The Wobbly Middle

• Salima Saxton: From Losing Herself in Motherhood to Rebuilding Her Multi-Hyphenate Career

  Actress, writer, podcaster, and mother of three, Salima Saxton joins The Wobbly Middle Season 2 finale to talk about reclaiming yourself. From centre stage to the school gate and back again, Salima shares what it took to reawaken her creative life after years on mute.In this warm, frank conversation, she reflects on the disconnection so many women feel after stepping back from their careers - and how she wrote her way back into her multi-hyphenate roles. Together with hosts Susannah de Jager and Patsy Day, Salima dives into the messy middle of rediscovery, thrills at the power of women’s anger, and throws the idea of “balance” straight overboard.If you’ve ever felt like you left parts of yourself behind, this one’s for you.(00:00) - Welcome to The Wobbly Middle (00:46) - Reflections on Fitting In and Being True to Yourself (02:33) - Introducing Salima Saxton (03:47) - Salima's Early Career and Family Life (07:49) - The Challenges of Motherhood (13:29) - Rediscovering Identity Through Writing (16:25) - The Reality of Success and Failure (20:27) - The Inception of 'Women are Mad' Podcast (27:58) - Estrangement and Family Reflections (31:45) - Final Thoughts THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast about women reinventing their careers in midlife.JOIN THE CONVERSATION: NEW EPISODES drop every second Wednesday. Follow now so you never miss an episode.SHARE YOUR STORY: Made a left turn in your career? We’d love to hear about it. Write to us at [email protected]—your pivot might just be the nudge someone else needs.SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER:  thewobblymiddle.substack.comLEARN MORE ON SUBSTACK: thewobblymiddle.substack.comFOLLOW US on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook @thewobblymiddleABOUT THE HOSTS:Susannah de Jager has just relocated to Abu Dhabi, where she’s podcasting, consulting with start-ups, and occasionally advising on scale-up capital. After leaving her role as CEO of a boutique asset manager, she asked the all-important question: what next? Five years later, she’s following her curiosity —The Wobbly Middle is for her and every woman doing the same.Patsy Day is a lawyer on a break. As an intellectual property specialist, she has worked on everything from anti-counterfeiting to publishing and from London to Ho Chi Minh City and back again. Patsy lives in Oxford and is currently immersed in podcasts producing SafeHouse Amsterdam (out 2025) and co-hosting, The Wobbly Middle, a podcast about women reinventing their careers in midlife.

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• Joy Ride: Taking your confidence out for a spin

  From olympic dreams to a digital sisterhood, Joy Foster traded a career in the City for a quiver of arrows, followed love across borders and then and then, somewhat accidentally, became a digital entrepreneur. Her creation, TechPixies, now serves as both launchpad and lifeline for women looking to pivot, re-enter the workforce, or start from scratch.In this episode, Joy talks about what it means to bloom wherever you’re planted even when the soil is foreign or the sun unreliable. She shares her belief that confidence is a decision, reinforced daily through small acts of doing. From five-minute power moves to three-year plans, Joy’s practical, no-nonsense guidance is both energising and refreshingly doable.If you’re stalled, stuck, or quietly simmering with ideas, this conversation will propel you from inertia to momentum. (00:00) - Welcome to The Wobbly Middle (01:48) - Introducing Joy Foster (03:28) - Joy's Philosophy on Confidence (04:51) - Crafting a Vision for Your Life (09:18) - Joy's Personal Bravery (12:37) - Challenges in Switzerland (15:20) - Resilience and Support Systems (17:14) - Empowering Women Through Tech Pixies (20:14) - Navigating Grants and Funding (24:57) - Reflections and Advice THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast about women reinventing their careers in midlife.JOIN THE CONVERSATION: NEW EPISODES drop every second Wednesday. Follow now so you never miss an episode.SHARE YOUR STORY: Made a left turn in your career? We’d love to hear about it. Write to us at [email protected]—your pivot might just be the nudge someone else needs.SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER:  thewobblymiddle.substack.comLEARN MORE ON SUBSTACK: thewobblymiddle.substack.comFOLLOW US on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook @thewobblymiddleABOUT THE HOSTS:Susannah de Jager has just relocated to Abu Dhabi, where she’s podcasting, consulting with start-ups, and occasionally advising on scale-up capital. After leaving her role as CEO of a boutique asset manager, she asked the all-important question: what next? Five years later, she’s following her curiosity —The Wobbly Middle is for her and every woman doing the same.Patsy Day is a lawyer on a break. As an intellectual property specialist, she has worked on everything from anti-counterfeiting to publishing and from London to Ho Chi Minh City and back again. Patsy lives in Oxford and is currently immersed in podcasts producing SafeHouse Amsterdam (out 2025) and co-hosting, The Wobbly Middle, a podcast about women reinventing their careers in midlife.

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• Celebrating a Period of Change

  ...and how to build a brand.Liberating and taboo-busting, Rachael Newton (former hedge fund lawyer turned entrepreneur) is part of a new wave of founders, thinkers, and advocates throwing open the bathroom door and reshaping the policies, products, and possibilities of period care. In this episode, Rachael tells us how she designed Nixit, the revolutionary, reusable menstrual disc after she realised her tampon waste took so long to break down it would likely survive the apocalypse alongside the cockroach. Rachael assessed the alternatives in the market and found them wanting. (Hell, there are more gadgets to poach an egg than there are period products). So she started from scratch designing a new type of reusable menstrual disc that could be worn for 12 hours. In doing so, Rachael has not only changed how people manage their periods but also how they relate to their bodies.She also tells us about the moment she put down her law books to become a femtech founder, about the risks and the loneliness along with the pinch-me moment of the pinging of sales. If you’re curious about starting something new, building a brand with purpose, or simply rethinking your period, Rachael’s story is a smart, grounded reminder: you don’t have to go with the flow. Not in your career. And definitely not with your period.To find out more about Nixit: https://nixit.com/pages/menstrual-disc(00:00) - Welcome to The Wobbly Middle (00:17) - Personal Updates and Reflections (00:39) - Discussing Period Stigma (01:54) - Introducing Rachel Newton (03:38) - Rachel's Career Journey (05:14) - Challenges in the Legal Profession (07:55) - Relocating and Career Shift (10:00) - The Birth of Nixit (15:11) - Developing the Product (26:09) - Branding and Marketing (30:51) - Entrepreneurial Insights (33:39) - Final Thoughts and Farewell THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast about women reinventing their careers in midlife.JOIN THE CONVERSATION: NEW EPISODES drop every second Wednesday. Follow now so you never miss an episode.SHARE YOUR STORY: Made a left turn in your career? We’d love to hear about it. Write to us at [email protected]—your pivot might just be the nudge someone else needs.SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER:  thewobblymiddle.substack.comLEARN MORE ON SUBSTACK: thewobblymiddle.substack.comFOLLOW US on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook @thewobblymiddleABOUT THE HOSTS:Susannah de Jager has just relocated to Abu Dhabi, where she’s podcasting, consulting with start-ups, and occasionally advising on scale-up capital. After leaving her role as CEO of a boutique asset manager, she asked the all-important question: what next? Five years later, she’s following her curiosity —The Wobbly Middle is for her and every woman doing the same.Patsy Day is a lawyer on a break. As an intellectual property specialist, she has worked on everything from anti-counterfeiting to publishing and from London to Ho Chi Minh City and back again. Patsy lives in Oxford and is currently immersed in podcasts producing SafeHouse Amsterdam (out 2025) and co-hosting, The Wobbly Middle, a podcast about women reinventing their careers in midlife.

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• Culture Club: Good Karma Only

  Where female investors bring the values—and the returns.Experienced fund manager Leila Kardouche knew that to keep doing what she loved—investing—it had to be on her own terms. So she co-founded Variis Partners, a women-led firm that’s diverse by name (Variis means “diverse” in Latin) and by nature, built on a culture rarely found in traditional finance.In the high-stakes investment world, Leila is confident about what sets the foundation for success: her age, experience, financial stability, and wisdom—along with the complementary strengths of her co-founders. On taking bold steps later in life, she says: “You have a much higher chance of success. We are healthier, we're living longer, we want to be engaged for much longer professionally and therefore doing something like this at 50 is not late at all. It's about the right time.” In this episode, we talk about building a values-led business, choosing the right partners, and busting tired myths about women, risk, and what makes a great investor.(00:00) - Culture Club: Good Karma Only (01:09) - Introducing Leila Kardouche (02:23) - Leila's Career Journey (05:46) - Challenges for Women in Finance (07:25) - Motherhood and Career (10:11) - Founding Variis Capital (12:34) - Building a Diverse Team (19:43) - Balancing Optimism and Pessimism (26:28) - Women and Risk in Investment (31:23) -  What Would You Tell Your 30-Year-Old Self? (33:10) - Final Thoughts and Farewell THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast about women reinventing their careers in midlife. JOIN THE CONVERSATION: NEW EPISODES drop every second Wednesday. Follow now so you never miss an episode. SHARE YOUR STORY: Made a left turn in your career? We’d love to hear about it. Write to us at [email protected]—your pivot might just be the nudge someone else needs.SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER:  thewobblymiddle.substack.com LEARN MORE ON SUBSTACK: thewobblymiddle.substack.comFOLLOW US on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook @thewobblymiddleABOUT THE HOSTS:Susannah de Jager has just relocated to Abu Dhabi, where she’s podcasting, consulting with start-ups, and occasionally advising on scale-up capital. After leaving her role as CEO of a boutique asset manager, she asked the all-important question: what next? Five years later, she’s following her curiosity —The Wobbly Middle is for her and every woman doing the same.Patsy Day is a lawyer on a break. As an intellectual property specialist, she has worked on everything from anti-counterfeiting to publishing and from London to Ho Chi Minh City and back again. Patsy lives in Oxford and is currently immersed in podcasts producing SafeHouse Amsterdam (out 2025) and co-hosting, The Wobbly Middle, a podcast about women reinventing their careers in midlife.

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• Setting Her Own Stones: Building a Life-Shaped Business

  Sophia Champion de Crespigny loved physics. She studied civil engineering for 8 years, fascinated by structure and design. In the workplace, however, she found herself wading through actual sewage in the field - and the more metaphorical kind in the office. Engineering may have been the plan but it turns out it wasn’t the fit. When Sophie finally quit, she left without a grand plan, just with the instinct that there was something else out there for her.(00:00) - Setting Her Own Stones: Building a Life-Shaped Business (00:22) - Balancing Life's Demands (01:01) - Transferable Skills for Lawyers (01:43) - Introducing Sophie Champion de Crespigny (02:49) - Sophie's Journey from Engineering to Jewelry (04:23) - Challenges in a Male-Dominated Industry (08:00) - Leaving Engineering Behind (09:29) - Starting a Kombucha Business (11:53) - Motherhood and Business (18:55) - Launching Sorsa Jewelry (27:23) - Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs (28:24) - The Importance of Authenticity  In this episode, Sophie talks about how she began again - first fermenting a kombucha business in her London flat, and then forging Sorsa, a jewellery brand built around sustainability, beauty, and family life.It is a celebration of women’s businesses of every shape, scale, and intention and the importance of their place and space be it round the kitchen table or the boardroom. THE WOBBLY MIDDLE is a podcast about women reinventing their careers in midlife. JOIN THE CONVERSATION: NEW EPISODES drop every second Wednesday. Follow now so you never miss an episode. SHARE YOUR STORY: whether you're in the wobbly middle or have made it through to the other side, we’d love to hear from you — we’re building a library of midlife plot twists! Email us at [email protected] UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER:  thewobblymiddle.substack.com LEARN MORE ON SUBSTACK: thewobblymiddle.substack.comFOLLOW US on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook @thewobblymiddleABOUT THE HOSTSSusannah de Jager has just relocated to Abu Dhabi, where she’s podcasting, consulting with start-ups, and occasionally advising on scale-up capital. After leaving her role as CEO of a boutique asset manager, she asked the all-important question: what next? Five years later, she’s following her curiosity —The Wobbly Middle is for her and every woman doing the same.Patsy Day is a lawyer on a break—and a podcast producer. She’s worked everywhere from London to Ho Chi Minh City, but these days she lives in Oxford. Patsy is knee-deep into podcast production for SafeHouse Amsterdam (launching 2025) and co-hosting The Wobbly Middle. 

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