
Podcast by Tara (Conti) Bansal and Christina (Conti) Donovan
Podcast by Tara (Conti) Bansal and Christina (Conti) Donovan
01 April 2025
One of the most difficult aspects of middle age is the continual reminder and realization of how fragile life is. This is not to say that terrible things do not happen to young people – they definitely do. However, for many of us – by the time we reach our 40’s and 50’s - we have either experienced or repeatedly witnessed lives that drastically change in an instant. It is almost as if a blindfold is removed and what we once thought of as “unthinkable” is more common than we believed. Tragic events, accidents, and diagnoses occur suddenly and then life as we know it (or as people we care about know it), is abruptly and completely shattered. The inevitable truth that life is both tremendously fragile and fleeting becomes something we understand and feel more deeply as we age.
As we continue our series this season on grief and loss, our guest today is Colleen Albright, who graciously and courageously shares her story of unthinkable losses. She shares her story in hopes that it will help others.
Colleen's life was a tapestry of joy and challenges, raising her children and thriving in a career she loves. On December 1st 2022, a seemingly ordinary day in Coleen’s life, everything changed for her. And then it changed again. And again. In less than a year, Colleen experienced the deaths of her teenage son, her mother, her father and underwent a divorce.
She experienced a “before and after” that “obliterated” the person she was. Her story is not an easy one to hear but she tells it with a poise and grace that astounded us. Colleen offers many insights into navigating midlife's unpredictable challenges with courage and hope including:
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19 March 2025
There are numerous definitions of the word “seeker”. The one that resonated with us most describes a seeker as “…characterized by a persistent and often intense curiosity, a desire to understand and explore and a willingness to question and learn”.
In today’s episode we interview our sister-in-law, Dr. Alexa Dare, Ph.D (Alex is married to our brother, Patrick, the 6th of the 7 siblings in the Conti family). In the early minutes of our interview, Alex describes herself as a seeker and, as the interview unfolds, we learn exactly why. In describing her childhood, her professional life, her love of travel and the outdoors we see the true embodiment of that definition. And while for some people these qualities might diminish with age, as Alex approaches her 50th birthday, her desire to learn new things, to strive for a deeper understanding of the world and to embrace new challenges is as strong as ever. But Alex’s middlescence journey is not without its own uncertainties and questioning struggles.
We hope you will join us as we discuss these challenges with Alex along with the following:
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04 March 2025
The hormonal changes men and women undergo in middle age is one of the defining aspects of middlescence. Similar to what teenagers/adolescents undergo entering puberty, the hormonal changes of (peri)menopause, particularly for women, are dramatic, significant and unique to each person. Western culture and medicine have until quite recently, largely ignored these changes and the symptoms that go along with (peri)menopause and andropause.
In regard to (peri)menopause, it has been reported that most doctors receive only 1-2 hours total in their training. And while menopause is a natural process, there are at least 24 possible symptoms that can range in intensity from mere nuisance to life-altering. It is an extremely important quality of life issue for middle-aged women and those that love them. For those of us currently in mid-life, we are fortunate to live in a time when research, knowledge and attitudes about (peri)menopause are changing.
We are absolutely thrilled to discuss all this with one of the trailblazers leading the charge for this change. Carin Luna-Ostaseski is on a mission to transform how women experience (peri)menopause. She is the creator of “Hot or Just Me,” a website that offers a comprehensive platform integrating informational resources, products and compassionate community support around (peri)menopause. Carin’s own experiences prompted the creation of her website. Carin’s approach to managing (peri)menopause symptoms is rooted in self-care: women need to give themselves the time and energy to acknowledge and treat their symptoms.
We hope this episode provides invaluable advice and support to women and their loved ones. Our show notes are full of helpful links and additional information.
In this episode we discuss the following:
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18 February 2025
In today’s episode, Tara and Tina take time to consider and contemplate the vast amount of both practical information and words of wisdom from the two previous episodes on grief and loss. We hope you were able to listen to our last 2 episodes: “Learning and Living Through Grief” with Brett Danko and “When Their World Stops From Grief” with Anne-Marie Lockmyer. We recommend that you listen to them before listening to this one.
Today’s episode highlights what we learned and experienced through these interviews with Brett and Anne-Marie. We hope our discussion helps bring more clarity and positive energy to this emotional and difficult - but unavoidable and important topic. We encourage you to listen and hope you will contact us with any feedback and the impact these episodes had on you and your middlescence journey.
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04 February 2025
We are so inspired by and grateful for the many people willing to share their middlescence journey with us. We are humbled and amazed at their courage and willingness to open up and share their personal experiences, dreams and fears.
As we continue with this season’s theme of grief – we are especially grateful to our next guest. Brett Danko lost his beloved wife, Dawn, last March. She was 55 and had been fighting cancer for several years. Brett’s middlescence journey has been filled with what for many of us is our absolute worst nightmare.
Brett’s ability to be “an open book” and thoughtfully and stoically detail his last few years is a testament to his strength of character along with his innate abilities as an amazing teacher.
Take a deep breath, then listen and learn as we discuss Brett’s experience of grief and loss that touches upon a wide range of topics including:
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21 January 2025
We opened the 2nd season of our Messy Middlescence podcast discussing grief and loss. We continue with that topic – which will be a recurring theme this season – in our interview today with Anne-Marie Lockmyer (https://www.griefandtraumahealing.com/). Anne-Marie is a grief recovery specialist and award winning author of the book “When Their World Stops: The Essential Guide to Truly Helping Anyone in Grief”.
We feel strongly that our interview with Anne-Marie is one that every person – regardless of age and circumstance – can benefit from. At some point in our lives, someone we love or care deeply for will undergo a devastating loss. While our intent maybe to provide help, support and comfort, we often do not know what to do or say. And perhaps – even worse – we do or say the absolute worst thing. Anne-Marie provides extremely practical advice and concrete examples on how to help someone who is grieving. Despite the difficult topic, Anne-Marie brings hope and positive energy to our conversation.
We hope you will join us as we educate ourselves about grief and discuss with Anne-Marie the following topics:
Anne-Marie’s captivating and inspiring personal story which details her own experience with devastating grief and her journey to becoming a grief recovery specialist;
How grief is a natural part of any significant loss (not just death) and people should be educated about it and given tools to help process it;
Each grief journey is totally unique and has no timetable and no checklists;
Grief is a traumatic emotional injury and its recovery should be viewed similarly to a traumatic physical injury allowing as much time, space and help that is needed to heal;
What we should and should not say to someone who is grieving;
What is helpful and not helpful to someone who is grieving;
The idea that we as a society/culture are not comfortable with unhappy feelings and we need to learn to get comfortable being uncomfortable;
It is impossible to talk someone out of being sad.
We hope you listen and find this episode as valuable and helpful as we did.
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