Midlife wisdom with practical next steps.
Smart Women Talk brings Katana Abbott into conversations with authors, coaches, leaders, and practitioners working at the edge of personal change. Episodes connect midlife questions to concrete next steps, from plant-based eating and bone health to nonprofit leadership, career opportunity, and holiday stress.
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Smart Women Talk is a long-running interview show for women thinking seriously about the next chapter of life. Its center of gravity is midlife, but its subjects range well beyond one season or one problem. Katana Abbott speaks with guests about work, money, wellness, food, family, service, adventure, and resilience. The pace is gentle and conversational. It often begins with a familiar pressure point, then turns toward a guest whose story or practice offers a way through. Career episodes look at experience as usable capital, not just a resume history. Katie Fortunato discusses meaningful work, referrals, direct employer hiring, and a labor market where the visible job board is only part of the picture. Health episodes make room for concrete guidance. Vicki Brett-Gach talks about eating more plants without forcing an all-or-nothing diet identity. Margie Bissinger brings the discussion to bone health, osteoporosis, osteopenia, resistance training, balance training, minerals, stress, and the limits of certain apparent improvements on a bone-density test. Purpose shows up repeatedly. Alexis Ramsey connects compassion, teaching, foster care, nonprofit leadership, and the desire to turn a private calling into public action. The show is also comfortable with wonder. Alexis Nataf’s Indonesia conversation moves from comfort-zone change into Raja Ampat, coral abundance, marine biodiversity, and tailor-made dive expeditions. Domestic life has a place too. Ella Herlihy’s holiday episode focuses on boundaries, to-do lists, gifts, love languages, older kids, and the strain women often carry around celebration. The emotional range can be serious. Beth Pizzarello’s story brings traumatic loss, blindness, surgery, gratitude, and comeback into the same frame. Through it all, Smart Women Talk keeps returning to purpose, passion, and prosperity as lived questions rather than slogans. It is best for listeners who want encouragement, but also want names, habits, choices, and examples they can actually use.
Made for: Smart Women Talk is for women in midlife and beyond who are reassessing work, health, family, service, and personal purpose. It especially suits listeners who like supportive interviews with authors, coaches, leaders, and practitioners.
What sets it apart: The show blends financial-life framing with wellness, spiritual purpose, and practical reinvention. Its range is unusually broad, moving from bone health and plant-based cooking to nonprofit leadership, job markets, family holidays, and dive travel.
Your energy, beliefs, and support systems will often affect your ability to attract vibrant wealth, health, and happiness into your life. Host, Katana Abbott, CFP® CSA, CSSCS, Retirement Income Coach, founder of The Midlife Millionaire® Solution and the Smart Women Companies is here to address cutting-edge topics and bring you bestselling authors and thought-leaders, so you can live with more purpose, passion, and prosperity! www.JoinSmartWomen.com Follow Smart Women Talk on your favorite podcast platform! You can also WATCH Smart Women Talk on Smart Women TV @ www.smartwomentv.com Website: http://www.smartwomensempowerment.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmartWomensEmpower
Social Security math meets Raja Ampat reefs, and your next chapter gets considerably less predictable.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A vivid Raja Ampat episode that turns marine science and exploration into something immediate.
Smart Women Talk follows Alex Nataf, a dive expedition leader moving through Indonesia's hidden waters, and it is at its strongest when Katana Abbott lets Raja Ampat's geography do the work.
Money stress sits beside breast cancer treatment in a practical, grounded conversation.
Smart Women Talk uses Breast Cancer Awareness Month to connect innovation and hope with the hard arithmetic of staying afloat during treatment.
A grounded conversation about turning midlife experience into clearer career possibilities.
Midlife career uncertainty gets a practical, humane reframe as Katie Fortunato makes the case that accumulated experience can translate into influence, meaningful work, and fresh opportunity.
Spiritual coaching for everyday manifestation.
Energy healing for sensitive souls.
Reported stories of responsibility and its consequences.
Host Katana Abbott interviews Molly MacDonald, founder of the Pink Fund, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
This episode features an interview with best-selling author Marci Shimoff discussing how to overcome blocks to miracles and live in a state of happiness and abundance.
Host Katana Abbott interviews Katie Fortunato, co-founder of Higher Experience, about turning midlife experience into opportunity.
This episode features an interview with Jennifer Hoffman, a spiritual teacher and intuitive mystic, discussing high vibes living, miracle creation, and empowered self-awareness to help listeners achieve joyful, purposeful lives.
This episode features an interview with author Beth Pizzarello about how she overcame blindness from a genetic eye disease through surgery and mindset shifts, inspiring others dealing with traumatic loss.
This episode features author Ella Herlihy discussing practical strategies for reducing holiday stress, setting boundaries, and creating joyful family traditions while raising unentitled children.
This episode features a conversation with Rhonda Britten, founder of the Fearless Living Institute, discussing how fear underlies common issues like procrastination and anxiety, and how neuroscience can help overcome these challenges.
Katana Abbott interviews Mary Beth Franklin, a Certified Financial Planner and longtime journalist, about when women should claim Social Security benefits.
On Smart Women Talk, host Katana Abbott interviews portfolio manager Sweta Singh about investing through market volatility, inflation, retirement, and changing interest rates.
On Smart Women Talk, Katana Abbott interviews second-act career coach Shannon Russell about changing careers without discarding years of experience.
On Smart Women Talk, Katana Abbott interviews Corinne Goebel, CEO of the Association of Women Business Centers, about women entering a changing economy through entrepreneurship, technology, and business planning.
This episode explores how women in midlife can leverage their accumulated experience to find meaningful career opportunities, featuring an interview with Katie Fortunato of Higher Innovation.
This episode explores the health benefits of incorporating more plant-based foods into one's diet, featuring insights from vegan lifestyle coach Vicki Brett-Gach on nutrition and practical tips.
This episode features an interview with physical therapist Margie Bissinger discussing strategies for maintaining healthy bones, including exercise, nutrition, and addressing misconceptions like strontium use.
This episode features an interview with Alexis Ramsey, CEO of WeCare Foster Care, discussing how women can turn a calling for meaningful impact into nonprofit leadership and service.
Katana Abbott speaks with French dive expedition leader Alexis Nataf about Indonesia’s 17,000-island archipelago, which he says stretches 5,000 kilometers and sits between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.