The 40 Portal

Catherine Zack
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The night before my 40th birthday, I did something kind of wild. I invited the fabulous, inspiring, real-life women I knew to join me at a wine bar and asked them to "sign my yearbook." Not happy birthdays, not well wishes. I wanted wisdom. What they wrote was so raw and honest that I couldn't stop asking. The 40 Portal is a coming of aging story told by 40 real women about the portal that is midlife. Each episode, I sit down with a different woman to explore the threshold she's walking through — the portals we all face between who we were and who we're becoming. I believe a woman in her 40s is one of the most interesting, creative, powerful, and inspiring creatures in the universe. And as more and more of us step into our power, claim our own voices, our bodies, our good work in the world, this world is going to be a kinder, more beautiful, more emboldened, and more just place for all of us. Portals can be big and specific—turning 40, battling cancer, losing a loved one, divorce, becoming a mother, leaving a career. Or they can be less specific but still all-encompassing—the "everything looks fine but I'm dying inside" feeling, the army crawl, the resentment. We talk about it all. Each episode is anchored by handwritten wisdom submitted by listeners. Because typing is fast — it's what we're DOING all day. Handwriting is slow. Handwriting reveals our BEING. When you slow down, truth slips through. This isn't a podcast about experts or influencers. This is a podcast about real women telling the truth about their real lives. Because when women tell the truth (not the polished Instagram version, but the actual truth) it sets us all free. New episodes weekly starting January 25, 2026. Submit your handwritten wisdom at the40portal.com. Hosted by Catherine Zack, former Big Law attorney turned meditation teacher, executive coach, speaker, writer, and collector of women’s wisdom.

Episodes

  1. 2 DAYS AGO

    She Left it All Behind to Finally Be Herself: On Trusting Yourself with Amanda Baudier

    What does it really mean to trust yourself after 40? In this episode of The 40 Portal, Catherine Zack sits down with Amanda Baudier for a raw, funny, and deeply honest conversation about spiritual awakening, midlife transformation, and what it actually looks like to stop living for other people's approval and start committing to the bit of being yourself. Amanda is a former nightlife industry insider, startup founder, and self-described recovering cultural-capital addict who left a Brooklyn brownstone and a buzzy startup to move to the woods and build something "weird, low-cost, and deeply spiritual." A journey of personal growth, self trust, and following the winks from the universe even when it made zero logical sense. Everything she did was against her own best advice by conventional metrics. And that, she says, is exactly how she knew she was on the right track. "If it didn't come from logic, where'd it come from? Somewhere cooler. Somewhere more magical." This conversation is electric. Amanda is one of those women who has done the excavation work, the real kind, not the Instagram kind, and come out the other side with a point of view that is sharp, funny, zero-b******t, and deeply generous. I took notes the entire time. I laughed out loud multiple times. We talk about: winks from the universe and how to start seeing them. Why you were probably on a great path that just wasn't your path. What happens when the medicine of external validation wears off, and it always wears off. Heart surgery at 28 as a portal no one saw coming. Why "trust the process" is actually kind of bad advice. The anti-aging industry as the current strongarm of the patriarchy. Why your choices are not going to make sense to other people, and why that is the cue, not the warning. How women in their 40s are done proving themselves and ready to just be themselves. And the thing I wrote to myself the night before my 40th birthday that Amanda basically tattooed onto this entire conversation: Commit to the bit of being yourself. No halfsies. No halfway in, halfway out. Whole ass living only. Amanda Baudier is a spiritual guide, somatic practitioner, earth medicine worker and entrepreneurship coach for growth-minded humans. She is the founder of becoming collective, which is rooted in the belief that we are all meant to unfold according to our unique and divine design in this one precious life. She is a wife, the mother of two wild children, and currently resides in the Shawangunk Mountains of the Hudson Valley after 21 years in NYC. Find her: Website - www.becoming-collective.com IG: @amandabaudier Submit your wisdom, your voice belongs in this podcast. If you're over 40: what have you learned, earned, and burned? If you're under 40: what's the open question you're living? the40portal.com/submit June retreat, Hudson Valley. June 17-19, 2026. Two spots left. Details and application at catherinezack.com. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe, rate, review, it genuinely helps more women find this show. Substack: substack.com/@the40portal Website: the40portal.com | catherinezack.com Instagram: @the40portal Hosted by Catherine Zack | Guest: Amanda Baudier | Edited by Ruwantha Gunasinghe © 2026 The 40 Portal. All rights reserved.

    1hr 5min

  2. 12 APR

    The Mental Load Nobody Talks About: Women, Midlife and Letting Go with Kim Wensel

    Here's what women in their 40s are telling me: Many of us have spent most of our lives being extremely good at anticipating what other people need. The invisible labor. The mental load. The emotional labor and management of everyone in the house. The creativity and ambition quietly moved to the back burner because you're also the most flexible person in the room. And somewhere in the accumulation of all that giving — the resentment, the exhaustion, the burnout, the being spread too thin — the question of what you actually want starts to feel almost impossible to answer. If you're navigating perimenopause symptoms, midlife overwhelm, or simply feeling like you've been managing everyone else's life but your own, this episode is for you. This is exactly what my guest Kim Wensel and I talk about in this episode of The 40 Portal podcast, a midlife women's wellness podcast for women over 40 who are done with people pleasing and ready to trust themselves again. Kim is a writer, strategist, East Coaster through and through, primary parent, and world traveler. She spent 40 years making decisions based on how she thought other people would respond. She's done: "It's not my job to convince anymore." This is what the decade of giving less actually looks like — not a slogan, just a woman learning to trust herself. In this conversation, Kim and Cath cover the long arc of their seven-year friendship, the impossible math of being the most flexible person in your house, desire in a 20-year relationship, what female friendship actually needs to look like right now, and why 40 might be the first age that actually feels like a blank slatr. "Is this perimenopause, wanting to blow up my life, a bad day, or how I really feel? Who really knows." LINKS Submit your voice to the portal: https://forms.gle/FpqHwYgZ1HBFK1kr5 Follow the podcast on Substack: https://substack.com/@the40portal June retreat application: https://forms.gle/WbWLniPEqbhGKg699 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@The40Portal Find Kim: kimwensel.com ABOUT KIM Kim Wensel is a writer, strategist, and community builder focused on helping high-achieving women navigate the messy middle of growth, career pivots, and identity shifts. Her work explores how ambition and humanity can coexist without burnout or self-abandonment — and why range is a leadership advantage. Her first book, The Multi-Hyphenate Advantage, will be released in spring 2026. Part memoir, part personal development guide, it's for every woman who's good at many things and trying to figure out what's next. Kim is the creative director of The Bench Magazine and host of the podcast Why Is Nobody Talking About This? She lives in Pittsburgh with her family, volunteers as a driver for Meals on Wheels, and serves on the board of the Peters Township Public Library Foundation.

    57 min

  3. 5 APR

    What Women in Their 40s Are Really Talking About (And Why It Matters) with Catherine Zack

    First official solo episode. Just Cath today & she pulls back the curtain on what's emerging across the first arc of The 40 Portal: the themes, the feedback, and what it actually feels like to be in the middle of building something for women in their 40s that took her completely by surprise. Creativity. Identity. Motherhood and the versions of it that don't get airtime. The myth that we're always behind. Fawning. The achievement generation. The freedom of saying I'm doing this because I want to. She also reads a piece of submitted wisdom from an upcoming guest. And makes the case for why doing this inner work IRL, in community hits different than anything you'll find online. Two spots remain for her women's retreat in the Hudson Valley, June 17–19. Details in the links below. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — Welcome 02:17 — On being bad at tech and being okay with it03:51 — 40 Portal origin story08:21 — Real-life community, and why this project is bigger than Cath16:07 — The question of midlife crisis bangs19:20 — Ep 1: Kate Schmieding on creativity, friendship, and being cool because you're you26:22 — Ep 2: Clara Artschwager on full plates, "no there there," and the hamster wheel31:54 — Ep 6: Francesca Choy-Kee Damico on not being late, just right on time35:07 — Ep 3: Dinah Alobeid on existential crises and creativity as resistance38:03 — Ep 5: Alison Matheny on grief, freedom, and childless by circumstance41:40 — Ep 4: Becca Piastrelli on why we don't disappear after 4047:59 — Cath's own story: Big Law, leaving at 28, building from the inside out51:01 — The June retreat: what you'll experience, two spots left55:51 — Reading live from the portal: Emily Drake's submitted wisdomLINKS: Submit your voice to the portal: https://forms.gle/FpqHwYgZ1HBFK1kr5 Follow on Substack: https://substack.com/@the40portal June retreat application (2 spots left): https://forms.gle/WbWLniPEqbhGKg699 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@The40Portal Kate Schmieding, Ep 1: https://substack.com/@the40portal/p-187232233 Clara Artschwager, Ep 2: https://substack.com/@the40portal/p-188033477 Dinah Alobeid, Ep 3: https://substack.com/@the40portal/p-188791730 Becca Piastrelli, Ep 4: https://substack.com/@the40portal/p-189474363 Alison Matheny, Ep 5: https://substack.com/@the40portal/p-191769410 Francesca Choy-Kee Damico, Ep 6: https://substack.com/@the40portal/p-192511535

    59 min

  4. 29 MAR

    We're Not Late. We're Right On Time: On Motherhood & Identity with Francesca Choy-Kee Damico

    "We're not late. We're right on time." That's where this conversation ends. How we get there is a rich, tender journey through motherhood and identity, the long hallway of your 30s, the ancestral weight of women who never learned to tend to themselves, what labor actually teaches you about staying, and the particular urgency of finally claiming your own story in your 40s. Francesca Choy-Kee Damico is a former Broadway actor, INELDA-trained Death Doula, a threshold designer and founder of Studio Homecoming. She is 41, a Hudson Valley neighbor, a mother, and women walking boldly through her portal. This episode sits right next to last week's conversation with Alison Matheny about being childless by circumstance. Two completely different stories. The same throughline: motherhood — the having of it, the missing of it, the becoming through it — is a 40 portal thing. If you're a woman in midlife asking who you are underneath the roles — this episode is for you. We explore: The grace we all need right now — and how motherhood dismantles perfectionism in ways nothing else can.The polarity of it all — the light on your child's eyelashes, the singular preciousness of this moment, and being so tired you've eaten nothing but cheddar bunnies. This is how we actually live.The sandwich generation — aging parents, young children, mortgages, identity — all held at once.The ancestral untying — a long maternal lineage of women who were the emotional center of everything and never learned to rest, ask for help, or stop when their body said stop.What labor actually taught her about learning to stay — finding a room inside herself she didn't know existed.Why 40 is the beginning — "I feel like I am just getting started with the tools I have to sculpt the vision." About Francesca: After 13 years as a Broadway actor with ribbons of design work woven through — most notably at AD100 firm Workstead — Francesca is now a mother, INELDA-trained Death Doula, and a threshold designer and founder of Studio Homecoming. She accompanies people through major life transitions using home environment, beauty, and ritual. Find her: studiohomecoming.com | @whenfrankiewakesup Want to go deeper? Join me June 17-19 in the Hudson Valley for the Portal Retreat — a small gathering of women exploring and sharing their midlife stories in community together. I've planned lots of rest, care, space and grace. 3 spots left --> https://www.catherinezack.com/june2026retreat Submit your wisdom — your voice belongs in this podcast. If you're over 40: what have you learned, earned, and burned? If you're under 40: what's the open question you're living? Add your voice: the40portal.com/submit New episodes drop every Sunday. Subscribe, rate, review — it genuinely helps more women find this show. Substack: substack.com/@the40portal Website: the40portal.com | catherinezack.com Instagram: @the40portal Hosted by Catherine Zack | Guest: Francesca Choy-Kee Damico | Edited by Ruwantha Gunasinghe © 2026 The 40 Portal. All rights reserved.

    1hr 17min

  5. 22 MAR

    And Now It's Like This — On the Grief & Freedom of the Life that Chose You with Alison Matheny

    There's a photo of Alison Matheny as a little girl, standing on the bow of a sailboat in a teal bikini, arms spread wide along the edge like she owns the whole ocean. Bare feet. Sun on her face. Taking up space. That's Al then, that's Al today. Alison is 44, single, never married, childless by circumstance. She splits her time between upstate NY and Florida, runs her own business, owns two homes, and is building a life entirely on her own terms. In this episode, we talk about: → Getting more comfortable with yourself as you get older, and being less aware of who you're not → Childless by circumstance — metabolizing grief into power, the ambiguous loss, and why society doesn't have a word for it that fits → The tension between being and doing and learning to go at your own pace without having to prove or perform → Girlfriends as mirrors — the relief of being in rooms where you are already known. ABOUT: Alison is a writer, artist and creative director + founder of the design, content and branding studio, BEST. She splits her time between upstate New York and the Gulf Coast of Florida. A Virgo sun / moon (Cancer rising), she loves to organize information and offers a smart, sharp perspective rooted in artistic integrity and communal equity. In her substack, May I Please Be Excused, she explores living as an undefinable woman. Previous writing exists in her post-collegiate Blogspot, Life of a Harpy (foreshadowing!), and early country essay collection, News from the North. Find her: @amath | @stayBEST Find her: @amath | @stayBEST SHARE THIS PODCAST with a girlfriend you're having these convos with IRL. Subscribe, rate, and review because the more of us who re-write the story of 40, the more powerful we collectively become! CONNECT: Substack: substack.com/@the40portal Website: the40portal.com | catherinezack.com IG: @the40portal CREDITS: Hosted by Catherine Zack | Edited by Ruwantha Gunasinghe © 2026 The 40 Portal. JOIN THE NEXT PORTAL RETREAT: June 17-19, in the Hudson Valley.

    1hr 2min

  6. 28 FEB

    On Fawning No Longer, the Village, & Refusing to Disappear After 40 with Becca Piastrelli

    Becca and I spent last summer voice-memo-ing each other deep questions and raw answers in the weeks before we each turned 40, two days apart from each other. Somewhere in those exchanges I felt it — a collective quickening. Real women standing at the threshold, telling their stories. Worthy not because of what they’d accomplished or achieved or could put on a resume. Worthy simply by virtue of being here. That’s what became The 40 Portal Podcast. This episode is foundational. If you want to understand what the portal actually is — what liminality means, why this threshold matters, what’s on the other side — this is the episode to send your friends. In this episode, we talk about: → What the portal actually is — liminality, the birth canal, the hallway, the messy middle — and why 40 is not a day, it’s a journey → Fawning, conflict avoidance, and outsourcing your worthiness to what others think — and what it actually takes to stop → Learning to give less f*cks about being misunderstood, judged, or unliked — and how to practice that in real life → Decoupling “feeling younger” from “feeling vibrant” — there are other words than young → Smutty romantasy, Dipsea, All Fours, and so forth ;) → The fear about disappearing as we get older and wisdom from The 40 Portal that BLOWS that fear wide open (you don’t want to miss this convo at the end!) TW: we mention death of an animal during birth and Epstein & pedophilia re: the beauty standards we’re done with. ABOUT BECCA: Becca Piastrelli is a land steward, storyteller, and gatherer of community living in the Hudson Valley. She dreams of a world where we eat slower, respond to emails slower, sleep on decisions, and create space for the full spectrum of emotions to be felt. She’s a mother and a daughter, a deep and present listener, and the host of the podcast Belonging: Conversations about rites of passage, meaningful community, and seasonal living.  Find her: @beccapiastrelli | beccapiastrelli.com THE 40 PORTAL NOTEBOOK: The call-and-response you'll hear in this episode came from the handwritten notebook I passed around my 40th birthday party. Women wrote their questions, their fears, their wisdom — and sometimes they wrote back to each other without knowing it. You can add your voice to the Portal right now: the40portal.com/submit SHARE THIS EPISODE: If this conversation moved you, share it with another woman who needs to hear it. The more of us who refuse to disappear, the braver and more beautiful this world becomes. JOIN THE 40 PORTAL RETREAT: A gathering of women in the Hudson Valley, June 17-19. ALMOST SOLD OUT! CREDITS: Hosted by Catherine Zack | Guest: Becca Piastrelli | Edited by Ruwantha Gunasinghe © 2026 The 40 Portal. All rights reserved.

    56 min

  7. 22 FEB

    Questioning Everything at 40: On Existential Crises and Creativity as Resistance with Dinah Alobeid

    There's a photo of Dinah at age one, in Syria visiting family. Her hands are full of freshly peeled orange, juice glistening, about to drip off her chin. Direct eye contact with the camera. Fully present. Her zest for life started early — hands always full, finding the sweetness, already deeply committed to connection. She hasn't changed. Dinah Susan Alobeid is 39, turning 40 this summer — and she is asking the question many of us are thinking but not many of us have the guts to ask out loud.  "What if I'm living the wrong life?" She has the job. The kid. The husband. The whole resume. And yet — this persistent, devastating question burning through her heart. But here's what you need to know: this is not an hour of existential doom. This conversation is bold, spicy, creative, and genuinely fun. I laughed till I cried in this episode. Dinah is one of those people who makes the big questions feel survivable — even joyful — because she's living her way into her answers in real time. A tender trigger warning: we mention miscarriage and infertility. In this episode, we talk about: → The question no one wants to ask out loud — and why asking it is the bravest thing → Music as medicine and creativity as resistance → Why sharing intergenerational women's stories is a radical act right now → Deprogramming the messages we've been fed about female value, desirability, and aging — and what it actually takes to unlearn them ABOUT DINAH: Dinah Susan Alobeid is a VP at a tech company, a mom, a writer, and the host of Play This at My Funeral — a podcast at the intersection of music and existentialism. She's a Cancer sun and moon. She's turning 40 this summer. And she is standing at the threshold, letting us all watch. What a fierce f*cking almost-40-year-old. Here’s the playlist Dinah made for the episode. Find her: @dinahsusan @dinahsusanalobeidwrites @playthisatmyfuneralpodcast SUBMIT YOUR WISDOM: Your voice is needed in this podcast. If you're over 40: What have you learned, earned, and burned? What do you wish someone had told you? If you're under 40: What's the open question you're living? What longing, desire, fear, or dream do you want to put out into the universe? Add your voice here: the40portal.com/submit SHARE THIS EPISODE: If this conversation moved you, share it with another woman who needs to hear it. The more of us who ask the real questions out loud, the braver and more beautiful this world becomes. New episodes drop each week - subscribe, leave a 5-start rating & review. You're the best! 📧 Substack: substack.com/@the40portal 🌐 Website: the40portal.com | catherinezack.com 📷 Instagram: @the40portal CREDITS: Hosted by Catherine Zack | Guest: Dinah Susan Alobeid | Edited by Ruwantha Gunasinghe © 2026 The 40 Portal. All rights reserved. GET THE GUIDE: ARE YOU IN A PORTAL? JOIN THE NEXT PORTAL RETREAT: June 17-19, in the Hudson Valley.

    59 min

  8. 15 FEB

    I'm Doing the Dance: On Full Plates and Holding Complexity in Your 40s: Clara Artschwager

    Life is full. Your plate is full. You're doing the dance. In this conversation, Clara Artschwager and I talk about what it means to navigate the fullness of midlife — the work, the kids, the relationships, the inner reckoning — without emotionally freaking out all the time. We met four years ago. Clara wasn't married yet. She didn't have kids. We clicked on business stuff. Now we're walking through multiple portals together: motherhood, marriage, creative work, the midlife squeeze. Our friendship has grown with us through voice memos, those timeless-yet-totally-2026 conversations that feel like we're back in the 90s with the phone cord wrapped around us. In this episode, we talk about: → Female friendship in your 40s: How friendships can grow with you as you move through different life stages → "I'm doing the dance": The fullness of midlife and holding complexity without losing yourself → How women solve the world's problems through voice memos alone → "There's no there there": Letting go of "if I can just get to THIS point, then I'll be happy" → Contentedness in your 40s: Being delighted by what you already own → Doing the inner work in community: Why Portal work is better together ABOUT CLARA: Clara Artschwager is a coach, writer, and teacher who helps people do the foundational work of becoming themselves — before, during, and beyond relationships. She's curious about why we are the way we are, and she's spent years guiding clients through the deep reckoning that transforms how we show up in every area of our lives. Clara cooks with the exact right ratio of butter and salt, loves a good voice memo, good book, & good pastry, and is doing the midlife dance with grace. Find her: @ithinkilikeyou.co https://claraartschwager.substack.com/ CHAPTERS: 04:21 How we met 06:51 Female friendships in your 40s 08:43 "I'm doing the dance" 12:48 Voice memo friendships 19:18 Holding complexity in your 40s 25:21 "No bad days" - not emotionally freaking out when plates are spinning 32:36 "There's no there there" - letting go of external fixes 38:39 Being delighted by what you already own 42:03 Contentedness vs. content consumption in your 40s 46:55 40 Portal wisdom: "I wish I had been told I didn't have to be married to be successful" 50:03 How do we be in relationship without losing ourselves? 56:11 Retreat InvitationSUBMIT YOUR WISDOM: the40portal.com/submitJOIN THE PORTAL RETREAT THIS JUNEClara and I talk about how Portal work is better together. The reckoning with yourself doesn't have to be done alone. I'm gathering a small group of women in the Hudson Valley for The Portal Retreat | June 17-19, 2026. A few spots left → the40portal.com/retreat 📧 substack.com/@the40portal 🌐 the40portal.com 📷 IG: @the40portal 🛠️ Tools & Resources: the40portal.com/tools Host: Catherine Zack Guest: Clara Artschwager Editor: Ruwantha Gunasinghe © 2026 The 40 Portal

    54 min

  9. 7 FEB

    40 Is Your Sixth Sense: Friendship, Creativity, and Being Cool Because You're You: Kate Schmieding

    You start to see with your ears and listen with your belly. That's how my first guest, Kate Schmieding, describes what happens when you turn 40. Forty is your sixth sense — you begin to recognize what you already knew but can now KNOW. Really know. In this conversation, Kate and I talk about: → Friendship in your 40s (her 3-strikes rule, why reciprocity matters, how to stop forcing connections that aren't reciprocal) → Being cool because you're YOU (not performing, claiming who you've always been, "I recognize the cool in me as the cool in you") → Creative work without overnight success (Kate writes pop culture poetry — staying in the "low hum" instead of chasing viral moments) → You're not a late bloomer ("I've been blooming this whole time, my friends. I just haven't given it a name.") → Doing things because you WANT to (not because you're supposed to — this is your permission slip) → The midlife squeeze (parenting, work, everyone depending on you — and how to navigate it without losing yourself) ABOUT KATE: Kate Schmieding (rhymes with meeting) is a writer, poet, creative leader, joiner, hand-raiser, and hard-conversation-haver. She writes pop culture poetry, and her work studies the intersection of the mundane and the meaningful. She is the Creative Operations Director for NYS. Kate loves the 5 Ps: people, poetry, pop culture, push-ups and parmesan. She's also one of the most generous friends I know. Find her on Instagram: @kateschmied | @pop_culture_poetry SUBMIT YOUR WISDOM: Submit your voice to Portal & your words might just anchor the next episode of the podcast. Send your wisdom here: the40portal.com/submit IF YOU'RE IN THE MIDLIFE SQUEEZE: Work. Kids. Aging parents. Everyone depends on you. You've fallen to the bottom of your own list. Your 40s can break you or they can shape you. I'm gathering a small group of women in the Hudson Valley this June for The Portal Retreat | June 17-19, 2026. Three days to write and tell your own portal story. To do this inner work in community with other women who are deeply committed to the bit of becoming themselves. Space is limited. A few spots left. Learn More → https://www.the40portal.com/retreat 🎙️ Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 📧 Substack: https://substack.com/@the40portal 🌐 Website: the40portal.com | catherinezack.com 📷 Instagram: @the40portal CREDITS: Host: Catherine Zack Guest: Kate Schmieding Editor: Ruwantha Gunasinghe © 2026 The 40 Portal. 00:00 Welcome 02:44 Meeting Kate 06:24 The 3-strikes rule for friendship 11:46 What friendship is actually about in your 40s 18:23 Who are you without job titles and accomplishments? 22:39 Writing poetry at 40 (alchemy and magic) 28:17 Holding yourself so you can hold others 33:54 "I'm cool because I feel like myself" 41:45 Not being an overnight success 44:57 "I'm not a late bloomer—I've been blooming the whole time" 49:35 Reciprocity 52:46 The 40 Portal notebook origin story 58:00 Kate's poem: "40 Is Your Sixth Sense"

    1hr 2min

  10. 25 JAN

    Welcome to The 40 Portal Podcast.

    Welcome to the trailer episode of The 40 Portal podcast, a coming of aging story, told by 40 real women. Host Catherine Zack shares the origin story: how a sketchbook at her 40th birthday party turned into something bigger. She asked inspiring women to write their wisdom in her notebook instead of signing a card. What she got back was raw, honest, beautiful — the kind of truth that doesn't show up through the algorithms. That notebook became the catalyst for this podcast. Over 40 episodes, Catherine sits down with 40 different women (ages 20s-80s) to explore the portals they're walking through — divorce, turning 40, career changes, loss, or the well-known "everything looks fine but I'm dying inside" feeling. These are threshold moments. These are the portals real women are walking through. This podcast is about what happens when women tell the truth — not the polished version, but the REAL stories. Because when women's real voices get heard, it sets us all free. Life is cyclical. Portals are natural. And a woman who knows herself is one of the most powerful, magical, and creatures on earth. Welcome to The 40 Portal, babe. Learn more and submit your wisdom and questions to The 40 Portal Podcast at the40portal.com Substack: https://substack.com/@the40portal Instagram: @the40portal Keywords: 40 Portal Podcast, women's stories, portals, threshold moments, midlife transitions, turning 40, Catherine Zack, personal transformation, women's wisdom, handwritten wisdom, authenticity, coming of age, real stories, women in their 40s, portal stories, life transitions, becoming, conscious aging, women's voices, storytelling podcast, portal work, self-knowledge, real talk, vulnerability, women over 40, midlife transformation, feminist podcast

    11 min
  • 10 Episodes

About

The night before my 40th birthday, I did something kind of wild. I invited the fabulous, inspiring, real-life women I knew to join me at a wine bar and asked them to "sign my yearbook." Not happy birthdays, not well wishes. I wanted wisdom. What they wrote was so raw and honest that I couldn't stop asking. The 40 Portal is a coming of aging story told by 40 real women about the portal that is midlife. Each episode, I sit down with a different woman to explore the threshold she's walking through — the portals we all face between who we were and who we're becoming. I believe a woman in her 40s is one of the most interesting, creative, powerful, and inspiring creatures in the universe. And as more and more of us step into our power, claim our own voices, our bodies, our good work in the world, this world is going to be a kinder, more beautiful, more emboldened, and more just place for all of us. Portals can be big and specific—turning 40, battling cancer, losing a loved one, divorce, becoming a mother, leaving a career. Or they can be less specific but still all-encompassing—the "everything looks fine but I'm dying inside" feeling, the army crawl, the resentment. We talk about it all. Each episode is anchored by handwritten wisdom submitted by listeners. Because typing is fast — it's what we're DOING all day. Handwriting is slow. Handwriting reveals our BEING. When you slow down, truth slips through. This isn't a podcast about experts or influencers. This is a podcast about real women telling the truth about their real lives. Because when women tell the truth (not the polished Instagram version, but the actual truth) it sets us all free. New episodes weekly starting January 25, 2026. Submit your handwritten wisdom at the40portal.com. Hosted by Catherine Zack, former Big Law attorney turned meditation teacher, executive coach, speaker, writer, and collector of women’s wisdom.

Information

  • Creator
    Catherine Zack
  • Years Active
    2k
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Catherine Zack

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