THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026
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October always feels like a shift. Summer is officially over, the year suddenly feels shorter, and there’s a lot going on in the world that deserves our attention.
I’ve been thinking about what it means to get loud, get angry, and get involved. And I keep coming back to the same place: it starts with getting informed.
That’s a big part of what we’re building at PROVOKED.
Later this month, we’re launching Well/Actually, a new newsletter devoted entirely to health and wellness, delivered Wednesday mornings. We’ll go deeper on the topics you already come to us for, plus new ones. Once it launches, all of our health and wellness coverage will move there from Thursday.
One of the first things we’re digging into: sleep. We know how hard a good night’s sleep gets at this age, and we want to know what actually works.
And this week, Abby is back with a little humor, we have vagina lore, a woman who would really like everyone to stop asking how her retirement is going, and another who turned 51 and somehow became the man of her dreams.
Stay informed. Then decide what you want to do with it.
P.S. Look for the Well/Actually sign-up box below. It’s free, and it’s separate from Thursday.
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“Down there” did a lot of work for a lot of women. So did flower, hoo-ha, and an anatomical word that literally means a sheath for a sword. So who decided what we’d call it, and what were those names really saying about us?
Read this piece
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HUMOR
The 7 Deadly Sins of Trader Joe’s
BY ABBY HEUGEL
You went in for one bag of ravioli and left with a $100 receipt, a candle that smells like Falling Leaves, and no ravioli. How Trader Joe’s turns an eight-minute errand into a 45-minute personality test.
Read this piece
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DEAR READER
A PERSONAL ESSAY FROM A READER
Stop Asking Me How My Retirement Is Going
BY DIANE DIPIERO RODIO
Leave a full-time job after 50, and people start talking to you like you’ve entered your slowing-down era. A new PR business, a nonprofit, and six dog-walking clients later, you have a new answer: your retirement isn’t going well at all.
Read this piece
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SIGN UP FOR OUR NEW HEALTH NEWSLETTER
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Breaking health news when it happens. What the research actually says. What matters. And the parts that don’t fit neatly into a headline.
Weekly. Free. Launching in October.
Separate from your Thursday newsletter.
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I Turned 51 and Somehow Became the Man of My Dreams
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A crowbar by the bed, a garage full of earthquake supplies, and motorcycle school. Somewhere in there, a newly separated 51-year-old realized she’d become exactly the man she used to look for, and her younger boyfriend is now her passenger princess.
Read this piece
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TAKE NOTE
Timely and worth your attention.
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🤖 APPARENTLY, THERE WERE NO OTHER WOMEN AVAILABLE
Thirty-one of the most powerful people in tech and government gathered at the White House to talk about the future of AI. Only two were women. One was White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. The other was AMD CEO Lisa Su. Meanwhile, women hold senior roles at Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Google, and OpenAI, among others. The technology may be building the future. The seating chart looked remarkably familiar.
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🚶 A LITTLE HUSTLE MATTERS
Your daily walk may be doing more than getting you out of the house. A new randomized study found that older adults with frailty who walked at a higher intensity were more likely to improve their frailty status than casual walkers. Both groups benefited, but picking up the pace made a difference.
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Our First Pop-Up Luncheon
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Thirty women. One luncheon in NYC. Susan Spencer and I hosted, and we assumed the point was lunch.
Then Carmella wrote to me afterward: “Several of us discovered that we share the same obsessions: design, fashion, interiors, vintage, and New York itself. We’ve since formed a social group and next month, we’re meeting for lunch and the Met.”
Strangers at lunch. Only friends with plans. That’s what PROVOKEDplus looks like now.
The Book Club was the start, with the next one to be announced soon. The next pop-up lunch will be in Houston in early November. And next month is our first Off the Record session online where I say the things I can’t put in the newsletter.
Plus Good Enough every Sunday, which members tell us is the highlight of their week.
I don’t want you to have FOMO. JOIN PROVOKEDplus today.
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MOST READ LAST WEEK
I Was Ready for It to End. Then It Did.
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In seven weeks, I lost my husband, my mother, and the only version of myself I’d known for years.
Read this piece
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