

• Taking up space as a woman in the music industry
• Being misunderstood, minimized, or told to tone it down
• The evolution from 90s rage to midlife clarity
• Motherhood, divorce, and creative reinvention
• Her breast cancer journey and advocating for herself
• Using your platform in a time when artists are told to “stay in their lane”
• The 30th anniversary of The Burdens of Being Upright and her “Where It All Began” residency shows

Tracy reflects on who she was when she wrote Mother Mother, who she is now, and why using your voice — creatively and personally — still matters.

If you’ve ever been told you’re too much, too loud, or too angry… this one is for you.

Connect with Tracy Bonham

Website: https://www.tracybonham.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracybonham/

 🔗 Read the full blog recap here.

If you love this episode, share it with a friend and leave a review - it helps The Midlife Edit grow and reach more women who need these conversations.

One year ago I hit record on a podcast I thought would be about fitness, weight loss, and midlife health.

It turned into something completely different.

In this one-year anniversary episode, I’m reflecting on why I started The Midlife Edit, what midlife actually feels like, and how this space helped me find clarity, confidence, and my voice in my 40s.

We talk about the narratives women are given once we reach midlife — that we should shrink, stay quiet, or stop reinventing ourselves — and why I don’t believe any of that.

I share what changed this year, what didn’t, and how strength, style, career shifts, and honest conversations reshaped how I see aging.

And I also share a full-circle moment: interviewing one of my favorite artists growing up — Tracy Bonham — whose episode drops next week.

If you’ve ever felt the shift, questioned your identity, or realized you might actually be becoming more yourself — not less — this episode is for you.

Midlife isn’t the ending.
 It’s authorship.

• Confidence comes after action — not before
• Midlife isn’t a crisis, it’s clarity
• Strength > thinness
• You don’t lose yourself in midlife — you stop performing
• Reinvention is allowed at any age
• Women don’t need fixing — they need permission
• Aging can be something to look forward to

“Midlife isn’t a crisis — it’s the first time we know ourselves well enough to live on purpose.” 

And if you’ve been listening for a while, leaving a review helps more women find this space.

A conversation with Grammy-nominated artist Tracy Bonham — on creativity, identity, and evolving through every stage of life.

Midlife changes everything - our bodies, our relationships, our identity, and sometimes even our sense of connection to ourselves.

In this episode, I sit down with pleasure coach and author Elana Auerbach to talk about intimacy, shame, ritual, and what it really means to reconnect with your body and your desires in this season of life.

Elana shares how spending more than a decade struggling with intimacy in her own relationship led her to create The Sure Thing - a weekly ritual designed to remove pressure, build emotional safety, and bring playfulness back into long-term relationships.

But this conversation goes far beyond intimacy.

We talk about:

• Why so many women feel disconnected from their bodies in midlife
 • How shame and conditioning impact our relationship with pleasure
 • Why desire changes in long-term relationships - and why that’s normal
 • The power of ritual in creating safety and anticipation
 • What it actually means to take responsibility for your own pleasure
 • How reconnecting with your body can rebuild confidence and identity

If you’ve ever felt uncomfortable in your changing body… unsure of what you want… or hesitant to prioritize yourself without guilt - this episode is your permission slip.

Midlife isn’t about losing yourself. It’s about rediscovering who you are now.

✨ Intimacy fades without intention - and that’s normal
 ✨ Shame is one of the biggest barriers to pleasure and connection
 ✨ Ritual creates emotional safety in relationships
 ✨ Playfulness can revive desire more than pressure ever will
 ✨ You are allowed to prioritize connection, joy, and pleasure without apology

• The Sure Thing by Elana Auerbach Buy it here
• Learn more about Elana and her work: The Sure Thing Experiment