Glynnis MacNicol: everything you've been told about being a middle-aged woman is a lie

The Shift with Sam Baker

Sam Baker Ltd

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.8 • 525 Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What happens when the life you find yourself leading in midlife doesn’t tick all the supposed boxes? That’s the situation today’s guest found herself in. Glynnis MacNicol was 46 - a woman of a so-called certain age who found herself living life without a roadmap when, in august 2021, after almost 18 months spent alone in lockdown, she picked herself up and packed herself off to Paris for a month of living, loving and, well, pleasure. I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself is the story of that month - a month spent in search of friendship, food, community, contact and sex. Plenty of sex. While she was at it Glynnis discovered that far from being, as she puts it, “past cultural appeal and expectation:, everything she’d been told about living life as a middle aged single woman was a lie. Glynnis joined me to talk pleasure, confidence, agency, learning to enjoy your body in midlife, knowing what you want and asking for it, sex, cycling, The joy and freedom of living life without a narrative and why she’d rather have a piece of prime Manhattan real estate than a husband! * You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Shift bookshop on Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, including I'm Mostly Here To Enjoy Myself as well as the book that inspired this podcast, The Shift: how I lost and found myself after 40 - and you can too, by me. * If you enjoyed this episode and you fancy buying me a coffee, pop over to my page on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠buymeacoffee.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. • And if you'd like to support the work that goes into making this podcast and get a weekly newsletter plus loads more content including exclusive transcripts of the podcast, why not join The Shift community, come and have a look around at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • The Shift (on life after 40) with Sam Baker is created and hosted by Sam Baker and edited by Juliette Nicholls at Pineapple Production. If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate/ review/ follow as it really does help other people find us. And let me know what you think on Bluesky @theothersambaker.bsky.social or instagram @theothersambaker or message me on substack The Shift with Sam Baker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:22.8	entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:35.1	Hello and welcome to The Shift, the podcast that aims to tell the no-holds-barred truth about being a woman post-40.
0:42.3	Created and hosted by me, writer and broadcaster, Sam Baker.
0:46.9	So what happens when the life you find yourself living in midlife doesn't tick all the supposed boxes?
0:56.6	That's the situation today's guest found herself in. Glynis McNichael was 46, a woman of a so-called certain age,
1:03.0	who found herself living life without a roadmap when, in the middle of 2021, after almost 18
1:10.5	months spent alone in lockdown, she picked herself up and packed herself off to Paris for a month of living, loving and pleasure.
1:19.8	To quote, you know, Cheryl Samberg, I leaned in, I leaned into the decadence.
1:24.0	And I just thought, let's just see how far I can take this.
1:26.8	And as anyone who's had
1:28.5	periods of deprivation knows that like once you pop the cork or break the seal on that there's no
1:34.3	limit I'm mostly here to enjoy myself is the story of that month a month spent in search of
1:40.0	friendship food community contact and sex plenty sex. While she was at it,
1:47.7	Glynis discovered that far from being, as she puts it, past cultural appeal and expectation.
1:54.4	Everything she'd been told about living life as a middle-aged woman, single or not, was a lie.
2:04.6	Glynis joined me to talk pleasure, confidence, agency,
2:11.6	learning to enjoy your body in midlife, knowing what you want and how to ask for it, sex, cycling,
2:19.2	the joy and freedom of living life without a narrative, and why she'd rather have a piece of prime Manhattan real estate than a husband, wouldn't we all, Glynnis?
2:22.2	Wouldn't we all?
2:45.6	I'm only here to enjoy myself?
2:50.5	I don't.
	...

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