The Middle

What really happens when you sign a professional football contract in the United Kingdom? Former Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Paddy Gamble shares the reality of coming through the UK football academy system, being signed at just 16, and walking away from the sport at 21. We talk about the pressure young athletes face behind the scenes, the identity crisis many footballers experience after leaving the game, and why mental health in ...

Why do some athletes and coaches vanish forever after a scandal, while others return to a standing ovation? It’s not luck. It’s formulaic.

In our first solo episode, Megan breaks down how cancel culture really works in sports and why some athletes disappear while others get redemption tours.

Drawing on 17 years in crisis communications and public relations, Megan shares the four factors that decide comeback stories, why winni...

The Washington Post laid off its sports department. Athletes and coaches break news on Instagram. Fans get headlines from TikTok. Is the golden age of (sports) journalism dead?

Longtime public relations executive and former Washington Post reporter Dave Reddy joins me to talk about the future of journalism, the death of print newspapers, why fake news spreads so fast (even in sports), and whether long-form reporting still matter...

Fitness instructor Roz Mays is challenging everything the fitness industry gets wrong. Growing up plus-size in a cardio-obsessed sports world, Roz shares how the industry’s fixation on thinness and extreme strength leaves everyday people feeling disconnected from fitness and athletics. In this episode, she talks about discovering her own strength through pole dancing, redefining what it means to be an athlete, and why weight loss i...

In our season opener, Matt Taylor takes us behind the scenes on the intense preparation that goes into the Super Bowl, the emotional weight of the event, and the logistics involved in ensuring everything runs smoothly on game day. He shares what cameras don't show, what's really happening on the sidelines, and how teams prevent the nerves from getting to them. He also talks about his journey from a small town in Illinois to...

In our season finale, we share the evolution of the podcast and how it's grown over the last several months. Megan shares some behind the scenes on how the podcast was made, where she is in her own journey, and gives a sneak peek at what's ahead for Season Two (debuting January 2026).

To everyone who has come on this journey with us, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you. We may be in the middle, but we're just g...

In November 2024 alpine skier Shannon Abeda was three days away from the start of his season in hopes of qualifying for his third Olympic games. He asked his company for any support they could give. Instead, he was laid off. In this episode, Shannon opens up about his skiing journey, from discovering it as a three year-old in Alberta, Canada, to missing out on the 2014 Winter Olympic Games by 0.01 seconds, to carrying the flag for ...

In this episode, sustainability expert and environmental scientist Dr. Mara Ranville shares how her career moved from a small town in Michigan to geology labs, research cruises across the Pacific, university classrooms, and the chaotic streets of New York City. On the outside, she was creating a career path uniquely her own, but behind some of her pivots was another journey she was quietly fighting for: three years of infertility t...

As the U.S. pauses to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, we're bringing you an encore of our episode with executive recruiter Steve Lavner. Since his original episode aired, Verizon and Amazon announced massive layoffs, the September jobs report was published, the unemployment rate ticked up to its highest in four years, and more.

Steve's insights are more relevant than ever. After more than 20 years in executive recrui...

Rick Morales spent nearly a decade helping build Apple Music Radio from the ground up, producing shows with global icons like Bad Bunny and Travis Scott. In 2023 he noticed something unsettling: the artificial intelligence (AI) programs framed as “tools” weren’t just making him better. They were completely learning his job. When the layoff hit a year later, he faced a cascade of personal losses, losing his home, belongings, relatio...

When Kevin Rice sold the company he built in a garage, it should have been the moment he’d been working toward his whole life. But instead of fulfillment, he felt… nothing. In this episode, Kevin opens up about what it’s really like to reach the top while your personal life quietly falls apart, and what it was like navigating divorce, single parenthood, and slowly realizing that “robot mode” success had cost him presence, health, a...

In September 2010, Dr. William T. Lewis, Sr. stepped into what he believed was his dream role: vice president for Diversity and Inclusion at Virginia Tech. But what began as the pinnacle of his career quickly unraveled into a four-year storm of politics, pain, and ultimately, being fired. The harder part? That moment wasn’t the end of his story but the beginning of a years-long battle with rejection, self-doubt, and the search for ...

In July 2025, David Nebinski embarked on an experiment: call one new person every day for a month. No scripts, no agenda, no calendar invite. Just pick up the phone, call a number, and see what happened. What happened next planted the seed for his own next chapter. In this episode, David unpacks the discomfort, confusion, excitement, and embarrassment of being in his middle, and talks candidly about the courage it takes to leave so...

After more than 20 years in executive recruiting, Steve Lavner has seen it all, and he’s pulling back the curtain on what really happens in the hiring world. In this candid conversation, Steve shares the unspoken truths of recruiting at the highest levels, the politics behind hiring decisions, and how the job market has shifted beneath our feet. He talks why “career progression” is an illusion, why the best candidates sometimes get...

At just 17 years old, Fabi Preslar left home with no money, no car, and no safety net. That leap of survival set the stage for a career and a life that grew and changed as much as she did. In this episode, Fabi opens up about the challenges she’s faced over the last several decades, from losing her home and the family business as a teenager, to being pushed out of her first business, to facing a cancer diagnosis, and the “stupid co...

Candice Van Dertholen didn’t set out to be an energy healer, but her own battles with mental health and a chance encounter at a yoga studio led her to the work she now calls life changing. In this episode, Candice shares how energy healing can help break the cycles that keep us stuck, especially in the middle of a life transition, and how to recognize the signs that you are – or aren’t – on the right path. She opens up about the mi...

When J T. Ramsay was laid off after nearly 20 years in comms and marketing, he thought his network and experience would carry him through. Instead, he found himself burnt out, chasing “bad fits,” and questioning the very idea of personal branding. In this conversation, J T. unpacks what it means to be stuck in a middle: between jobs, between meaning and visibility, and inside industries desperate to reinvent themselves without chan...

After over 25 years in corporate America, including two executive positions at Lockheed Martin and UnitedHealthcare, Jenn Whitlow faced a decision: take one more corporate job or blow up her career and see what happened. She chose the latter, and two months later, bought an inn sight unseen in rural Maine. In this episode, Jenn talks about what it was like being in the room when critical company decisions were made, how she made th...