About Well Enough Alone - A Guide To Thriving Solo
Well Enough Alone is a celebration of solo living that tears up the “sad and lonely” single script and embraces a path that can be joyful and fulfilling.
Because there is more to life than “partnered and happy” or “single and searching.”
There is solo and thriving.
Hosted by best-selling author and award-winning journalist, Jill Stark, this podcast is for anyone who’s ever been told that being single makes you incomplete. Or that life only begins when you find “the one”.
To leave “well enough alone” means to stop trying to change something that’s already good enough.
What if the one you’ve been looking for is you? Could embracing your single status rather than fearing it be the key to a happy life?
Jill talks to inspiring guests, some who are single and some who aren’t, about what they’ve learned from time spent in their own company, and interviews experts in psychology, human behaviour, business, health and wellbeing, about how to thrive alone.
Whether you’re happily single, trying to get comfortable with your solo status, or partnered and looking to carve out more time for yourself, Well Enough Alone will empower you to live your life your way.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Publisher
Spare Room
Category
society & culture · society & culture · society & culture
SEASON FINALE: Heidi Clements: Single after 60 – the freedom, self-love and empowerment of age
If you want to know how to be happy alone and show up proudly and unapologetically as your authentic self, you need to listen to this episode.
This is our season finale and what a way to close out season two! (Thank you all for listening!)
Jill speaks with the incredible Heidi Clements, a social media sensation who has inspired women all over the world with her empowering outlook on ageing, self-acceptance and how to thrive as a single, child-free woman in her 60s.
Heidi is a screenwriter, author, storyteller and self-confessed clothing enthusiast. In viral videos of her getting dressed each day, you’ll get not only her uniquely fabulous sense of style but also her intimate thoughts on what it means to be an older woman moving through the world in ways that society doesn’t always embrace.
This was a powerful conversation, filled with compassion, courage and raw honesty about Heidi’s personal struggles, but also her triumphs.
You can follow Heidi on Instagram @welcometoheidi (https://www.instagram.com/welcometoheidi/) or on TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@welcometoheidi?lang=en).
To stay in touch with Well Enough Alone, you can follow us on Instagram @wellenoughalonepod (https://www.instagram.com/wellenoughalonepod/) or follow Jill @jillstark__ (https://www.instagram.com/jillstark__/)
Well Enough Alone is a Spare Room production. Our producers are Kieran Simpson and Trent Bartlett.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Get early access to new episodes by subscribing on Patreon (https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/8717142)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
27 Apr 2025
Paul Dolan: Can you be truly happy alone? (Spoiler: single, child-free women are the happiest)
What do we actually need to live a happy life? Are marriage and children the pathway to fulfilment, or do they actually make you less happy?
This week, Jill talks to someone who has studied these questions in depth and come up with some illuminating answers that not everyone wants to hear.
Professor Paul Dolan is one of the world’s leading experts on happiness, a professor of behavioural science from the London School of Economics, the author of several books on happiness, and host of the podcast, Get Happier (https://pauldolan.co.uk/podcasts), among others.
He’s spent more than three decades researching how we can measure and value the richness of the human experience, and what he’s found is fascinating.
One of the things we’re often told from an early age is the best way for us to achieve fulfilment is to get married and have kids.
But does the science align with the fairytale? Do we need to partner and procreate to be a fully actualised and contented human? Or can we be truly happy alone?
This is an illuminating and validating conversation about the science of doing life solo.
You can find out more about Paul’s work through his website (https://pauldolan.co.uk/), learn more about his books here (https://pauldolan.co.uk/books-1) and check out his podcasts here (https://pauldolan.co.uk/podcasts).
To stay in touch with Well Enough Alone, you can follow us on Instagram @wellenoughalonepod (https://www.instagram.com/wellenoughalonepod/) or follow Jill @jillstark__ (https://www.instagram.com/jillstark__/)
Well Enough Alone is a Spare Room production. Our producers are Kieran Simpson and Trent Bartlett.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Get early access to new episodes by subscribing on Patreon (https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/8717142)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
20 Apr 2025
Michelle McQuaid: the cost of being a ‘good girl’ – finding freedom from people-pleasing
How do we let go of perfectionism and people-pleasing and learn to put our own needs first?
This week, Jill speaks with Dr Michelle McQuaid, an internationally recognised positive psychology expert, about how more women are breaking free from damaging people-pleasing patterns and living as their authentic selves.
Michelle is the author of six best-selling books, and an honorary fellow at Melbourne University’s Centre for Wellbeing Science.
Her life and work explore the intersection of mental health, identity, and the societal norms that quietly erode our sense of self, with a particular focus on how women are conditioned from an early age to be the ‘good girl’, and how we can shed these limiting beliefs.
She also recently found the courage to end her 23-year marriage and gained freedom and fulfilment as she enters what she describes as her “Grey Queer” years, exploring her bisexuality and prioritising her relationship with herself.
Michelle also shares her fascinating personal story of growing up with a family background of drug addiction and homelessness, which has given her a unique perspective in building identity and resilience.
You can find out more about Michelle’s work through her website (https://www.michellemcquaid.com/meet-michelle/), read about her Good Girl Game Changers project on her Substack (https://michellemcquaid.substack.com/), and check out her book, The Perfectly Imperfect Little Girl, here (https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-perfectly-imperfect-little-girl-michelle-mcquaid/book/9781763805606.html?srsltid=AfmBOop4I1EiZ41rvJB5AFGj4Wsidiqi4oDKyQ4-CiOsv86ToO1vSrJ7).
To stay in touch with Well Enough Alone, you can follow us on Instagram @wellenoughalonepod (https://www.instagram.com/wellenoughalonepod/) or follow Jill @jillstark__ (https://www.instagram.com/jillstark__/)
Well Enough Alone is a Spare Room production. Our producers are Kieran Simpson and Trent Bartlett.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Get early access to new episodes by subscribing on Patreon (https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/8717142)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
11 ratings
Spotify
4.5 / 5
106 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 50 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
81
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
51
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