Interview with Roanna White
Roanna White · November 7, 2025
Interview with Roanna White
Podcast: The Midlife Rebel Podcast
November 7, 2025 · 59 min
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About Roanna White
Exploring Loneliness, Identity, and Starting Over in Midlife
Founder Ynkyer social enterpriseAuthor The Quiet CrisisMaster’s degree Education, Teaching English as a Second LanguageTeacher Professional background
Roanna White knows what it feels like to sit at home on a Saturday night and wonder where you belong. In her 40s, a divorce, mental-health challenges, and the quiet after her children grew more independent exposed a deeper truth: she was surrounded by people yet still deprived of connection.
A teacher by profession, Roanna kept showing up for others while doing the slow work of healing herself. She explored talk therapy, then somatic therapy and chanting, which helped her body process old trauma and gave her a way back to herself. Travel became medicine, and solo trips reminded her she could meet new people and new parts of herself at the same time.
As the fog lifted, she noticed how many others were quietly navigating the same ache. Newcomers to a city, parents between busy weeks, people craving company for everyday things like a walk or a meal. That realisation became Ynkyer: a social enterprise building a safe platform for genuine companionship. No dating, no therapy, no agenda, just real people and real connection.
Her reflections on this wider cultural loneliness led her to write _The Quiet Crisis: Understanding and Healing Loneliness in the Modern World.
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The word crisis gets thrown around at midlife like it’s inevitable. We push back...
This conversation withRoanna White—senior teacher, mum of three, and unapologetic solo traveller—is a grounded and generous exploration of how women can transform upheaval into agency.
We talk through the real stuff: leading a team while quietly battling anxiety, parenting teens who test every limit, and the moment somatic therapy surfaced repressed memories that finally explained years of physical symptoms. It’s vulnerable, practical, and quietly radical.
What sets Ro apart is her body-first approach to healing. When CBT couldn’t reach the root, somatic experiencing helped her nervous system complete what trauma began. She reframed intrusive thoughts as messages of safety, learned to pause before reacting, and began using simple mantras—power, boundaries, worth—to guide choices under pressure. That inner recalibration opened space for joy: Bollywood dance that celebrates imperfect hips and full hearts, and solo travel that rebuilt self-trust from Thailand to Vietnam, and now to India and Nepal.
We also dive into the loneliness epidemic and how Western communities have felt lonelier than ever since COVID. Ro’s response is both personal and pioneering: build connection on purpose. That's why she’s launching Yankyr, a hire-a-friend platform for safe, paid companionship—coffee, theatre, a concert—designed so people actually show up. It’s not dating, not therapy, just the missing bridge between wanting company and finding it.
If you’ve ever felt unseen in a crowded life, this will land.
The takeaway is clear: midlife isn’t the beginning of the end—it’s a second debut. Choose yourself, without apology. Book the class. Say 'no' sooner. Put your health first. Ask for help.
And if this conversation resonates, share it with a friend, hit follow, and leave a review—what one powerful change are you making this year?
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Guest: Roanna White
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