|
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2026 |
|
|
PROVOKED now comes on Wednesdays, too, with Well/Actually, our free health newsletter.
Only want some of our emails?
Choose which emails you get.
|
|
|
Dozens of women. One Zoom. 90 minutes.
Last night was our first Off the Record. We went from caregiving to dating to longevity, reinvention, risk and failing. Women shared things about their families, their fears and themselves that will stay where they were told. That was the deal. I shared some of my failures, a few of my wins, and what actually gives me the nerve to be building this at 66. It felt less like a call and more like happy hour with a group of super smart women. Lauren wrote to me afterward: “Such a great conversation among simpatico women who I already feel like I’m in Golden Girl buddy territory with, even after one Zoom room hang!”
Yesterday morning, Well/Actually landed in your inbox: our new Wednesday newsletter about what’s actually true for your health. Several of you wrote to say thank you. That means a lot, and I read all of your messages. If you missed it, go back (check spam or promotions if you can't find it) for the vaginal estrogen piece. I mean it. Every woman should know about this. Share it with everyone you know.
By the weekend I'll be packing for Houston. When next Thursday’s issue hits your inbox, I’ll have had lunch with a table full of PROVOKED readers, the way this was always meant to be done: in person.
Busy week. The best kind. Glad you’re here.
|
|
|
Are We on the Road to Gilead? Margaret Atwood Doesn’t Say No. |
|
|
Your money’s in the bank. Your name’s on the deed. Your job needs nobody’s permission. June had all of that too, before Gilead. Margaret Atwood says every detail of The Handmaid’s Tale happened somewhere, sometime, and that we’re not living in Gilead. Yet.
Read this piece |
|
|
|
|
DEAR READER
A PERSONAL ESSAY FROM A READER
What If I’m Never a Grandmother?
BY JENNIFER MCGUIRE
You smile politely at friends’ grandbaby photos. On walks you play “picture this”: sleep sacks, a granddaughter peeling apples for pie, a rental close by so you can help. It’s a lot of preparation for a job nobody has offered you.
Read this piece
|
|
|
HUMOR
Hair or Bare? Midlife Down There.
BY ABBY HEUGEL
Your esthetician has seen enough to blackmail you. The hair down there is changing, the skin is more sensitive, and you’re still paying someone to pour hot wax on you. Wax, trim, or let it grow wild: your bush, your rules.
Read this piece
|
|
|
|
Why I blame Madonna for reinvention’s image problem, and the smaller question that you should be asking.
The AI agent my whole book club is using, and the setting to switch off before you start.
The app that finds every subscription quietly billing your card.
The book that taught me, after years at a poker table, that a bad outcome isn’t a bad decision.
The designer-shoe dupes I'm wearing right now.
That’s just one Sunday of Good Enough. Every week: what I’m buying, what I’m spotting, and of course the one Big Idea for the week.
And last night’s Off the Record? Members only.
Book Club is back Dec. 4 for members. Hold the date.
Every membership keeps PROVOKED independent. No investors, no one telling us what to cover.
|
|
|
TAKE NOTE
Timely and worth your attention. |
|
|
|
|
🎬 SHE ASKED TO BE PAID LIKE A STAR
Susan Saint James, the Emmy winner who starred in McMillan & Wife and Kate & Allie, died Monday at 80. In 1976 she walked off McMillan over a contract dispute, and rather than meet her terms, the network killed off her character. Eight years later she was on CBS, sharing top billing with Jane Curtin in a sitcom about two divorced mothers raising their kids under one roof. In 1976 she asked for her worth and got written out. By 1984, she was the show.
|
|
|
📬 OPEN YOUR MAIL BEFORE DECEMBER 7
UnitedHealthcare and Humana are ending Medicare Advantage plans that cover nearly 1 million people for 2027. If you’re one of them, a non-renewal letter should already be in your mailbox. Open enrollment closes Dec. 7, and rural counties will have the fewest replacement options. The notice looks like junk mail. It’s one of the most important envelopes you’ll get this fall.
|
|
|
📚 IS IT TOO LATE? SHE SAYS NO.
Dame Judi Dench’s memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, lands Tuesday, Nov. 3. Written with her friend and longtime collaborator Brendan O’Hea, it covers her childhood, seven decades on stage and screen, and the people she loved along the way. At 91, she still writes the best titles in the business. Clearly the answer is no.
|
|
|
|
I Bombed My Big Comeback. The Audience Gave Me Five Stars. |
|
|
Business class to Mallorca, 300 executives, a voice almost gone, and a CEO yawning before slide two. She was sure she’d bombed. The reviews came back five stars. So why did success feel like a new stage for the old version of herself?
Read this piece |
|
|
“Reading your words and the words of all the other women who have responded has created a shift in how I will choose to live my life. I am blessed … but I find myself too easily caught up in the negativity and fear which swirls around me. I must more deeply celebrate each day by spending time turning inward…Thank you all for the gift of your words.” —Kathy on Be Fierce. Stay in the Chair. |
|
|
Want to be featured next? Comment on your favorite piece—we read them all.
|
|
|
I Can Love You and Still Need to Leave by Six
Two hours at the cookout, and the clock is already calling.
|
|
|
BY CHANTRISE SIMS HOLLIMAN |
|
|
25 of You Sent Us Your Lives |
|
|
Last week we brought back the Minimoir Challenge, and you didn't hold back. A 90-year-old in Jacksonville: “Ninety years and still relevant.” A 76-year-old on Camano Island: “My gut is infallible.” And one that lands in three words: “Until I didn’t.” They’re all live on the wall now.
Read them, then write yours
|
|
|
