GirlTalkHQ - Diana Maria Riva on Menopause & Her Podcast 'How Hard Can It Be?' (2026)

Tier 2: Professional organization or credentialed expert guidance
Publisher: GirlTalkHQ · Published: September 1, 2026 · Accessed: September 4, 2026

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• Riva (Dead to Me, Acapulco, The Gordita Chronicles, Tracker; first-generation Dominican from Cincinnati) launched a weekly podcast, 'How Hard Can It Be?', on iHeartMedia's My Cultura Podcast Network, part of the network's joint slate with Eva Longoria's Hyphenate Media Group, with Longoria as executive producer. The show is positioned 'for GenX women navigating midlife's most fantastic bullsh*t' and covers 'being the boss, the empty nester and the caretaker, all while battling night sweats AND being the linchpins of society.'
• Representation stat cited by Riva in the interview: in a country 'made up of almost 25% Latinos, only 4% of leading and co-leading characters we see on TV are Latinos.'
• Riva on the shared midlife experience across her podcast guests ('women anywhere from their 40s to 60s, glamorous actresses, stay at home moms, business owners'): 'no matter where or what we do for a living we are complaining, frustrated, perplexed, about the same shit. It's all happening to us at the same time.'
• Riva on why first-person storytelling matters: 'Half the battle is knowing that you are not on an island by yourself. The biggest fallacy is believing that you're the only one walking through this' and 'you don't have to be 50 to be experiencing it. 38-year-olds are beginning to see signs and symptoms of perimenopause.'
• Riva on the medical information gap: 'the medical society has definitely dropped the ball in bringing us the information that was available or at minimum available to be studied decades ago.'
• Riva on women policing their reactions at midlife: 'There's something hysterical about how women have to monitor their temper so they don't chew someone's head off for turning the thermostat up to 70 when we all know it should be at 58.'
• Riva on participation and community, from her Latinas Acting Up organizing (born from the 2023 Hollywood strikes, co-founded with Lisa Vidal): 'No permission needed, just the right to participate' and 'the more united we are, the less we are ignored.'