Second Opinion

About Second Opinion

What if midlife isn’t the beginning of getting old—but the beginning of something we haven’t quite figured out yet? Welcome to Second Opinion, where science and story meets real life in midlife. Hosted by Rosemarie Beltz—a cardiovascular perfusionist, Columbia-trained journalist, and former broadcast medical reporter with three decades inside operating rooms and high-stakes medicine—Second Opinion brings together a career spent practicing medicine and reporting on it to explore health, longevity, reinvention, and the wonderfully complicated reality of being somewhere in the middle. Because midlife is strange. Some days you feel 25—curious, ambitious, optimistic, and convinced there is still so much ahead. Other days you’re tired. Your body feels different. Your parents are getting older. Your career may not fit quite the way it once did. Relationships change. The future suddenly feels both incredibly exciting and a little more finite. And somehow, all of those things can be true at the same time. We are also living through something previous generations never quite experienced. We have more medical knowledge, better technology, greater access to information, and potentially more healthy years ahead of us. We’re talking about healthspan, hormones, metabolic health, strength, sleep, brain health, longevity, artificial intelligence, and treatments that barely existed a generation ago. We may be living longer—but what are we going to do with all that extra life? That’s where Second Opinion begins. Each episode follows the questions worth asking now: What does the science actually say? What are we getting wrong? What should we be paying attention to? How do we make better medical decisions? And beyond health—how do we build lives that still feel interesting, connected, purposeful, and very much our own? We talk with physicians, researchers, scientists, innovators, and people with something meaningful to teach us. And sometimes Rosemarie turns the microphone on herself—sharing what she is learning from medicine, journalism, starting over, building something from scratch, and discovering that you don't necessarily become less curious about your life as you get older. Sometimes you become more curious. 🎙️ We explore: midlife health • perimenopause & menopause • hormones • heart health • metabolic health • GLP-1s • longevity & healthspan • sleep • strength • brain health • stress • preventive medicine • navigating healthcare • relationships • work • purpose • reinvention • technology • and what it means to create a meaningful next chapter. This isn't about trying to be 25 again. We can't go back. And maybe we don't want to. It's about taking everything we've learned, everything science is learning, and everything we still don't know—and asking what might be possible from here. Call it Midlife 2.0. No perfect roadmap. No pretending we have it all figured out. Just smart conversations, good science, lived experience, and better questions about how we want to spend the years ahead. 🌍 Now reaching listeners in 60 countries. Independently produced and rooted in New York City—where Rosemarie is still figuring out what she wants to be when she grows up. Second Opinion isn't here to tell you what to think. It's here to give you something worth thinking about.

Publisher

Rosemarie Beltz

Category

health & fitness · health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

29 Jan 2025

Latest episode

21 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

42 of 60 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   21 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   One Day You Feel 25. The Next? 105. Welcome to Midlife.

   Rosemarie Beltz, a board-certified cardiovascular perfusionist and journalist, explores embracing midlife without reinvention, focusing on discerning what truly matters and finding intentional ways to feel alive.

2. 

   5 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT

   The Power of the Pivot: Let August Be August. Why changing your mind may be the healthiest decision you make this summer.

   Host Rosemarie Beltz explores how changing your mind is a sign of cognitive flexibility, offering insights into neuroscience and preventive health.

3. 

   1 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT

   The Secret Life of Water. What Modern Life Gets Wrong About Hydration

   Host Rosemarie Beltz explores the surprising science of hydration, revealing how sunlight, hormones, and the microbiome impact water's role in our bodies.

Inside a recent episode

One Day You Feel 25. The Next? 105. Welcome to Midlife.

Published 21 Sept 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] I actually had a checkup with my retinal specialist and we talked about the microbiome, how it's linked to eye health. I thought that was really, really interesting. So all of these interconnected systems and an enormous microbial ecosystem, we're still learning how to understand. I find it really fascinating. So I'm going to have some episodes on that this season because even though it's fascinating, fascination is an evidence. So like I said, we're going there. What's established? What's emerging? What matters clinically? what doctors are keeping an eye on and what they're excited about and what can we actually influence. […]

Who has been a guest on Second Opinion

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

• Terry Chang
• Ulrike Kaunzner
• Sarah Lynn Wayne
• Dr Betsy Greenleaf

Reach and audience

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

YouTube views

122,162

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

10 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 61 / 100

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

Quality

68

Social presence

0

YouTube

86

Engagement

51

Questions about Second Opinion