In the Second Act

Maddy
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Mental Health

In The Second Act is a podcast about divorce recovery, self-abandonment, and rebuilding your identity — for women who are done performing and ready to come home to themselves. If you're a high-functioning woman who looks like she has it together but feels quietly exhausted, if you're navigating divorce, a marriage or relationship that isn't working, or a version of midlife you didn't expect, this show is for you. Host Maddy — an identity coach who rebuilt her own life — unpacks the patterns that keep women stuck: people-pleasing, chronic self-abandonment, a nervous system stuck in high alert, and a self-worth built on everyone else's approval. Each episode blends practical coaching with honest, real-talk conversations about: Healing after divorce and starting over in midlifeRecognizing and breaking self-abandonment and people-pleasing patternsNervous system regulation and calming chronic overwhelmSetting boundaries without guiltRebuilding self-trust and self-worth after lossReclaiming your identity outside of who you've been for everyone elseThis isn't performative positivity or advice with nothing behind it. It's a space for women rebuilding their lives, their relationships, and their sense of self — one honest conversation at a time.

Episodes

  1. 6d ago

    The Reel that Started it All

    We Read the Comments: Divorce, "Man Haters," and What a Second Act Actually Looks Like This is the episode Maddy almost didn't feel ready to record. And it's the one you'll want to hear first. A month ago, Maddy posted a reel about her marriage, her divorce, and the moment she finally chose herself. It's been viewed more than two million times just on IG. It also brought out some of the ugliest comments she's seen — men calling her a man hater, accusing her of cheating, telling her she was "sacrificing her family for her happiness," and insisting that no matter how a marriage treats a woman, she owes it her whole life anyway. In this first episode of In The Second Act, Maddy sits down with her fiancé Josh — who watched it all unfold from the sidelines — to actually read the comments out loud and talk about what's underneath them. It gets uncomfortable. It gets honest. And it gets into the real questions this show is built on: What does commitment actually mean? Where's the line between healthy boundaries and control? Why do so many women reach their late 30s and 40s and realize they don't know who they are outside of what they do for everyone else? Maddy spent 17 years in a marriage inside a highly traditional, patriarchal environment before she finally let herself leave. She talks candidly about what that decade-plus of self-abandonment did to her identity, and what it took to rebuild it. Josh brings a different lens: a man who's done his own healing work, watched the discourse from the other side of the comment section, and pushes back on easy narratives on both sides. In this episode: What actually happened behind the viral post, and why it hit such a nerveThe comments that reduced a woman rebuilding her life to a punchline, and what they reveal about how we still talk about divorce and women's choicesThe difference between real commitment and just staying because you're supposed toWhy women lose their identity inside marriage and motherhood, and how to find it againHealing your nervous system through a major life transition. Moving through change vs. freezing vs. running from itWhat it actually means to start a "second act," and how to recognize when yours is beginning This isn't a polished, produced take on divorce and healing. It's two people who each rebuilt their lives — separately, before they ever met each other — talking honestly about identity, relationships, and what it looks like to stop performing and start living as yourself. If you're in a transition of your own, if you've ever been told your happiness comes second, or if you just want a real conversation instead of a comment-section fight, this episode is for you. New episodes of In The Second Act drop regularly. Subscribe to follow Maddy's coaching work and every conversation that comes next.

    45 min
  • 1 Episode

About

In The Second Act is a podcast about divorce recovery, self-abandonment, and rebuilding your identity — for women who are done performing and ready to come home to themselves. If you're a high-functioning woman who looks like she has it together but feels quietly exhausted, if you're navigating divorce, a marriage or relationship that isn't working, or a version of midlife you didn't expect, this show is for you. Host Maddy — an identity coach who rebuilt her own life — unpacks the patterns that keep women stuck: people-pleasing, chronic self-abandonment, a nervous system stuck in high alert, and a self-worth built on everyone else's approval. Each episode blends practical coaching with honest, real-talk conversations about: Healing after divorce and starting over in midlifeRecognizing and breaking self-abandonment and people-pleasing patternsNervous system regulation and calming chronic overwhelmSetting boundaries without guiltRebuilding self-trust and self-worth after lossReclaiming your identity outside of who you've been for everyone elseThis isn't performative positivity or advice with nothing behind it. It's a space for women rebuilding their lives, their relationships, and their sense of self — one honest conversation at a time.

Information

  • Creator
    Maddy
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    1
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Maddy
  • Show Website
    In the Second Act