Bryony Gordon is done with people pleasing

Bryony Gordon is done with people pleasing

From The Shift with Sam Baker by sam baker

April 28, 2026 · 1h 6m · Season 21 · Episode 289

About this episode

Bryony Gordon returns to discuss overcoming people pleasing in midlife.

There aren’t many people I let make a repeat visit to The Shift, but sometimes a guest proves so popular that I have to make an exception. That’s the case with journalist and author Bryony Gordon. The first time Bryony came on The Shift we talked mental health, alcoholism and the gratitude she felt in reaching 40 . A couple of years later it was all about perimenopause. Today, Bryony is back and we’re talking about what happens when you hit that pinch point in midlife where the people pleasing hormone heads for the door. First and foremost a newspaper columnist, Bryony spent 20 years at the telegraph and now writes a column for the Daily Mail. She is the author of four bestselling non-fiction books and has won awards for her mental health advocacy In Her debut novel, People Pleaser, we meet Olivia Greenwood, a woman in midlife who wakes up one morning and finds she’s lost the ability to bend over backwards to keep everyone else happy. It made me want to punch the air and eat a donut! Or four. Bryony and I met up to talk about people pleasing and spending the first forty years of our lives trying to be someone else and the next forty trying to be ourselves. We set the world to…

People in this episode

Host: Sam Baker

Guest: Bryony Gordon

Topics covered

  • people pleasing
  • midlife
  • mental health
  • reinvention
  • self-acceptance

Keywords

  • Bryony Gordon
  • people pleasing
  • midlife crisis
  • mental health
  • self-acceptance
  • Daily Mail
  • telegraph

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Daily Mail, telegraph

Books & works: People Pleaser

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