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The Shift with Sam Baker

The Shift with Sam Baker

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The Shift with Sam Baker is a society podcast hosted by sam baker. It has 288 episodes, with the latest published April 2026.

The Shift is a podcast that aims to tell the truth about being a woman post-40, created and hosted by writer and broadcaster, Sam Baker. Did you ever wonder why you stop hearing so many women's voices once they pass 40? That's where The Shift comes in - a frank, funny, sometimes heartbreaking, always honest look at what it means to be a woman in midlife and beyond. Work, life, love, health, sex, money, identity, body image... What does it all mean when everything around you (and inside you...) is changing? Each week, award-winning author and journalist Sam Baker asks a different woman how she got here, where she's going - and how it feels to be where she is right now. Expect intimate conversation, big laughs, occasional tears and an awful lot of ripping up the rule book and stamping on it... Past guests have included Nicola Sturgeon, Marian Keyes, Guilty Feminist Deborah Frances-White, Minnie Driver, Philippa Perry, Anita Rani, Tracey Thorn, Isabel Allende, Bobbi B

society ·en ·288 episodes

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1

Emily Nagoski knows the surprising secret to long term intimacy - THE SHIFT REVISITED

2

Elif Shafak on the power of older women & why menopause can be the end of shame - THE SHIFT REVISITED

3

Christie Watson on menopause, mischief and midlife - THE SHIFT REVISITED

4

Martha Wainwright on music, motherhood & finding love in midlife - FROM THE ARCHIVES

5

Prue Leith: 'I've had HRT patches on my bum for more than 40 years!'

6

Poorna Bell is rewriting the rules around ageing

7

Elizabeth Gilbert: "It's quite radical, what happens to us as we get older"

8

Fatima Bhutto: surviving a coercive relationship & letting go of shame

9

Catherine Newman on surviving the midlife sandwich – THE SHIFT LIVE

10

Amy Larocca: 'the wellness industry sets women up to fail'

11

Gretchen Rubin on happiness, acceptance and the secrets of adulthood

12

Melani Sanders DOES NOT CARE - and she doesn’t care that she doesn’t care!

13

Dr Gladys McGarey: Life lessons from a 103 year old - FROM THE ARCHIVES

14

Isabel Allende on feminism, anger and being 'fatally heterosexual' - FROM THE ARCHIVES

15

Lynda La Plante on a lifetime of breaking boundaries - FROM THE ARCHIVES

16

Helen Garner on divorce, grandmothering and the erotic gaze - FROM THE ARCHIVES

17

Miriam Margolyes on the power of living life without secrets - FROM THE ARCHIVES

18

Lady Glenconner on stepping into the spotlight at 87

19

Karen Dobres: how menopause & football turned me into an accidental radical

20

Samantha Ellis on food, family and finding your identity in your 40s

21

Holly Dawson on facing permanent memory loss at 40

22

Bobbi Brown on doing it all her own way in her 60s

23

Hollie McNish on sex, shame and telling the truth about womanhood

24

Jen Hatmaker: “It’s like I woke up halfway through my life”

25

THE SHIFT LIVE: Mary Portas on fashion, Ab Fab & how her childhood shaped her

26

Lyse Doucet – my extraordinary 40 years on the frontline

27

India Knight on finally gaining a sense of self in her 50s - from the archives

28

Hilma Wolitzer: 80 years of writing – and not done yet (from the archives)

29

Caryn Franklin on why fashion still fails older women - from the archives

30

Lisa Jewell on hitting a golden seam of success in her 50s - FROM THE ARCHIVES

31

Thomasina Miers on the midlife Mexican escape that rebuilt her

32

Laura Lippmann is having a second coming at 60

33

Charlotte Mendelson – middle-aged women are entitled to want more

34

Betsy Lerner is on a mission to destigmatise mental health in her 60s

35

Nicola Sturgeon on life after leadership

36

Sarah Perry on "becoming a woman who didn't have children"

37

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

38

Steph McGovern on money, menopause & staying out of your lane

39

Alison Bechdel on tarot, ageing & why men are scared of women who can do push-ups! - THE SHIFT REVISITED

40

Esther Freud on upending your life in your 50s - THE SHIFT REVISITED

41

Helen Garner on divorce, ageing and the erotic gaze - THE SHIFT REVISITED

42

Molly Jong Fast: confessions of a bad daughter

43

Jo Hamilton: The Post Office scandal stole 20 years of my life

44

Olia Hercules: my periods vanished when the war started

45

Melissa Febos on what she learnt from a year of celibacy

46

Reeta Chakrabarti on growing older & bolder

47

Jeanine Cummins on confidence, identity and surviving the American Dirt controversy

48

Jennifer Weiner on Ozempic, ageing and growing some boundaries!

49

Naga munchetty on her 30 year battle to get her painful periods taken seriously

50

Clover Stroud on grief, love, sex & sisterhood - THE SHIFT REVISITED

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