For more than two decades, Myf Warhurst has been the sunniest voice in Australian broadcasting: the Spicks and Specks team captain with the infectious laugh you can hear from the next room, the Eurovision commentator who turned the world’s campest contest into a spangly fangly lounge-room party, the ABC Triple J legend and hilarious podcast host banging on with Zan Rowe, and of course Aunt Trixie to every Bluey-obsessed kid across the country.

So when the sunshine and giggles went AWOL somewhere around the age of fifty, nobody was more surprised than Myf.

In its place came what she calls a quiet, seething fury. It bubbled just below the surface, ready to blow like a volcano at any moment, the good girl giving way to a woman ready to stake her claim on the world, and on herself.

Myf’s new book, Middle Rage, is a raw and unflinching memoir about what happened when she stopped smoothing it all over and smiling for the cameras. It’s also a powerful call to action for any woman shaking their fists at the expectations and shackles of age, beauty, relationships and being a successful woman in today’s modern world. 

Myf says Middle Rage isn’t the book she actually set out to write. But by her own account, it’s the one she absolutely had to.

In this episode of Human Cogs, we talk about what middle rage feels like in the body, and how much of it is hormones versus fifty years of being agreeable finally adding up. We talk about the darkest of nights, the biggest of tsunamis and why publishing this book was the making of Myf. And we also go deep into the absolutely bonkers history of made-up “female” maladies - ‘Bicycle Face’ and ‘Virgin’s Disease’ among them (WTF?) - and ask what the patriarchy’s long and brutal war on women’s bodies and minds has done to women across the ages.

But mostly, we chat about what happens when women like Myf call bullshit on those in charge, the power that women can reclaim for themselves when they stop endlessly people pleasing and placating those around them, and what that torrent of rising rage will do for a woman who has spent fifty years keeping everyone’s peace but her own.

Guest: Myf Warhurst
Book: Middle Rage
Podcast: The Moment With Myf Warhurst
Instagram: Myf Warhurst
Website: Myf Warhurst

Host: Mads Hanger Grummet
Instagram: Mads Hanger
Book: You Are Not Your Face
Website: Madeleine Grummet Linkedin


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