Some questions don't have easy answers. Have you ever experienced an unexplained fear that didn't seem connected to anything in your life? Felt an immediate connection with someone you had just met? Or found yourself repeating the same emotional patterns despite years of self-reflection and personal growth? In this follow-up conversation, Marianne welcomes licensed somatic psychotherapist and certified spiritual integration hypnotherapist Melanie Smithson back to Message in the Middle to expl...
Aug 8
1 hr 5 min
Why do we keep reacting in ways we don't fully understand? Why do certain situations seem to hit harder than they should? And why can we have years of insight into our patterns and still feel stuck repeating them? In this episode of Message in the Middle, Marianne sits down with Karen Rubinstein, speaker, author, and creator of The RETURN Way™, to explore the hidden fears and stories that often drive our reactions, relationships, and behaviors. Drawing from her own journey through alcoholism,...
Aug 1
48 min
What happens after you speak up? In this deeply thoughtful conversation, Marianne sits down with broadcaster, author, and keynote speaker Lisa Cornwell to explore truth, conflict, accountability, emotional healing, and the complicated aftermath that can follow when someone chooses to speak openly. Following her memoir Troublemaker: A Memoir of Sexism, Retaliation, & the Fight They Didn’t See Coming and a Washington Post investigation into systemic issues in sports media, Lisa became a cen...
Jul 25
42 min
What happens when we slow down long enough to truly see another human being? In this deeply thoughtful episode of Message in the Middle, Marianne sits down with Jody Zarn, an author, corporate trainer, and TEDx speaker whose life changed after buying a cup of coffee for a man named Leroy who was experiencing homelessness. What began as one small act of kindness became a life-changing friendship that challenged everything Jody thought she understood about trauma, mental illness, dignity, and h...
Jul 18
48 min
Retirement is something many of us prepare for financially, but few of us prepare for emotionally. What happens when the career that shaped your identity, routines, and sense of purpose suddenly disappears? And how do you rediscover yourself when the role you carried for decades is no longer there? In this episode, Marianne sits down with George Jerjian, an Emmy Award-winning producer, author, and retirement mindset mentor who helps people navigate the emotional and psychological side of reti...
Jul 11
46 min
There’s no shortage of advice when it comes to gut health right now. Parasite cleanses. Heavy metal detoxes. Protocols that promise to fix everything in a matter of weeks. And if you’ve been dealing with bloating, fatigue, constipation, or symptoms that never quite resolve, it makes sense why those promises are so appealing. But what if some of the things you’re doing to heal are actually putting more stress on your body instead of helping it? In this episode of Message in the Middle, Mariann...
Jul 4
46 min
There comes a point in midlife that can feel both confusing and surprisingly unsettling. You've built a life. A career. A reputation. Maybe a family. You've worked hard, made sacrifices, and checked many of the boxes you once thought would lead to happiness and fulfillment. And then one day you find yourself wondering: Why doesn't this fit the way it used to? Not because you've failed. Not because your life is falling apart. But because you've grown. In this episode, Marianne sits down with C...
Jun 27
45 min
Sometimes the hardest experiences to recognize are the ones we are living through. Many women think intimate partner violence only looks one way. They picture obvious warning signs, visible injuries, or situations that seem dramatically different from their own. But what happens when the harm is subtle? When it shows up as constant self-doubt, walking on eggshells, losing trust in your own instincts, or slowly becoming someone you no longer recognize? In this powerful conversation, Marianne s...
Jun 20
51 min
What if the thing standing between you and the life you still want isn’t talent, timing, or confidence—but tenacity? In this episode of Message in the Middle, Marianne sits down with entrepreneur, creative director, and author Scott Scovill to explore what it really takes to keep going when fear, failure, and self-doubt tell you to stop. Scott’s story doesn’t follow a traditional path. He went from a struggling student who felt “broken” and paralyzed by fear of failure to building one of the ...
Jun 13
47 min
There’s a moment in midlife that many women recognize, even if they’ve never had the language for it. You’re no longer who you used to be… but you’re not fully who you’re becoming either. In this episode of Message in the Middle, Marianne sits down with Dr. Sarah Andreas, artist, educator, and author of Step Into the Ether, to explore what she calls the identity gap. That in-between space where old identities begin to fall away and something new is quietly forming. Together, they unpack: &nbs...
Jun 6
46 min
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