Listen to The Wobbly Middle bonus episode with Rebecca Newman.
This year, I’m placing a quietly ambitious amount of faith in a one metre square cork board I bought on the internet for £17.99.
It all started when I opened my journal and realised that my goals for 2026 were - depressingly - exactly the same as the ones I’d written the year before. It seems once the page was turned, the intentions lost their force. There had to be a better way to keep these goals front and centre.
So I called today’s podcast guest, investigative wellness journalist Rebecca Newman. She’s something of a pathfinder - interested in things way before the rest of us catch on. When Rebecca gets curious, she pulls the thread to see where it leads, reads the studies, interviews the experts, and comes back with something clear-eyed, grounded, and genuinely useful.
“Yes,” she said. She could help. But first, I’d need to climb a tower. This made me a little nervous. The English and towers have history (ask Anne Boleyn, or those two princes). But Rebecca just wanted me to look differently at the city I’d lived in for twenty years.
Back on terra firma, she told me about Dr Tara Swart and her book, The Source.
“Oh,” I said. “Vision boards. Like… vibes?”
“No,” she said. “Like neuroscience.”
Dr Tara Swart is a medical doctor, neuroscientist, and senior lecturer at MIT Sloan and she’s done more than anyone to explain why visual prompts can help turn intention into action, about how the brain filters information, prioritises what matters, and starts to notice the opportunities you might otherwise have walked passed.
Then we headed to the craft room to see what happens when theory meets practice, or rather when scissors and glue meet cork board.
And, reader, now I am a believer. I don’t want to jinx it but since making my board, things have started to happen. I’ll tell you about that another day. But for now, the cork board is up. And at £17.99, that feels like a very decent place to begin.
If you enjoyed this episode
If you enjoyed this episode, check out another bonus episode Q&A with the Greek Chorus where we open the mailbag to respond our subscribers (occasionally panic-tinged) everywoman questions about navigating the midlife career odyssey.
And if you like what you hear, please follow, share and leave a review.
ABOUT THE PODCAST: The Wobbly Middle is a podcast for women rethinking their careers in midlife. We spotlight women who have forged bold new paths in their 40s and beyond - women who have pivoted careers, returned after careers breaks, built businesses, and finally taken their long-neglected dreams seriously.
SHARE YOUR STORY: Made a left turn in your career? We’d love to hear about it - your story might just be the nudge someone else needs.
FOLLOW US on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook @thewobblymiddle
ABOUT THE HOST: 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 alongside The Wobbly Middle.
THANK YOU: This episode was produced by Patsy Day and Rebecca Newman. Studio recording by The Pod Collective. Thank you to St Bernard’s Road Craft Room and to Luke Rogers.
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