There's no shortage of podcasts telling middle-aged women how to optimise themselves. Sometimes you just want someone to admit that ageing parents, teenagers, hormones, relationships, work, sleep and suddenly caring deeply about the correct pillowcase arrangement are all a bit ridiculous.
So, weâve picked our favourite 10 funny podcasts for women over 40 that make midlife sound less like a problem to solve and more like something worth talking and laughing about.
This isn't a scientific ranking and it isn't limited to shows specifically labelled âmidlifeâ. We looked for podcasts with strong hosts, genuinely funny conversation, established audiences and plenty to say about the things that tend to become increasingly relevant after 40.
Full disclosure: Limited Time Only and Funny Mummies are part of the Podomedy network. The other eight aren't. We think they're excellent anyway.
1. 40ish
Best for: the full midlife experience
Lauren Mishcon and Nicole Goodman make absolutely no attempt to pretend that your forties are a serene period of hard-earned wisdom.
40ish tackles perimenopause, relationships, ageing, confidence, empty nests, careers, body image and the particular form of insanity that apparently arrives at 3am. It releases twice weekly and has built a sizeable archive around the realities of life in your forties and fifties. Apple Podcasts
What makes it work is that the subjects can be serious without the podcast becoming solemn. You're as likely to encounter HRT as kitten heels and domestic disasters.
Start with: The Midweek Meltdown Show: 3am Anxiety, Kitten Heels & Midlife Chaos. It's an excellent introduction to the combination of genuine midlife issues and completely disproportionate everyday crises that the show does well. Apple Podcasts
Typical listen: Around 25 to 40 minutes.
You'll like it if: you want something that feels like two friends comparing notes on what the hell is happening.
Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify and major podcast apps.
2. Older and Wider
Best for: laughing at getting older rather than fighting it
Comedian Jenny Eclair and writer-producer Judith Holder have been making Older and Wider since 2018, offering what they describe as news from the âmenopausal front and beyondâ.
It's one of the most established British podcasts in this space, with more than 350 episodes and over 1,600 Apple ratings. Recent episodes move happily between holidays, food, health, families, television, books and the everyday indignities of being a grown adult who still hasn't quite got life sorted. Apple Podcasts
There's no breathless self-improvement agenda. That's precisely the appeal.
Start with: pretty much any recent episode. The One with the Mirror at the End of the Bed gives you a fairly accurate idea of the territory you're entering.
Typical listen: 45 to 55 minutes.
You'll like it if: you miss Grumpy Old Women or enjoy funny, rambling conversations where normal life provides more than enough material.
Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast and major podcast apps.
3. My Therapist Ghosted Me
Best for: properly unfiltered friendship
Joanne McNally and Vogue Williams don't make a midlife podcast as such, but the audience overlap is obvious.
My Therapist Ghosted Me consists largely of the pair telling each other and their listeners things that more restrained people might keep private. Relationships, sex, parenting, pregnancy, ageing, celebrities, disastrous decisions and listener dilemmas all get dragged into the conversation.
It's also one of the biggest comedy podcasts on this list: it currently sits among the leading shows in Apple's UK Comedy chart and carries more than 6,000 UK Apple ratings. Apple Podcasts
Start with: Wimbledon, kids' parties & David Beckham. A recent independent roundup picked it as a particularly good example of the pair's chemistry and ability to make very little become quite a lot. Best podcasts in Ireland
Typical listen: Main episodes around 40 to 45 minutes; extras are often shorter.
You'll like it if: your favourite conversations with friends regularly become wildly inappropriate.
Listen: Global Player, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast apps.
4. Limited Time Only
Best for: anyone who never has enough hours in the day
Actors Susie Riddell and Esther Stanford make something slightly different from the standard two-people-chatting podcast.
Limited Time Only mixes conversation, interviews and original comedy sketches into what the hosts describe as a âpick-me-up in podcast formâ. Both have proper comedy and performance chops. Riddell is familiar to BBC Radio 4 listeners from The Archers and that gives the show considerably more shape than a conventional catch-up podcast. Apple Podcasts
It also won Moment of Comedy Gold at the 2025 International Women's Podcast Awards. Podomedy
The theme isn't explicitly âlife after 40â, which is part of its appeal. It's about busy lives, friendship, embarrassment and the absurd things that consume far more mental bandwidth than they deserve and perhaps the first choice if you're looking for funny podcasts for women over 40.
Start with: LTO Brief #17 â Confessions, a 23-minute collection of the pair's personal oddities and minor obsessions. Podomedy
Typical listen: Approximately 20 to 45 minutes.
You'll like it if: you want comedy with a little more writing and structure alongside the chat.
Listen: Podomedy, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast and major podcast apps.
5. Funny Mummies
Best for: mothers who have heard enough parenting perfection
Comedian Hatty Ashdown invites women from comedy and entertainment to talk honestly about having children without turning the conversation into either a parenting lecture or an Instagram highlight reel.
The result is conversations about work, relationships, childcare, tiredness, dating, ADHD, screen time and the thousand small indignities attached to raising human beings.
The guest list includes Josie Long, Felicity Ward, Laura Lexx, Kelly Convey and others, and there are 80-plus episodes to explore. Acast
Start with: Felicity Ward: Are There No Funny Men Left to Date? The conversation covers ADHD, body doubling, single parenting, modern dating and late-in-life bisexuality while remaining resolutely funny. Acast
Typical listen: Around 30 to 45 minutes.
You'll like it if: you love your children but don't particularly want to listen to people pretending parenthood is magical all day.
Listen: Podomedy, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast and major podcast apps.
6. Shagged. Married. Annoyed.
Best for: long-term relationship reconnaissance
Chris and Rosie Ramsey have built one of Britain's biggest comedy podcasts from an extremely durable premise: married people occasionally find each other unbearable.
They talk parenting, domestic arguments, sex, growing up, grievances and listener stories, with the couple's âbeefsâ becoming one of the show's signatures.
It's not marketed specifically at women over 40, but Rosie turning 40 has itself made it into recent episodes, and the show's mixture of marriage, parenting and everyday irritation puts it squarely in this listening territory. Apple Podcasts
It also has serious reach: recent chart tracking had it moving between #2 and #5 in Apple's UK Comedy chart. My Podcast Data
Start with: pick a recent main episode rather than beginning at episode one. The format makes it extremely easy to jump in anywhere.
Typical listen: Around an hour.
You'll like it if: you have ever begun a sentence with âDo you know what really annoys me about you?â
Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
7. The Shift with Sam Baker
Best for: funny, thoughtful conversations about what comes after 40
This is probably the least straightforwardly âcomedyâ show on the list, but one of the most directly relevant.
Journalist and author Sam Baker created The Shift specifically because she felt women's voices were disappearing from public life once they passed 40.
Each week she talks to a different woman about work, sex, money, identity, relationships, bodies, menopause, confidence and reinvention. Guests have included Marian Keyes, Minnie Driver, Philippa Perry, Tracey Thorn, Elizabeth Gilbert and Deborah Frances-White. Apple Podcasts
The conversations can be serious, but they're frequently very funny and the show has grown to millions of downloads. The Shift
Start with: Marian Keyes on HRT, Botox and Learning to Be Shameless. It's funny, candid and almost absurdly on-theme for this list. Apple Podcasts
Typical listen: Around 45 to 60 minutes.
You'll like it if: you want conversations with substance without having to endure people taking themselves terribly seriously.
Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast and major podcast apps.
8. How To Be 60 with Kaye Adams
Best for: remembering that life isn't finished at 49
Don't be put off by the number if you're nowhere near 60.
Kaye Adams and Karen MacKenzie use ageing as a jumping-off point for conversations about careers, relationships, reinvention, confidence, health and the increasingly liberating realisation that you're allowed to stop doing things simply because you're supposed to.
It's funny, warm and prolific, with new episodes appearing weekly and a sizeable archive already available. Apple Podcasts
Start with: Janet Street-Porter: 80, Off the Leash and Saying It For You. Any episode description containing four wedding rings, Daniel Craig and the phrase ânation's favourite pissed-off pensionerâ seems a reasonable place to begin. Apple Podcasts
Typical listen: 20 to 50 minutes depending on the format.
You'll like it if: you're becoming steadily less interested in behaving your age.
Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast and major podcast apps.
9. Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Best for: feeling considerably better about getting older
Julia Louis-Dreyfus built Wiser Than Me around a beautifully simple idea: instead of treating older women as culturally invisible, ask them what they know.
Her guests have included Carol Burnett, Catherine O'Hara, Cyndi Lauper, Jean Smart, Gloria Steinem and Pam Grier. The conversations are funny, emotional and refreshingly interested in what ageing gives you rather than simply what it takes away. Apple Podcasts
It has become a substantial hit in the US, with around 10,000 Apple ratings there. Apple Podcasts
Start with: Julia Gets Wise with Carol Burnett. At just over an hour, Burnett talks about rejection, Lucille Ball, leadership and the strange route that led to her working with Julie Andrews. Apple Podcasts
Typical listen: Roughly 45 to 70 minutes.
You'll like it if: you'd like ageing to sound like acquiring stories rather than losing relevance.
Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify and major podcast apps.
10. White Wine Question Time
Best for: celebrity conversation without the press-junket questions
Kate Thornton has made more than 500 episodes of White Wine Question Time, built around three questions and traditionally, at least three glasses of wine.
Its archive ranges across actors, comedians, authors, broadcasters and other familiar names. The conversations are usually warmer and looser than a conventional celebrity interview, with friendships, work, family, getting older and life's unexpected turns regularly taking over from whatever was supposedly being promoted.
The show remains active in 2026 and has more than 1,200 UK Apple ratings. Apple Podcasts
Start with: the recent Jodi Picoult episode if you're a reader, or simply search the enormous archive for somebody you already like. Picoult's episode runs around 46 minutes. Apple Podcasts
Typical listen: Around 40 to 50 minutes.
You'll like it if: your ideal evening involves a glass of wine and somebody interesting who has stopped giving polished interview answers.
Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast and major podcast apps.
Which podcasts you start with?
Well there you have our 10 funny podcasts for women over 40 - and yes, we know there are tonnes more!
If you want midlife chaos, start with 40ish.
For menopause with zero reverence, try Older and Wider.
For big, unfiltered laughs, go to My Therapist Ghosted Me or Shagged. Married. Annoyed.
For something more written and deliberately comedic, try Limited Time Only.
If parenting remains a major part of your particular circus, Funny Mummies is an easy choice.
And if what you're really looking for is reassurance that the interesting bit of life might actually be happening now, The Shift, How To Be 60 and Wiser Than Me make a compelling case.
The useful thing about getting older is that you've probably stopped pretending you only like one kind of thing anyway.
Find more funny podcasts
Podomedy is home to independent comedy podcasts spanning interviews, scripted comedy, parenting, film, television, history, horror, sport and everything in between.