It's 32 degrees in southwest London and Lise's trying to keep cool for the Season One finale of Walking This Way: Out and about.

Reflecting on a recent trip to Royal Ascot, a very early start for a summer solstice swim, and a season of incredible conversations, Lise gets set for a summer break and looks ahead to what's coming up in Season Two from September.

Join Lise and discover...

• What happened at Royal Ascot, on the train home, and during a 2.45am dawn dip in Hove for the summer solstice
• A look back at some of the guests and conversations from this season
• What's coming up when the podcast returns in September
• Why hitting the follow button now means you won't miss the new season

With thanks to

As Seasone One of Walking This Way draws to a close, I'd like to thank my incredible guests over the course of the season, including the WomenKind Collective, Vicki Anstey, Helen Hopkins, Julia and the Ramble Worldwide team, Lorraine Candy, Dr Helen Wall, Sinead Laffan, Claire Hattrick, Lyndsey Gymer, Clare Capper, Adrienne, Tallulah Bamford, Katrina Hassan, Robyn Phillips and Vanessa McDaid. What an incredible collection of women and what amazing conversations. Go back and listen again!

Got an idea for Season Two? Here's how to get in touch...

• Follow the show and get all the links you need on LinkTree - https://linktr.ee/walking_this_way
• Email us: walkingthisway@hotmail.com
• Use the get in touch form HERE - https://tr.ee/r-ePylKE8H
• Send us a voice message HERE- https://www.speakpipe.com/WalkingThisWay

Produced by The Good Studio - thegoodstudio.co.uk

This week, Lise is joined by Jinty Sheerin and Lou Hockings-Thompson, founders of The Womenkind Collective, podcast hosts, menopause campaigners and co-authors of a forthcoming book on gender bias in healthcare. What began as two lifelong friends chatting over FaceTime during lockdown has grown into a thriving community helping thousands of women navigate midlife, menopause, health, identity and everything in between.

This conversation goes far beyond hot flushes and HRT. Together, they explore the hidden ways women are taught to minimise their pain, the shocking reality of gender bias in healthcare and why speaking openly about our experiences matters more than ever.

In this episode, join Lise and discover:

• How two hairdresser friends turned lockdown conversations into the hugely successful Womenkind Collective
• Why women can wait years longer for diagnosis and treatment, including the average eight-year wait for endometriosis diagnosis
• Why so many women mistake perimenopause symptoms for serious illness, including dementia, anxiety disorders and chronic health conditions
• The concept of internalised misogyny and how it can influence healthcare experiences, even among women themselves
• Honest reflections on anxiety, exhaustion, body changes, vaginal health and the shame many women carry silently through midlife

Quote of the episode

"I've felt shame at the time, but now I think I celebrate it as a post-menopausal woman."
– Jinty Sheerin

Useful links

• The Womenkind Collective Spill The Tea Podcast
• Instagram: The Womankind Collective
• Tackling Gender Bias in the Healthcare System: What Patient Stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change by Jinty Sheerin and Lou Hockings-Thompson: Pre-order now

Be a part of the show: Here's how to get in touch...

• Follow the show and get all the links you need on LinkTree - https://linktr.ee/walking_this_way
• Email us: walkingthisway@hotmail.com
• Use the get in touch form HERE - https://tr.ee/r-ePylKE8H
• Send us a voice message HERE- https://www.speakpipe.com/WalkingThisWay

Produced by The Good Studio - thegoodstudio.co.uk

This week, Lise strips off to join over 250 women for a skinny dip in a Surrey lake for Breast Cancer Now.

Joining women from across the country to strip off, get in the water, and raise money to help tackle breast cancer and raise awareness, what follows is one of those mornings that's hard to describe and impossible to forget.

This is an episode about bodies, bravery and what happens when a group of women decide to stop worrying and just go for it.

In this episode, join Lise and discover:

• How Kate, the event organiser, turned her mum's breast cancer diagnosis into eight years of fundraising, naked calendars and a swim that's grown from 38 brave women to over 250
• Why one woman drove an hour and a half from Gloucestershire, got in the lake at dawn, and then went straight to work, and would do it all again tomorrow
• The moment Lise gets emotional talking to Vanessa, a woman who'd had a mastectomy and was standing there, completely herself, completely magnificent
• Why Lise says swimming is the great equaliser, and how a lake full of 250 different bodies, all shapes, all ages, all stories, makes that feel completely true
• The stat that stopped Lise in her tracks: in the UK, one in three cancer diagnoses is breast cancer, one every nine minutes

Quote of the episode
"When you look at all the bodies, because I love them, I think we're all works of art." - Lise Thorne

Useful links

• Breast Cancer Now: breastcancernow.org

Here's how to get in touch...

• Follow the show and get all the links you need on LinkTree - https://linktr.ee/walking_this_way
• Email us: walkingthisway@hotmail.com
• Use the get in touch form HERE - https://tr.ee/r-ePylKE8H
• Send us a voice message HERE- https://www.speakpipe.com/WalkingThisWay

Produced by The Good Studio - thegoodstudio.co.uk

This week, Lise is joined by Vicki Anstey, world record-holding adventurer, entrepreneur, speaker and author of new book Other People Are Like the Weather. From rowing across the Pacific Ocean to cycling across America, Vicki has built a remarkable reputation for taking on extreme challenges. But this conversation goes far beyond adventure.

Together, Lise and Vicky explore what happens when women in midlife stop living according to other people's expectations and start trusting themselves. They discuss fear, identity, relationships, self-belief and the transformative power of stepping outside your comfort zone.

In this episode, join Lise and Vicky to discover:

• Why Vicky walked away from a 20-year relationship and the life-changing lessons she learned about self-trust and independence
• How a childhood near-drowning experience led to a profound fear of water, and why rowing the Pacific became her way of confronting it
• What really happened during her 60-day world record ocean row and the unexpected challenges that nearly broke her
• The powerful meaning behind her book title, Other People Are Like the Weather, and why trying to manage everyone else's reactions leaves us exhausted
• How difficult conversations before a challenge can transform team dynamics, relationships and everyday life
• Why midlife can be the perfect time to reinvent yourself and discover who you really are beneath years of expectations and conditioning
• Vicki's insight that the fear of failure is often actually a fear of success, and what happens when we start asking "What's the best that could happen?"

Quote of the episode

"Sometimes, the fear of failure is actually a fear of success. We're so conditioned to think about what's the worst that could happen, we don't think about what's the best that could happen."
- Vicki Anstey

Useful links

• Vicki's website: vickianstey.co.uk
• Instagram: instagram.com/vickianstey/
• Book: Other People Are Like the Weather: Stop Managing the Forecast and Start Mastering Yourself

Be a part of the show: Here's how to get in touch...

• Follow the show and get all the links you need on LinkTree - https://linktr.ee/walking_this_way
• Email us: walkingthisway@hotmail.com
• Use the get in touch form HERE - https://tr.ee/r-ePylKE8H
• Send us a voice message HERE- https://www.speakpipe.com/WalkingThisWay

Produced by The Good Studio - thegoodstudio.co.uk

It's peak heatwave in the UK, and Lise has swapped the park for her back garden. Shielding from the record breaking May heat that has the whole country slightly undone, Lise recalls the river swims and paddleboarding sessions that are keeping her cool in the evenings. Recording in her bikini, she also discusses the comments on her Instagram that stopped her in her tracks and reflects on why all women should feel proud to wear whatever they want, whenever they want.

Join Lise and discover...

• Why she started wearing a bikini at 46 and what it took to get there
• How expanding your comfort zone, one small thing at a time, builds a life that genuinely feels bigger
• A midlife reminder that kindness to yourself isn't optional, it's the whole foundation

Quote of the episode

"Be ruthlessly, unashamedly kind to yourself. Forgive yourself again and again and again, because the alternative is we shrink." - Lise Thorne

Here's how to get in touch...

• Follow the show and get all the links you need on LinkTree - https://linktr.ee/walking_this_way
• Email us: walkingthisway@hotmail.com
• Use the get in touch form HERE - https://tr.ee/r-ePylKE8H
• Send us a voice message HERE- https://www.speakpipe.com/WalkingThisWay

Produced by The Good Studio - thegoodstudio.co.uk

This week, Lise is joined by Helen Hopkins, the Mealtime Maverick, batch cooking expert and debut author of Mix and Match Batch, published by Penguin. Helen's story is one of those that sounds almost too much to be true: going viral on Instagram, landing a book deal and navigating perimenopause and deep grief, all at the same time. For any midlife woman who has ever felt like she's holding everything together with fraying string, this conversation will feel like a warm hand on the shoulder - coupled with a fridge full of delicious food!

In this episode, join Lise and discover:

• How Helen's Instagram account grew from 4,000 followers to over 80,000 in just ten weeks, after a single batch cooking reel racked up 3.1 million views, and why that viral moment arrived at the most emotionally complex point of her life
• Why Helen abandoned traditional freezer-based batch cooking in favour of fresh fridge batching, and how spending roughly one hour in the kitchen can produce five to six flexible meals for a family of four for between £35 and £45
• The emotional thread running through the cookbook itself: why recipes for stew and sloppy joes carry her parents with her, and what it means to have created something her late father, a lifelong reader, would have been proud of

Quote of the episode

"Cooking is about putting ingredients together, making something delicious, sharing it with people that you love, and having the opportunity to connect." - Helen Hopkins

Useful links

• Helen on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mealtime.maverick/
• Mix and Match Batch by Helen Hopkins, published by Penguin: available on Amazon and wherever books are sold
• WIN a signed copy: Leave a voice message via the link below telling us about your cooking or batching experience, and Helen will gift one lucky listener a signed copy.

Be a part of the show: Here's how to get in touch...

• Follow the show and get all the links you need on LinkTree - https://linktr.ee/walking_this_way
• Email us: walkingthisway@hotmail.com
• Use the get in touch form HERE - https://tr.ee/r-ePylKE8H
• Send us a voice message HERE- https://www.speakpipe.com/WalkingThisWay

Produced by The Good Studio - thegoodstudio.co.uk

Lise is in the Lake District on a walking weekend with Ramble Worldwide, Hassness House and Ageism Is Never In Style. She's joined by walk leader Julia Williams for an evening amble to Buttermere, the evening before the walking properly starts.

It's nearly 9:30 at night. The sun has just slipped behind the hills, and Lise and Julia are walking down to the lake, talking about what walking does for people.

Julia has been leading walks for Ramble Worldwide for 12 years, entirely as a volunteer. She's taken groups to New Zealand, the Alps, Costa Rica, Madeira, the Tour du Mont Blanc and the Camino. She really knows what it means when someone says a walk changed their life.

And Lise shares her own walking story: travelling the world for a year with her three children and walking the final stretch of the Camino with no sleeping bags, no advance bookings, and nothing to think about but the next step.

Join Lise and discover...

• Why Ramble Worldwide is a not-for-profit and what that means for the walking community
• How Julia went from a career in the real world to leading groups across six continents as a volunteer
• The unexpected moments that remind you why getting people outdoors really matters
• Why a well-organised walk is harder than it looks
• Lise's family Camino: three kids, no plan and walking home from Japan via northern Spain

With thanks to all the brilliant people at:

• Ramble Worldwide — www.rambleworldwide.co.uk
• Hassness House — www.rambleworldwide.co.uk/hassness-house
• Ageism Is Never In Style — www.ageismisneverinstyle.com

Quote of the Episode

"As I'm walking, I feel like I'm walking away from the pain and towards a new life."

- One of Julia's Camino guests, shared by Julia Williams

Here's how to get in touch...

• Follow the show and get all the links you need on LinkTree - https://linktr.ee/walking_this_way
• Email us: walkingthisway@hotmail.com
• Use the get in touch form HERE - https://tr.ee/r-ePylKE8H
• Send us a voice message HERE- https://www.speakpipe.com/WalkingThisWay

Produced by The Good Studio - thegoodstudio.co.uk

This week, Lise is joined by Lorraine Candy, co-host of the award-winning podcast Postcards from Midlife, a journalist who has edited some of Britain's biggest magazines, and a mother of four who is refreshingly honest about what's actually going on in her life - from HRT and perimenopause to friendships and swimming.

In this episode, she and Lise dig into the real challenges facing midlife women today, the ongoing debate over HRT, the importance of female friendship and how moving every day - and taking on the occasional swimming challenge - can have a transformative impact on your health and wellbeing.

In this episode, join Lise and discover:

• Why two-thirds of women are wrongly prescribed antidepressants during perimenopause
• The shocking statistic that only around 10% of women who would benefit from HRT are actually getting it
• What the "anticipatory load" is, why it's neurologically exhausting, and why it falls so disproportionately on women
• Lorraine's honest journey through perimenopause, from night terrors and panic attacks to finding what actually worked
• Why female friendship isn't a luxury in midlife; according to the research, it might literally save your life.

Quote of the episode:
"If you've got a choice between career and ambition, or helping a friend, or being with a friend, or being good - choose the friendship. Because that is the grit that sees you through." - Lorraine Candy

Useful links:

• Lorraine's podcast: https://www.postcardsfrommidlife.com/
• Lorraine's books
• Lorraine's Substack: https://lorrainecandy.substack.com/
• Lorraine's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lorrainecandy/
• Watergate Bay Hotel: https://watergatebay.co.uk/

Be a part of the show: Here's how to get in touch...

• Follow the show and get all the links you need on LinkTree - https://linktr.ee/walking_this_way
• Email us: walkingthisway@hotmail.com
• Use the get in touch form HERE - https://tr.ee/r-ePylKE8H
• Send us a voice message HERE- https://www.speakpipe.com/WalkingThisWay

Produced by The Good Studio - thegoodstudio.co.uk