Hi friends! I have such big news! But first a little back story.
The Story
I have three girlfriends that live in the Montgomery and Auburn areas, and we try to get together every few months to catch up. The last time we met was for dinner in Montgomery at Zoe’s Kitchen. I had no idea what we were in for and where our conversations would take us.
Once food had been ordered and we were finished catching up on jobs, husbands, and babies, our friend, Anne, springs it on us that she wants to start a podcast.
I think we all initially thought, “Yeah right. Like that’ll work.” But the more Anne talked the more on board we became with the idea, so here I am now telling you that the four of us have officially started a podcast. It’s called Adults (By 40).
The Panel
Anne Randle
Hello everyone! My name is Anne, and I’m the brains behind this group (in that the podcast was my idea). I live with my family near Auburn, AL. I have two boys who are eleven months apart. We all make mistakes but for some of us, math makes it impossible to hide. Taten can attest. I spend most of my time outdoors both for work and fun. I have always considered myself a tomboy, but living in a house of men is making me enjoy girly things for the first time in my life, although unlike Elizabeth I can’t imagine painting my fingernails. Too impractical.
Taten Shirley
Hi! My name is Taten, and I live in Montgomery, Alabama. I am married and have two kids, a boy (almost seven) and a girl (almost 4). I teach at a Christian university and am currently going to school myself, working on a Ph.D. I am a moderate in most areas of life, the main one being politically, and I truly try to see every sides of each issue. In fact, I am probably somewhere between Anne and Elizabeth on the girly spectrum. I take no pleasure in the day-to-day girliness: putting on makeup, painting nails, fixing my hair, yet I still do. I only enjoy shopping when I have money to spend. The idea of window shopping is torturous. What I enjoy most is reading, good movies, and clever TV shows (I DVR Jeopardy every day). My favorite way to spend my time is pizza night with my family, watching a movie together.
Elizabeth Norman
Well you already know me pretty well, but in case you’re new here, I’ll tell you a little about myself. I’ve been a wife almost nine years, a teacher for eleven years, and a blogger about two and a half years. I’m a total theater nerd, watch lots of TV, read for fun, enjoy cooking but prefer dining out, and yes, I like to paint my own nails. I love all things girly, have an unhealthy obsession with shoes and jewelry, and am totally into good skincare but mostly of the safer variety. I value my family, friends, and faith above all else in my life. I believe in miracles, full moons, prayer, kindness, telling people when you notice something great about them, the power of music, and regular date nights with my husband. Bonus points if you can work in those girlfriend dates on the regular, too.
When we started recording the podcast, Trawick Wise, the fourth friend of our group, was recording with us. She was also about five months pregnant. As the pregnancy progressed she developed a few complications that meant she had to visit her out-of-town doctor twice a week causing her to miss several recording sessions. I’m happy to say that Trawick and her new baby girl are doing great. However, this means she will be absent from the podcast for the majority of this season. We’re hopeful she’ll pop in here and there and return as a regular on our panel again.
The Topics
One of our first questions to Anne when she proposed a podcast was what in the world do we talk about? Anne, of course, came back with a very “Anne” answer of something like: We are four intelligent, college-educated women. Surely we can come up with things to talk about that are relevant to our lives and to other women our age. She also pointed out that we would not be speaking on the latest trends in fashion, politics wouldn’t be completely off the table but wouldn’t be discussed regularly, and nothing too personal would need to be discussed unless we wanted to.
We did agree that parenting topics, general “adulting” topics, and, well, just life in general would be what guides our topic selection. So that’s exactly what we’ve done.
This season you’ll hear episodes on topics such as mom shaming, seasons of surviving but not thriving, and marriage.
What You Should Know
Each episode is around twenty minutes long. Listen to the very end of each podcast. Anne edits each episode and always leaves you with a little nugget of humor and the first three episodes are already up!
Our podcast is very family friendly, though we can’t promise that a colorful word won’t fly out of our mouths every once in a while. We’ll do our best to tell you up front if we’re discussing a topic that may be less friendly to young ears.
Please be patient with us as we try to overcome the hurdles of being a newbie in the podcast world. As of right now, you can find our podcast here on the blog. There is a dedicated Podcast Page located along the sidebar if you’re on a computer. It will be at the end of the current post if you’re reading from your phone. I will also have a direct link in my Instagram profile. Anne and Taten will likely share it on their favorite social media platforms as well.
And Finally
We all listen to a lot of podcasts, but Anne realized that something was missing for women in their 30s. Sure, there are lots of podcasts for moms, money, and what book you should read next, but when you hit your 30s and realize you are the adult, you something feel like, “Who, me?” I do it all the time, but that’s why we agreed to join Anne in starting a podcast. We figured sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly about being in our 30s will somehow help us become adults by 40.
