361. Midlife Comedy and Transformation - An Inspiring Story

You Are Not Broken

Kelly Casperson, MD

Medicine, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of You Are Not Broken, I sit down with Susan Guidi — and this conversation is such a beautiful reminder that it is never too late to become who you were meant to be. Susan shares her journey growing up in a Cuban Catholic family, where cultural expectations around marriage, sexuality, and identity were very clear — and very rigid. We talk about how those early narratives shape the way we see ourselves as women… and how hard it can be to untangle them later in life. After a difficult divorce, Susan didn’t shrink. She expanded. She reinvented herself through stand-up comedy (yes, really) and eventually stepped onto a bodybuilding stage — proving that transformation isn’t reserved for the young. It’s reserved for the brave. We talk about: How culture influences the stories we believe about ourselves Why comedy can be deeply therapeutic What it takes to compete in bodybuilding later in life The power of community support during major life transitions Why mindset matters more than motivation The role of nutrition in strength and longevity Redefining your identity after divorce, career shifts, or midlife change Why sharing your story can liberate someone else This episode is about empowerment — not the fluffy kind, but the earned kind. The kind that comes from taking control of your health, your body, your voice, and your future. Susan is living proof that you are not too old, too late, too divorced, too inexperienced, or too anything. You are just in the middle of becoming. If this conversation resonates, share it with a woman who needs to hear that reinvention is still on the table. Because it is. Susan's Instagram Listen to my Tedx Talk: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Why we need adult sex ed⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Take my ⁠⁠⁠⁠Adult Sex Ed Master Class:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠My Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Interested in my sexual health and hormone clinic? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Waitlist is open⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Thanks to our sponsor ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Midi Women's Health⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Designed by midlife experts, delivered by experienced clinicians, covered by insurance.Midi is the first virtual care clinic made exclusively for women 40+. Evidence-based treatments. Personalized midlife care.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.joinmidi.com⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to You Are Not Broken, the podcast that challenges everything we've been taught about midlife,
0:08.1	hormones, and sexuality. I'm Dr. Kelly Casperson, board certified jurologist, author, and a leading
0:13.8	voice in women's sexual and hormone health. Enjoy the show. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the
0:18.6	You're Not Broken podcast. I have a fun thing happening today. So I was at Vonda Wright's probably seventh annual, but I say second annual because I've been there two times, conference down in Orlando in 2025. And I was in the back of the auditorium. There's like a thousand people there. And Dr. Wright was like, you have to meet my patient zero. Did she call
0:38.9	her patient zero? I don't know if she uses that, because I've never seen her use my images.
0:46.3	Like, I've never seen that in real time. I started calling myself her muse. Oh, her muse. I like
0:53.2	that better than patient zero. Patient zero is like something bad. So I got introduced to you, and she was like, and she does stand up, and she's a fitness competitor. And I'm like, you have to be on my podcast. So welcome to the podcast, Susan Guidi. Thank you so much. You don't understand. Oh, we're going to have some fun today. So take us back,
1:12.2	because this is, I think, at the heart of it, this is a transformation story. So take me to,
1:17.0	like, Susan before. What was like, what was the career? What was the couple of decades?
1:21.5	Like, and then the transformation story. Goodness. I grew up in Tampa, Florida. I'm Cuban Catholic.
1:47.1	I'm 68 years old. So I grew up in a certain time, in a certain culture that says you marry the first man you ever sleep with. You don't have sex outside the marriage. That's pregnant because I practice ultrasound. I started in nuclear medicine and then stumbled into ultrasound when it was in its infancy. Literally when ultrasound was just beginning, I trained at
1:53.0	John Hopkins. When it was still black and white. Oh, wait, it's still black and white. No, no.
1:57.4	When it was not real time. What?
2:03.2	Yeah, that's how old I am.
2:09.9	When we started, ultrasound was created by compound imaging.
2:12.0	And so then they had to go put it together?
2:13.9	We had to put it together.
2:15.2	You had to draw it.
2:21.9	Like you drew it and then made this sort of acquisition come to life. And I got used to people telling me it's useless. Every radiologist I worked for. The radiologist said
2:29.4	ultrasound was useless. Go back downstairs. We have CT. take those images with you. And because of that,
2:36.9	I landed at Johns Hopkins, which was Mecca at the beginning of ultrasound. And no one ever
2:42.7	particularly thinks I'm Latina, but I am, and I spoke Spanish. And there was an opportunity to go
	...

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