Midlife Cry, Sis (Formerly known as The Bettys Podcast)

119 - 20 Questions (The Hot & Cold Session)

CW: Some talk about drug use, attempted SA
 
Welcome back to another day in Feral February, Queens! Mary and Alexis attempt to sing this Katy Perry song, but don’t do a great job at it. Oh well. “GET TO THE BUS!” Mary mentions a book she just finished called The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab and Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, and Lexy started listening to the Audible version of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. Mary also talks a bit about Nyad, a film about marathon swimmer Diana Nyad (stream it here on Netflix).  And as usual, here’s a link to our list of recommended books on Amazon!
 
Here are the 20 questions Lexy had for us today:
What kind of magical power do you wish to have?
If you have the time, would you rather order take-out or cook by yourself?
Would you date someone who only finds you attractive in makeup?
What was the worst date in your life?
Have you ever created a second account to stalk someone?
Would you rather eat pizza or hamburgers for the rest of your life?
What do you think people should never lie about?
How does your ideal date night look like?
Who was your favorite celebrity as a teen?
Who is the best role model for young women?
Who do you think is the worst role model for young men?
Do you prioritize your career over family in your current life?
What’s the most interesting fact about you?
What do you think about gold diggers?
Who do you call first when something important happens in your life?
What’s the most important thing in a relationship?
What is the biggest lie you ever told someone?
Which decade would you wish to experience?
What is your dream job?
What is the craziest thing you’ve done for a friend?
We refer to Horlachers in Logan, Utah, which is now Cache Valley Meats, and the Silver Lake Loop Trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon in Utah. And if you don’t know who Caitlin Clark is, you should. 
 
Also, here’s a link to Mary’s Ultimate 80’s Playlist on Spotify. YOU’RE WELCOME!
 
If you want a shareable list of these questions (and the special and very serious bonus question), please visit our Patreon page! Support starts at just $5/month.
 
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel, if you’d like to see a more interactive and entertaining version of this episode! Check it out here! 
 
Please get in touch! Send us an email at midlifecrysispodcast@gmail.com  and please follow us on Instagram @midlifecrysis_podcast, or join our Facebook group here.  We’re also on TikTok as TheBettysPodcast and on Twitter @bettys_podcast. 
 
We want to hear from you! Your comments and messages really help us know what you want to hear and how we can improve. If this show resonates with you, please make sure to share & subscribe, and give us a rating & review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
 
Thank you for listening today, Queens. Remember to bring your own water bottle (and don’t question Mama Ximena)! We love you!
 

118 - Perspective, Tracy Chapman, and Why Your Story Matters

Salutations, Queens! How is your brain at remembering boring things? Mary and Alexis could use some help on that front. It’s time to leave Never Neverland, and thinking happy thoughts is not enough. Mary just finished reading Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward (here’s a link to this book and all of our Amazon book recommendations). It’s not long, but it’s a very heavy read.
 
Mary talks a little about 1st, 2nd and 3rd person points-of-view; check out this article from literarydevices.net. Listen to Brené Brown talk to Tim Ferriss about “armoring up” here (language warning, but SO GOOD). This is what she said in her book Dare to Lead about having a “soft front” and “strong back” (Mary said “hard back” in the podcast, but it’s actually “strong back.” Sorry!)
 
“For me, that strong back is grounded confidence and boundaries. The soft front is staying vulnerable and curious. The mark of a wild heart is living out these paradoxes in our lives and not giving into the either/or BS that reduces us. It’s showing up in our vulnerability and our courage, and, above all else, being both fierce and kind.”
― Brené Brown, Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
 
We talk a bit about Tracy Chapman, and her iconic song Fast Car. Listen to it here on Spotify, here on YouTube, or here on Apple Music. You can listen to Luke Combs’ cover here on Spotify, and check out the incredible performance with both of them at the Grammy Awards in February 2024. We dare you not to cry while watching it.
 
If you like what you hear, please visit our Patreon page! Support starts at just $5/month.
 
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel, if you’d like to see a more interactive and entertaining version of this episode! Check it out here! 
 
Please get in touch! Send us an email at midlifecrysispodcast@gmail.com  and please follow us on Instagram @midlifecrysis_podcast, or join our Facebook group here.  We’re also on TikTok as TheBettysPodcast and on Twitter @bettys_podcast. 
 
We want to hear from you! Your comments and messages really help us know what you want to hear and how we can improve. If this show resonates with you, please make sure to share & subscribe, and give us a rating & review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
 
Thank you for listening today, Queens. Remember that your story matters! We love you!
 

117 - Beliefs

Greetings, Queens! It’s still Feral February, and Lex is a little bitter about it, because she lives in “blizzard land” (February and March are not her favorite months). We talk a little about difficult stories, history, and failures.
 
Today, Alexis talks a bit about beliefs–what they create and destroy. And what you believe leads to the actions you are going to take. She refers to a post she made a while ago on Murano glass. You can read her post here on Instagram.
 
Please look critically at your beliefs. Are they true, or are they actually opinions, supported by confirmation biases? Are they hindering you, or launching you forward? This is HARD WORK, but we believe it’s worth it. When you actively decide what you believe, then you need to fuel that fire of belief constantly.
 
Lexy quotes Tony Robbins, who says: “Good times create weak people. Weak people create bad times. Bad times create strong people. Strong people create good times.” Listen to this on YouTube. And if you have a few minutes, please watch this motivational video as well.
 
Mary refers to a classic poem by Robert Frost, called “The Road Not Taken.” Read it here (and read the excellent commentary on it here).
 
And remember these truth bombs from Alexis herself: “The path of least resistance will never make you proud and it will never make you happy.” And “This is what my best looks like right now.”
 
If you like what you hear, please visit our Patreon page! Support starts at just $5/month.
 
Please subscribe to our YouTube channel, if you’d like to see a more interactive and entertaining version of this episode! Check it out here! 
 
Please get in touch! Send us an email at midlifecrysispodcast@gmail.com  and please follow us on Instagram @midlifecrysis_podcast, or join our Facebook group here.  We’re also on TikTok as TheBettysPodcast and on Twitter @bettys_podcast. 
 
We want to hear from you! Your comments and messages really help us know what you want to hear and how we can improve. If this show resonates with you, please make sure to share & subscribe, and give us a rating & review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
 
Thank you for listening today, Queens. Remember that YOU ARE LOVED. This is YOUR road, and we hope you will learn to accept it, to love it and to appreciate how far you’ve come. And if you can’t, then you MUST. We love you!
 

116 - Intentions (I.S.S.)

Welcome to FERAL February, Queens! Is the Groundhog on your blacklist? Lexy and Mary are both very ready for Spring and ready to “unleash the animal inside,” but Punxsutawney Phil tends to be wrong every year, and Lex is entering her “Feral Femme Fatale” (Triple-F, baby!) era. So here’s hoping for an early Spring and minimal swass. . . for Phil’s sake!
 
Mary has started reading the Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series by Sarah J. Maas, and it has definitely been added to our list of recommended books. Check it out here on Amazon!
 
Mary saw the I.S.S. movie in the theater last week, and talks a little about it. She also references the song “What About Us” by P!nk. Check out the lyric video here on YouTube.
 
We also talk about gaslighting, and mention the We Can Do Hard Things podcast, particularly episodes 263 and 264 with Dr. Lindsay C. Gibson, about emotional immaturity. Listen here on Apple or here on Spotify.
 
If you like what you hear, please visit our Patreon page! Support starts at just $5/month.
 
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel, if you’d like to see a more interactive and entertaining version of this episode! Check it out here! Also, please check out marycoxphoto.com for your family photography needs!
 
Please get in touch! Send us an email at midlifecrysispodcast@gmail.com  and please follow us on Instagram @midlifecrysis_podcast, or join our Facebook group here.  We’re also on TikTok as TheBettysPodcast and on Twitter @bettys_podcast. 
 
We want to hear from you! Your comments and messages really help us know what you want to hear and how we can improve. If this show resonates with you, please make sure to share & subscribe, and give us a rating & review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
 
Thank you for listening today, Queens. Remember that YOU hold the bag of gold. Stop begging for pennies! We love you!

115 - Do You Need an Alignment?

Welcome to the ‘padcast,’ Queens! We encourage all terrible accents around here. Have you listened to That Midwestern Mom on Instagram? She’s hilarious, and her Minnesota accent is so great; Mary’s a little jealous. Today’s Mama Ximena tip was a great one: “For a better future, you’ve gotta make today your best.” Even if you have to fight with technology, which Alexis and Mary have to do frequently. 
 
Mary goes back to Harry Potter (it is “Harry January,” after all!) and talks about how the movies tend to create a montage, or slip past the hard stuff. Watch a terrible copy of the scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire here on YouTube, or better yet, stream the whole film (and/or series!) here on Max.
 
We often want to skip the hard, everyday things, and get to the “good parts” as soon as possible, but we can’t just make a montage of the hard times, like they do in movies. Lexy reads this quote from Steve Maraboli:
 
“A lot of the conflict you have in your life exists simply because you’re not living in alignment; you’re not be being true to yourself.”
 
Are we always in crisis mode? How much tolerance do we have for risk and change? We need to understand ourselves well enough to understand who we are. Lexy also shares this quote from Karen Whitten, author of The 25 Mindsets: Understand Anyone, Even Yourself
 
“To find out who you are, you must also see who you are not.”
 
Our storms and our difficult times are happening for us, and refine us. We can use them as excuses, or we can let them help us align, and to become better people in the future. And when we are aligned, we feel a lot more peace–even in the midst of those storms.
 
So how do we know if we’re living in alignment? Listen to find out more!
 
If you like what you hear, please visit our Patreon page! Support starts at just $5/month.
 
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel, if you’d like to see a more interactive and entertaining version of this episode! Check it out here! Also, please check out marycoxphoto.com for your family photography needs!
Please get in touch! Send us an email at midlifecrysispodcast@gmail.com  and please follow us on Instagram @midlifecrysis_podcast, or join our Facebook group here.  We’re also on TikTok as TheBettysPodcast and on Twitter @bettys_podcast. 
 
We want to hear from you! Your comments and messages really help us know what you want to hear and how we can improve. If this show resonates with you, please make sure to share & subscribe, and give us a rating & review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
 
Thank you for listening today, Queens. We love you!
 

114 - Have You Seen This?

Yasss, Queens! Welcome back to the Midlife Cry, Sis podcast! We recorded this episode live (in Mary’s car, with not great clip-on microphones), and fought a little with the technology (“always and forever”), so please excuse the audio quality. If you’d like to watch us on YouTube, check it out here! 
 
Mary and Alexis went to see Six the musical at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City and we LOVED IT. It’s a retelling of the story of Henry VIII from the perspective of his wives, as a “historemix.”
 
Mary is also in the middle of Harry January (her annual re-reading/watching of Harry Potter). Check out our list of Midlife Cry, Sis Book Recommendations here on Amazon.
 
We talk a little about competition, and how we are often comparing our traumas and difficulties to those of other people. We also have to talk about The Other Boleyn Girl movie and The Tudors dramatized series (TV-MA) (stream it here on Amazon Prime).
 
Here's a little sample of this conversation:
 
M: “Have you watched the Tudors?”
L: “I want to. I want to so bad.”
M: “Oooh. It’s a little bit spicy.”
L: “Oh good.”
M: “Tell you what. Henry Cavill . . .”
L: “I do not know who that is.”
M: “Superman.”
L: “I still don’t know who that is.” 
 
Mary also talks about a gorgeous pen set that was gifted to her from a friend. You can find them here on Amazon. And if you’d like to see our special shirts from Austin, please visit our Patreon page! Support starts at just $5/month.
 
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel, if you’d like to see a more interactive and entertaining version of this episode! Check it out here! Also, please check out marycoxphoto.com for your family photography needs!
 
If you have any suggestions for what to call ourselves instead of the Bettys, let us know. We kind-of like the “Cry-Sisters” or “Cry-Queens,” but we are definitely open to feedback. And thank you for bearing with us as we figure out this whole rebranding thing!
 
Please get in touch! Send us an email at midlifecrysispodcast@gmail.com  and please follow us on Instagram @midlifecrysis_podcast, or join our Facebook group here.  We’re also on TikTok as TheBettysPodcast and on Twitter @bettys_podcast. 
 
We want to hear from you! Your comments and messages really help us know what you want to hear and how we can improve. If this show resonates with you, please make sure to share & subscribe, and give us a rating & review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
 
Thank you for listening today, Queens. We love you!
 

113 - WWOD? (What Would Oprah Do?)

Welcome to the Cry Me A River Bitch-Fest! Or rather, the Midlife Cry, Sis podcast! We’re starting off talking about our very disappointing holidays, and how Alexis and Mary are attempting to tackle 2024. We’re “a little on the dark side now,” so we’re actually trying to figure out what we want to be when we grow up. In case you were wondering, neither of us are going to be computer programmers. Good thing we have other strengths! 
 
Mary went to see The Color Purple (2023) in a movie theater last week, and she realized it was because Oprah told her to. According to Phil Donahue, “she makes people care because she cares” (read about Oprah here on Wikipedia). Watch part of Bono’s 2002 interview with Oprah here on YouTube, and watch Oprah talk with her audience about going to dinner with Bono afterward. It’s a great insight into who she is and how she lives.
 
Our YouTube channel is live, if you want to see us talk to each other (it’s pretty entertaining). Check it out here! Also, please check out marycoxphoto.com for your family photography needs!
 
If you have any suggestions for what to call ourselves instead of the Bettys, let us know. We kind-of like the “Cry-Sisters,” but we are definitely open to feedback. And thank you for bearing with us as we figure out this whole rebranding thing! We love you!
 
Please get in touch! Send us an email at midlifecrysispodcast@gmail.com  and please follow us on Instagram @midlifecrysis_podcast, or join our Facebook group here.  We’re also on TikTok as TheBettysPodcast
 
We want to hear from you! Your comments and messages really help us know what you want to hear and how we can improve. If this show resonates with you, please make sure to share & subscribe, and give us a rating & review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
 
Thank you for listening today, friends. We love you!

112 - Do You Have 5 Minutes?

Oh hey . . . this wasn’t actually supposed to be a podcast episode; it’s Alexis and Mary just talking, so we could figure out if the whole video thing worked. But it was pretty funny, so we UPLOADED IT TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL! Check it out here!
 
If you have any suggestions for good (and cheap) webcams, let us know. And thank you for bearing with us as we figure out this whole rebranding thing. It's definitely going to be a process.
 
Please get in touch! Send us an email at midlifecrysispodcast@gmail.com  and please follow us on Instagram @midlifecrysis_podcast, or join our Facebook group here.  We’re also on TikTok as TheBettysPodcast and on Twitter @bettys_podcast. 
 
We want to hear from you! Your comments and messages really help us know what you want to hear and how we can improve. If this show resonates with you, please make sure to share & subscribe, and give us a rating & review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
 
Thank you for listening today, friends. We love you!
 

111 - Year-in-Review 2023 (Part 2)

Happy New Year, everybody! This is part 2 of our annual (well, we did it last year, so I guess we can call it “annual” now?) year-in-review episodes! It will make more sense if you listen to part 1 (episode 110 here on Apple or here on Spotify). We jump right back in at question 21. Check out the list of questions for free here on our Patreon page! 
 
Who were your best friends? What have you done that’s been meaningful for others, and what is something that someone else did that is meaningful to you? What are some of your favorite TV programs? Mary has several she recommends, but Lexy can’t remember any for 2023. We talk a little about our favorite books, which we’ve added to our list of recommendations here on Amazon. We’re shipping Taylor and Travis, we miss our grandparents, and we’ve got a lot more to say about 2023.
 
Alexis mentions a podcast episode of We Can Do Hard Things with special guest Brené Brown (read the transcript here).
 
If you’d like to hear more from us, please consider joining our Patreon! We’ll include this list for you to create your own journal/blog/vlog entry available for everyone on our Patreon homepage. Check it out here! We’ll keep bringing you free episodes every week in your podcast feed, but If you would like to hear/read/see more from Mary and Lexy, and you feel inclined to support us financially, please join us here! We’ll be including lots of awesome bonus content, some behind-the-scenes, group coaching, extra photos, and more! Starting at just $5/month. We really appreciate your support.
 
Please get in touch! Send us an email at thebettyspodcast@gmail.com, and please follow us on Instagram @thebettyspodcast, on Facebook as The Bettys Podcast, on TikTok as TheBettysPodcast and on Twitter @bettys_podcast. 
 
We want to hear from you! Your comments and messages really help us know what you want to hear and how we can improve. If this show resonates with you, please make sure to share & subscribe, and give us a rating & review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
 
Thank you for listening today, friends. Have a wonderful look back, and an exciting look forward to 2024. And please remember that we love you more.
 

110 - Year-in-Review 2023 (Part 1)

Welcome to our annual (well, we did it last year, so I guess we can call it “annual” now?) year-in-review episodes! This is part 1 of 2. Check out our Year-in-Review for 2022 here on Apple and here on Spotify). Mary talks a little about her *non-existent* “23 for 23 list,” but she is planning on doing a 24 for 24 list. Check out some New Year’s Resolution resources from the inimitable Gretchen Rubin here.
 
Who do you know who gave birth? Who passed away? Where did you travel in 2023? Lexy stayed pretty grounded, but Mary is quite proud of hitting 18 states this year. If you find yourself in Wisconsin, be sure to visit the Mars Cheese Castle!
 
Alexis talks a little bit about excommunication. If you’d like to know more about the process of excommunication within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you can read more here (see section 32.11.4, Withdrawal of Membership).
 
Our best purchases centered on self-development, we’ve seen quite a few musicals and concerts, and we talk a bit about the highs and lows of this monumental year.
 
If you’d like to hear more from us, please consider joining our Patreon! We’ll include this list for you to create your own journal/blog/vlog entry available for everyone on our Patreon homepage. Check it out here! We’ll keep bringing you free episodes every week in your podcast feed, but If you would like to hear/read/see more from Mary and Lexy, and you feel inclined to support us financially, please join us here! We’ll be including lots of awesome bonus content, some behind-the-scenes, group coaching, extra photos, and more! Starting at just $5/month. We really appreciate your support.
 
Please get in touch! Send us an email at thebettyspodcast@gmail.com, and please follow us on Instagram @thebettyspodcast, on Facebook as The Bettys Podcast, on TikTok as TheBettysPodcast and on Twitter @bettys_podcast. 
 
We want to hear from you! Your comments and messages really help us know what you want to hear and how we can improve. If this show resonates with you, please make sure to share & subscribe, and give us a rating & review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
 
Thank you for listening today, friends. Let’s look back fondly on 2023 and look forward to the new year with faith. And remember that we love you more.