Midlife was supposed to be the part where we finally had everything figured out.

Yeah… apparently not.

This Wasn’t in the Brochure is a podcast about the part of being a woman in midlife nobody really prepared us for—the hormones, the night sweats, the anxiety, the rage, the changing body, the changing relationships, the weird new relationship with alcohol, the kids needing us differently, and the unsettling realization that the life we spent decades building is changing.

But this isn’t a podcast about getting old.

It’s about figuring out what comes next.

I’m Abbigail Brown, and I’m right in the middle of it with you. I’m asking the questions, reading the research, talking to experts, trying the things everyone says will supposedly make our lives better—and reporting back on what actually works, what absolutely doesn’t, and what might be complete bullshit.

We’ll talk menopause, HRT, sleep, fitness, food, alcohol, mental health, marriage, friendships, money, purpose, aging, reinvention, and all the wellness crap suddenly being marketed to women our age.

And we’re going to try some shit, too.

New workouts. New hobbies. New places. Maybe meditation. Maybe surfing. Maybe salsa lessons. Maybe a retreat. Maybe something completely ridiculous.

Because somewhere between raising families, building careers, taking care of everyone else, and trying to remember why we walked into a room, a lot of us started asking the same question:

What do I actually want the rest of my life to look like?

I don't have the answer.

That's kind of the point.

Welcome to This Wasn’t in the Brochure.

Nobody prepared us for this shit.

So we might as well figure it out together.