The Media Innovator

“For women over 40. All the stuff no one talks about.” Such is the description for Everything Is Fine, the podcast cohosted by Kim France ’87 and her longtime friend Jen Romolini that features honest, advice-filled conversations about big topics including but not limited to ambition, aging, creativity, health, parenting, and careers. The podcast occasionally books conversations with writers, artists, activists, teachers, and figures in the fashion world. But France notes that the episodes that feature the women chatting with each other have resonated even more. 

“The thing that we found works for our listeners is that conversation, that feeling like you’re in the room with a couple of friends,” she says. “We’re not a menopause podcast, but we’re a podcast for women over 40. A lot of what we talk about has to do with the changes in women’s bodies, and that’s still, even in the year 2025, not something that people talk about a lot. There’s more conversation around it, but there’s still not nearly enough. And people were starving for that.”

Earlier in her career, France was a staff writer at the teen magazine Sassy—launched in 1988 by Jane Pratt ’84—and also spent time at Spin and New York. In 2000, she became the founding editor of Lucky, a trailblazing publication dedicated to fashion and lifestyle. France later started an email newsletter called Girls of a Certain Age, which mixes memoir and the kind of carefully curated fashion tips for which Lucky was known.

France says her newsletter’s readers wanted her to start a podcast, so it was kismet when documentary filmmaker Tally Abecassis approached her a little over five years ago about starting a podcast for women over 40. In the time since, France is gratified that Everything is Fine has amassed a loyal, passionate audience that has formed a tight-knit community; among other things, listeners chat about the podcast in online spaces and have scheduled in-person Everything Is Fine meetups. 

“It’s amazing to have the podcast come out on a Monday and already have conversation about that episode on the Facebook page Monday morning,” she says. “You had very little access to your audience in magazine publishing. We would do focus groups every once in a while to get access to them. [And] you get letters to the editor at magazines, traditionally, but that’s just a micro fraction of the actual readership. It’s much easier to know the impact you’re having quickly.”

As for why France thinks Obies are drawn to podcasting: “For the same reason they were in magazine publishing 30 years ago,” she says. “There’s a lot of creativity in both of those fields—but at the same time a lot of the rigor. And Oberlin is good at valuing both creativity and rigor.”

This story originally appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of the Oberlin Alumni Magazine as part of the feature "A Pipeline to Podcasts."