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Lemonada. Hi

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listeners, we are dropping into your feed

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today to play you a clip of

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the first episode of my so-called midlife,

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a new podcast by Reshma Sajani and

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Lemonada Media. Reshma Sajani,

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founder of Girls Who Code, is

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a successful adult woman. She's written

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books, founded a successful nonprofit, and

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is raising two beautiful children. And

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even with all that, she still wakes

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up some days wondering when The Best

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Is Yet To Come kicks in, or if

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this is all life has to offer. So

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Reshma has created my so-called midlife with

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Lemonada Media to rewrite the playbook for

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navigating midlife, one episode at a

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time. Each week she

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will chat with extraordinary guests like

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Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Chelsea Clinton, Margaret Cho,

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Alanis Morissette, and more who transform

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their own midlives into opportunities for

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growth and newfound purpose. After

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you listen to this episode clip, search for

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my so-called midlife in your podcast app to hear

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the rest of the episode. You can

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also find a link in the show notes to take you there. Midlife

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is a clusterfuck, if I'm going to be

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really honest. At 51 years old, I'm

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starting to navigate the ebbs and flows

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of the unknown. What

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it looks like for me now is kissing

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my husband of 25 years good night at

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about 8 o'clock at night, heading into my

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separate bedroom where I need to have the

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AC set at 61 degrees due

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to my hot flashes. It's not

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knowing what Priscilla is going to show

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up today. It is

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being seen as an expert in your field

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because you've worked so hard in your career

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and raising these amazing human beings that are

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out doing what they want to do, but

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at the same time finding

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peace in being alone and

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knowing that everything is

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going to be okay. just

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getting through it and start actually living it.

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I'm Rush with a Johnny. Okay,

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I'm what they call a high achieving

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woman, but what woman isn't? What

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it looks like for me is I'm the founder of

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two nonprofits, Girls Who Code and Moms First. I

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got a great guy, two incredible kids,

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a cute dog. I've written bestselling books,

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but, and yes, there is a

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but. I wake up every

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day wondering, is this it? This

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is something my girlfriends and I talk about all the

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time, enduring the midlife. The

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kids, the deadlines, the wastelines, the

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schedules, the aging pairs and the

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husbands. I feel like

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all of us midlifers are either dead inside

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because there's no room for our thoughts or

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feelings or we're pressing the nuclear button. We're

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just blowing shit up because we want to

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escape it. I mean, you've read

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all fours, right? Where's my hotel

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room? For me, midlife hit

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me like a ton of bricks. I

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turned 42, my soul dog died,

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my hormones went wild, there was no third

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baby, my body was changing and nobody was

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buying me drinks at the bar. Meanwhile,

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my husband and I are fighting over who's

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taking out the trash and it's

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me, it's always me. I

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found myself mourning this whole era of my

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life that I had totally taken for granted.

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So look, this podcast is my attempt

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at turning it all around. Here's

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what we're gonna do. We're gonna figure this out

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together, week over week. I'm collecting

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tips and tricks to make us not just get

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through this part of our life, but actually

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live it from how I love my body

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to how I find out what I really

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want in life because I'm

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determined to make midlife the best fucking

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time of my life. So

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for today's very first episode, I'm going to the source. We're

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gonna talk to a woman who's done exactly what we're looking

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to do. in midlife by

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the reins. Julia Louis-Dreyfus,

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let me tell you all,

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during her midlife, she experienced

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some shit, loss,

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cancer, and she still says

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it was the best time of her life. Not

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to mention, that's also when she crushed

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her career in Veep. And

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this year, get this, she's in

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the Marvel universe in a body suit for

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fuck's sake, at 63. Julia

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sets a different tone for midlife, one

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of possibility, of thriving, of joy. Plus,

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she's just the Yoda of aging. For

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the last year and some change, she's been talking to

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women over 70 on her award-winning

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podcast, Wiser Than Me. Women

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like Jane Goodall and Amy Tan are telling her

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what it feels like to have lived 70, 80,

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90 years of life. And

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you know what? They're all so

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calm, relaxed, and just fucking happy.

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So today, I'm gonna figure out how

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we get to that centered, easy place

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sooner, and how to get the

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most out of our midlives. Hello.

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Hi, Julia. Nice to meet you. Hi,

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nice to meet you too. This is

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gonna be fun. I'm so fucking excited.

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Let's do it. Let's do it. All

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right. So I wanna talk about getting

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to know your body again. I know, super fun

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way to start. But truthfully,

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midlife is like a second adolescence.

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I wanna show you your iconic 2014 Rolling

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Stone cover. Okay. I'm gonna

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describe it for people. You're 53. Yeah.

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You're not wearing any clothes. Yeah. We

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see your back tatted up with the constitution. Your

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hair's down, it's flowy. You're looking over

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your shoulder. I mean, it's

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just incredible. Wow, thank you. You're

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exuding a confidence that I don't

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feel right now. Were

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you nervous? Very. It's

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funny because Mark Seliger, the

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wonderful extraordinary photographer Mark

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Seliger, with whom I've worked a number of

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times, as a matter of fact. took

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this and there have been

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more than one occasions that

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I'm in a photo studio with him and the

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next thing you know, I'm taking my clothes off

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and that is not by the way who I

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am personally. I'm just not and

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I also didn't realize that so much of

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my ass was gonna be honest, but

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anyway, I trusted

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him to do me okay and and and

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it was I mean I like the

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concept was this your idea for the cover or did

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someone have to convince you to do it. I

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want to say it was my idea. I think

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I was we were trying to come up with concept

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I think I think

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it was my idea Mark Seliger would

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have to confirm that anyway

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so it was either his or mine but we

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conferred prior to this because we had to

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get somebody to do this pretend tattoo on

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my back which took a lot of time

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to get that right by the way I

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can't imagine and I feel like this

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cover just shifted the conversation about aging

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and sexiness because you are undeniably

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hot. Oh god. Thank you so

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much. I'm not sure it really shifted the conversation. Do

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you really think that? I'm not sure. I do

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think it shifted the conversation. Hmm I

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think it started a trend of older

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women accepting their bodies feeling more comfortable

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feeling sexy in their middle age Do

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they have to convince you to do this cover or were

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you just game? You know

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if there's a really good concept for a photo

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shoot often there is not Often

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there is no concept or there was

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an incredibly shitty concept. That's when I

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lose my mind That's

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when I am very anxious But if there's a

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solid idea and I think this was a solid

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idea I can I'm I'm game and

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that's how I felt that day. I was game. You're

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a game. So that kind of brings me to To

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the last fuckable day. Uh-huh. So this is a

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sketch right that airs in 2015 one year after

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this cover Is

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it someone's birthday? Oh Kind

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of the opposite we're celebrating Julia's

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last fuckable day. Yes. Hello What

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is that? In every

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actress' life, the media decides when

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you finally reach the point where

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you're not believably fuckable anymore. You're

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in your early 50s and this skit is like one

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year after the Rolling Stone cover. And listen,

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I'm almost there and I'm often thinking

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like I'm just not as sexy or

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fuckable as I once was. Was

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this the kind of stuff that was on your mind? Actually,

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it wasn't on my mind. This

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was all Amy Schumer's idea. Amy

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Schumer wrote the sketch and

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Nicole Hollisenter, who's an incredible

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film director and writer, with

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whom I've worked a number of times now, was

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directing this particular sketch. And she called me

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and she said, would you do it? And

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I said, it sounded hilarious, absolutely. But

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what was so weird was that

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halfway through, I started

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to think, wait, what's

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going on here? Are we making fun of this

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because it's true? And

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I had this sort of weird crisis of confidence.

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Like, am I not relevant anymore? That's really

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what it was. It wasn't

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so much fuckability, although fuckability,

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unfortunately, is very much linked

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to relevancy for women. So

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all of a sudden, I did have this weird

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sort of out

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of body experience of sort of having a weird

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lack of confidence. But,

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you know, other, but we got through it. I got through

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it. I

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mean, is this the first time you felt the lack of confidence?

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Yeah, yeah. It was weird. I'd

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never felt that before. I still don't feel that way.

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I don't, I feel relevant

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and, you know, ready

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for action, Jackson. I mean,

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I'm not

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talking about it, I don't mean it like

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sexually. I just mean as

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a human being, I've got a lot more to do. and

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I've got a lot more to say, and

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I want to be a part of a lot more, and

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I feel that very profoundly.