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The Big Four Oh: The Podcast About Turning 40 - Podcast

The Big Four Oh: The Podcast About Turning 40

Sometime around age 40 (+/-) you might start feeling like some part of your life no longer fits and you don't know what to do about it. It could be at work or at home - or simply inside of you. You might be asking questions like, "How did I get here?" Or, "Is this all there is?" "Is this what I've been working so hard for?" Or, "Why aren't I happier?"

Growing out of her own experience turning 40, Stephanie McLaughlin became captivated by the big “four oh,” and how people handle the milestone birthday.

On The Big Four Oh Podcast, Stephanie has conversations with people about their life experience around turning 40. This birthday often comes wrapped in larger life changes, whether it’s a newfound search for meaning, accepting your mortality, or shedding all those things you did because some external authority said you “should.”

Her mission is to make it common cultural knowledge that there IS a transition most of us face around age 40, and then showcase so many versions of that transition that every single person approaching, or recently turned, 40 with dread in their heart, knows that they are not alone.

I know you don't want to call it a midlife crisis, so I won't, but "if the glove fits, you must acquit." 😉

Documentary Society & Culture Personal Journals
Update frequency
every 7 days
Average duration
47 minutes
Episodes
140
Years Active
2022 - 2025
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Corey Stulce from the Family Twist podcast hosts a special "pod swap" episode of the Forty Drinks podcast with guest Jordan Elizabeth Braxton. In this engaging conversation, Jordan shares the intimat…

01:17:07  |   Tue 25 Jun 2024
Turning 40 and Changing the Things that Muck with Your Mental Health

Turning 40 and Changing the Things that Muck with Your Mental Health

In this week’s episode of Forty Drinks, Stephanie talks with Erik DeRosa about his profound midlife transition and struggle with mental health. Erik grew up with severe anxiety and obsessive-compulsi…

01:07:50  |   Tue 18 Jun 2024
Turning 40 and Embracing the Bare Minimum

Turning 40 and Embracing the Bare Minimum

In today’s episode, Jeff Glauser shares his transformative journey from feeling stuck and unfulfilled in his mid-thirties to finding purpose and stability in his forties. Coming from a background in …

01:09:46  |   Wed 12 Jun 2024
Turning 40, Conquering Cancer and Planting Roots

Turning 40, Conquering Cancer and Planting Roots

In this episode of the Forty Drinks Podcast, Gregory Halpen discusses his transformative journey from a tumultuous youth to finding stability and purpose in midlife. Gregory shares his struggles with…

00:55:34  |   Fri 07 Jun 2024
Turning 40 and Waking From the Fairy Tale

Turning 40 and Waking From the Fairy Tale

When she was 31, Laura Ballet met a man 11 years her junior that she would spend the next decade with. He acted mature for his age and she acted a little young, so they met in the middle on many  thi…

01:03:56  |   Fri 31 May 2024
Turning 40 and Kicking the Soul Sucking Job to the Curb

Turning 40 and Kicking the Soul Sucking Job to the Curb

As a former "fat kid," Lauren Herskovic had deep seated insecurities that led her to choose professional roles that didn’t give her what she needed because she didn’t think she deserved it. She spent…

01:00:43  |   Tue 21 May 2024
Turning 40 and Ditching the Lying, Cheating Narcissist

Turning 40 and Ditching the Lying, Cheating Narcissist

As Ginny Priem approached 40, she was focused on her career and enjoying the life she had built for herself. Then she met “Chad,” who worked his way into her heart and home with his two kids. A year …

00:53:37  |   Thu 09 May 2024
Turning 40 and Peeling Back the Layers of the Onion

Turning 40 and Peeling Back the Layers of the Onion

Sara Letorneau is a writer, editor, poet and writing coach who will turn 40 later this year. She grew up in a “normal” happy family in a working class suburb in Massachusetts where she was taught tha…

01:09:49  |   Thu 02 May 2024
Turning 40 and Leaving the Bureaucracy for Science Fiction

Turning 40 and Leaving the Bureaucracy for Science Fiction

David Hankins spent 20 years in the Army working in logistics. He retired at 42 and had to figure out what his next act was going to be. There would be stability to support his family, but he would a…

00:40:44  |   Tue 23 Apr 2024
Turning 40 and Going from the Streets to Safety to Shock and Awe

Turning 40 and Going from the Streets to Safety to Shock and Awe

Allison Doss has a multi-faceted midlife transition that took her through several harrowing phases. She moved to the “big city” after high school and was quickly recruited to become a stripper. She w…

01:07:17  |   Wed 17 Apr 2024
Turning 40 and Embracing Intimacy Over Sex

Turning 40 and Embracing Intimacy Over Sex

Karl Beckstrand was exposed to gay sex at age 8 by a male peer. Because of that experience at such a tender age, Karl developed a dysfunctional relationship with sex. He became hypersexual from that …

00:42:48  |   Tue 09 Apr 2024
Turning 40 and Saying Yes for a Year

Turning 40 and Saying Yes for a Year

Joe Scales approached 40 wondering why he wasn’t happier. He had a job that paid well, two incredible kids and he had been married for 20 years. He wondered why he didn’t have “it” all figured out ye…

00:50:21  |   Tue 02 Apr 2024
Turning 40 and Transitioning From Warrior to Civilian

Turning 40 and Transitioning From Warrior to Civilian

John Lawyer spent more than a decade as a warrior in the Middle East and, upon his return to civilian life in the United States, struggled with his identity and how to engage with the world. He went …

00:47:46  |   Tue 26 Mar 2024
Transition vs. Change: Navigating the Midlife Transition

Transition vs. Change: Navigating the Midlife Transition

Welcome to Season 5 of the Forty Drinks Podcast. I’m kicking off the season with an exploration of transition versus change, which are entirely different things according to William Bridges, PhD in h…

00:30:15  |   Tue 19 Mar 2024
Turning 40 and Rewriting My Story

Turning 40 and Rewriting My Story

Stephanie Rose checked off a huge number of major life events in her early 30s, in a bit of a whirlwind fashion. She met and married her husband, bought her first home, gave birth two her two kids, a…

01:08:04  |   Tue 27 Feb 2024
Turning 40 and Touched by an Angel

Turning 40 and Touched by an Angel

Vince Kramer ignored three major wake up calls in his 40s, before the Universe - or whatever you prefer to call it - finally got his attention. First, he narrowly missed piloting one of the United fl…

01:14:47  |   Thu 22 Feb 2024
Turning 40 and Healing First Generation Wounds

Turning 40 and Healing First Generation Wounds

Susie Castellanos Hansley is a first-generation Mexican American who was raised by her grandmother from the age of two after her mother died, along with her siblings and cousins. Susie found school w…

01:17:47  |   Tue 13 Feb 2024
Turning 40 and Stop Making the Same Mistake

Turning 40 and Stop Making the Same Mistake

Birgitta Visser kept making the same mistake over and over again in her romantic relationships. She had an acute case of what she called “doormat syndrome,” which meant she didn’t want to hurt anyone…

00:51:46  |   Fri 09 Feb 2024
Turning 40 and Facing your Stuff so you Don't have to Stuff Your Face

Turning 40 and Facing your Stuff so you Don't have to Stuff Your Face

As mother-daughter relationships go, Renee says hers with her mom was pretty good, but she never felt like she had permission to be herself. When she was a girl and her mom would make a dress, she’d …

00:44:42  |   Thu 01 Feb 2024
Turning 40 and Marrying an Inmate

Turning 40 and Marrying an Inmate

Jo Ann Fawcett was heavily influenced as a child by the image of the happy family from the TV show Leave it to Beaver, which left her with some - perhaps unreasonable - ideas of what a marriage shoul…

00:49:54  |   Thu 25 Jan 2024
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