The Wobbly Middle: Women's Career Crossroads In Midlife

Executive MBA, going back to study as a mature student, and finding your tribe in midlife with Urmi Dutta-Roy (CFO, The Folio Society) and Louise Welch (ex-PlayStation, now working fractionally) are executive MBA alumnae and good friends.

In this conversation they talk about the difficulty women have creating space to investing in themselves; about stepping away from the nine-to-five, and how "the 100 year life" changes our attitudes towards learning and the shape of our careers. They are honest about the trade-offs (financial, practical, emotional) and the rewards too of going back to study: community, confidence, a lens on the world that a job title alone will never give you.

If you are feeling a career plateau, wondering whether it's too late to go back to study, or simply looking for your tribe in the wobbly middle, listen listen listen.

THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast for women rethinking their careers in midlife. Each season, Patsy sits down with women who share their career pivot stories — leaving corporate life and building businesses, breaking back in after career breaks, going back to study, and taking their long-neglected dreams seriously.

New episodes every other Tuesday.

ABOUT THE HOST: Patsy Day is a recovering lawyer navigating her own midlife career crossroads. A penny dropped for her when she realised that the restless feeling she'd been feeling was returning ambition. The Wobbly Middle is that in-between space where we know we want change but don't know how to move forward.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS AJ BELL

Thank you to AJ Bell Money Matters for supporting this episode. The AJ Bell Money Matters podcast is created for women by women, featuring news, information and inspiring interviews to help build your knowledge and confidence around finances. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Please click here to show your support and find out more about AJ Bell: https://www.ajbell.co.uk/investment/women-and-investing?utm_source=moneymatters&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=wobblymiddle

Key Topics

Executive MBA for women — why Urmi and Louise did theirs, the financial and time trade-offs, and why women in their cohorts had to work harder to justify the space

Permission to succeed — the internal and external negotiation women do before investing in themselves, and why men in the same room didn't seem to need to

Going back to study as a mature student — the joy of learning for its own sake when you are no longer 19 and chasing a grade

Fractional working — what it looks like, why society struggles to classify it, and why "what do you do?" is a rubbish question we should start relishing

Identity beyond job title — Louise on the first day of her MBA cohort, watching everyone introduce themselves by job title, and realising she didn't want to

Women in male-dominated industries— Louise on gaming in the early 2000s, and the message younger women absorbed that to succeed you had to "be like a man"

Asking for help — Louise on unlearning the baby-boomer "keep your head down" mentality, and discovering that most people want to help

Links

- The Wobbly Middle on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-wobbly-middle/id1767850643

- The Wobbly Middle on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4YhwsBch8Q9vAOUBBfusIv

- Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep29-urmi-louise

- Find out more about The Wobbly Middle: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com/about?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep29-urmi-louise

If You Enjoyed This Episode

You might also love Season 3 Episode 8 Shefaly Yogendra, another conversation about non-linear careers, portfolio working and the gatekeepers women meet in midlife. If this episode made you think about what your next chapter might look like beyond a traditional job title, Shefaly's boardroom journey is the natural next listen.

HELP US GROW

If this episode resonated with you, there are two simple things that make a real difference:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it only takes a moment, and it's one of the best ways to help new listeners find the show. Every review counts.
• Share this episode with a friend — if you know someone who might be in their own wobbly middle, send them this one. Sometimes knowing you're not alone is all it takes.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Made a left turn in your career? We'd love to hear about it. Write to Patsy at [email protected] — your story might just be the nudge someone else needs.

This episode was produced by Patsy Day. Studio recording by The Pod Collective.

Thank you for listening and for supporting independent podcasts.

Non-linear careers, midlife career change and what it takes to walk into a boardroom. Shefaly Yogendra - engineer, Cambridge PhD, portfolio board director and author of Uncharted Spaces: Reset the Agenda. Reimagine the Boardroom - joins Patsy on her book’s launch day.

Curiosity and patience are the golden threads running through Shefaly's life, and in this episode they take us from beehives in rural Kenya to onion warehouses in India, by way of a black cab in London.

If you’re at a career crossroads, feeling returning ambition, or quietly reimagining what a second act looks like, listen as together they unpack metacognitive reflections that will help you carry your capabilities into the next chapter.

THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast for women rethinking their careers in midlife. Each season, Patsy sits down with women who share their career pivot stories — leaving corporate life and building businesses, breaking back in after career breaks, going back to study, and taking their long-neglected dreams seriously.

New episodes every other Tuesday.

ABOUT THE HOST: Patsy Day is a recovering lawyer navigating her own midlife career crossroads. A penny dropped for her when she realised that the restless feeling she'd been feeling was returning ambition. The Wobbly Middle is that in-between space where we know we want change but don't know how to move forward.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS AJ BELL

Thank you to AJ Bell Money Matters for supporting this episode. The AJ Bell Money Matters podcast is created for women by women featuring news, information and inspiring interviews to help build your knowledge and confidence around finances. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Please click here to show support of our podcast and to find out more about AJ Bell:

https://www.ajbell.co.uk/investment/women-and-investing?utm_source=moneymatters&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=wobblymiddle

Listener Exercise — Channel Shefaly’s Curiosity

Over the next week or two, take something you’re chewing over — a challenge, a direction, a problem, a decision. Make a list of questions about it. Then drill down: what further questions do you need to ask to find the answers to those questions? In the next episode, we’ll think about what to do with them.

About Shefaly Yogendra

Shefaly studied engineering, earned an MBA from one of India’s most prestigious business schools, completed a PhD in decision making (and a Masters in Technology Policy) at Cambridge. Over the last decade she has served on the boards of several of the UK’s leading listed investment trusts, co-founded a luxury-tech startup, and been COO of an AI company. Her book Uncharted Spaces: Reset the Agenda. Reimagine the Boardroom publishes on 14 April 2026.

Key Topics

• The non-linear career — why Shefaly’s path through engineering, MBA, Cambridge PhD, MIT, a luxury-tech startup, an AI COO role and a portfolio of board seats was never going to be a straight line
• Returning ambition in midlife — the women who step away in their 30s and 40s and still carry their curiosity with them
• Curiosity and patience — two qualities that don’t seem to sit together until they do
• The board director career path — what non-execs actually do, how it differs from the executive suite, and why it isn’t a retirement gig or a “jolly”
• How Shefaly broke in — spotting the Board Apprentice Programme in a Sunday newspaper in 2015, being coached by headhunter Carol Rosati, and the interview where her small talk about Uber became big talk
• Metacognitive reflection — how to describe the higher-level capabilities that actually travel with you
• The psychological shift — detaching your identity from a job title and a company name
• Margaret Wanjiku’s Smart Hive — a young Kenyan engineer using IoT, solar panels and mobile phones to save collapsing beehives, and the ecosystem around them
• Kalyani Shinde’s onion warehouses — IoT sensing to catch rot before anyone can smell it, in Asia’s largest onion trading hub
• Belief as the biggest limiter — Sam Smith of Super Scalers on what holds women back from scaling, and why seeing other women do it matters
• The road not taken — Robert Frost only offered two roads. Shefaly thinks there are many — and many more uncharted ones

Want to see as well as hear? An extended version of this conversation will be available on The Wobbly Middle YouTube channel — including extra material that didn't make the podcast edit. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/vvifAdOQ2os?si=XnVjDhJhWDndrkYY

HELP US GROW

If this episode resonated with you, there are two simple things that make a real difference:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it only takes a moment, and it's one of the best ways to help new listeners find the show. Every review counts.
• Share this episode with a friend — if you know someone who might be in their own wobbly middle, send them this one. Sometimes knowing you're not alone is all it takes.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Made a left turn in your career? We'd love to hear about it. Write to Patsy at [email protected] — your story might just be the nudge someone else needs.

This episode was produced by Patsy Day. Studio recording by The Pod Collective.

Modelling, Motherhood and the Microbiome | Catherine Hurley Arbibe on Gut Health & Investigative Wellness Journalist Rebecca Newman

From behind the scenes at the world's biggest fashion shows to the science behind the gut microbiome - Catherine Hurley Arbibe shows us a new road to gut health.

Catherine read medicine at Oxford, modelled internationally gracing the covers of Vogue, Marie Claire and Cosmo, and is now the founder of NEWROAD30, a gut health supplement developed with scientists from Oxford, INRAE Paris and Queen's University Belfast. Catherine talks candidly about the reality of life as an international model, what motherhood changed, and how she found her way back to science.

Together with guest co-host and investigative wellness journalist Rebecca Newman, Catherine helps us cut through the noise on gut health supplements, the emerging research on microplastics and three clean living changes that actually make a difference - including the sunscreen question we all need answered.

This is an episode about returning to ours roots, career changes in our 40s, plant diversity, our beautiful brains and finding our way back to something that energises us.

THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast for women rethinking their careers in midlife. Each season, Patsy sits down with women who share their career pivot stories — leaving corporate life and building businesses, breaking back in after career breaks, going back to study, and taking their long-neglected dreams seriously.

New episodes every other Tuesday.

ABOUT THE HOST: Patsy Day is a recovering lawyer navigating her own midlife career crossroads. A penny dropped for her when she realised that the restless feeling she'd been feeling was returning ambition. The Wobbly Middle is that in-between space where we know we want change but don't know how to move forward.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS AJ BELL

Thank you to AJ Bell Money Matters for supporting this episode. The AJ Bell Money Matters podcast is created for women by women featuring news, information and inspiring interviews to help build your knowledge and confidence around finances. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Please click here to show support of our podcast and to find out more about AJ Bell:

https://www.ajbell.co.uk/investment/women-and-investing?utm_source=moneymatters&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=wobblymiddle

Want to see as well as hear? An extended version of this conversation is available on The Wobbly Middle YouTube channel — including extra material that didn't make the podcast edit. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/vvifAdOQ2os?si=XnVjDhJhWDndrkYY

Rebecca Newman is an investigative wellness journalist who has written for the Financial Times, The Guardian and GQ. She has a particular interest in the science of the gut microbiome, women's health and evidence-based wellness. She joined Patsy for The Wobbly Middle's vision board episode and is back this week to dig into the science with Catherine.

• Career pivot in midlife — from medicine to modelling to founding a science-backed gut health supplement
• The gut microbiome — why it matters more than we realised and how to support it
• The American Gut Project — the research behind eating 30 different plants a week
• Gut health supplements — what to look for, what to avoid, and why food state matters
• Microplastics — the emerging research and what fibre has to do with it
• The backstage reality — what life at the top of the modelling world was really like
• Clean living edits — three practical changes Catherine has made at home
• Women's health in midlife — plant diversity for a healthy gut

Links

• NEWROAD30: https://newroad.life/?srsltid=AfmBOoo5nHDwZ8p4mpgOQDPPP_osOT6LynaaMgrt7pC48nSCMGHKu00Y
• Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com/
• Find out more about The Wobbly Middle: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com/
• The Wobbly Middle on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-wobbly-middle/id1767850643
• The Wobbly Middle on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4YhwsBch8Q9vAOUBBfusIv

Before you leave — if this episode has you thinking about what you want your next chapter to look like, we have just the episode for you.

Do action boards actually work, or are they just arts and crafts with ambition? In our vision board episode, Rebecca Newman draws on the research of neuroscientist Dr Tara Swart, author of The Source, to explain what's really going on in our brains when we make an action board — and why it might be exactly the tool you need in your wobbly middle. Then theory meets practice as Patsy and Rebecca head to the craft room, where scissors and glue meet cork board, to make their own.

It turns out an action board isn't about magical thinking. It's a daily point of orientation — keeping you facing forward.

👉 Listen to the vision board episode here:

HELP US GROW

If this episode resonated with you, there are two simple things that make a real difference:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it only takes a moment, and it's one of the best ways to help new listeners find the show. Every review counts.
• Share this episode with a friend — if you know someone who might be in their own wobbly middle, send them this one. Sometimes knowing you're not alone is all it takes.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Made a left turn in your career? We'd love to hear about it. Write to Patsy at [email protected] — your story might just be the nudge someone else needs.

This episode was produced by Patsy Day. Studio recording by The Pod Collective.

Thank you for listening and for supporting independent podcasters.

Women in midlife came of age between punk and the Spice Girls. That spirit doesn't leave you. If you're returning to work after a career break, rebuilding career confidence, or just need a shot of self-belief to counter the midlife angst, Jacquie and Rebecca will have you powering up.

Jacquie Duckworth worked in the media on iconic brands ranging from Country Life to FHM, Grazia, and the Times before co-founding Visible Start, a free 10-week career returner programme. Rebecca Byrne is one of its graduates: a former actor and NCT trainer who now works in community health — and someone who had, as she puts it, "never worked in an office." Together, they bring verve, wit, and a fierce refusal to accept that midlife women should settle for invisibility.

This conversation crackles with energy. We talk about why ageism at work is a commercial own goal, why transferable skills from life outside the office are exactly what employers need, and why a midlife career pivot is building forward (not starting over). If you're navigating a career break, wondering whether you still have a place at the table, or simply need reminding that your best work may still be ahead of you — this one's for you.

THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast for women rethinking their careers in midlife. Each season, Patsy sits down with women who share their career pivot stories — leaving corporate life and building businesses, breaking back in after career breaks, going back to study, and taking their long-neglected dreams seriously.

New episodes every other Tuesday.

ABOUT THE HOST: Patsy Day is a recovering lawyer navigating her own midlife career crossroads. A penny dropped for her when she realised that the restless feeling she'd been feeling was returning ambition. The Wobbly Middle is that in-between space where we know we want change but don't know how to move forward.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS AJ BELL

Thank you to AJ Bell Money Matters for supporting this episode. The AJ Bell Money Matters podcast is created for women by women featuring news, information and inspiring interviews to help build your knowledge and confidence around finances. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Please click here to show support of our podcast and to find out more about AJ Bell:

https://www.ajbell.co.uk/investment/women-and-investing?utm_source=moneymatters&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=wobblymiddle

• Visible Start: https://www.visiblestart.com
• Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep26-jacquie-duckworth-rebecca-byrne
• Find out more about The Wobbly Middle: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com/about?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep26-jacquie-duckworth-rebecca-byrne
• The Wobbly Middle on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-wobbly-middle/id1767850643
• The Wobbly Middle on Spotify:

IF YOU LOVED THIS EPISODE

You might also love our conversation with Nina Van Schaick in Season 1, Episode 3. A midwife who witnessed firsthand the failures in maternal care — and decided to do something about it. With less than 2% of pharmaceutical R&D dedicated to maternal health, Nina didn't wait for permission. She took action herself. Another woman who saw a gap, backed herself, and built something. Sound familiar?

HELP US GROW

If this episode resonated with you, there are two simple things that make a real difference:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it only takes a moment, and it's one of the best ways to help new listeners find the show. Every review counts.
• Share this episode with a friend — if you know someone who might be in their own wobbly middle, send them this one. Sometimes knowing you're not alone is all it takes.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Made a left turn in your career? We'd love to hear about it. Write to Patsy at [email protected] — your story might just be the nudge someone else needs.

This episode was produced by Patsy Day. Studio recording by The Pod Collective.

Thank you for listening and for supporting independent podcasters.

Comedy as a midlife career move — and why humour is one of the most powerful tools for change and an anti-dote to midlife angst.

What if the thing that makes you funny is the same thing that makes you powerful? Journalist, author and activist, Lynn Harris, has spent three decades using comedy to drive cultural change. From co-creating the cult 1990s superhero Breakup Girl, Lynn has now founded Gold Comedy, an online comedy school where women in their 40s and 50s are bringing the most fire.

In this conversation, Lynn and Patsy talk about the gender gap in comedy; who gets to talk and who has to listen; why "exposure" doesn't pay the bills, and how your transferable skills are the Candyland board that will take you places.

Lynn's message: if you're curious about developing your sense of humor, you don't have to change who you are in order to be funny… Don't wait for yourself to turn into someone else, which you won't. You already have everything it takes.

THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast for women rethinking their careers in midlife. Each season, Patsy sits down with women who share their career pivot stories — leaving corporate life and building businesses, breaking back in after career breaks, going back to study, and taking their long-neglected dreams seriously.

New episodes every other Tuesday.

ABOUT THE HOST: Patsy Day is a recovering lawyer navigating her own midlife career crossroads. A penny dropped for her when she realised that the restless feeling she'd been feeling was returning ambition. The Wobbly Middle is that in-between space where we know we want change but don't know how to move forward.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS AJ BELL

Thank you to AJ Bell Money Matters for supporting this episode. The AJ Bell Money Matters podcast is created for women by women featuring news, information and inspiring interviews to help build your knowledge and confidence around finances. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Please click here to show support of our podcast and to find out more about AJ Bell:

https://www.ajbell.co.uk/investment/women-and-investing?utm_source=moneymatters&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=wobblymiddle

• Comedy as a vehicle for cultural change — humour as a "delivery system" for shifting norms and assumptions
• The Candyland board career — transferring skills across a patchwork freelance life, where writing, comedy, activism, and campaigning are all different-coloured squares on the same path
• The gender gap in comedy — not about talent, but about who gets the stage, the mic, the writers' room, and the power to decide what's funny
• Women getting paid for creative work — the Cindy Gallop advice: "Say the largest amount you can without actually bursting into laughter"
• Gold Comedy's Build and Pitch programme — taught by Ryan Cunningham, where women in their 40s and 50s consistently bring the biggest fire
• "You don't have to change who you are to succeed" — or to be funny. Your unique perspective is all the raw material you need.

• The Wobbly Middle on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-wobbly-middle/id1767850643
• The Wobbly Middle on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4YhwsBch8Q9vAOUBBfusIv
• Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep25-lynn-harris
• Find out more about The Wobbly Middle: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com/about?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep25-lynn-harris

• Instagram: @goldcomedy
• Twitter/X: @GOLDcomedy
• Lynn on Instagram: @lynnharris
• Lynn on Twitter/X: @harrislynn
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnharris1

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You might also love Episode 24: From Teacher's Desk to Therapist's Couch with Carri Simmons. Where Lynn describes the "Candyland board" of a patchwork career — transferring skills in unexpected directions — Carri tells the deeply personal story of leaving teaching and retraining as a psychologist in midlife.

HELP US GROW

If this episode resonated with you, there are two simple things that make a real difference:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it only takes a moment, and it's one of the best ways to help new listeners find the show. Every review counts.
• Share this episode with a friend — if you know someone who might be in their own wobbly middle, send them this one. Sometimes knowing you're not alone is all it takes.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Made a left turn in your career? We'd love to hear about it. Write to Patsy at [email protected] — your story might just be the nudge someone else needs.

This episode was produced by Patsy Day. Studio recording by The Pod Collective.

A career pivot story about retraining as a psychologist after a career break — for women starting over in midlife.

What happens when you realise the career you built isn't the life you want? Carri Simmons spent years as a drama teacher until the toll of staying in the wrong role became impossible to ignore. "I had to leave because I wasn't able to be open to the world because I was in fight or flight. I was in a trauma mode."

In this episode, Patsy talks to her long-distance bestie about walking away from teaching, going back to university as a mother of three, and retraining as a psychologist in South Africa. It's about believing that there IS something more for you.

If you've ever wondered whether it's too late to start again, this one's for you.

THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast for women rethinking their careers in midlife. Each season, Patsy sits down with women who share their career pivot stories — leaving corporate life and building businesses, breaking back in after career breaks, going back to study, and taking their long-neglected dreams seriously.

New episodes every other Tuesday.

ABOUT THE HOST: Patsy Day is a recovering lawyer navigating her own midlife career crossroads. A penny dropped for her when she realised that the restless feeling she'd been feeling was returning ambition. The Wobbly Middle is that in-between space where we know we want change but don't know how to move forward.

ABOUT CARRI: Carri Simmons is a practising psychologist based in South Africa. A former drama teacher and mother of three, she returned to university in midlife to retrain — earning her psychology qualification and building a new career from scratch. She and Patsy are long-distance friends who share a belief that it's never too late to change direction.

• Leaving teaching for a new career in psychology
• The emotional and physical toll of staying in the wrong career
• Recognising fight-or-flight mode as a signal that something needs to change
• Going back to university as a mature student with children
• The power of incremental steps - trying things out before you leap
• Being open to possibilities even when the path isn't clear
• Building a new professional identity in midlife

• Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep24-carri-simmons
• Find out more about The Wobbly Middle: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com/about?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep24-carri-simmons
• The Wobbly Middle on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-wobbly-middle/id1767850643
• The Wobbly Middle on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4YhwsBch8Q9vAOUBBfusIv

https://www.instagram.com/carri_simmons_psychologist/

---

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE

You might also love Season 3 Episode 3 with Julianne Miles. Where Carri tells the deeply personal story of going back to university and retraining from scratch, Julianne explores the science behind career returns — including the psychology of good luck, neuroplasticity and lighting up the pathways. Together, they're two sides of the same coin: the courage to start again, and the evidence that we are still learning and growing.

HELP US GROW

If this episode resonated with you, there are two simple things that make a real difference:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it only takes a moment, and it's one of the best ways to help new listeners find the show. Every review counts.
• Share this episode with a friend — if you know someone who might be in their own wobbly middle, send them this one. Sometimes knowing you're not alone is all it takes.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Made a left turn in your career? We'd love to hear about it. Write to Patsy at [email protected] — your story might just be the nudge someone else needs.

This episode was produced by Patsy Day. Studio recording by The Pod Collective.

Thank you for listening and for supporting independent podcasters.

Returning to work after a career break — the psychology of luck, neuroplasticity, and starting again in midlife.

Julianne Miles knows what it takes to return to work because she's done it herself. After stepping away from marketing when her children were small, she spent over a year asking herself "can I really start again?" — a question many of us will recognise. The answer was yes: she retrained as a psychologist and went on to co-found Career Returners, a social enterprise that has changed how employers and policymakers think about career breaks.

In this episode, Julianne shares the science behind why it's never too late, including the encouraging research on neuroplasticity, work-family enrichment, and the psychology of luck. Her advice? Stop overthinking and start doing.

THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast for women rethinking their careers in midlife. Each season, Patsy sits down with women who share their career pivot stories — leaving corporate life and building businesses, breaking back in after career breaks, going back to study, and taking their long-neglected dreams seriously.

New episodes every other Tuesday.

ABOUT THE HOST: Patsy Day is a recovering lawyer navigating her own midlife career crossroads. A penny dropped for her when she realised that the restless feeling she'd been feeling was returning ambition. The Wobbly Middle is that in-between space where we know we want change but don't know how to move forward.

Julianne Miles MBE is an occupational psychologist and co-founder of Career Returners, a social impact enterprise and community dedicated to making career breaks a valued part of a lifetime career. A former marketer who retrained as a psychologist after her own career break, she has shaped how employers and policymakers think about return-to-work practices. She brought the concept of "returnships" — pioneered by Goldman Sachs — to the UK, and is the author of Return Journey: How to Get Back to Work and Thrive After a Career Break. She was awarded an MBE for services to career returners.

KEY TOPICS

• The "shall I, shan't I" phase — and how to break the cycle of indecision
• Why confidence comes from action, not from having the perfect plan
• Neuroplasticity: your brain makes new connections at any age — the science says it's never too late
• Work-family enrichment: why going back to work can give you more energy, not less
• The psychology of luck — Richard Wiseman's research on why "lucky" people create their own opportunities
• How Career Returners grew from kitchen table workshops to a national platform
• Navigating recruitment bias against career gaps — and what actually works
• Building your return-to-work support team and the power of community
• Why "every no gets me closer to a yes"

• Julianne's book Return Journey: https://careerreturners.com/return-journey-book/
• Career Returners Professional Community (free or pay-if-you-can): https://community.careerreturners.com/
• The Wobbly Middle on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-wobbly-middle/id1767850643
• The Wobbly Middle on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4YhwsBch8Q9vAOUBBfusIv
• Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep23-julianne-miles
• Find out more about The Wobbly Middle: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com/about?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep23-julianne-miles

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE

You might also love our Season 3 Episode with Carri Simmons From Teacher's Desk to Psychologist's Sofa with Carri Simmons. Where Julianne shares the science behind career returns, Carri tells the deeply personal story of walking away from teaching, going back to university as a mother of three, and retraining as a psychologist. Together, they're two sides of the same coin: the evidence that it works, and the courage to try.

HELP US GROW

If this episode resonated with you, there are two simple things that make a real difference:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it only takes a moment, and it's one of the best ways to help new listeners find the show. Every review counts.
• Share this episode with a friend — if you know someone who might be in their own wobbly middle, send them this one. Sometimes knowing you're not alone is all it takes.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Made a left turn in your career? We'd love to hear about it. Write to Patsy at [email protected] — your story might just be the nudge someone else needs.

This episode was produced by Patsy Day. Studio recording by The Pod Collective.

Thank you for listening and for supporting independent podcasters.

The neuroscience behind action boards / vision boards and goal-setting — and how to use them at a career crossroads.

Do action boards actually work, or are they just arts and crafts with ambition? In this bonus episode, investigative wellness journalist Rebecca Newman draws on the research of neuroscientist Dr Tara Swart, author of The Source, to explain what's really going on in our brains when we make an action board — and why they might be exactly the tool you need in your wobbly middle.

Then theory meets practice as Patsy and Rebecca head to the craft room, where scissors and glue meet cork board, to make their own. It turns out a vision board isn't about magical thinking — it's a daily point of orientation, keeping you facing forward.

KEY TOPICS

• The neuroscience behind actions boards — what happens in your brain when you visualise your goals
• Dr Tara Swart's research in The Source on selective attention and goal prioritisation
• How action boards differ from wish lists — making goals tangible and visible
• Using action boards as a practical tool for navigating a career crossroads in midlife
• The power of keeping your goals front and centre as a daily point of orientation
• Why getting hands-on with scissors and glue can unlock clarity you weren't expecting

THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast for women rethinking their careers in midlife. Each season, Patsy sits down with women who share their career pivot stories — leaving corporate life and building businesses, breaking back in after career breaks, going back to study, and taking their long-neglected dreams seriously.

New episodes every other Tuesday.

ABOUT THE HOST: Patsy Day is a recovering lawyer navigating her own midlife career crossroads. A penny dropped for her when she realised that the restless feeling she'd been feeling was returning ambition. The Wobbly Middle is that in-between space where we know we want change but don't know how to move forward.

LINKS

The Source by Dr Tara Swart: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16913/9781785042003

The Wobbly Middle on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-wobbly-middle/id1767850643

The Wobbly Middle on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4YhwsBch8Q9vAOUBBfusIv

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep22-rebecca-newman

- Find out more about The Wobbly Middle: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com/about?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep22-rebecca-newman

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE

You might also love our Q&A with Patsy Day and Susannah de Jager, where they opened the mailbag to tackle listeners' questions about navigating the midlife career odyssey. If the action board episode got you thinking about what's next, the Q&A offers practical encouragement for when you're ready to take the next step.

HELP US GROW

If this episode resonated with you, there are two simple things that make a real difference:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it only takes a moment, and it's one of the best ways to help new listeners find the show. Every review counts.
• Share this episode with a friend — if you know someone who might be in their own wobbly middle, send them this one. Sometimes knowing you're not alone is all it takes.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Made a left turn in your career? We'd love to hear about it. Write to Patsy at [email protected] — your story might just be the nudge someone else needs.

This episode was produced by Patsy Day. Studio recording by The Pod Collective.

Thank you for listening and for supporting independent podcasting.

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A career pivot story about leaving corporate life after redundancy and going back to study — from risk consultant to magistrate and PhD researcher.

When a long-term relationship ended in her twenties, Pip Symington chose adventure. She landed a job in Asia and spent twenty years working across Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Japan as a risk consultant and loving every minute of it. She said yes to everything, until one day it was gone.

Made redundant and reeling Pip turned to friends and a bit of therapy before redesigning the shape of her working life. She no longer wanted one all-consuming thing. Today, it's family, study, and service that brings fulfilment.

Key Topics

• The emotional toll of redundancy and losing your professional identity
• Using therapy and a "happiness bowl" to rediscover what brings you joy
• Building a portfolio career after a career break — balancing study, service, and family
• What it's like to volunteer as a magistrate in the UK justice system
• Why it's never too late to go back to study — and why midlife is the ideal time

THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast for women rethinking their careers in midlife. Each season, Patsy sits down with women who share their career pivot stories — leaving corporate life and building businesses, breaking back in after career breaks, going back to study, and taking their long-neglected dreams seriously.

New episodes every other Tuesday.

ABOUT THE HOST: Patsy Day is a recovering lawyer navigating her own midlife career crossroads. A penny dropped for her when she realised that the restless feeling she'd been feeling was returning ambition. The Wobbly Middle is that in-between space where we know we want change but don't know how to move forward.

LINKS

Interested in volunteering as a magistrate? Find out more:

The Wobbly Middle on Apple Podcasts: click here

The Wobbly Middle on Spotify: click here

Want more The Wobbly Middle between episodes? Subscribe to our newsletter — it's where the conversation continues:

New to The Wobbly Middle? Find out what we're all about.

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE

You might also our Season 1 episode From Lab to Lifeline with Dr Emily Connally. Like Pip, Emily is an Oxford-based woman who channelled her skills into community service — founding a food bank at the school gate that's now reshaping how local networks respond to food waste. Both episodes show how the wobbly middle can lead to something that serves not just you, but the world around you.

HELP US GROW

If this episode resonated with you, there are two simple things that make a real difference:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it only takes a moment, and it's one of the best ways to help new listeners find the show. Every review counts.
• Share this episode with a friend — if you know someone who might be in their own wobbly middle, send them this one. Sometimes knowing you're not alone is all it takes.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Made a left turn in your career? We'd love to hear about it. Write to Patsy at [email protected] — your story might just be the nudge someone else needs.

This episode was produced by Patsy Day. Studio recording by The Pod Collective.

Thinking about leaving corporate life and building a business, breaking back in after a career break, going back to study, or just taking your long-neglected dream seriously? The Wobbly Middle is a podcast for women rethinking their careers in midlife.

Season 3 has a light "Going Back to Study" thread running thought it. It launches on Blue Monday, 19 January — that mid-January moment when morale plummets, resolutions flatline, and job searches spike. So we're sending in reinforcements.

Patsy talks to women who've navigated career change in their 40s and beyond — a journalist who founded a comedy, a teacher who studied to become a psychologist, a consultant who became a magistrates - and Phd reasearcher (!) after redundancy. ... they are pathfinders who changed direction because something needed to shift. They talk honestly about what worked and the steps they took, so that you can find your own way forward too.

What's Coming in Season 3

Guests include:

- Pip Symington — risk consultant turned magistrate and PhD researcher, building a portfolio career after redundancy

- Rebecca Newman — investigative wellness journalist exploring the neuroscience of goal-setting and action boards

- Julianne Miles MBE — psychologist and founder of Career Returners, one of the world's largest return-to-work platforms

- Carri Simmons — drama teacher who returned to university at 38 to retrain as a psychologist in South Africa

- Lynn Harris — award-winning journalist, author, activist and founder of GOLD Comedy, a comedy school for women and non-binary people.

Links

The Wobbly Middle on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-wobbly-middle/id1767850643

The Wobbly Middle on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4YhwsBch8Q9vAOUBBfusIv

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep20-season-3-trailer

Find out more about The Wobbly Middle: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com/about?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep20-season-3-trailer

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If You Enjoyed This Episode

If you're new to The Wobbly Middle, a wonderful place to start is our first episode with the menopause doctors Susanne Hooper and Melanie Hacking who talking about hormonal health, perimenopause help, how to navigate the hormonal highway. You'll get to know us a little and also learn something from these incredible menopause specialists.

Help Us Grow

If this episode resonated with you, there are two simple things you can do to make a real difference:

- Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it only takes a moment, and it's one of the best ways to help new listeners find the show. Every review counts.

- Share this episode with a friend — if you know someone who might be in their own wobbly middle, send them this one. Sometimes knowing you're not alone is all it takes.

Want more from Patsy between episodes? Subscribe to the newsletter — it's where the conversation continues: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep20-season-3-trailer

New to The Wobbly Middle? Find out what we're all about: https://thewobblymiddle.substack.com/about?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep20-season-3-trailer

About The Host

Join recovering lawyer Patsy Day as she navigates her own midlife career crossroads in real time. A penny dropped for her when she realised that the restless feeling she'd been feeling was returning ambition. The Wobbly Middle is that in-between space where we know we want change but don't know how to move forward.