In this episode we speak with Anglican Deacon and writer Jayne Manfredi, whose work explores the female body as a place of truth-telling, theological insight and spiritual transformation. Jayne talks with striking honesty about midlife, menopause and the shifting experience of embodiment — the leaking, aching, changing realities many women learn to hide — and reflects on the Church’s persistent discomfort with women’s bodies and the silence that often surrounds this life stage.
Drawing on her book Waking the Women, Jayne describes menopause as a kind of wilderness: a time when old maps fail, identities unravel and a more authentic self begins to emerge. She speaks of rage, grief, liberation and the unexpected sense of resurrection that can follow the drying-up of long-held roles and expectations. Along the way she reflects on class and authenticity, the pressure to remain “nice”, and the ways midlife invites a more grounded, embodied, unapologetic faith.
This is a conversation about bodies, meaning and the sacred work of becoming ourselves in midlife — told with warmth, humour and fierce honesty.
After the interview Nomad hosts Tim Nash and Joy Brooks consider what Jayne’s insights stirred in them — reflecting on embodiment, ageing, social expectations, and the wide range of experiences that shape how different people navigate midlife.
Interview starts at 12m 39s
SOCIALS
BOOK
Waking the Women: Faith, Menopause, and the Meaning of Midlife
BOOKS/ARTICLES MENTIONED
Emma Pavey – Towards a Public Theology of Menopause
QUOTES
“The old maps don’t work. There are no maps. It’s uncharted territory.”
“Is there some way we can recapture the she we were before the bleeding started?”
“Thank God I get to age. What a blessing that is.”