Cally Beaton was a high-flying TV exec, a single mum of two, and quietly falling apart in her 40s. Then Joan Rivers looked her in the eye over dinner and told her to try stand-up. Two weeks later, Joan died. Two weeks after that, Cally walked on stage. Now she's touring, bestselling, and says her 50s have been the best decade yet. Plus: the perimenopause misdiagnosis that had her on the wrong medication for nine years.

Cally Beaton’s Sunday Times Top 10 bestselling book ‘Namaste Motherf*ckers' will be released in paperback on 21 May. Her nationwide tour of the same name continues with extended dates across the UK until the end of November. For more information and tickets, visit Cally Beaton’s official website

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On this week's Midweek Catchup, Karen marks a year since her breast cancer diagnosis and admits she's only just starting to feel it. Because no one tells you that you don't process it while you're in it.

Plus: Kaye's hearing aid has started whistling (her daughter keeps clocking it, much to Kaye's denial), Karen has befriended Amanda the pharmacist, and the great fringe debate returns.

Friday's guest: telly exec turned stand-up Cally Beaton, with her paperback Namaste, Motherf**kers out this week.

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

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Philippa Perry on why adult children go no contact, what they wish their parents understood, and why the door might open again if you try a different one. Plus, her debut cosy crime novel Shrink Solves Murder is out May 7th. Whether you're the parent wondering what went wrong or the adult child wondering if they'll ever be understood, this one will sit with you.

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

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On this week's episode, we're joined by Mia Mauge, who went from feeling invisible in her forties to walking onto a Marks & Spencer's lingerie set at 54 — and she still can't quite believe it either.

Mia spent almost 20 years dyeing her hair out of shame, navigating single life in midlife, and wondering where women like her had gone in the shops she was still spending money in. Then she stopped. Stopped fighting, stopped hiding, stopped waiting for the gatekeepers to notice her. She went public on Instagram, got scouted by four modelling agencies, and became the voice a whole generation of women didn't know they were waiting for.

She talks to Kaye and Karen about the two-year hair transition that involved a communal gasp in a salon and a bleach disaster her daughter still laughs about. About why "ageing backwards" made her walk away from a campaign. About being single at 60 and why younger men keep showing up while men her own age can't get past the silver hair.

Whether you're embracing the grey or still clutching the box dye every fortnight, Mia's story isn't really about hair. It's about what happens when you stop performing youth and start showing up as yourself — and discover the world was ready for you all along.

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

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On this week's Midweek Catchup, we discover that Kaye has been staring at her belly button in the mirror and what she found there is... haunting. Karen's reporting live from Crete - where she forgot her pyjamas and is sharing a bed with her friend Caroline behind a glass bathroom door that hides absolutely nothing. There's a big announcement: How To Be 60 is heading back to the Edinburgh Fringe (August 7th–9th, same museum, 2:45pm — mark it now). Kaye filled out the forms and had to formally confirm there'd be no pyrotechnics or scenes of a sexual nature, which Karen found debatable. There's a hair update, an onion-in-sock verdict, and a sneak peek at Friday's guest — the brilliant positive ageing activist Mia Maugé

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

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On this week's episode, we're joined by Victoria Hislop, bestselling author, honorary Greek citizen, and the woman who celebrated her 60th birthday waterskiing with a glass of champagne in her hand.

Victoria's been through the lot in her sixties: losing her mum, breast cancer, lockdown, the empty nest hitting like a train she swore she was ready for. But here's the thing nobody expects her to say: she found all of that easier to handle than her own success. The overnight bestseller who was more shaken by a number one slot than a cancer diagnosis. The woman who poured the grief of not having another child into the novel that changed her life.

She talks to Kaye and Karen about why happiness has to come from the inside (Aristotle told her, and she believed him), why "don't get above yourself" might be the most damaging motto our generation inherited, and why the secret to a 45-year marriage is never, ever going to the supermarket together. Plus: the real reason she sobbed in the toilets on Greek Dancing with the Stars, and what happens when your dance partner is younger than your own children.

Victoria's new novel, The Wine Dark Sea, is out in September.

Whether you've ever felt more rattled by something going right than something going wrong, or you're still figuring out what "selfish in a nice way" actually looks like in your sixties, this one's going to land.

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

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On this week's Midweek Catchup, Kaye's in Milan playing loyal assistant on Donna May's business trip (hairbrush already cleaned, wash bag already judged), while Karen's at home trying to save her voice before a nurse appointment that could delay her chemo jab. She's not above putting half an onion in her sock to make it happen.

Karen survived the John Lewis foundation counter: a 23-year-old who made her look like a ghost, offered her casket perfume, and said "anti-ageing" without flinching. Kaye went to Liz Earle's book launch and came home with the news that your bum skin is what your face could look like if you'd kept it out of the sun. Karen had follow-up questions nobody needed answered.

There's new specs, a mystery telling-off from Lisa, a ballet that was not their thing, and a chronic arm itch that's now gone international. Victoria Hislop is coming up this week.

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

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