The Present Day Wise Woman

Jennifer Jefferies

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. 5d ago

    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/

  2. 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

  3. 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.

  4. 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/

  5. Jun 23

    Stop Blaming Start Building Martha Mok on What That Actually Takes | Ep. 73

    Reinvention, relationships, emotional healing, and AI. Martha on what it actually takes to stop suffering in silence, why the goal is not to let go of the past but to gain closure on it, and how to move from I need you to I want you. Martha Mok walked away from a 19-year abusive marriage, a 22-year career, and everything she thought she was. Then she built something bigger than all of it. She is the founder of Yeah The Girls 40 Plus, a community of tens of thousands of women across Australia, and the Celebrating Women Expo and Awards. She is a confidence and business coach, international speaker, and someone who has lived everything she teaches. Sharp, honest, and she pulls no punches. Discuss Martha Mok's journey in community building, AI, and midlife reinvention.   CONTACT MARTHA Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/yeahthegirls40plusFacebook Page https://www.facebook.com/yeahthegirls40plusInstagram https://www.instagram.com/yeahthegirls40plusLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/marthamokFacebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/yeahthegirls40pluCelebrate Women Expo 2026 https://celebratingwomenexpo2026.one/Celebrate Women Awards 2026 https://celebratewomenaward2026.one/YTG40+ Digital Magazine https://ytg40pluscwecwamagazine.manus.space

  6. Jun 16

    What a 69 Year Old Aromatherapist Can Teach You About AI with Danielle Sade | Ep. 72

    In a world where so many women our age are told technology is not for us, Danielle is proof that curiosity has no expiry date. At 69, aromatherapist Danielle Sade is writing songs on Spotify, cutting weeks of research to seconds, and building a creative life most women half her age haven't imagined yet. This conversation will wreck your excuses. SHOW NOTES: AI as an Amplifier: AI amplifies human expertise, not replaces it. Danielle Sadea, a 69-year-old aromatherapist, uses AI to accelerate professional tasks (e.g., presentations) and unlock new creative outlets like songwriting.Expertise is Essential: Effective AI use requires deep domain knowledge and critical thinking to guide the tool and validate its output. It is not a replacement for expertise.Ethical Use is Paramount: A conscious relationship with AI demands transparency (disclosing its use), strict privacy settings, and a clear moral compass to ensure it remains a tool for good.A New Era of Creation: AI enables rapid creation and knowledge exploration, making complex tasks accessible and providing a platform for sharing wisdom and creativity at any age.CONTACT DANIELLE: www.healingfragrances.net https://www.youtube.com/@OrBakol333

  7. Jun 10

    The Cost of Being the Strong One with Tammy Silk | Ep. 71

    Walking in Two Worlds: Tammy Silk on Strength, Softness and Showing Up for Yourself What does it really cost to be the strong one? Tammy Silk is a proud Tagalakka / Wallangamma woman, mother, nurse and relational leader who has spent decades showing up for everyone around her. In this conversation she opens up about walking in two worlds, the hidden weight of carrying everyone else, and why true strength looks a lot like vulnerability. Tammy shares what heart-centred leadership really means, how she protects her energy, and why turning 50 feels less like a milestone and more like a homecoming. If you've ever felt unseen while holding everyone else together, this episode is for you. SHOWNOTES: "Walking in two worlds" means balancing professional systems with cultural ways of being, while personally integrating all identities without leaving pieces behind. Strength is vulnerability. True strength is admitting exhaustion and needing support, not just carrying the load. Healing begins when women stop believing they must earn rest. Lead with heart. In public health, this means seeing a "notification" as a human, family, and community, and treating everyone with kindness and authenticity. Midlife is a celebration. For Tammy, turning 50 is a gift, a chance to rediscover joy, creativity, and rest after decades of caregiving.  The "Two Worlds" Challenge  - Definition: Integrating all identities (Aboriginal woman, nurse, mother) without leaving pieces behind. - Professional: Balancing clinical systems with cultural ways of knowing, being, and doing.

  8. Jun 3

    Corporate Culture Is Cannibalising Midlife Women | Ep. 70

    The most dangerous kind of burnout is the one that still shows up to work looking capable. If you're a high-achieving woman in midlife who is exhausted in ways you can't fully explain, waking at 3am, running on caffeine, holding everything together while quietly falling apart, this episode is for you. Jen unpacks why burnout in high-performing women isn't a personal failure. It's the inevitable result of a structure that was never built for the female body, layered on top of a biological reckoning that corporate culture has no language for. Perimenopause doesn't arrive in a vacuum. It arrives in a body that has been running on overdraft for years. And when it does, the symptoms aren't signs of decline, they're the bill coming due. In this episode Jen explores the three renegotiations every high-achieving woman needs to make in midlife, with her body, her identity, and her time, and why the second half of your life doesn't have to be built on the same blueprint that burned you out in the first. Jennifer introduces the archetype of a successful, high-performing woman who appears to have it all together—remembers birthdays, covers for colleagues, delivers results, earns well—but is quietly running herself into the ground. She experiences 3 a.m. wake-ups, afternoon brain fog, caffeine dependence, and has cried in her car, yet tells no one. Jennifer establishes her credibility as a naturopath who has worked with hundreds of similar cases, noting that "the most dangerous kind of burnout is the kind that still shows up to work looking capable." Corporate culture designed without women in mind @ 2:53 Key Time Stamps 2:53 – Corporate culture wasn’t designed for womenJennifer discusses how high-performance workplaces reward relentless output while ignoring the realities of women’s health, hormones, and wellbeing. 5:30 – Perimenopause as a biological reckoningA powerful conversation around hormonal shifts, nervous system changes, anxiety, sleep disruption, and why women often feel unsupported during midlife. 7:37 – Adrenal burnout and what the body is communicatingJennifer explains burnout using the metaphor of an overdrawn bank account and why symptoms are messages from the body, not signs of failure. 9:03 – The identity crisis beneath burnoutThe discussion turns to the emotional impact of tying self-worth to productivity and the fear many women face when they can no longer maintain the same pace. 12:46 – How corporate culture consumes women’s resourcesJennifer explores how workplaces often benefit from women’s drive, emotional labour, and energy without supporting recovery or sustainability. 14:26 – Renegotiating body, identity, and timePractical and empowering insights on redefining success, supporting the nervous system, and separating identity from output. 15:42 – Building a life designed for youJennifer closes with a powerful reminder that women have the opportunity to redesign the second half of life on their own terms. "The most dangerous kind of burnout is the kind that still shows up to work looking capable." "Your body is not breaking down. It is breaking through — into a demand for a different way of living." "The women most at risk of midlife burnout are not the ones who don't care. They are the ones who care so deeply they forgot to include themselves in what they're caring for." "The second half of your life doesn't have to be built on the same blueprint that burned out the first. You get to be the architect now."

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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
    77
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jennifer Jefferies
  • Show Website
    The Present Day Wise Woman

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