Ricki Lake Looks Back at Her Barrier-Breaking Talk Show — and the Story of That Iconic Oprah Photo (Exclusive)

• Ricki Lake is talking about all the wonders of midlife in her new podcast The High Life with Ricki Lake
• Speaking with PEOPLE exclusively about her journey through acting, talk show hosting and podcasting, Lake opens up about why it’s important to her when she connects with her audience and why she continues to do it
• Lake looks back at conquering the talk show landscape in her 20s and what she hopes her legacy will be

Ricki Lake is still having big conversations with her audience, 20 years after her eponymous hit talk show’s conclusion.

These days, the iconic TV personality is in the podcasting space, working with Lemonada Media on her latest, The High Life with Ricki Lake.

“We just took a look at my life from where I am in it now, and I’m definitely in a place of having cracked the code to what makes me happy and what I want in my life, in midlife,” she tells PEOPLE.

The 55-year-old, a wife and mom to two adult sons, is all about celebrating the moment she’s in. But that doesn’t mean she’s not interested in reflecting on the past, too.

“Podcasting is great because I can wear sweatpants and a T-shirt and no bra because it’s audio only. It’s definitely not having to go to a place and shoot shows with a huge, live audience,” she says.

But, “I really loved the electricity that was our show back in New York in the early ’90s to mid 2000s,” she continues of the Ricki Lake daytime talk show days. “It was a party. It was a blast, and that genre has changed so much. It’s just not the same as it was back then, with all of these fragmented options available on TV and streamers. It’s just a different time.”

Lake was in her 20s when her talk show debuted in 1993, notably younger than some of her fellow hosts like Phil Donahue, Sally Jessy Raphael and Jenny Jones.

“I was 23 when they hired me and I filmed the pilot. We went on the air when I was 24,” she says. “The way I’ve always been, my entire career, since I’m 18 years old and did Hairspray is that I never really look at the big picture. I just jump in. Someone hires me and they think I can do it? I don’t really doubt myself,” she says.

“So with the talk show, I met these guys. Garth Ancier was the mastermind behind it, wanting to do a show that was skewed toward a younger audience,” she continues. “When he hired me, I was literally cast like an actress. I was cast in the role and I just happened to be good at listening and good at sharing about myself and I came off likable, and relatable. And so it just was one of those things where the job just fit.”

Though some might have considered her show “edgy,” Lake says she was just telling stories, plain and simple.

“I come from John Waters, being Tracy Turnblad when I was 18. I was surrounded by different types of people. I was around openly gay people for the first time in my life. What that did for me was make me see everyone as equal, so when I did my show and we had so many gay and lesbian couples featured, it was new to audiences but not to me. I didn’t think of it as anything but normal,” she explains.

Her approach has left Lake with a sense of pride in the fact that “I was able to treat every person with respect.”

“To hear back from people that grew up in Middle America, where they didn’t necessarily see people around them that looked like them that loved the way they loved … I think it was really healing and very much like a rite of passage for a lot of people that grew up watching my show,” she shares. “I didn’t really consider that but I’m super proud that I got to be myself and treat people well. The people watching were able to reflect and learn to love themselves.”

Of the job, Lake says she was “an amateur anthropologist studying human behavior.”

“I’ve always been curious about relationships and why people do what they do and treat each other certain ways. It’s just been such an amazing platform and to morph into going and doing documentary work about issues that matter to me. And then now the podcast, it’s just it’s just this natural progression.”

Ricki Lake opened doors for the young host — “we were a really big hit right away,” she says — though it wasn’t without massive effort.

“It was definitely a grind,” she remembers. “There was a lot of pressure on me, and yet I didn’t feel that way. It really felt like a party, which was crazy. And I look back on it with so much …. ‘Wow, look at what we did.’ It was truly a phenomenon at that time. And I also love that I got to leave it behind and move to California, and start making documentary films that were really important to me and do other things. But it was a blast. It was a magical time for that genre then.”

Despite the crowded landscape, “I didn’t see it as competitive,” she adds. “We just continued to do what we did, which was a lot of relationship-related topics that young people could relate to. We always approached it from the younger person’s perspective. Where Oprah Winfrey would have a show like, ‘My teen daughter is driving me crazy,’ we’d do it as, ‘My mom doesn’t understand me.’ That was really our hook.”

The approach didn’t just go over well with viewers: It also earned Lake the respect of her peers, as seen in a major career moment in 2011, when she appeared on an episode in the final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show alongside other talk show mainstays.

“I’m so tickled that I’m in that company,” she admits. “The fact that the show was dedicated to talk show icons and it was Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jessy Raphael, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue and me. It was just me saying to myself, ‘I cannot believe I’m in this company.’ It was very cool to get to hang out in Chicago and get deep-dish pizza. I have so many pictures, which I went through when Phil died.”

Noting that the late host “really reflects that genre and what we did,” Lake shares, “Without him opening it up, we wouldn’t have had a talk show. There would be no Ricki Lake show without him. He was a total mensch, someone that was truly so very sweet.”

Lake fondly remembers the time as a period where she was “riding high” — and she still is, even when there are bumps along the way.

“I’ve gone through a bunch of hardships,” she offers. “I’ve gone through physical transformations, ups and downs, and I really am someone who chooses to be happy. I choose to find joy in every situation and look at the bright side. And so they approached me [about a podcast], and said, what about focusing on all the things I’m interested and curious about?” she explains.

“We came up with a list of things — like plant medicine, biohacking, dealing with perimenopause and all things body image and overall mental health — and it’s just been going really well. I’m having these amazing conversations with people that inspire me. These are people who also have chosen, as I’ve chosen, to be happy or find the bright side of things. It’s been a uplifting project.”

Lake loves that these conversations bring her closer not only to the experts, but to her fans. Serving them with information and conversations they might not encounter elsewhere is as important to the host as ever.

“I feel like I’m doing stuff that’s benefitting people. These are subjects that are relevant, in my own mind, and the conversations benefit me as well. I feel like there’s such a balance in my life and I know how rare that is. People are grinding. They have to put food on the table and take care of the kids and deal with all the things life gives us to deal with,” she levels.

“For me, my children are grown and living on the East Coast. They’re doing great. My husband [Ross Burningham] has four kids who are also out of the house, so we’re empty nesters. I feel like we have this Renaissance time, this new lease on life, because both of us, even though we’re well into our 50s, feel younger and more vibrant and youthful than I have in probably two decades.”

That feeling is, in part, due to a lifestyle change. The “major commitment” taken on by Lake and Burningham ​included “getting in shape — physically, mentally, spiritually, in every way.”

“We look at our lives. We found each other later in life. I met him when I was in my early 50s. I’m now 55 and he’s 57. The one thing that we wanted to fix in our life was that we wanted to stop carrying this extra weight and have vitality and a rich life,” she says. “So we made the commitment. I was very, very specific about it and I’m someone who has struggled with my weight, as most people who have grown up with me and known me my whole life know.”

“This time around, we did it in a really conscious, very healthy, very mindful, loving and gentle way. Since I wasn’t working full-time when we started, I made it my job to just get out in nature, first thing in the morning,” she explains. “I’d take my dog on a hike for three miles every single day, rain or shine. We started experimenting with keto and intermittent fasting and I just watched my body transform, and I felt better and better. So that’s one of the things I’m really into discussing, how we can best be here for as long as we can, feeling as good as we can.”

It’s just the latest step in Lake’s continuing journey.

“My life has had these crazy chapters in it, like the talk show days, the John Waters days, and every phase I look back and I can’t believe what an amazing ride it was,” she says. “Now that I’m in this chapter — which I look at as being the best of the best times — I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life, right now.”

“To say that, it means a lot because I’ve always been pretty freaking happy and a person who’s gone through a lot, but also come out the other side,” she adds. “So, I’m grateful for the entire experience, you know? When I die, people will say, ‘Man, she lived.’ ”