Later life, spoken plainly.
The Open Nesters treats the empty nest as a beginning, not an ending. Its interviews move from sex after 50 and menopause care to conscious dating, choice-making, kink, love, spirituality, and the strange freedom of becoming more fully oneself later in life.
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The Open Nesters is an interview-led show about life after children leave home, but its real subject is permission. It asks what becomes possible when the house gets quieter and the old roles loosen. The answer is rarely tidy. Across recent episodes, the show moves through sexuality, menopause, dating, spiritual curiosity, personal reinvention, kink, second marriages, conscious communication, and the work of choosing a next chapter with eyes open. It is warm, but it does not tiptoe. Conversations about sex after 50 sit beside practical talk about vaginal estrogen, moisturizers, hormone treatment, and the need for menopause-informed care. Other episodes explore confidence coaching, love avatars, shadow work, and the inner critic that can follow people into dating and intimacy. The show is especially interested in shame. It keeps returning to the idea that later life can hold more honesty, not less, if people learn how to name what they want and talk about it with care. That gives the series its particular charge. It is not a clinical sex-health program, though expert voices appear. It is not a glossy reinvention show, either. The Open Nesters feels more like a long table conversation where coaches, authors, couples, and returning guests bring their stories into contact with aging bodies and changing relationships. Dr. Lori Mintz offers sex science and menopause guidance. Jason McGarver frames dating through conscious communication. Kim DeYoung brings attention to choice. Barbara Carrellas returns to sex and aging through queerness, inclusion, tantra, intentions, and gentleness. Suzanne Noble speaks from the shifting realities of life after 50. Molly and Joe talk about Wild Monogamy and love in act three. CJ and Linwood bring a long-distance modern partnership into the no-shame frame. The show suits people who want later adulthood discussed plainly, with tenderness and real vocabulary.
Made for: The Open Nesters is for midlife and older adults navigating dating, sexuality, health, identity, and relationships after the parenting years shift. It especially suits listeners who want candid, shame-reducing conversations rather than polished self-help slogans.
What sets it apart: The show pairs empty-nest reinvention with unusually frank sexual-health and relationship conversations. Its strength is the way it lets experts, coaches, couples, and returning guests connect practical advice to lived aging, desire, and vulnerability.
Re-Imagining the Empty Nest
Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Candid guest conversations connect aging, changing bodies, and intimate self-discovery with unusual practical and emotional specificity.
The Open Nesters treats life after active parenting as a chance to reconsider intimacy, identity, and aging. Tessa and Amir lead candid guest conversations that connect sexual health with changing bodies and long-established relationship expectations.
Tessa and Amir would like a word with your 'I'm too old to try that' reflex.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A candid, shame-free conversation about desire, identity, and relationships that leaves room for complexity.
Open Nesters centers Amir and Tessa as they revisit CJ and Linwood's conversation about modern partnership, non-monogamy, and the slow work of understanding identity.
A frank menopause-and-sex conversation that favors practical detail over polish.
The episode treats sex after menopause as a real body-and-relationship issue, not a polite side note. Dr. Lori Mintz is direct about dryness, hormones, vaginal estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, moisturizers, and the work of keeping menopause symptoms in view without…
A candid look at aging that links adaptation, community, and the courage to keep life open.
Aging is treated less as a finish line than as an ongoing practice: adjusting the day, staying in touch, and leaving room for what still might be possible.
A frank, permission-giving talk about pleasure, aging, and the scripts that shrink desire.
The episode frames erotic pleasure and aging as a question of permission: permission to want more, to question inherited scripts, and to treat desire as part of a fuller life.
A candid midlife sex conversation that treats curiosity as a live wire, not a late arrival.
This episode takes a direct, affectionate look at sex after the nest empties, treating midlife desire as something still changing and still worth talking about without apology.
Candid disability sexuality support, handled humanely.
Plainspoken intimacy for long-term couples.
Amir and Tessa revisit a conversation about modern partnership, non-monogamy, and identity.
The Open Nesters talks with Dr.
This episode re-airs a transformative session with Junie Moon about navigating love, dating, and self-discovery in midlife as an open nester.
This episode features dating and confidence coach Jason McGarver discussing conscious dating and personal growth for people in the open nesting stage of life.
This episode revisits a conversation with choice coach Kim DeYoung about making intentional decisions to enhance vitality and relationships during the empty nest stage of life.
A podcast about reimagining the empty nest as an open nest, focusing on vibrant health, relationships, sexuality, and spirituality in aging.
The Open Nesters podcast discusses reimagining life after children leave home, focusing on vibrant health, relationships, and sexuality in aging.
A podcast about reimagining the empty nest as an open nest, focusing on relationships, sexuality, and vitality in later life.
The host discusses radical honesty and love with a guest who shares his journey after divorce and empty nesting.
The Open Nesters podcast helps empty nesters reinvent their lives with vitality, adventure, and deeper relationships.
The host discusses reimagining the empty nest as an open nest, focusing on new adventures, health, relationships, and spirituality, and introduces a guest who facilitates men's groups and elder work.
A podcast about reimagining the empty nest as a time of adventure, health, relationships, and personal growth.
Amir and Tessa welcome Laura and Martha Weisbart for a conversation about aging as a living practice.
This episode continues an interview with Dr.
This episode features an interview with astrologer Eric Meyers, exploring how astrology and soul vision consulting can help open nesters embrace new adventures, spirituality, and relationships in their later years.
Tessa opens by framing open nesting as a way to stay open to new adventures, relationships, passions, vitality, spirituality, and sexuality.
Amir and Tessa revisit a season two conversation with Reem Mahalko and Alison Moon.
A podcast exploring open relationships and polyamory for empty nesters, featuring an interview with Dr.
Amir shares his personal story and insights about dating and aging as a man in the context of being an 'open nester'.
The Open Nesters Podcast explores how to embrace the empty nest phase with openness to new adventures, relationships, and passions, featuring a conversation with Dr.
An interview with Shakti Sundari about being ghosted, kids becoming friends, and self-discovery in dating during the empty nest phase.
An interview with relationship coach Sumati Sparks about exploring open relationships and monogamish lifestyles for empty nesters.
An interview exploring how to embrace new adventures, relationships, and passions after children leave home, including discussions on polyamory and sacred relationships.
This episode explores how women can celebrate and learn from menopause, including hot flashes, by shifting their mindset and addressing societal taboos around aging.
An interview with Dr.
An interview with Pat Witte of the Modern Elder Academy about finding purpose and growth in later life stages, particularly after children leave home.
An interview with Zev Aaron about navigating family dynamics and personal growth as children approach adulthood, reimagining the empty nest as an open nest full of possibilities.
Hosts Amir and Tessa introduce a discussion with Dr.
A podcast reimagining the empty nest phase as an opportunity for new adventures, relationships, and sexual exploration, featuring an interview with Marnie Batista about radical living.
Host interviews Moira Cormack about her journey through empty nest, singlehood, and her work with women and Tantra.
An interview with Maria Leonard Olson about her book '50 After 50' and navigating major life changes at age 50, including divorce, sobriety, and empty nesting.
A spiritual interview with Rabbi Dale Friedman about embracing aging and life transitions with openness and vitality.
This episode is a rerun of an interview with sex educator Pamela Madsen, exploring topics like sensuality, aging, relationships, and personal reinvention.