The Present Day Wise Woman

Jennifer Jefferies
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

This isn’t just another podcast. It’s a reckoning — and a rally cry. Hosted by Jennifer Jefferies — corporate speaker, naturopath, author, and proud midlife disruptor — The Present Day Wise Woman Podcast is where fierce, funny, wise women come to be seen, heard, and celebrated. Because midlife women are ready to stop shrinking and start setting fires. Each episode spotlights women who’ve faced the flames and come back stronger. We talk power, purpose, ageing boldly, speaking up, starting over — and everything they told us to quiet down about. No fluff. No beige. No pretending we’ve got it

  1. 1d ago

    The Oncology Doula What Fifty Years at the Bedside Taught Me About Living with Ann Wax | Ep. 81

    If you've built a life that looks right but doesn't feel right anymore, this one's your permission slip to ask the harder question. Ann Wax RN has spent fifty years at the bedsides of people facing cancer, and what she's learned isn't just about illness. It's about what matters when we stop performing and start telling the truth. As an oncology nurse, Oncology Doula™, and author of the upcoming Be Your Own Lifeguard, Ann shares what her patients have taught her about resilience, self-worth, and becoming a "Present Day Elder." Key Takeaways Pivoted from Nurse to Doula: After 50 years as an oncology nurse, Ann Wax became an oncology doula to focus on the emotional support patients need, rather than the physical demands of chemotherapy administration. Core Philosophy: "Be Your Own Lifeguard": This principle, which is also the title of her upcoming book, advocates for radical self-preservation. It teaches that you must save yourself from drowning relationships or situations before attempting to help others. Empowering Patients to Speak Up: Wax's work involves giving patients permission to voice their needs and concerns, especially women who are often conditioned to remain silent. She believes authenticity is crucial to healing. Legacy as Healing: Legacy is not just what we leave behind, but also the unconscious wounds and patterns passed down through generations. Wax's goal is to help people recognise and heal these wounds to create a positive legacy for the future. Contact Ann Wax LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annwax/

  2. Aug 3

    Rogue Wisdom: What's Really Behind Burnout | Ep. 80

    She wakes at 2am, not from a deadline, not just the hot flush. She wakes because a question has surfaced she's been outrunning for years: whose life is this? Naturopath Jennifer Jefferies has spent nearly four decades working with burned out women, starting with her own burnout in her twenties. In this episode, Jen unpacks why burnout and identity exhaustion get confused, why sleep and supplements can't fix a life that no longer fits, and why the loss of self so many women report in midlife is now a documented clinical finding, not just a feeling. If you've built the career, raised the family, held it all together, and started to wonder if there's anyone left underneath the coat you've been wearing, this one's for you.

  3. Aug 3

    The Housing Fix Hiding in Plain Sight with Vicki Robin | Ep. 79

    Vicki Robin has a question for women over fifty who did everything "right" financially and still feel exposed: what if the fix isn't more money, it's more community? Her In-Home Suites project turns surplus space, basements, over-garage rooms, into dignified, affordable housing for the essential workers your community actually needs, while generating income for the homeowner. It's a real answer to a housing crisis quietly hitting women over fifty in both Australia and the US, built on mutual aid rather than waiting for a broken system to fix itself. Vicki co-wrote Your Money or Your Life, the 1.5 million copy bestseller that sparked the FIRE movement and was called by the New York Times the seminal guide to the new morality of personal money management. But this conversation is about what she's building now. If you've done everything "right" financially and still feel exposed, this one is for you. CONTACT VICKI https://vickirobin.com/about/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idsd7T-KVtk https://vickirobin.com/blessing-the-hands-that-feed-us/ https://www.facebook.com/vicki.robin https://www.instagram.com/vickirobin/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/vicki-robin-3ba9862/ https://substack.com/@comingofaging

  4. Jul 28

    Will Someone Fear My Son with Katheryne Imabayashi | Ep. 78

    One moment of fear changed everything. When Kathryne Imabayashi felt a flicker of unease around a group of teenage boys, she caught herself and asked a question that would define the next chapter of her life: will someone fear my son simply for being male? That question sent her thirty years deep into the emotional world of boys and men, and what she found is unsettling. The men she interviewed for her new book all described the same quiet suppression, the pressure to keep their emotions flat, never too high, never too low. She connects that suppression directly to a mental health crisis we are still refusing to name properly. Kathryne also brings the wisdom of Japan, where elders are revered rather than sidelined, and where new mothers are literally given an elder in their home to cook, guide, and support them. It is a stark contrast to how the West treats its wisest generation, and Kathryne is on a mission to close that gap. If you are raising a son, mentoring a young mother, or simply tired of trusting trends over your own intuition, this one is for you. Contact Kathryne https://www.sonhoodcoaching.com/  https://sonhood.substack.com/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryne-imabayashi/ https://www.instagram.com/sonhoodcoaching/ https://www.facebook.com/sonhoodcoaching https://www.youtube.com/@sonhoodcoaching https://feeds.captivate.fm/unlocking-the-parenting-code/

  5. Jul 20

    The Woman Who Decided Which Ideas Change the World Inside TED with Kelly Stoetzel | Ep. 77

    Kelly Stoetzel's dad took her to a TED event when she was young. She never really left, spending nearly two decades deciding which ideas were ready to change the world. As former Head of Conferences at TED, and now curator of projects like TED Democracy Philadelphia, Kelly has mastered the invisible skills nobody talks about: discernment, emotional steadiness, and carrying real responsibility without needing the credit. Kelly and Jen unpack why the best TED talks come from authenticity, not formula, and what confidence really looks like at 57: freedom from imposter syndrome, and a focus on impact over credit. If you've ever led a room, a team, or a life other people depend on, this one's for you. CONTACT KELLY https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellystoetzel/

  6. Jul 14

    What We Don’t Heal, We Hand On with Sharyn McKenzie | Ep. 76

    "What we don't heal, we hand on." Energy healer Sharyn McKenzie joins Jennifer Jefferies to unpack how inherited trauma and childhood programming quietly run the show, anxiety, people-pleasing, the martyr pattern, and why none of it may have started with you. A grounded, practical look at ancestral energy clearing for women ready to break the cycle, not just manage it. SHOW NOTES: Inherited Trauma: We inherit unhealed trauma from ancestors at conception, which manifests as patterns like anxiety, low self-worth, and people-pleasing. Childhood Programming: The first 7 years are critical; our conscious self isn't active, making us highly susceptible to programming that forms our adult emotional triggers. Emotional Roots of Illness: Physical ailments often have emotional roots. For example, a bladder infection can stem from feeling "pissed off," or a "heart wall" built for protection can block love. Lineage-Wide Healing: Clearing personal trauma benefits the entire lineage-ancestors, peers, and future generations-by breaking the cycle of inherited patterns. CONTACT SHARYN https://www.facebook.com/sharyn.mckenzie

  7. Jul 6

    Midlife Identity and the Question That Changes Everything | Ep. 75

    There's a moment many women hit in midlife, not the sports car kind of crisis, but the quieter, more disorienting version. The one where your life looks fine from the outside and feels strangely hollow from the inside. In this episode, Jennifer Jefferies asks the question that cuts straight through: Who are you when you're not doing everything for everyone else? Jen explores the identity shift that arrives when the roles that once defined you, mother, manager, the one who holds it all together, begin to loosen their grip. Why that loosening feels like terror before it feels like freedom. Why there is real grief in midlife that nobody gives you permission to fee, and why that grief is not the obstacle, it's the gateway. She also makes the case for reclaiming the Wise Woman archetype: not as a spiritual concept, but as a radical, practical act of self-recognition. Because the woman who has raised children, navigated careers, weathered losses, and survived the unsurvivable is not past her peak. She is the most resourced, most experienced, most psychologically sophisticated version of herself she has ever been. This episode is for the woman who has everything she was supposed to want, and is quietly wondering why it doesn't feel like enough. It's not a crisis. It's an introduction. To the most interesting woman you've ever met.

  8. Jul 1

    What Wouldn't You Be Caught Dead in with the Gippsland end of life doulas | Ep. 74

    Death is the one appointment none of us can cancel, yet most of us are completely unprepared for it. Glenda Aurisch and Ros Berry are end of life doulas from regional Victoria who are bringing death back into community, back into conversation, and back into the hands of women and families who deserve better than silence and confusion at life's most sacred threshold. They stand in coffins for their business card photos. They wheel a shrouded dummy through wellness expos. They run free monthly death education sessions at their local library. And inspired by Jennifer's TEDx talk Who Killed the Crone?, they've just launched the Crone Collective in Moe for women who are done waiting for permission. Bold, funny, and deeply moving. This one will change how you think about living.   SHOWNOTES Interview Glenda & Ros on their end-of-life doula work and the Crone Collective. Filling a Systemic Gap: Glenda started We Assist Youth Services (WAYS) to provide transport for aged care residents outside standard hours, a service the system ignores.Empowering End-of-Life Choices: As volunteer Gippsland Doulas, they educate the community on death planning, enabling people to reclaim control from the medical system and ensure their final wishes are met.Building a Supportive Community: Inspired by Jennifer's TED Talk, they launched the Crone Collective, a local group that quickly grew to 21+ members, providing an immediate, non-judgmental space for connection.Crone Energy in Action: They embody the "why not?" spirit of midlife, using bold tactics (e.g., a shrouded dummy at expos) to normalize conversations about death and aging.CONTACT GLENDA AND ROS https://www.facebook.com/groups/1460814304622417/https://weassistyouservices.com.au/https://www.facebook.com/rosiwellnesshttps://www.facebook.com/groups/26368090286148694https://weassistyouservices.com.au/

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

This isn’t just another podcast. It’s a reckoning — and a rally cry. Hosted by Jennifer Jefferies — corporate speaker, naturopath, author, and proud midlife disruptor — The Present Day Wise Woman Podcast is where fierce, funny, wise women come to be seen, heard, and celebrated. Because midlife women are ready to stop shrinking and start setting fires. Each episode spotlights women who’ve faced the flames and come back stronger. We talk power, purpose, ageing boldly, speaking up, starting over — and everything they told us to quiet down about. No fluff. No beige. No pretending we’ve got it

Information

  • Creator
    Jennifer Jefferies
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    81
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jennifer Jefferies
  • Show Website
    The Present Day Wise Woman