The Shift with Sam Baker9 Maalis 2021

Nana-Ama Danquah on the triple burden of mental health, menopause and being black

My guest today is the Ghanaian American writer Nana-Ama Danquah. Nana-Ama found herself in the public eye when, in the late 90s, she published her memoir Willow Weep For Me about suffering from clinical depression - one of the first books to openly discuss black women’s mental health experience. Critically acclaimed by the likes of the late, great Maya Angelou, its description of the shame, dismissal, denial and out and out despair experienced by many black women started a much-needed conversation that was widely credited with “saving lives”. (It's currently not published in the UK - publishers I AM LOOKING AT YOU!) Now 53, Nana-Ama joined me from her home in (sunny) California (grrr) to talk about the double - in fact, make that triple - burden of mental health, menopause and being black, why black women are driving change right now, how menopause turned her into a hot mess and how she’s finally learnt the joy of doing what you do until you die. You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at Bookshop.org, including the book that accompanies this podcast, The Shift: how I lost and found myself after 40 - and you can too by Sam Baker. Willow Weep For Me by Nana-Ama Danquah is not published in the UK, but you can buy it from amazon.co.uk or abebooks.co.uk. The Shift (on life after 40) with Sam Baker is created and hosted by Sam Baker and edited by Emily Sandford. I'd love to hear what you think - please rate and review, or let me know on twitter @sambaker or instagram @theothersambaker. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(317)

Rose Ferguson: 'You don't have to settle for feeling worse just because you're getting older'

My guest today is the former model turned leading nutritionist Rose Ferguson. At the age of 15, Rose was discovered in McDonalds on Oxford Street by the legendary 90s photographer, Corrine Day. For...

20 Loka 57min

Denise Brown on the loss of her sister Nicole Brown Simpson and her lifelong fight against domestic abuse

Hello and welcome to season 23 (!) of The Shift podcast, and this first episode is very close to my heart. Domestic abuse is something I have spent a lot of my adult life campaigning about, so I could...

13 Loka 54min

Jackie Kay on rediscovering yourself in your 50s - REPLAY

My guest today has blazed a trail through the British poetry scene ever since her work was first published in 1991. Born in Edinburgh, Jackie Kay MBE was brought up in Glasgow by her adoptive parents,...

6 Loka 1h 1min

Marina Benjamin on the unseen, unsung, undone work of women - REPLAY

I first encountered today’s guest, Marina Benjamin, when I was researching The Shift book and stumbled across her memoir, The Middlepause. An insightful look at what middle age means today, it was pro...

29 Syys 43min

Zandra Rhodes: how a 'boring little girl' made a big bold life - REPLAY

I can’t be cool about today’s guest, so I’m not even going to try. Ever since I started The Shift I have had a Wishlist and high up on it from day one was Dame Zandra Rhodes. Yes, that Zandra Rhodes....

22 Syys 51min

Louise O'Neill on her midlife dating odyssey - BONUS EPISODE

You can be swimming along nicely and then all of a sudden everything you thought you had is gone. That’s what happened to today’s guest, the best-selling Irish novelist, Louise O’Neill. She was 3...

19 Syys 1h 2min

Miranda July on the unexpected wildness of ageing - REPLAY

It's two and a half years since I first interviewed Miranda July for this podcast and wow, what a change! Her novel All Fours became a must-read, got shortlisted for the Women's Prize and has been opt...

15 Syys 49min

Rachel Eliza Griffiths shares two great loves and two great griefs

My guest today is the writer and award-winning poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Eliza is a woman who has been through A LOT in a short space of time. In September 2020, on the day she married her secon...

8 Syys 56min