Roanna White · September 23, 2025

Podcast: TURNED ON: Wild, free & sexy in your midlife
September 23, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
Listen to Roanna White on TURNED ON: Wild, free & sexy in your midlife.
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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.
How would you feel if loneliness wasn’t a dead end, but a doorway into the most honest, turned-on chapter of your life?
In this episode, I chat withRoanna White(Ro) about moving from Saturday-night-on-the-couch loneliness to a liberated, off-the-script sexual life. We unpack what radical relating actually means in practice - relationships designed through truth, consent and courage - and what it looks like to live outside the script of “how good women should love and desire,” including candid conversations about swingers’ socials, play parties and kink curiosity. Ro is a passionate advocate for women 40+ embracing sensuality without shame, and she shares how divorce, mental health spirals and longing for connection became a catalyst for somatic healing, sex-positive exploration and reclaiming pleasure in midlife.
Tune in to hear us discuss:
Why loneliness can hit hard in midlife - even when you’re busy and surrounded by people
What honest self-inquiry can look like
Why she chose Somatic therapy - how it has helped her to complete stress and trauma responses and listen to body-truths
Radical relating - consent as a living practice, relationships by design, agreements that fit you
What life can look like outside the script - 'Red Hot Pie', ENM, party spaces and kink curiosity when it aligns with your values
Safety in real life - pre-talks, boundaries, newbie signalling, no-pressure culture, watchers vs players
Reframing safety vs mainstream dating - why explicit consent can feel safer than the apps
Receiving pleasure - letting desire back in, multiple orgasms and lingerie as a daily pleasure practice
Power and self-permission for women 40+ - pleasure in peri/menopause and beyond
Building non-sexual companionship and community as an antidote to loneliness
Ro and I explore how telling the truth, centring consent and giving yourself permission can shift everything in midlife - from how you connect with friends and lovers to how you meet yourself on a Saturday night. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at spaces people rarely talk about, translated into practical, values-led steps you can bring home to your body today.
If you’ve ever wondered what actually happens at sex-positive socials, and how to explore safely at your own pace, this episode is for you.
Connect with Roanna via her:
Instagram: @one.ro.many.roads – https://www.instagram.com/one.ro.many.roads?igsh=MXd1azltejlicHdveg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roannawhite45?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
YNKYER – Ro’s non-sexual, non-romantic companionship concept: http://www.ynkyer.com
Connect with me via:
Instagram: @pennyvandersluys
Website:
Meet a new community of incredible women through my Wonder Women Club: https://pennyvandersluys.com/
https://pennyvandersluys.com/wonder
Please Note:This episode mentions sexual assault. If listening brings anything up for you reach out for support. If you’re in Australia, support is available 24/7 at 1800RESPECT – 1800 737 732.
Guest: Roanna White
2+ podcast & stage appearances. Remote or in studio, broadcast-grade audio.