What can I tell you about this episode? It might be the last one.

No plan, no script, no clue. I need someone to tell me whether I should keep going with this. I can’t concentrate for longer than the length of a TikTok, I am a reluctant helper to those who need assistance and I will thrive off gratitude I don’t even want for doing things I don’t even want to do.

This ‘episode’ is the inside of my head verbalised. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to listen, but if you do…send help.

This week’s episode is a little different — no deep dive, no wrap-up, just a short, sweet dose of real life from the slightly foggy, slightly festive edge of midlife.

You know that feeling when your brain’s juggling twelve tabs at once and every ping, reminder, and WhatsApp message sends you over the edge? Same. In The Hat Trick, I talk about that creeping mental overload that comes with this time of year (and maybe with being this age), before revisiting a piece of writing from 2014 — back when life felt like one big game of “how many roles can you play before you combust?”

It’s about the hats we wear — parent, partner, worker, dreamer — and how to stop them from slipping down over your eyes. So, take ten minutes, take a breath, and take it easy on yourself. You’re doing f*cking brilliantly.

This week I’m talking about doing it all on my own — not the kind of “solo” you’re thinking of (behave), but the scary kind where you have no one to blame but yourself.

It’s about fear, freedom, and that weird middle ground where you want help… but also absolutely don’t touch anything.

Going out used to be easy. Now it takes a rare planetary alignment and a motivational speech just to put proper shoes on.

This week I’m talking about the great energy shift — from 90s chaos and sticky dancefloors to middle-aged comfort and seated gigs — and asking whether we’ve really slowed down, or just redirected the energy somewhere else (like the sofa).

Shorter one today and it's about my first silly decision in my 50s!

It’s been 11 years since I last ran a marathon — and I swore I’d never do it again. Yet here I am, lacing up my trainers and setting my sights on Amsterdam 2026. This isn’t about fitness goals or midlife reinvention (well, maybe a little). It’s about falling back in love with running… or at least learning to tolerate it again — one slow, slightly salty mile at a time.

This week on Life on the B Side, it’s my birthday — the big 5-0 — and I’m finally learning how to stop sabotaging my own celebrations. From chip shop dinners and awkward family anniversaries to surprise flights across the Atlantic, this episode is a love letter to birthdays gone wrong (and right), and to finally taking control of what makes you happy.

So grab a slice of cake (because why the fuck not) and tune in for a story about expectations, growing older, and finally figuring out how to celebrate yourself — without the drama.

This week on Life on the B Side, I’m taking a short break from moaning about my impending 50th birthday (yes, it’s still happening) to share a story I first wrote six years ago — one that marked the first time I ever spoke publicly about growing up in a home with domestic abuse.

It’s not the chirpiest of topics, but it is an important one — especially as October is Domestic Abuse Awareness Month. The story begins in 1989, with a 13-year-old me belting out The Bangles’ “Eternal Flame” and believing I was Susanna Hoffs… until my neighbour’s applause revealed something much darker: that the walls we thought kept our family secrets actually didn’t.

If this episode brings up anything for you, please know you’re not alone. Support links are shared at the end of the show.

Turning 50 isn’t the big, shiny reinvention everyone makes it out to be. You don’t wake up on the morning of your birthday suddenly wiser, richer, or with fewer wrinkles — the dishwasher still needs emptying and the dog still needs walking.

But looking back on half a century of living (that’s five whole decades, folks), I realised life isn’t really lived in neat 10-year slices. All the chapters vary in length and lesson.

In this episode, I take you on a whistle-stop tour through my own ordinary-extraordinary 50 years — because birthdays aren’t deadlines for who you should be by now — they’re milestones to celebrate how far you’ve come.