Our “Witchy” Era?

Sarah Powers (0:02)

Hi, I'm Sarah.

Meagan Francis (0:03)

And I'm Meagan. And you're listening to Midlife Lady Leisure Pursuits. I'm excited today to chat about a very midlife lady topic, Sarah, and that is witchiness. What does it mean to be witchy?

Sarah Powers (0:15)

I love this. Perfect for the season, Meagan. Today's episode is brought to you by our exclusive season sponsor and a longtime partner of ours, Vionic Shoes. So I was just talking to a local friend about Vionic Shoes. She had just discovered them and she is a midlife lady runner who really wants to make sure all her shoes, not just her running shoes, give her really good arch support between runs. Anyway, I was saying how glad I was that I discovered Vionic in my early 40s because now I've been prioritizing really comfortable and supportive footwear for several years.

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Meagan Francis (1:08)

Thanks to Vionic for sponsoring this episode. And Sarah, let's dive into what I think is going to be a very fun and apropos conversation for the season. This episode idea is brought to you by Practical Magic 2

Sort of kidding, but I did see that movie in the theater a couple of weeks ago. And you and I talked about how I think we both sort of missed the original Practical Magic.

Sarah Powers (1:32)

Completely. I completely missed it. Yeah.

Meagan Francis (1:35)

Yeah. Like when the book came out, I think I was in college. And then when the first movie came out, I was like knee deep in having kids. And honestly, it wasn't the kind of movie that at the time really appealed to me that much. But I did see the movie in the theater, the second one, and I actually then started reading the book. And they're very, very different. But the movie was sort of like, I think I told you, this midlife lady fantasy, the costumes, the sets. It's almost like the 2026 version of those Nancy Meyers kitchens from like the Diane Keaton movies and things like that. But not so not only that, though, because you do have these like ridiculously beautiful garden scenes and there's like a conservatory in the house, in the house, it's, you're just, it's eye candy.

Sarah Powers (2:20)

I love it.

Meagan Francis (2:21)

But there's also something about the lady power messages that I think are just very popular right now. I think witches have been having a moment for a while.

But right now in this stage of life, it feels particularly targeted towards us. I feel like a lot of the stuff I get that is sort of like witchy adjacent is for people our age.

Sarah Powers (2:47)

Agreed.

Meagan Francis (2:48)

And we've joked on this show a lot about being in our witchy stages of life. But what do we mean by that? Because I don't actually want to practice the dark arts.

So what do I mean? Or what do we mean when we say something feels witchy? Or that we want to be more witchy? What do we want that a witch represents? And I have a few different things I just wrote down that I thought it might be fun just for us to go back and forth and talk about these things.

Sarah Powers (3:17)

Yeah, no, I have some thoughts too, yes.

Meagan Francis (3:20)

Well, the first thing I thought of was freedom. From expectations, from convention, from what we've done in the past, maybe.

So I think when I think of a witch, I think of someone who is like, even if just looking at the fairy tale version or like the storybook version, it's a woman like living off on her own. She's kind of outside of the norm.

Sarah Powers (3:45)

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. It's always outside the village or the edge of the village. And that's like, there's so much metaphor in that, right? Like the cottage is always just a little bit off the beaten path, literally.

Meagan Francis (3:59)

Yes, exactly. And also, she's a little outside of society.

She might be very valued by society for whatever reason, but sort of secretly. And there's no expectations that she will conform to any conventions. She's not getting invited to the parties or the PTO meetings. If she shows up at some kind of a city council, whatever the version of that would be in this village, this imaginary village, she's often kind of not invited. She shows up because she's got something to say, often with like a crooked finger and, you know, in a very, I don't know, sort of like ominous sounding voice. So there's just this idea that when you get to be a certain age, you kind of want to blow it all up.