The Midlife Edit

Jen Weinstein
  • 5.0 (6)
  • Society & Culture
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Think of The Midlife Edit as your favorite music magazine, but for the midlife woman who's done shrinking. Host Jen Weinstein brings real conversations with guests who've lived it...alongside honest talk about identity, reinvention, hormones, and the 90s music that still lives rent-free in your head. Honest, a little irreverent, and zero apologies for who you're becoming. New episodes every Tuesday.

  1. 3d ago ·  Video

    Ghostwriters, Episode 5: The Job

    What happens when what you do becomes who you are? In the final installment of The Ghostwriters series, Jen takes on one of the sneakiest ghostwriters of all: the job. The career, role, title—or simply the thing you do every day—that slowly becomes tangled up with your identity, your worth, and your sense of being needed. Fresh off a bucket-list trip to The Gorge, Jen asks a question that sounds simple but gets uncomfortable fast: What do you actually want? This episode digs into the Good Girl at Work, the Ladder, the Golden Handcuffs, and the Competence Trap—the scripts that keep us climbing, achieving, proving, and moving the goalpost even when we're no longer sure we want what's waiting at the top. Jen also gets personal about her own relationship with work, achievement, praise, and the realization that being really f*****g good at something doesn't mean you owe it the rest of your life. Because there's a difference between achievement and alignment. And you don't have to hate an old chapter to turn the page. In this episode: Why being needed at work can become addictiveThe difference between achievement and alignmentHow the “good girl at work” script keeps us overfunctioningWhy success can still leave you wondering, “Now what?”The trap of being really good at something you've outgrownWhy reinvention doesn't require blowing up your entire lifeHow to separate what you do from who you areThe question to ask when you're finally ready to pick your pen back upPlus, Jen closes out The Ghostwriters and looks ahead to what's next: The Blank Page—because figuring out what you don't want is only half the edit. What happens when you finally have the pen back…and have no f*****g idea what you want to write next?

    Ghostwriters, Episode 5: The Job

  2. Sep 8 ·  Video

    Ghostwriters, Episode 4: The Caregiver

    There's a version of you that only exists in the two seconds before anyone else in the house needs something — before the day remembers you're in it and hands you the list. In Episode 4 of Ghostwriters, Jen goes after a ghostwriter that doesn't sneak in at all. This one gets invited. This one gets thanked. It shows up wearing a name tag that says Mom, or Stepmom, or Daughter, or Sister, or "the strong one" — and it writes some of the most exhausting chapters of a woman's life while everybody, including her, calls it love. Jen names four scripts — the Good Mother Script, the Stepmother Script, the Sandwich Generation Script, and the Built-In Caregiver Script — and then goes deeply personal about living inside two of them at once as a mother to her 21-year-old son and a stepmother to her husband's four kids. She shares a raw, real moment from the actual week of recording: being left off her stepkids' school emergency contact and pickup list on purpose, in the middle of a high-conflict co-parenting dynamic on her husband's side. She also speaks to the sandwich-generation and built-in-caregiver scripts from the outside, having supported her mother and mother-in-law through surgeries and hard stretches without currently living inside that role herself. The episode closes with this week's tool: the oxygen-mask question — if you stripped away everything you do for other people this week, is there anything left on the page that's just yours? Links Mentioned The Edit RoomThe Backstage Pass newsletterEpisode 81 — Ghostwriters, Episode 1: The FamilyEpisode 82 — Ghostwriters, Episode 2: The CultureEpisode 83 — Ghostwriters, Episode 3: The RelationshipSubscribe, leave a 5-star review, and join The Edit Room to tell Jen which script — or scripts — you're living inside right now, and one thing that's still just yours, even if it's small.

    Ghostwriters, Episode 4: The Caregiver

  3. Sep 1 ·  Video

    Ghostwriters, Episode 3: The Relationship

    Episode DescriptionThere's a version of every relationship where two people pick up the same pen and write a better story together than either one could have written alone. But sometimes the pen changes hands — quietly, one dropped opinion at a time — until "we" stops meaning two people writing together and starts meaning one person's handwriting with the other person's name signed underneath it. In Episode 3 of Ghostwriters, Jen goes after the ghostwriter that doesn't sneak in through a magazine or a childhood role. This one shows up disguised as love: The Relationship. Jen names five scripts that quietly take the pen out of a woman's hands inside a partnership — the Compromise Script, the Logistics Script, the Peacekeeper Script, the "Whose Plan Is The Plan" Script, and the Invisible Load Script — and then gets unflinchingly personal about the one she lived herself for twenty years: dating potential instead of people, disappearing into a Miami Hurricanes starter jacket for a boy whose name she barely remembers, and staying in a situationship with a man in his late 30s or 40s who still lived with his mother, wouldn't claim her as his girlfriend, and withheld intimacy if she didn't go to the gym. She talks about turning 37, meeting her husband, and the realization that undid her while writing this episode — she didn't have to change a single thing about herself to be loved well. The episode closes with this week's tool: the difference between a real compromise and erasure wearing a compromise's clothes, and a pointed new question for anyone who recognizes the pattern — are you editing him into someone better, or editing yourself into someone smaller? Links MentionedThe Edit RoomThe Backstage Pass newsletterEpisode 1: Ghostwriters, Episode 1: The FamilyEpisode 2: Ghostwriters, Episode 2: The CultureEpisode 75: Hold the Pen Subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and share this episode with the woman in your life who needs to hear it. Join The Edit Room to tell Jen which script is running in your relationship right now — or, if the pen genuinely gets shared in your partnership, tell her that too.

    Ghostwriters, Episode 3: The Relationship

  4. Aug 25 ·  Video

    Ghostwriters, Episode 2: The Culture

    Episode DescriptionIt never met you. It didn't raise you. It doesn't know your name. And it still had an opinion about who you should become — your body, your ambition, exactly how much room you're allowed to take up. In Episode 2 of Ghostwriters, Jen goes after the second ghostwriter: The Culture. Jen traces three decades of a very specific kind of noise — 80s and 90s beauty standards, a rotating cast of diet trends, the jump from magazines and MTV to Instagram at 6am — and the moment a "you're edging toward irrelevant" thought showed up uninvited on her 43rd birthday, uninvited and unrequested. She gets into the "have it all" myth (and her hot take that maybe you can't, and that's okay), a farmer's-market moment with her mother-in-law that turned into an unplanned thesis statement, and the house she and her husband are selling after five years of blending their family — and why gratitude and wanting something more can live in the same body. The episode closes with this week's tool: catching a "should" mid-sentence and asking one very simple, very necessary question — says who? Topics CoveredQuick catch-up: the "one-hit wonder" callback and a recap of Episode 1's family roles (black sheep, golden child, peacemaker, parentified kid, invisible one)Introducing The Culture as the second ghostwriter — never met you, still has notesGrowing up a girl in the 80s and 90s: magazines, MTV, and the phrase "she looks great for her age"The Body Script: three decades of diet culture and why the goalposts keep moving on purposeTurning 43 and catching the "edging toward irrelevant" thought she never invitedThe farmer's market moment with her mother-in-law — "is this shirt too young for me?"The shift from magazines-with-an-off-switch to a phone that never turns off, and comparing your real life to someone else's highlight reelThe "have it all" checklist, and why "having it all" quietly became "doing it all" — plus Nikki Miller's question from Jen's moms' group: "where do you get your energy?"Hitting midlife: packing up the house, the move to be closer to the city and her stepkids' school, and the question "is this it?"The Anti-Aging Industrial ComplexThe Culture Inside Your Head — what it means when the ghostwriter doesn't even need to be in the room anymoreThis week's tool: the "says who?" exercise for taking the pen backWhat's next in the series: The Relationship (Episode 3)Quotable Moments"That's the weird thing about culture. It never asked us. It just started writing.""Would you still want it if nobody else could see you? That's a very different question.""Culture doesn't just give you the standard. It moves the standard. So you can never actually arrive.""Culture may have gotten the pen early. But it doesn't get to write the ending."Links MentionedThe Edit Room (Facebook community)The Backstage Pass newsletter (Sunday sends)Episode 81: Ghostwriters, Episode 1: The FamilyEpisode 75: Hold the PenEpisode 77: The Ghostwriters

    Ghostwriters, Episode 2: The Culture

  5. Aug 18 ·  Video

    Ghostwriters, Episode 1: The Family

    Who wrote the story you're currently living? Not you — probably someone else. In this first episode of a brand new series, Jen introduces Ghostwriters: the five recurring authors — The Family, The Culture, The Relationship, The Caregiver, and The Job — who script women's lives without their consent. Episode 1 starts where it all begins: The Family. Jen breaks down the roles we get cast into before we're old enough to audition for another part — the black sheep, the golden child, the peacemaker, the parentified kid, the invisible one — and gets personal about her own role growing up. She also opens up about going quiet for a couple weeks (work travel, turning 43, selling the house) and why the pause turned into this series. This episode explores how childhood roles quietly follow us into adulthood — into our marriages, our businesses, our friendships — and offers a simple, non-dramatic way to start noticing where the pen changed hands. Topics CoveredWhy Jen went quiet the last few weeks (travel, her 43rd birthday, selling the house)The origin of the "Hold the Pen" framework (Episode 75)Introducing the Ghostwriters series and its five recurring "authors"The Family as the first ghostwriter — born into a role, not cast in oneThe Black Sheep: why it's often a strategy, not a personalityOther family roles: The Golden Child, The Peacemaker, The Parentified Kid, The Invisible OneHow these roles show up in adulthood — work, marriage, business, friendshipsA simple two-question exercise for noticing whose "voice" is really driving a decisionWhat's next in the series: The Culture (Episode 2)Quotable Moments"Somewhere along the way, I forgot I was allowed to hold the pen.""It's not always a personality. Sometimes it's a strategy.""None of this is a character flaw, friends. It's just an old script still running in the background decades after the original cast had changed.""You don't have to rewrite the whole story. You just have to notice whose handwriting is on the page."Subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. Join The Edit Room to share which role you recognized yourself in.

    Ghostwriters, Episode 1: The Family

  6. Aug 11

    Not A One Hit Wonder

    Not a One-Hit WonderRecorded from a hotel room in San Antonio after a 2:45am wake-up and a 5am flight — thirty minutes from skipping the week entirely before deciding she couldn't. This week's episode was supposed to open the Ghostwriters series, but instead Jen gets honest about burnout, perimenopause, and the exhaustion of a summer that included Mason's 21st birthday celebrations, stepkids' packed activity schedules, building two careers, and — as of this weekend — putting the house on the market. The core of the episode: One-Hit Wonders. Jen unpacks how the music industry (and culture at large) reduces artists — especially women like Joan Osborne, Meredith Brooks, Tracy Bonham, and Fiona Apple — to a single song regardless of the depth of their catalog, and draws the parallel to how women get flattened into one defining moment: the wedding, the baby, the breakdown, the comeback. She gets vulnerable about rumination, not listening back to her own episodes out of anxiety, and refusing to let this podcast — or herself — become a one-hit wonder. Video is taking a short break while the house is on the market. Audio isn't going anywhere. The Ghostwriters series starts next week with Episode 1: The Family. Timestamps00:03 — Cold open: hotel room, San Antonio, almost skipped this week 01:15 — Why the Ghostwriters series got bumped 02:07 — Burnout, letting things slide, going quiet on social 04:05 — The full plate: Mason's 21st, stepkids, house on the market 05:30 — One-Hit Wonders: the setup 07:58 — Culture picks the single — and so do we 10:08 — Getting vulnerable: rumination, the deep cuts 12:30 — Why she recorded anyway 14:09 — Close: what's next + Edit Room callout Links🎧 Listen + explore all episodes: www.themidlifeeditco.com 💌 Join the Backstage Pass newsletter 💬 Join the conversation in The Edit Room

    Not A One Hit Wonder

  7. Aug 4 ·  Video

    Who Wrote Your Rulebook? The Church, the Culture, and the Long Walk Back to Your Own Pen

    Audra Phelps grew up Mormon, married in the temple at 20, and spent the next decade doing everything right — and doing everything she was told. On today's episode she and Jen skip the standard "growing up in the church" recap and go straight for the good stuff: the moment she realized she didn't even like the apple pie she'd been baking every Thanksgiving for her husband, and what came unraveling after it. This is the second stop in Jen's Hold the Pen series — and Audra, without any prompting, uses the exact word "ghostwriter" to describe what religion did to her story. Turns out you don't need to have grown up Mormon to recognize every second of this conversation. In this episode: What a "good" Mormon wife and mother looked like on paper — and how little choice was actually built into it (00:32)Ten years of quiet doubt, and what that looked like day to day, including the anxiety and panic attacks Audra didn't understand at the time (09:00)The "alphabet exodus" — how a move overseas to Kazakhstan gave her the physical distance to start questioning everything (12:25)The pie story. Thanksgiving, eight years after leaving the church, standing in her kitchen resenting a dessert she didn't even like — and realizing she had no idea what her own favorite pie was (17:52)Why leaving isn't the same as being free, and the loneliness that showed up right alongside it (26:06)Telling her parents — the hardest conversation, harder than telling her husband (29:54)Building a family mission statement with her kids instead of handing them a new script to replace the old one (33:06)The coaching program that saved her marriage — and the question underneath it: does today's Audra still choose the same husband? (38:30)What NLP coaching actually is, explained in plain English (50:07)Why so many women leaving high-control situations land in MLMs, and how Audra helps women rebuild financial independence from zero (52:45)The invisible rules Audra still catches herself following, eleven years out (56:39)This week's Edit In / Edit OutEdit In / Edit Out Jen is editing in trusting herself to make the decision, and editing out cleaning her baseboards before guests come over. Audra is editing in doing something for herself before she opens her laptop, and editing out worrying about the dishes in the sink. Special offer from Audra: Audra is offering Midlife Edit listeners 50% off their first one-on-one coaching session. Head to mamaaudra.com/oneonone to book a free consult and see if it's a fit — just mention PODCAST on your call to get the discount. This is open to any woman navigating a faith transition after leaving a high-control organization, not just women leaving Mormonism. Connect with Audra Phelps Instagram: @mamaaudraofficial Website: mamaaudra.com Tiktok: @mamaaudra Facebook: Mama Audra Youtube: Mama Audra

    Who Wrote Your Rulebook? The Church, the Culture, and the Long Walk Back to Your Own Pen

  8. Jul 28 ·  Video

    The Ghostwriter Before the Book: Lauren Tetenbaum on Reclaiming Her Pen

    Before Lauren Tetenbaum was the therapist and author everyone wants to talk to about menopause, she spent fifteen years as someone else's voice — literally. As an immigration attorney, she represented abuse and asylum survivors in cases where the stakes were life and death. She fought for parental leave policy at a time when asking for it made her a problem. And somewhere in the middle of writing everyone else's story, she started asking who was writing hers. This is the conversation before the book — reinvention, imposter syndrome, and what it actually costs to hold someone else's pen for a decade and a half before you pick up your own. In this episode: Fifteen years as an immigration attorney representing abuse and asylum survivorsWhat it felt like being someone else's voice when the stakes were life or deathFighting for parental leave policy — twice — and the pushback she got from other womenThe pivot from lawyer to therapist, and what each reinvention cost her versus what it gave backImposter syndrome as a gendered experience, and what she tells clients who are questioning a leapThe "ghostwriters" of her own life — career identity, unsupportive bosses, and letting go of voices she didn't actually respectThis week's Edit In / Edit OutHer book pick for the summer and what's on her Y2K playlist Guest links: Book: millennialmenopause.comPractice: thecounselor.comInstagram: @thecounselor Connect with The Midlife Edit: themidlifeeditco.com@thejenweinsteinJoin The Edit Room: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/19AtNYVeyh/Enter The Edit Box giveaway — closes July 31st. Enter here: https://themidlifeeditco.myflodesk.com/editbox

    The Ghostwriter Before the Book: Lauren Tetenbaum on Reclaiming Her Pen
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About

Think of The Midlife Edit as your favorite music magazine, but for the midlife woman who's done shrinking. Host Jen Weinstein brings real conversations with guests who've lived it...alongside honest talk about identity, reinvention, hormones, and the 90s music that still lives rent-free in your head. Honest, a little irreverent, and zero apologies for who you're becoming. New episodes every Tuesday.

Information

  • Creator
    Jen Weinstein
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    84
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Jen Weinstein
  • Show Website
    The Midlife Edit