Scenic Route through Midlife — Society, Self & Shifting Gears
We think deeply, feel a lot, and we're done pretending mental load, exhaustion and burnout are personal failures. This is Scenic Route through Midlife, a mental health and personal growth podcast for women navigating burnout, rage, and perimenopause while still making space for wonder and whimsy.
Hosted by sociologist and mental health advocate Jennifer Walter — a half-rebel, half-marshmallow perimenopausal millennial with ADHD — we explore where society meets the self: perfectionism, overthinking, and the pursuit of well-being collide with power, gender, capitalism, and social change.
Here we believe healing isn't just personal, it's collective.
New episodes every Tuesday.
New affirmations every Friday.
The longest way round is the shortest way home. That’s why we’re taking the Scenic Route.
Episodes
129 episodes
Weekly Affirmation — Like Attracts Like
This is your Friday affirmation. Take a breath you didn't know you were holding. Exhale.This week's affirmation is for the woman who has been asking for something — quietly, persistently, longer than she'd like to admit — and is starting...
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Season 7
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Episode 128
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4:32
Spellwork 101: The Question That Changed Everything with Aly Kravetz (Bronx Witch)
Are you happy?It sounds simple. But for Aly Kravetz — Bronx-born witch, tarot reader, Reiki practitioner and spiritual entrepreneur — that three-word question from her mum became the pivot point for everything: leaving law school, ending...
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Season 7
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Episode 127
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30:57
Weekly Affirmation – Rest is not the reward
This is your Friday affirmation. Let's pause for a breath you didn't know you were holding. Exhale.This week's Soft Landings affirmation is for the woman who's been spring-cleaning everything except her exhaustion.Today's affirmat...
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Season 7
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Episode 126
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3:23
Spring Cleaning Culture: Why Mud Season Is Good Enough
Every spring, you're told to declutter your wardrobe, your goals, your relationships, and your mindset. And if you don't feel the urge? There's a low hum of guilt that says something's wrong with you.This week on The Scenic Route, we're ...
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Season 7
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Episode 125
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16:13
Weekly Affirmation – Self-Compassion
It's Friday. Pause for a breath you didn't know you were holding. Exhale.This week's Soft Landings affirmation is for the woman who keeps mistaking her patterns for her personality. For every midlife woman who's been fighting the thing s...
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Season 7
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Episode 124
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3:29
Breaking Patterns in Midlife: Why Knowing Better Isn't Enough
You've done the therapy. You've journalled. You can explain your patterns with real precision — where they came from, what they're protecting, why they formed.And yet. There you are. Doing it again.This episode is about the gap be...
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Season 7
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Episode 123
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26:23
Weekly Affirmation – Self-Worth
It's Friday. Pause for a breath you didn't know you were holding. Exhale.This week's Soft Landings affirmation is for the woman who's tired of measuring herself against someone else's yardstick. For midlife women exhausted from the endle...
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Season 7
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Episode 122
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2:51
What Is Propaganda? How It Works & Why You Can't See It
You've been propagandised today. Probably in the last hour. And I'm not talking about political ads or conspiracy theories—I'm talking about ideas that feel so obvious, so natural, so true that you'd never think to question them.In this ...
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Season 7
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Episode 121
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29:09
Weekly Affirmation – Rest
Exhale. TGIF This weekly affirmation is for you if you've been told that you need a five-year plan when you can barely figure out what you want for lunch.This week's affirmation:"I release the belief that I hav...
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Season 7
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Episode 120
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1:51
ADHD Superpower? Gifts, Capitalism, and Who Really Benefits
"Everyone has ADHD now."You've heard it. Maybe someone said it to you — with a half-joke, half-accusation edge. Like, neurodivergence is just the trend of the season.But what if that reaction tells us less about AD...
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Season 7
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Episode 119
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49:15
Weekly Affirmation - Purpose
Exhale. TGIF This weekly affirmation is for you if you've been told that you need a five-year plan when you can barely figure out what you want for lunch.This week's affirmation: "I release the pressure to figu...
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Season 7
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Episode 118
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2:58
You Can't Even Pick What You Want for Lunch. Let's Talk About That feat. Jillian Reilly
Here's the thing nobody tells you: the way you order at a restaurant says A LOT about how you move through life.Are you the person who waits to hear what everyone else is getting before you decide? Do you need everyone's opinion before y...
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Season 7
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Episode 117
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53:36
When Everything Feels Too Much: One Small Change Still Matters
There's a particular moment many of us know well — when everything feels like too much. Not dramatically, but quietly, heavily, relentlessly. You're still functioning, still showing up, but inside, something is fraying. And the most painful par...
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Season 7
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Episode 116
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15:03
Weekly Affirmation – Letting Go
Pause for a breath you didn't know you were holding.This soft landing is for the woman who's been holding it together so well that no one thinks to ask if she's okay.This week's affirmation:"The strategies, steps, d...
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Season 7
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Episode 115
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2:05
Something's Off And It's Not Your Vision Board: The Capacity Conundrum
You've done the vision boards. Set the goals. Showed up with discipline. And still – something feels off.If you're a high achiever who's done all the things and still doesn't feel like you've arrived, this one's for you.Jessica El...
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Season 7
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Episode 114
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1:00:05
Weekly Affirmation – The Good Daughter
Pause for a breath you didn't know you were holding.This soft landing is for the woman who's been holding it together so well that no one thinks to ask if she's okay.The affirmation: "I am allowed to disappoint peop...
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Season 7
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Episode 113
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2:18
12 Nights of Magic: Tarot, Rauhnächte & Intentional Planning for 2026 ft. Nadia Gabrielle
Tired of entering a new year already depleted? This 35-minute conversation is your invitation to something slower, softer, yet powerful.Nadia Gabrielle returns to The Scenic Route to talk about the 12 Nights of Magic – her ...
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Season 7
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Episode 112
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38:49
Luck, Burnout & Lemon Cake: What 3 Years of The Scenic Route Taught Me About Slowing Down
Three years, 111 episodes, and countless conversations later — host Jennifer Walter sits down for a full-circle moment with Lauren Best to celebrate The Scenic Route’s third birthday.They flip the mic to talk about...
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Season 7
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Episode 111
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1:07:00
Why “Getting Your Life Together” Might Be Making You Less Resilient
The Words You Need to Hear When Perfectionism Is Running Your LifeEver find yourself thinking: “I should be further along by now”? Our society is so OBSESSED with finishing things… what if strength lives in what’s still taking ...
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Season 7
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Episode 110
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21:52
Body Image, Burnout & Belonging: Unlearning the Shame We Carry
We inherit shame like an unspoken family heirloom — stitched into our bodies, our ambition, our idea of enough. It’s the quiet undertone behind so many brilliant women asking, “Why do I still feel like I’m not enough?”...
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Season 7
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Episode 109
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57:31
Flourish > Happy: The Positive Psychology Shift You Didn’t Know You Needed in Midlife
Gratitude journals. Green juices. Meditation apps. We've been taught happiness is a checklist — and somewhere in midlife, you start to realise... It's still not enough. In this episode, we dive into the world of Positive Psychology and the conc...
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Season 7
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Episode 108
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21:17
Stop Falling for Pretty Cookbooks That Lowkey Hate You aka Food is Political
Tired of buying cookbooks that collect dust (or shame you for not owning grape molasses)? Same. In this episode, we’re talking about how to choose a cookbook that actually fits your real life and not some Pinterest-perfect fantasy.I’ll ...
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Season 7
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Episode 107
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25:11
Freedom Inside the Edges: How to Build a Life That Holds You
What if freedom isn’t the absence of limits, but the presence of form?In this episode of The Scenic Route, Jen explores the paradox of constraints – why the boundaries we resist might be the very thing that saves us. Draw...
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Season 7
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Episode 106
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29:00
Default Male Lens and Abortion Myths: Two Feminist Snapshots That Fired Me Up
Why do people still say women make “careless” decisions about abortion – and how can you shut that argument down fast? And what does it have to do with a shocking PhD thesis on endometriosis?In this episode of The Scenic Route, ...
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Season 7
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Episode 105
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19:55
Self-Sabotage Isn’t What You Think: Why It Happens and How to Change It
Why do we procrastinate, overthink, avoid, or hold back just when things matter most? Your social media feed at 2 am calls this self-sabotage, but is it?In this episode of the Scenic Route, we unpack fresh psychology research th...
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Season 7
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Episode 104
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16:24