Well Enough Alone - A Guide To Thriving Solo

Season 2: Episode Six Jacinta Parsons: On reclaiming your forever self, the wisdom of older women and lessons from living with chronic illness Reaching mid-life and reckoning with the ageing process can also be a time of invisibility and isolation, particularly for women. Living with a chronic illness can also be a lonely place. It can feel like the world is moving on around you while you’re stuck in freeze frame. But what if these experiences were actually the birthplace for bringing forth the greatest version of ourselves? One that is truly at peace and comfortable alone.This week’s guest has lived and researched both these topics and has many lessons to impart about the importance of finding our ‘forever self.’ In a moving and intimate conversation, Jacinta and Jill get vulnerable as they dive into some of life’s biggest topics. Jacinta Parsons is a broadcaster, public speaker, ABC Melbourne radio host and author of three books that delve into the complexities, frailties and wisdom of the human condition:Unseen: The Secret World of Chronic Illness; A Question of Age; and the soon to be released,A Wisdom of Age. You can follow Jacinta on Instagram: @jacintaparsons or visit her website here. To stay in touch with Well Enough Alone, you can follow us on Instagram @wellenoughalonepod or @jillstark__ or support the show and get subscriber-only, early and ad-free episodes on Patreon. Well Enough Alone is a Spare Room production. Our producers are Kieran Simpson and Trent Bartlett. Get early access to new episodes by subscribing on Patreon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s episode is a really juicy one so buckle up! Can we have a fulfilling, safe and healthy sex life when we’re unpartnered? Is sex an essential part of the human experience or are there other ways to find intimacy? Our guest this week is Cyndi Darnell, a certified clinical sexologist, psychotherapist and couple's counsellor based in New York. She works with singles, traditional couples and people in open, polyamorous, kinky and consensual non monogamous relationships. She walks us through what sex can look like if we’re not partnered, how our sexual appetites change through different seasons of our life, and the less conventional, but no less fulfilling, relationship structures available to us. In an extremely candid episode, Jill shares experiences from own sex life, as Cyndi helps navigate a path through a topic that is often shrouded in shame and secrecy. And Cyndi speaks about her rich and full child-free, single life and how she’s rejected social expectations and embraced ‘relationship anarchy’. You can follow Cyndi on Instagram: @cyndi_darnell or visit her website here. To stay in touch with Well Enough Alone, you can follow us on Instagram @wellenoughalonepod or @jillstark__ or support the show and get subscriber-only, early and ad-free episodes on Patreon. Well Enough Alone is a Spare Room production. Our producers are Kieran Simpson and Trent Bartlett. Get early access to new episodes by subscribing on Patreon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s episode is one that many of you asked us for – what does it take to have a child on your own? Whether you’re sure you want kids, still trying to decide, or want to be child-free, this week’s guest has many life lessons that can help you figure out, or reaffirm, what’s right for you. Alexandra Collier was 37 and living in Brooklyn with the man she loved when she woke up to a ravenous hunger to have a baby that unfortunately her younger partner didn't share. What happened next is an extraordinary story of courage, hope, and what it means to start a family on your own terms. Alexandra’s memoir Inconceivable: Heartbreak, Bad Dates and Finding Solo Motherhood is a moving account of that journey, and she shares with Jill the logistics, emotional complexity, financial implications and judgement she faced when she chose to become a single parent. But she also speaks of the joy and empowerment she’s found in following her own path, and what life looks like for her now with a five-year-old. Alexandra is an award-winning Melbourne writer who has written for theatre, screen and print. She lived and worked in New York for a decade where her plays were produced Off Broadway You can follow Alexandra on Instagram: @alexandracollierwrites and learn more about her book, Inconceivable, here. To stay in touch with Well Enough Alone, you can follow us on Instagram @wellenoughalonepod or @jillstark__ or support the show and get subscriber-only early and ad-free episodes on Patreon. Well Enough Alone is a Spare Room production. Our producers are Kieran Simpson and Trent Bartlett. Get early access to new episodes by subscribing on Patreon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 We live in an age when we’re more connected than at any point in history. But in our terminally online timeline, many young people are feeling a profound sense of loneliness, isolation and pessimism about the future. They are often disengaged from politics and less than hopeful about modern dating and relationships. Our guest this week is someone who has tapped into that feeling of apathy and disconnection and created a powerful platform for social and political change. Hannah Ferguson is the founder and CEO of Cheek Media, an independent news commentary platform that aims to educate and inform while at the same time making young people feel more engaged and less alone.She talks candidly with Jill about the personal stories she shares in her new book Taboo: Conversations we never had about sex, body image, work and relationships, a vulnerable exploration of modern womanhood that exposes and celebrates the messy, honest and insular parts of ourselves. Hannah is also the co-host of politics and pop culture podcast, Big Small Talk, and the author of two best-selling books, Bite Back and Taboo – all this by the age of 25! To stay in touch with Well Enough Alone, you can follow us on Instagram @wellenoughalonepod or @jillstark__ or support the show and get subscriber-only, early and ad-free episodes on Patreon. Well Enough Alone is a Spare Room production. Our producers are Kieran Simpson and Trent Bartlett. Get early access to new episodes by subscribing on Patreon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine being the star of a reality TV dating show as one of the most visible eligible bachelors in the country, and you find love in the full glare of the public eye only to have your life fall apart. That’s what happened to Dr Matt Agnew, when he appeared on The Bachelor, fell in love, broke up, then felt himself slowly unravel. In this week’s episode, Matt speaks with courage and candour about his battle with mental illness, living in the spotlight, how he’s found happiness alone, and why he’s passionate about dismantling patriarchy and modelling healthy forms of masculinity. Matt is an author, an engineer, a data scientist and an astrophysicist, who has written two books, Is My Phone Reading My Mind: The Real Facts About Artificial Intelligence, and Dr Matt’s Guide to Life in Space.   You can follow Matt on Instagram: @drmattagnew or visit his website here.To stay in touch with Well Enough Alone, you can follow us on Instagram @wellenoughalonepod or @jillstark__ or support the show and get subscriber-only, early and ad-free episodes on Patreon. Well Enough Alone is a Spare Room production. Our producers are Kieran Simpson and Trent Bartlett. Get early access to new episodes by subscribing on Patreon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Content warning: this episode discusses issues of mental illness and suicide. If you need support contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or your local crisis centre,

We’re back for season two and what a way to kick off, with Australian broadcasting icon, Yumi Stynes – a fierce and fearless trailblazer who knows all about finding your strength when you are very much on your own.Yumi opens up about surviving some very public media pile-ons, and how she manages the hateful trolling that has made her fear for her safety.She also shares her journey through two divorces, how it helped her cultivate a robust sense of self, and why we she threw a huge party to celebrate the end of her last marriage.Yumi’s wisdom, strength and trademark humour make for a candid conversation where nothing is off limits, as she speaks about the freedom and joy she’s found in embracing not only the single life but sobriety.A writer, podcaster, TV presenter, and mother-of-four, Yumi is the author of the best-selling Welcome To book series (Welcome to Your Period, Welcome to Consent, and more), and her award-winning podcast Ladies We Need To Talk is a groundbreaking show tackling topics that have often been shrouded in shame, stigma or ignorance.Check out the episode she did recently with Jill talking about her own sobriety journey.You can follow Yumi on Instagram: @yumichildTo stay in touch with Well Enough Alone, you can follow us on Instagram @wellenoughalonepod or @jillstark__ or support the show and get subscriber-only earlycontent on Patreon.Well Enough Alone is a Spare Room production. Our producers are Kieran Simpson and Trent Bartlett.Get early access to new episodes by subscribing on Patreon.