How our friendships change, the connections we value and making new friends in midlife.

Friendships are an important part of our lives, but they don't necessarily stay the same as we get older.

Some friendships last a lifetime, while others evolve or fade as our circumstances, interests and priorities change. And sometimes we find ourselves making new connections in our 50s and beyond.

In this Summer Rewind, I'm revisiting one of the most popular episodes from Season 1 of Unfiltered & Unbound, where I explored the evolution of friendship after 50.

It's a conversation worth returning to, particularly as I've been thinking more about the differences between friendship, solitude and loneliness, and how we build meaningful connections in midlife.

Two practical ideas from the episode:

• The low-effort reach-out. Staying connected doesn't always require a long lunch or elaborate plans. A quick message, voice note or shared memory can help maintain a friendship, even when life is busy.
• Follow your curiosity. Rather than setting out specifically to make new friends, explore an interest, try a new activity or join a club. Shared experiences can create opportunities for friendships to develop naturally.

And here's a little challenge: think of someone you haven't spoken to for a while and send them a message. It doesn't need to be complicated. Sometimes a simple hello is enough to reopen a conversation.

I'll be exploring friendship, loneliness and relationships further in the coming season, but in the meantime, I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Have your friendships changed since you turned 50?

If this episode resonates, share it with a friend. It might be a lovely excuse to reconnect.

Unfiltered & Unbound — conversations about life through the perspective of women in midlife.

You don't need to be an athlete to think like one. Athletes don't wake up every morning feeling motivated. They have a goal, a plan, a way to measure progress and a process for managing setbacks.

In this solo episode, endurance athlete and running coach Kate Baxter shares five principles athletes and their coaches use to prepare, perform and adapt, and how anyone can apply them to a career change, a new business, learning something new or any big life goal.

In this episode:

• Choose your finish line:
  use A, B and C goals as checkpoints
• Work backwards:
  break a big ambition into actions you can schedule
• Train consistently:
  build a routine that works on the days you don't feel motivated
• Monitor and adapt:
  use real feedback to update your plan, and treat setbacks as experiments, not failures
• Rest and recover:
  why recovery is part of the work, not a reward for finishing it

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What does it take to build a career on your own terms, particularly when the path forward isn't a straight line?

In the first episode of Ask Me About My Strategy, a special limited series from Unfiltered & Unbound, host Kate Baxter sits down with Premila Jina, CEO, management consultant, board director and chair of the WA Technology Innovation and Talent Alliance (WAITTA), for an honest conversation about ambition, leadership, career decisions and the realities of being a woman in traditionally male-dominated industries.

Born in India, raised in Kenya and educated at the London School of Economics, Premila built an international career in technology, investment banking and transformation before making a life-changing decision to move to Perth with her family. That decision meant leaving behind a successful career in London, taking a substantial pay cut and rebuilding her professional life in Australia.

But Premila's story isn't simply about professional achievement. She speaks candidly about workplace bullying, unconscious bias, motherhood, the trade-offs behind career decisions and the importance of recognising when success no longer looks the way it once did.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Career by design: Why career progression doesn't have to follow a traditional ladder, and how deliberate sideways moves can create unexpected opportunities.
• The myth of work-life balance: The realities of ambition, motherhood, boundaries and the trade-offs women make throughout their careers.
• Mistakes as experiments: What Premila learnt from a damaging workplace experience and why understanding an organisation's culture matters just as much as securing the job.
• Breaking the glass ceiling from above: Why Premila believes more women should pursue board positions and use those seats to influence leadership, diversity and organisational decisions.
• Representation and opportunity: How unconscious bias and systemic barriers have shaped Premila's career, and why seeing women in positions of influence matters.
• Redefining success: Why the goals that mattered at 25 may no longer reflect what you want at 50, and why that's worth recognising.
• Action builds confidence: Why waiting until you feel completely ready may mean missing opportunities that could change your career.

One of the strongest messages from this conversation is that confidence doesn't necessarily come before action. As Premila explains, taking action develops the experience, competence and conviction that help confidence grow.

Whether you're considering a career change, exploring board opportunities, questioning what success means to you or simply wondering what might be possible next, this conversation offers a different perspective on leadership, ambition and making deliberate choices.

About Ask Me About My Strategy

Ask Me About My Strategy is a limited series within Unfiltered & Unbound that explores the professional journeys of women, the decisions that shaped their careers and the experiences behind those decisions. These are conversations about strategy, risk, leadership, power and the choices women make along the way.

About Unfiltered & Unbound

Hosted by Kate Baxter, Unfiltered & Unbound is an Australian podcast for women 50+ featuring honest conversations about the issues, opportunities and decisions shaping midlife and beyond.

Rewrite the rules. Then live them.

In this episode, Kate discusses strategies to manage the chaos of the Christmas season using a simple system called the 3Ds: deal with it, delegate it, or dump it. She emphasizes the importance of planning ahead and taking care of oneself during the busy holiday period.

Takeaways

• Embrace the 3Ds system
• Prioritize self-care during holidays

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to Christmas Chaos
• 01:00 The 3Ds System Explained
• 06:01 Implementing the 3Ds for a Stress-Free Christmas

We tend to think workplace bullying only flows one way, from the boss down. But a job title isn’t the only source of power at work, and sometimes the person being worn down is the manager.

This episode grew out of conversations with friends about highly capable women who seem to quietly step away from the workforce in their mid-fifties and beyond. Their reasons were all different: redundancy, ageism, fierce competition for senior roles, and sometimes just being done with other people’s behaviour. One thread kept catching my attention. The difficult behaviour wasn’t always coming from above.

There’s a name for it: upward bullying. To unpack it, I’m joined by Dr Sara Branch from Griffith University, who has spent more than two decades researching workplace bullying, including the kind that runs up the org chart.

In this episode we talk about:

• What upward bullying is, and why it’s still bullying even when the target is the boss
• The informal power staff can hold: information, expertise, networks and who you know
• How going over a manager’s head, gossip and “mobbing” can push someone out
• How grievance processes built to protect people can be turned into weapons
• The fine line between legitimate disagreement and bullying behaviour
• Why so many managers ask “is it me?”, and the shame that keeps them quiet
• Gender, age and why some experienced women decide it’s not worth it (and why the research is still catching up)
• What to do first if something at work doesn’t feel right
• Why a policy and a once-a-year training session aren’t enough

Key takeaways

• Bullying is about power, not position. A manager can be bullied from above, from peers or from below.
• Trust your gut. If something feels off, start writing it down: what happened, when, and what didn’t add up.
• Don’t carry it alone. Find one person you genuinely trust to talk it through. As Sara says, silence is a bully’s best ally.
• Organisations need to recover, not just respond. Moving the problem elsewhere or rewarding the behaviour sends a message to everyone watching.
• Tick-box training doesn’t fix it. Real change works across individuals, teams and the whole organisation, before, during and after an incident.

About Dr Sara Branch

Sara is a researcher at Griffith University in Queensland whose work focuses on workplace bullying, power and how organisations respond. You can contact her through the Griffith University website.

If this episode stirred something up

If work is weighing on your mental health, you don’t have to sit with it alone.

• Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636, available 24/7
• Lifeline: 13 11 14

Enjoyed this episode?

If this conversation gave you something to think about, please hit like and subscribe so you never miss an episode. It genuinely helps other women find the show. And if you know a manager who’s been quietly carrying this, send the episode to them. Sometimes just hearing that it has a name is the first step.

Connect with Unfiltered & Unbound

• Instagram: @unfilteredandunbound
• Facebook: facebook.com/unfilteredandunbound
• Website: katebaxtermedia.com.au
• Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/unfilteredunbound

Grab a cuppa. This week is a coffee break episode, a short one, because it's Mental Health Week here in WA, and this year's theme is "Taking control in the face of change". If any stage of life is about change, it's this one.

So I'm revisiting my conversation with clinical psychologist Kirstin Bouse, founder of All About Her – The Centre for Menopause in Perth. If you've always been the capable one, the organiser, the one who copes, and lately you're waking at 3am with your heart pounding or feeling flattened by a to-do list you used to do in your sleep, this one's for you.

You're not broken. You're not failing. And you're definitely not imagining it.

In this episode:

• Why so many women are still told they're "too young" for perimenopause
• What anxiety can look like when it shows up for the first time in midlife
• Why stress seems to hit harder at this stage
• What to take to your GP so you're actually heard
• Why the goal isn't to go back to who you used to be (and why Kirstin wants you to chase joy)

If you heard the full episode, think of this as a refresher you might need right now. If you didn't, the full conversation, including Kirstin's own perimenopause story and much more on burnout and boundaries, is waiting in the feed: [https://open.spotify.com/episode/5gdGjlG5EO21B4Q0RkFJhz?si=T32RKX3wRbOOQc5g4VvmSQ]

Resources mentioned

• All About Her – The Centre for Menopause: [https://www.allabouthercentre.com.au/]
• Menopause symptom checklist (Jean Hailes): [https://www.jeanhailes.org.au/health-topics/menopause/#section-perimenopause-and-menopause-checklist]
• Menopause symptom checklist https://www.menopause.org.au/consumer-information/self-assessment-tools/
• Australasian Menopause Society [https://www.menopause.org.au/about-ams/]

If you need support
This episode is general information, not individual medical or psychological advice. Please don't stop or change any medication without talking to a qualified health professional first.

If anything here brings something heavy up for you, you don't have to sit with it alone:

• Lifeline: 13 11 14 (24 hours, 7 days)
• Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 (24 hours, 7 days)

In an emergency, call 000.

Know a woman who's been quietly struggling? Send this episode to her. Sometimes the kindest thing we can do is say, "I heard this and thought of you."

🎧 Unfiltered & Unbound with Kate Baxter
Instagram: | instagram.com/unfilteredandunbound
Facebook: facebook.com/unfilteredandunbound
Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/unfilteredunbound

Money can still be one of the hardest conversations to have, particularly if you feel as though you should already have it all figured out.

In this Spring Rewind episode, I revisit my conversation with Jo Hurley about the money conversations women need to be having in our 50s and beyond. This is a cut-down version of the original interview, edited into a shorter, practical listen.

We talk about superannuation, financial confidence, retirement, relationships, getting clear on your assets and liabilities, and why knowing where you stand matters. Jo also shares some simple things to look at when you check your super, including contributions, fees, insurance and investment settings.

A key theme throughout the conversation is that you do not need to have everything sorted before you start. The first step is simply getting a clear picture of where you are now, then asking better questions and getting qualified advice where you need it.

A few things to take away:

• Know what you have, what you owe and where your super sits.
• Check that your employer contributions are being paid.
• Review fees, insurance and investment options.
• Have the money conversations before a crisis forces them.
• Seek qualified financial advice for your own circumstances.

Please note: This episode is general information only and is not personal financial advice.

Support independent media:
Unfiltered & Unbound is an independent Australian podcast and media platform. If you value these conversations, please follow or subscribe, leave a rating or review where you can, and share the episode with someone who might find it useful. Those small actions genuinely help more women find the show.

https://www.facebook.com/unfilteredandunbound

https://buymeacoffee.com/unfilteredunbound

https://www.instagram.com/unfilteredandunbound/

The Freedom of Going Alone

What happens when you stop waiting for someone else to come with you?

In this solo episode of Unfiltered & Unbound, Kate explores the freedom of travelling alone in midlife — not because solo travel is somehow better than travelling with other people, but because sometimes going alone gives you something different.

There is no coordinating annual leave, negotiating budgets, compromising on destinations or adjusting your pace to suit someone else. You decide where you go, how long you stay, what you do and when you change your mind.

And solo travel does not have to mean an international adventure. It might be interstate, a weekend away, a road trip, or simply exploring somewhere closer to home on your own terms.

This episode is less about travel itself and more about what it can represent: independence, curiosity, confidence and the freedom to make decisions without waiting for permission, company or the “right” time.

Kate also reflects on the difference between choosing solitude and feeling lonely, why safety and practical planning still matter, and why midlife can be a good time to stop organising your life around someone else’s timetable.

Because sometimes freedom looks like simply deciding: I want to go, so I’m going.

In this episode:

• Why Kate enjoys travelling both alone and with others
• The practical freedom that comes with solo travel
• Why going alone does not automatically mean being lonely
• The difference between choosing solitude and feeling isolated
• Why you do not need to wait for someone else to be available before making plans
• How solo travel can be as small or as adventurous as you want it to be
• Why safety, planning and confidence can coexist with spontaneity
• What travelling alone can teach us about making decisions on our own terms

A small favour

Unfiltered & Unbound is independent media, and every follow, subscription, rating, review and share genuinely helps.

If this episode made you think of someone who might enjoy it, please send it to them. Sharing an episode is one of the simplest ways to help more women find these conversations.

You can also follow or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, leave a rating or review where your platform allows it, and share the episode with your own community.

About Unfiltered & Unbound

Unfiltered & Unbound is independent media for women 50+, challenging the stereotypes and inherited societal rules about how women should age, work, love, lead and live.