Message In The Middle

About Message In The Middle

Message in the Middle is a podcast for women navigating the challenges, transitions, and reinventions that often come with midlife. Hosted by Marianne DeMello-Smith, each episode explores the messy, meaningful moments that shape who we become. Through honest conversations with experts, authors, thought leaders, and everyday women, you'll discover practical insights, inspiring stories, and new perspectives on what it means to grow through life's most difficult seasons. Whether you're facing a career change, caregiving responsibilities, health challenges, grief, relationship shifts, menopause, identity changes, or simply wondering what's next, Message in the Middle offers encouragement, wisdom, and real-world strategies to help you move forward with greater confidence and purpose. Together, we'll explore resilience, personal growth, self-discovery, emotional well-being, and the power of turning life's messes into meaningful midlife messages. Because midlife isn't the end of your story. It may just be the beginning of your next chapter.

Publisher

Marianne DeMello-Smith

Category

education · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Apr 2022

Latest episode

10 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

13 of 234 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   10 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Are You Grading Yourself by Your Children’s Lives?

   Host Dr. Barbara Stanny interviews Gigi Baxter about how mothers often measure their own worth by their children's lives, offering insights into breaking this cycle.

2. 

   3 Oct 2026

   Rebuilding a Life You Didn’t Choose

   Host Dr. Sarah Miller interviews Jennifer White, a retired registered nurse, about rebuilding her life after a brain tumor surgery forced her to relearn basic functions and confront memory loss.

3. 

   26 Sept 2026

   When Life Is Lifing: How We Keep Going Anyway

   Marianne shares insights on navigating overwhelming life challenges and maintaining resilience when everything feels like "lifing" anyway.

Inside a recent episode

Are You Grading Yourself by Your Children’s Lives?

Published 10 Oct 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] No one is saying, oh, well, my son was laid off, right? But instead, maybe I'll talk about my son just got engaged. But maybe her son was just laid off. Or maybe her son is struggling with something else. We don't talk about their struggles. We only talk about their successes. I'm sure that at all points in their lives, our children have both sides of the story. And that's not what we talk about. And moms... Their successes don't mean that you succeeded and their failures or their struggles don't mean that you failed as a mother. They're people, you know, they're not report cards and you can love them fiercely without managing them. […]

Who has been a guest on Message In The Middle

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Gigi Baxter
• Jennifer White
• Kameran Alareqi
• Kathy Robinson
• Nancy Deyo

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

2,718

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

34 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

9 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 73 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

98

Social presence

0

YouTube

68

Engagement

51

Contact Message In The Middle

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Message In The Middle