243 episodes

Men and women in midlife are drawn to Mary Rogers’ honest take on the experiences of the empty nest, aging parents, spending an inheritance, dating and sex, travel, downsizing things, trashing bad habits and figuring out who you want to be now that you really are all almost grow up.

The podcast is always smart, usually funny, and occasionally painfully real in speaking to the cusp of GenX and Baby Boomers.

Experience 50 Podcast for Midlife Mary Rogers

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.7 • 175 Ratings

Men and women in midlife are drawn to Mary Rogers’ honest take on the experiences of the empty nest, aging parents, spending an inheritance, dating and sex, travel, downsizing things, trashing bad habits and figuring out who you want to be now that you really are all almost grow up.

The podcast is always smart, usually funny, and occasionally painfully real in speaking to the cusp of GenX and Baby Boomers.

    Mary Rogers Goes On Spring Break

    Mary Rogers Goes On Spring Break

    Experience 50 is going on a brief, yet purposeful, hiatus. The next episode will release on June 25th, 2021.
    Enjoy listening to the who, why. when, where, and how behind the season-long spring break for host, Mary Rogers.
    I believe the finish line of your Experience 50 experience is that you become the person you’ve chosen to be.
    To follow Mary's adventure, become a $5 Friend at https://www.patreon.com/maryrogers
    Transcript:
    MARY:  In recent episodes, I’ve been dropping some obvious and not-so-obvious hints that I’ve been itching to shake things up in the 57-year-old version of me.. Like so many of you, I’m not completely certain which way I want to shake, but shake things up I must or I am going to lose my mind.
    So, I’ll cut to the chase:
    I am taking a three-month break, a spring break, from producing the Experience 50 Podcast for Midlife. The podcast returns on June 25th.
    It’s really no wonder. After six years of featuring hundreds of midlifers telling their stories of audacious career changes, exciting entrepreneurial endeavors, bold experiences planting the seeds for tremendous personal growth and transformation well, it should come as no surprise that I would be inspired, right along with you, my listeners.
    I’ve also mentored, advised, encouraged, and cajoled mentoring clients to shed the weight of their labels, the must-dos and should dos, to get out their own way and live a little. Shake things up. Do the unexpected. Find out what you’re made of, see who they just might be under the armor of their comfortable existence.
    At 57, I have personally navigated my way through most of the milestones that you will experience in this stage of life. I have learned and shared my own advice as well as the gems of wisdom that my guests brought forth. 
    In my early 50s, I made a huge leap- away from the comfort of my executive chair in a respected leadership position in my region’s business community to enter the world of independent podcasting and freelance writing, My husband and I have cared for aging parents who have now passed, watched our children grow into a couple of very cool independent adults and we have found our way into new relationships with each of them. 
    Also, my husband and I have successfully redefined what our 24-year marriage can look like when co-parenting is no longer the focus of our conversations and our relationship.
    Together with this amazing man, we have grieved the loss of loved ones, supported each other through my health scare with cancer, grown into people we never expected to be, and like you, as individuals and as a couple learned how to live through a pandemic.
    I absolutely believe that our 50s offer us the greatest challenges in learning who we are when the labels become fewer, less obvious, and significantly less important. I believe the finish line of your Experience 50 experience is that you become the person you’ve chosen to be.
    The person that I have chosen to be is: a woman who is nowhere done living my life story. There are I hope, at the very least,a couple of big chapters ahead which will define my life.
    This brings me to my decision, that I need 3 months of undistracted headspace to take the first few steps in writing the next chapter, exploring my options for the sake of exploring. I can’t really see the destination, but I do know how to lay the groundwork for being able to jump into what’s next.
    .To that end, my husband and I have decided we must be nimble. We use that word a lot lately. 
    So we are walking the walk not just talking the talk.
    This week we closed on the sale of our house. I now have 30 days to downsize our possessions to a fraction of what we currently own. Then establish a new minimalist home in a rented house about a mile from where we live now. As of today, we are mortgage-free, completely debt-free, child-free, and in short order, we will be free of literal generations of things and stuff, only keeping what we absolutely

    • 11 min
    Listeners ask Mary about Meditation

    Listeners ask Mary about Meditation

    Mary Rogers answers her listeners' most asked question "How can I learn to meditate?"
    Includes two recommended resources: Sam Harris Waking Up and Dan Harris Ten Percent Happier.
    Includes a guided Loving Kindness Meditation with Mary

    • 58 min
    Leaving America with Amelia and JP

    Leaving America with Amelia and JP

    This story of a midlife pivot goes south, way south - to Ecuador. Meet Amelia (52) and JP (49), American Expatriates living in Ecuador since 2017 when they faced the fact that they had no choice but to leave the United States.
    Full show notes https://www.experience50.com/241
    Get exclusive updates on Mary's Leaving America Pivot https://www.experience50.com/outtahere
    Become a Patron to JOIN our book club https://www.experience50.com/donate
    LEND YOUR VOICE to the podcast! Send your questions for Mary's next Cleopatra's Vagina: Answers to Listeners' Questions. Send voicemail: https://www.experience50.com
    Get Mary's weekly email: https://www.experience50.com/email
    Midlife Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MidlifeCommunity
    Enjoying the podcast? Could you please support the show with a donation? https://www.experience50.com/donate
    Be a guest on the podcast, tell your midlife story: https://www.experience50.com/podcast-guest-information/

    • 48 min
    Virtual Book Club w/Joan Lunden

    Virtual Book Club w/Joan Lunden

    Joan Lunden, former host of Good Morning America, meets with the Experience 50 Virtual Book Club to chat about her latest book, Why Did I Come Into This Room, A Candid Conversation on Aging.
    Full show notes https://www.experience50.com/240
    Become a Patron to JOIN our book club https://www.experience50.com/donate
    LEND YOUR VOICE to the podcast! Send your questions for Mary's next Cleopatra's Vagina: Answers to Listeners' Questions. Send voicemail: https://www.experience50.com
    Get Mary's weekly email: https://www.experience50.com/email
    Midlife Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MidlifeCommunity
    Enjoying the podcast? Could you please support the show with a donation? https://www.experience50.com/donate
    Be a guest on the podcast, tell your midlife story: https://www.experience50.com/podcast-guest-information/

    • 1 hr 3 min
    Pissed Off Yogi's Midlife Divorce Story with Dr. Katy Jane

    Pissed Off Yogi's Midlife Divorce Story with Dr. Katy Jane

    Midlife divorce. Hear Dr. Katy Jane's story of divorce, including the business and financial losses which led to her becoming one pissed-off yogi. Her anger was preceded by denial and guilt and when she discovered that her husband had destroyed her business and livelihood - leaving her with only $500 to her name - that is when she allowed herself to be pissed-off.
    We discuss anger triggers, meditation practices, the divine feminine, Hindu goddess Kali, western adoption of yoga and meditation, self-love, and opening yourself to new love.
    Full show notes, guest info links, and images: https://www.experience50.com/239
    Named “One of 75 Yogis Who are Shifting the Planet” by Origin Magazine, Dr. Katy Jane is a counseling Vedic astrologer, Sanskrit & world religions scholar, and teacher of yoga teachers. Dr. Katy received her doctorate in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2001, taught at the University of Colorado and Naropa University in Boulder, CO. She also created Sanskrit for Yogis, an innovative and traditional method for learning the sacred language of yoga. She’s the author of Awakening with Sanskrit and teaches immersions in Vedic astrology online. After 30 years of traveling and studying yoga & Sanskrit throughout India, Dr. Katy now lives at Dunagiri Retreat (in India’s northeastern Himalayan foothills) which she shares with her husband, five Tibetan mastiffs, and frequent groups of yoga retreatants and spiritual seekers. 
    LEND YOUR VOICE to the podcast! Send your questions for Mary's next Cleopatra's Vagina: Answers to Listeners' Questions. Send voicemail: https://www.experience50.com
    Book Club with Joan Lunden 1/17 & 19, 2021: https://www.experience50.com/book-club-lunden/
    Get Mary's weekly email: https://www.experience50.com/email
    Midlife Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MidlifeCommunity
    Enjoying the podcast? Could you please support the show with a donation? https://www.experience50.com/donate
    Be a guest on the podcast, tell your midlife story: https://www.experience50.com/podcast-guest-information/

    • 47 min
    Chicken Soup For The Soul | Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Amy Newmark

    Chicken Soup For The Soul | Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Amy Newmark

    Amy Newmark's 50th birthday included a newly empty nest and the purchase of Chicken Soup For The Soul. She didn't just buy a book, she bought the company.
    Now 63, Amy speaks with Mary Rogers about her own midlife transitions while discussing the latest CSFTS book, Age Is Just A Number, 101 Tales of Humor and Wisdom for Life After 60.
    Full Show Notes and Links: https://www.experience50.com/238
    Lend your voice to the podcast! Send your questions for Mary's next Cleopatra's Vagina: Answers to Listeners' Questions. Send voicemail: https://www.experience50.com
    Book Club with Joan Lunden 2/17 & 19, 2021: https://www.experience50.com/book-club-lunden/
    Get Mary's weekly email: https://www.experience50.com/email
    Midlife Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MidlifeCommunity
    Enjoying the podcast? Could you please support the show with a donation? https://www.experience50.com/donate
    Be a guest on the podcast, tell your midlife story: https://www.experience50.com/podcast-guest-information/

    • 35 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
175 Ratings

175 Ratings

JulieAnn M ,

Will I be able to Relate?

Listeners- I am a proud Generation Xer turning 50 in 13 months. I am married but I di not have children 😞 Is this podcast geared more to GenXers with children?

johndavidnilssonjr ,

Light in the Storm

Thank you for your kind words! Read your piece in the Northern Express Weekly November 15, 2021 … May your voice of kindness reach out to all … like the roots of a magical tree.

nashvillehootie ,

Where’s Mary?

I’ve been waiting since June for an update. Where’s Mary?

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