Fearless! A Celebration of Midlife & Adventure – The Happy Menopause Podcast

Season 4 • Episode 15
Louise Minchin, Journalist, Author & Athlete

How daring do you feel these days? Sometimes it’s easy for us to write ourselves off in midlife and think the fun and adventure is all over. In this episode, we’re going to explore the extraordinary adventures of some inspiring women who have smashed through barriers, broken taboos and paved the way for the rest of us. I promise you that by the end of the episode, you’ll be just raring to go and start an adventure of your own!

My guest will be well-known to many of you, because she was a much-loved presenter on BBC breakfast for 20 years. She’s used her profile to champion women’s stories and to raise awareness of the menopause, mental health and women’s safety. She’s also a highly successful triathlete who represented Great Britain in her age-group. If you haven’t guessed already, I’m chatting to the brilliant Louise Minchin who’s here to discuss her latest book Fearless: Adventures with Extraordinary Women and to give us all an appetite for adventure.

Louise introduces us to a whole host of  inspiring women and talks us through the adventures she shared with them, including freediving under ice, cycling across Argentina, wild caving and a swim escape from Alcatraz. We discuss the importance of challenging yourself to build resilience and how vital it is to remain physically confident to ensure we keep fit and well through mid- and later life. Louise is an incredibly positive role model and full of great advice on how to empower yourself to take that first step into adventure so that you can make the most of this latest stage of your life.

She was a delight to chat to and I promise you that you’ll enjoy listening to her as much as I enjoyed chatting to her!

Show Notes

Pick up your copy of Louise’s book: Fearless: Adventures with Extraordinary Women.

Follow Louise on Twitter and Instagram.

These are just some of the brilliant women Louise interviewed in her book if you’d like to find out more about them.

Christine Grosart – Wild Caving

Cath Pendleton – Freediving Under Ice in the Dark

Belinda Kirk – Overnight Dartmoor Crossing

Mollie Hughes – Mountaineering

Caroline Bramwell – Half Ironman Triathlon

Lucy Gossage – Team Hike Bike & Paddleboard

Vivienne Rickman – Mountain Swimming

Kadeena Cox – Indoor Track Cycling

Mimi Anderson – 1200km Cycle Across Argentina

Lizzie Carr – Stand Up Paddleboarding

Anoushe Hussain – Indoor Climbing

Susie Chan – Ultra Running

Biography

Louise Minchin is a much-loved TV presenter, journalist, author and athlete. She presented the UK’s most successful morning television programme BBC Breakfast for two decades. She is the host of the top-rated podcasts, Push Your Peak and Her Spirit. Louise is Chair of the 2023 judging panel for the prestigious The Women’s Prize for Fiction. Throughout her career, she has used her profile and voice to champion women’s stories and to push for change raising awareness of the menopause, mental health, women’s safety and more. A lover of adventure hers elf, at the age of 45, Louise was inspired to take up triathlon after a BBC Breakfast challenge. Three years later she represented her age-group in the World and European Championships.