MIA FREEDMAN: 'Exactly what I was doing on my sabbatical.'

It started about a year ago. 3am.

I try not to look at the clock when I wake up in the middle of the night because the maths of "how many hours of sleep can I get if I fall asleep right now?" makes me panic.

So instead, I kept my eyes firmly shut while my brain thrust itself immediately into gear and began to worry about everything from the state of the world to the state of my skin — both shit — and then I did the thing you aren't meant to do.

Watch: Mia Freedman's commentary on the Golden Globes. Post continues below.

I picked up my phone. Idiot.

I doom-scrolled the news. Not happy, Jan. Did you know women have a much higher propensity to be left with an "anxiety hangover" after consuming the news? It can feel like a physical weight on our chests.

Looking for something lighter, I flicked over to Instagram only to learn — quite aggressively — that wearing invisible socks is now a sign that I am a tragic, sad, old person.

I thought, for f**k's sake. It's not bad enough that every time women our age speak up for ourselves, we're disparaged as "Karens"— shout out to all the women actually named Karen; this weaponisation of your name is a travesty and we are indignant on your behalf — now it's my socks?

I realised I didn't want another self-improvement hack. I didn't want to hear more about menopause or "manifest" my way out of real-life problems. I just wanted a place to rest my ears where the news doesn't exist for an hour.

A place for women over 40 to have a laugh without being judged by a 22-year-old who doesn't know who Adam Ant is or why we all spent 1986 trying to source black rubber Madonna bracelets to stack up our arms. Do I want to have to explain Dolly Doctor or Milli Vanilli or A-Ha or Bananarama or Scott & Charlene's wedding?

I do not.

And I reckon there are other women who also do not.

So, I put on my Producer Hat — literally, I bought one on the internet that says PRODUCER — and I built a distraction portal. It's a new podcast called Unleashed. And it's the antidote to everything.

Listen to the first episode of Unleashed here. Post continues below.

Unleashed is not a "menopause" podcast.

This isn't a podcast about menopause or perimenopause. It's not about pop culture or the news or the latest study about bone density. It's not a moan-fest with a gentle, piano-music theme.

And it's not an interview show. No guests. Just hosts.

And what bloody hosts they are.

The vibe of Unleashed is that specific dinner party where the wine is cold, the bread is warm, and within ten minutes, someone is telling a gob-smacking story about their sister-in-law — and someone else is noting that they may have weed a little bit in their pants because they were just laughing so hard.

The real magic of any group is the chemistry. As a producer, my job is not to be ON this show but to be in and around it. I'm the one in the headset, making the calls and occasionally butting in when the conversation gets so good I physically can't keep my mouth shut.

My first job was to identify the six iconic, brilliant, and deeply rogue women I wanted on this show and then convince them to do it. To trust me.

Most of them didn't even know each other before I threw them in front of a microphone, but they instantly bonded over a shared history of Smash Hits magazines and a collective refusal to be "beige." Together, they are quite frankly unhinged. In the most compelling way possible. You should see their real-life group chat — it was meant to be for logistics, but it has completely gone off the rails.

Meet the Unleashed hosts.

Wrangling these six across three states and four time zones was like herding intellectual cats who all have very strong feelings about lighting. But we did it.

(Clockwise from top left): Sally Hepworth, Bruna Papandrea, Cath Mahoney, Grace Lam, Dr Ginni Mansberg and Mary Coustas. Image: Supplied.

No judgment, just respite.

Unleashed is for all of us who are at the age where we are lifting heavy things and dropping toxic people. It's for the women who want to distract themselves and hang out with the smartest, funniest friends they haven't met yet.

You don't need to learn anything, fix anything, or remember anything.

You just need to get unhinged with us.

Image: Supplied.

It's helpful, it's funny, and it's the break from the cultural bin fire you didn't know you were allowed to take.

Unclench your jaw. Clench your pelvic floor.

Unleashed launches officially on February 3. New episodes drop every Tuesday.

Listen and follow Unleashed wherever you get your podcasts.

Feature image: Supplied.