Drinks with the Girls®

The patriarchy isn’t just politics or headlines — it’s the air midlife women have been breathing for decades. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

Karen and Lisa pull back the curtain on the quiet, insidious ways the patriarchy shapes women’s lives — from being told to be “likable” and low-maintenance, to carrying the emotional load at home, to shrinking our ambition so everyone else stays comfortable. Using Taylor Swift’s figh...

You still love to dance — you just don’t want to stay out until 2AM.

Somewhere between raising kids, caregiving, running businesses, and rebuilding ourselves, joy started coming with a curfew. But what if midlife fun didn’t have to mean exhaustion the next day?

This conversation dives into the magic of the Early Bird’s Club — a women-centered dance movement created for those of us with real responsibilities and early mornings. But ...

You look in the mirror and think, When did I disappear?

Somewhere between raising kids, managing relationships, building careers, and being the “low maintenance” one, you stopped centering yourself. You became productive. Reliable. Easy.

And now? You’re not so sure who you are anymore.

This Valentine’s week, Karen and Lisa get real about what self-love actually means for women in midlife — and it’s not bubble baths and spa ...

America feels louder, harsher, and more unsteady than ever — and midlife women are carrying the weight of it all. The fear. The anger. The exhaustion. The constant question of how much more can we hold?

Karen and Lisa pull up their chairs for a raw, honest conversation about what it actually feels like to live through this moment in the U.S. as women in our 40s, 50s, and 60s. No debating. No talking points. Just real talk about pol...

Speaking your truth after 40 often feels like breaking rules you were praised for following your entire life. In this episode of Drinks With the Girls, Karen and Lisa unpack the unspoken expectations midlife women are finally questioning — from people-pleasing and emotional labor to staying comfortable instead of honest.

This conversation explores midlife reinvention, gaslighting ourselves into staying unhappy, motherhood, caregivi...

Why does money feel so complicated, especially in midlife? Because it is. And yet, as Karen Van Voorhis gently reminds us in this episode, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible—or that we’re behind.

If you’ve ever stared at your pay stub, shrugged at your 401k, or avoided eye contact with your Fidelity login like it’s an ex at the grocery store… this episode is your financial permission slip to get curious, not critical.

Karen Van Voor...

When Jane Fonda tells you to get your shit together—you listen. That’s exactly how Chelsea Handler’s latest book kicks off, and trust us, it only gets juicier from there. This week, Karen and Lisa crack open I'll Have What She's Having and find way more than celebrity gossip or comedy—they find a woman doing the deep, uncomfortable, glorious work of coming home to herself.

From therapy breakthroughs to choosing solitude over settl...

If you’ve ever been told your labs are “normal” but you still feel exhausted, anxious, inflamed, or just off, this episode is for you. We sit down with Dr. Tracy McCarthy, a functional medicine physician who helps women understand what’s really going on beneath the surface in midlife. From hormone shifts and thyroid dysfunction to gut health and the long-term effects of stress and trauma, Dr. McCarthy explains how the body and brai...

A job gone. A marriage ended. A role you gave everything to—vanished. In this raw and unfiltered episode, Karen and Lisa unpack what happens when midlife reinvention isn’t a choice—it’s a reckoning.

This isn’t the “vision board” version of starting over. This is the kind where your world gets pulled out from under you, and you're left staring at the pieces, wondering who y...

🌿 What if the “New Year, New You” mindset is actually making you feel worse — not better?

If you're over 40 and exhausted by toxic wellness trends, diet pressure, and the constant demand to “fix” yourself every January… this episode is your reset.

We’re tossing out the guilt, the grind, and the goals that don’t serve us — and replacing them with something radical: self-trust. Lisa and Karen dive into what real wellness looks like ...

What if your struggles with food, focus, and fatigue weren’t failures—but signs that your brain has been asking for a different kind of care all along?

In this eye-opening episode, Karen and Lisa sit down with nutrition and wellness coach Caroline Hinchliff to unpack the messy, misunderstood relationship between neurodivergency and nourishment—especially for women in midlife. If you've ever stood in front of the fridge completely o...

If you’ve ever walked into a room and immediately scanned the emotional temperature, remembered five birthdays, scheduled a dentist appointment, and wondered why no one else noticed the moldy milk in the fridge… this episode is for you.

This week on Drinks With the Girls, Karen and Lisa dive headfirst into the exhausting, invisible work known as the mental load — and why it hits midlife women especially hard. From managing everyone...

This week on Drinks With the Girls, Karen and Lisa dive into the viral “We Do Not Care” movement — and let’s just say, it’s giving hot flashes and zero apologies. From twisted bras and visible nipples to ditching people-pleasing and zucchini muffins, they unpack what it really means when midlife women start saying nope, not today. Inspired by Melani Sanders' wildly relatable videos, the conversation gets real about boundaries, ide...

This one’s for every woman who’s ever wondered if she was a good enough daughter—or a good enough mom.

Karen and Lisa sit down with attorney, writer, and self-proclaimed Queen Bee, Bernadette Catalana, for a conversation that’s tender, honest, and full of midlife wisdom.

Inspired by her book Daughter Lessons: Wise and Witty Reflections on Leading, Learning From, and Loving Our Daughters, Bernadette opens up about raising two girls...

What if midlife wasn’t the beginning of the end, but the start of your boldest chapter yet—somewhere far, far from home?

In this raw and vibrant episode of Drinks With the Girls, Karen and Lisa talk with three midlife women who traded burnout, people-pleasing, and autopilot living for new lives abroad. We're talking Belize, Italy, and a beach in the Caribbean. Real places. Real stories. Real women who said, “What if I just… left?”

...

'Tis the season to ditch the pressure and keep the connection! In this festive episode of Drinks With the Girls, Karen and Lisa are joined once again by our favorite kitchen goddess, Lisa Potter, for the third installment of our "Dinner Without the Drama" series—this time with a holiday twist.

We're serving up real-talk and real strategies for women in midlife who are over the chaos and ready to reclaim their holiday table. From th...

What if saying “I’m fine” is actually a slow form of self-erasure?

In this honest, hilarious, and deeply validating episode, Karen and Lisa unpack the emotional weight behind the word fine—that autopilot answer women give when they’re juggling too much and feeling too little. From vodka-spiked probiotics to midlife truth bombs about burnout, grief, and holiday perfectionism, nothing is off the table.

You’ll laugh, you’ll nod, and m...

Whether you're navigating toddler meltdowns, school refusal in middle school, or your college kid is spiraling from overwhelm, this one’s for you.

In this honest and heartfelt episode, Karen and Lisa open up about the moments in parenting when everything feels hard—when the systems don’t fit your child, the experts contradict each other, and your own inner critic is the loudest voice in the room.

We’re talking about the times your ...

Grab your favorite mug (preferably one that says I love goats and the word fck*) and cozy up—because in this special Halloween edition of Drinks with the Girls, we're diving into the real-life horror stories of midlife womanhood.

You know the ones:

• A black chin hair that shows up in full sunlight

• Rogue pubes on your mid-thigh

• Eyebrow hairs that disappear… only to reappear somewhere completely inappropriate

• Peeing when y...