Conversations with women (over 40): Annie Macmanus, 46
"I do feel that I don't know who I'm going to be and that's really exciting. I want to be as open to change as possible. And I want to keep surprising myself."
I don’t often have repeat guests on The Shift, only if there’s a really good reason and with Irish broadcaster and writer
there really was. The first time I interviewed Annie, back in 2021, she was about to make a MASSIVE change. Then in her early 40s, one of the country’s biggest female DJs was on the brink of walking away. The prescribed way of doing things – climbing, climbing, climbing, until you were Johnny Big Balls, as she put it, was not for her. She, like so many women at this life stage, wanted to find a new way, to stop dancing to other people’s tunes, to build her own decks.Since then Annie, now 46, has written two novels, helmed two hit podcasts and launched the so-fabulous-I-can’t-believe-nobody-thought of it-before club night, Before Midnight, aimed at those of us who love to dance but don’t want to stay up til 3am to do it.
Annie joined me earlier in the year (when she was 45!) for one of those conversations that goes to all the places. We discussed the emotional upheaval of leaving a big job after 17 years and rediscovering your identity. The loneliness of working from home, the hormonal chaos of perimenopause, the scary urge to “set fire to something” (been there, lit that!), making new friends in your 40s, getting back on the football pitch and leaning into who she really is now she no longer has to waste time getting manicures!