Mid-life Men: the mental health podcast
Have you ever felt like you’ve become lost in your own life?
Many men struggle to talk about their problems and mental health and grew up believing that to do can be perceived as a sign of weakness or failure. There is also a lack of open discussion in society around men’s mental health, especially aimed at mid-life men. As a result, at times many men can feel alone and lost in their own lives.
In this podcast series, I talk to mid-life men about their stories; the challenges, the turning points, and the support received to help them find their way so that others who may be suffering in silence or don’t know what to do next, realise that they are not alone and there is help available.
Stories will cover a whole range of challenges faced by mid-life men mainly relating to the causes of mental health issues including feelings of isolation, depression, job dissatisfaction, addiction, PTSD, and long-term illness.
The podcast is NOT a replacement for professional support and we signpost to organisations and their contact details by episode.
If you have a story you would like to share or any feedback on the podcasts, please email me: midlifemen01@gmail.com.
Mid-life Men: the mental health podcast
Am I Sleepwalking Into A Health Crisis? with Dr. Kenneth Ro
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Most men know something is wrong before anything goes seriously wrong. The sleep getting worse. The energy is not quite there. The body that used to be forgiving and now isn't. The sense that somewhere along the way, you stopped being a priority even to yourself.
Dr. Ken Ro has spent decades in emergency medicine watching men arrive at crisis points that, in nearly every case, had been building for years. Not because they were careless or ignorant, but because the way men are wired - to provide, to absorb, to keep going - makes it almost impossible to stop and take inventory before something forces you to.
In this conversation, Ken talks honestly about what he saw in the ER, what he saw in himself, and what he now does about it.
This isn't an episode about quick fixes or supplements or hitting the gym five times a week. It's about something harder and more useful: understanding why men end up where they do and what it actually takes to change course.
What you'll hear in this episode:
Ken explains the "triple provider effect" - the invisible pressure that puts men in the middle of everyone else's needs with nothing coming back in and why the healthcare system is structurally set up to miss them entirely.
He talks about the physical warning signs men consistently dismiss as normal ageing - fractured sleep, afternoon crashes, declining eyesight, erectile dysfunction - and why these aren't just inconveniences but early signals of something systemic that can be addressed.
He challenges the idea that motivation is what you need to change. It isn't. He explains what actually works and it's simpler and more uncomfortable than most men want to hear.
He talks about identity. About how the story men tell about who they are - provider, problem solver, the one who holds it together - becomes the thing that prevents them from getting help. And about what it looks like to rewrite that story without losing yourself in the process.
And he shares what he tells men who feel like they've left it too late. They haven't. But the window doesn't stay open indefinitely.
If you're in your forties or fifties and you've been putting yourself last for long enough that you've stopped noticing you're doing it, this conversation is worth 40 minutes of your time.
Dr. Kenneth Ro is the author of Prime: Winning the Second Half of Life and practices at KennethRoMD.com.
