The Spinster Life Podcast

I’m so pleased to welcome Michele Wispelway to the show. Michele is on a mission to revolutionize women's health through her digital telemedicine platform FemGevity. With her extensive experience and unwavering passion, she's here to empower women, tackle menopause, and unleash feminine longevity.

For women, the thought of getting older is terrifying. We’re inundated with stories about the decay of our bodies and how we’d better “hurry up” and take advantage of our youth while we can. You’ve probably read all about the “dangers” of having a baby over the age of 35. Your pregnancy is "geriatric”, your kid will probably have some kind of genetic abnormality IF you can even get pregnant at all. Because after you turn 35 you’re eggs are rotten and your uterus becomes an inhospitable wasteland.

But is that really how fertility works?

Today, we discuss how we perceive women once they’ve hit the age 35 and reveal the source of the panic about “old” women having babies. We’ll also discuss why we never talk about the decline of men’s fertility and what you can do to empower yourself to feel comfortable in your own body.

Resources

Where the 35-Year Fertility Cliff Myth Comes From

Here’s Michele

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Shana Francesca is the founder of Concinnate World where she uses the principles of life design to help her clients live more joyful and fulfilled lives.

In the second part of our conversation, we take on the world! Why do we believe the things we do? And what can we do to dismantle belief systems that have existed for thousands of years? Call out inequalities when we see them, keep talking about it, and never shut up about it.

Articles About The Bumble Kidnapper Here and HereListen To The First Part of My Conversation With Shana Francesca

Here’s Shana:

linktr.ee/ShanaFrancesca

linktr.ee/Concinnate

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Picture it: 2020, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. A gorgeous young redhead hunches over a laptop, listening intently to the final cut of her passion project, a podcast about single women. Her finger hovers indecisively over the post button. Will she launch the podcast, or will she let it languish on her hard drive?

That redhead was me. And that podcast was The Spinster Life Podcast. I did, of course, launch the podcast because I’m now 50 episodes deep.

But what would have happened if I hadn’t pushed past my fears and hit publish on the first episode?

I speculate on what I would say to my past self about all my fears and doubts in this very special episode of the podcast. It’s no secret that I love TV, so this episode is my homage to sitcom clip shows. I’ve learned a lot, laughed a lot, cried a little, and now I’m looking back at all of it.

A huge thank you to all my fantastic guests over the years, I’m so proud of what we’ve created together. Another huge thank you to everyone who has ever listened.

If you want to post about The Spinster Life or share with friends I’ve made it super easy for you. You can use this link to access copy and graphics that you can use to create social media posts for your feed. Thanks for helping me spread the word about the show.

You can subscribe to The Spinster Life on Substack! You’ll get new episodes of the podcast directly in your inbox. Look for new episodes bi-weekly (I mean the every other week kind of bi-weekly) as well as my column Dating Myself Era, a resource for learning how to date yourself (sometimes featuring personal stories from my own dating journey.)

Or watch my YouTube videos! I recently hit 1,000 subscribers and would love to skyrocket my subscriber count.

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This nimbly-bimbly little kitten lived in a trash pile behind my apartment building and was the impetus for helping an entire colony of feral cats.

The brand Cat Lady has come to symbolize singleness, is usually preceded by the word crazy, and is generally not a compliment. If you’re a single woman who has a cat, or two cats, or five cats, you have probably seen some eye rolls and been told that men will run away in terror from you.

But f**k all that noise! Cats make great pets,cat ladies are rad, and I have the receipts to prove it.

This is the first in a series of episodes about cat ladies, where we break down stereotypes surrounding single women with cats and reveal the real people behind the cats. Today, I talk to my guests Leysan, Lucy, and Haley about how their cats came into their lives.

Here’s Leysan Khabibullina:

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Leysan’s Last Appearance on The Spinster Life Podcast

Here’s Lucy Meggeson:

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Lucy’s Last Appearance on The Spinster Life Podcast

Here’s Haley Shapley:

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Haley’s Last Appearance on The Spinster Life Podcast

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I’ve got to take myself on more dates!

This year I undertook a very vulnerable and public look back at my years on the dating scene I call the 300 First Dates Project. Throughout the short life of this project, I’ve reflected on mistakes I’ve made and the bad behavior I’ve witnessed. Years later, I’m still traumatized. But I think I’ve figured out how to heal.

The only antidote to going on bad dates is to go on good dates. And who is the best person to take me on these dates? Me! This solo episode is a love letter to dating yourself, and a document of my first stab at solo dating with a purpose.

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Patricia Smith Griffin is a historian, genealogist, podcaster, and the keeper of a rich family history. She is descended from early Ohio settler Charity Davis Ceasar Broady and was told the story of her family’s legacy, passed down through the generations by the women in her family, since the time she was born. To honor her family and keep the stories alive, Patricia founded Charity’s Children Project, a non-profit organization committed to establishing a multicultural center in Dayton, Ohio, and wrote and voiced The Legacy of Charity’s Children, a short story podcast series that illuminates the generational journey of one of Dayton’s oldest African American families.

Patricia joins me to show us how single women can leave a legacy for themselves by telling us the stories of her unmarried (and married late in life) relatives and how their accomplishments shaped her family. She also gives us some tips on how you can find the spinsters in your family tree.

Here’s Patricia: Charity’s Children Website

The Legacy of Charity’s Children PodcastEmail Patricia

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Shana Francesca is a  speaker, writer, and entrepreneur.  She helps people live more joyful and connected lives through the principles of life design.  Shana believes our present and future are transformed when we infuse our lives with intention, we design our lives, and realize the power in accepting ourselves as the author of our story. 

This week, we’re talking about our homes, the one sanctuary where we still have some control over our bodies. Shana throws down some wisdom that goes beyond paint colors or throw pillows. She challenges us to look past what we were taught our homes should be and how we set boundaries to find what feels intentionally authentic.

Resources:

Dormzilla Article

Here’s Shana:

linktr.ee/ShanaFrancesca

linktr.ee/Concinnate

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When you think of romcoms, which rom-com star comes to mind? Julia Roberts? Meg Ryan? Reese Witherspoon?

Today on the podcast, the right answer is Sandra Bullock. Lucy and I are taking a look at 3 of Sandy’s classic rom-com roles from 1995 - 2009; Lucy in While You Were Sleeping, Lucy in Two Weeks Notice, and Margaret in The Proposal.

How have these movies aged? Does the portrayal of women get better or worse as the years progress? Lucy and I went on a wild ride to find out. There was sweetness, there was conflict, and in the end, our mutual hate of one of these movies reunited us.

Lucy is a frequent contributor to the podcast. She’s a post-graduate researcher focusing on mental illness in sitcoms and previously she’s been on the show to discuss women in sitcoms, the portrayal of women in BoJack Horseman, and the women of the MCU.

**Spoiler Alert - There Will Be Spoilers**

Here’s Lucy:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lucy_rivers_pgr/And Twitter: https://twitter.com/LucyriPhd

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My guest Kira Sabin is a Positive Psychology Practitioner, Certified Life Coach, and the Troop Leader of Love at the Relationship-Quotient.com. For the past 14 years she’s been unleashing her no-nonsense wisdom to coach singles on building the relationship they need.

She is obsessed with understanding how love and relationships work from a psychological, emotional, and scientific point of view. She works with singles from around the world through her process, the Owner’s Manual, and her Relationship Quotient Community. She hails from America’s Dairyland, Madison, WI, and is, in fact, a cheesehead!

Kira and I can both agree, dating sucks! But why exactly? Well, we break it down and lay out the top 7 reasons that dating sucks - for everyone! Even if you’re having a great time dating, meeting quality matches who treat you with respect, and looking forward to swiping right, Kira has some insights that will help you get even better at dating. And if you’re not, we commiserate about how dating has changed but our brains still haven’t caught up to the new reality.

Here’s Kira: InstagramFacebookTwitterKira Sabin’s Website

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This week, Amie is joined by Chantelle Dyson, a love and life coach. She helps singles find confidence in their relationship with themselves so they can find a healthy, fulfilling relationship with someone else. If that’s what they’re after, that is. Chantelle is the host of the podcast The Single Girl’s Guide To Life and the founder of The Single Girls Club, a space for single women to create community.

If one of your resolutions this year was to “get back out there” and start dating, listen up! Chantelle tells us about three key areas that singles should work on, community, courage, and character, to make dating as stress-free as possible. And maybe even fun!

Here’s ChantelleWebsiteOn InstagramOn TikTok