[B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil – Details, episodes & analysis

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[B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil

[B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil

Debbie Weil

Society & Culture
Society & Culture
Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/16d. Total Eps: 120

Simplecast
A podcast about (b)oldly moving from midlife to old age in a society that devalues old people and/or misunderstands what (b)old age is *really* like. Debbie, who is 72, explores that question in frank 30-minute conversations with best-selling authors, experts, and exceptional individuals. With her guests she delves into the unretired (non-retired) life, ageism, ambition, slowing down (or not), physical deterioration, grandparenting, intergenerational collaboration, grief and widowhood, and more. As well as other stuff that piques her interest such as the craft of writing. She invites her husband, Sam Harrington, on as a frequent guest. He’s a retired physician with a dry sense of humor and he makes her laugh. Debbie and Sam took a grownup gap year at age 61, leaving behind a professional life in Washington D.C. Now in their early 70s, they live a busy and productive "unretired" life on an island off the coast of Maine. Debbie writes for Substack at debbieweil.substack.com. Over 100 previous episodes at debbieweil.com/podcast MEDIA PARTNERS: Encore.org Modern Elder Academy (Formerly) Next For Me
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  • 🇨🇦 Canada - personalJournals

    08/09/2024
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Podcast Finale: Debbie & Sam Reflect on Five Years of Podcasting and Ten Gap Years

Season 6 · Episode 12

vendredi 31 mai 2024 • Duration 32:17

Today is a special episode because, after five years, this podcast is ending. You’ll hear why in this episode. Debbie and her husband, Sam Harrington, talk about why it’s time for a finale, about getting old, about legacy (and how it’s different for the two of them, right now), about their life during the past decade, how it's changing even now (they're both 72), and about what lies ahead, at least creatively.  Frankly, Debbie doesn't sound very happy in this episode, but that’s because this has been a hard decision. Debbie thinks it's the right one; Sam needs convincing. 

But there is some good news!

Debbie is continuing to explore the topic of [b]old age on Substack where she writes essays, host Q&A’s, and has created a lively community of [b]old women writers, in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. And some younger women too. She invites you to join her on Substack! It's more interactive than the podcast, you'll get to know other subscribers in the Comments, and you can offer your own take on the topic of what it's really like to get old and why it requires [b]oldness.

https://debbieweil.substack.com

Endings are always bittersweet but you've got access to 120 past episodes of [B]old Age on Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

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Continue the conversation about [B]old Age, and what getting old is really like, on Debbie's [B]OLD AGE Substack. 

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Mentioned in this episode or useful:

 

More [B]OLD AGE:

 

Our Media Partners:

  • CoGenerate (formerly Encore.org)
  • MEA and with thanks to Chip Conley
  • Next For Me (former media partner and in memory of Jeff Tidwell)

 

Credits:

Author Sarah Fay on Healing Her Own Mental Illness and Applying Less and Less of More and More to Life and Substack

Season 6 · Episode 11

vendredi 10 mai 2024 • Duration 40:12

Today, Debbie talks with Sarah Fay, a 52-year-old award-winning author, writing teacher, and mental health keynote speaker whose work has been featured on NPR, Oprah Daily, Forbes, The Los Angeles Times, and more. Her journalistic memoir Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses (HarperCollins, 2022) was an Apple Best Books pick and was hailed in The New York Times as a “fiery manifesto of a memoir.” Her sequel, Cured: The Memoir, tells the story of Sarah’s full recovery from serious mental illness and how recovery is possible for everyone.

She writes for many publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and The Paris Review, where she was an advisory editor. Her essays have been chosen as a Notable Mention in Best American Essays and nominated for Pushcart Prizes. As a teacher, she’s on the faculty at Northwestern University and runs Writers at Work, a weekly publication with workshops to help creative writers produce their best work on Substack and get paid (very) well to do it. Her master plan is to make Substack the literary center of the universe. 

They talk about the parallels between Sarah’s journey of recovery from misdiagnosis to curing her own serious mental illness and her work teaching Substack writers to think big (and get paid for it). Debbie wanted to know if Sarah’s journey to mental health was connected to her success as a writer AND to her ability and desire to help other writers. The answer is yes. They touch on emotional literacy, the prerequisites for healing from mental illness, how to deal with anxieties as writers, what Substack is and who it is for, and what Sarah loves most about helping other writers. 

 

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Don't miss the Behind The Scenes for every episode in Debbie's [B]OLD AGE newsletter. 

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 Mentioned in this episode or useful:


 

Connect with Debbie:

 

Our Media Partners:

  • CoGenerate (formerly Encore.org)
  • MEA and with thanks to Chip Conley
  • Next For Me (former media partner and in memory of Jeff Tidwell)

 

How to Support this podcast:

 

Credits:

Rona Maynard on How Adopting a Rescue Mutt When She Was 65 Made Her a Better Person

Season 6 · Episode 2

vendredi 10 novembre 2023 • Duration 33:50

Today, Debbie talks with Rona Maynard, an author, writer, and former VIP, as she puts it. When she left Canada's leading magazine for women as editor-in-chief, she began looking for her next big project. Around this time, her husband suggested getting a dog. She resisted for several years, then relented. When she was 65, they adopted Casey, a two-year-old rescue mutt with an appealing personality.

He left dog hairs everywhere and peed on her favorite chair the day they brought him home. But the result was an unexpected next new thing, a gradual transformation  of how she is approaching life, and a lovely new book, a memoir, titled Starter Dog.

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Don't miss the Behind The Scenes essay for each new episode in Debbie's [B]OLD AGE newsletter. 

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Of course, the book is not just about her dog. Rona is an extraordinary writer so it is  the woven story of her life as a young woman and a young wife, her ambitions, her relationship to food (and Casey’s), getting older, and how - with Casey leading the way through her Toronto neighborhood - she began to soften and notice more. In the book she illuminates how taking Casey for daily walks ultimately made her a better person. She pulls the past and present together, and, engagingly, includes quotations from two of Debbie's favorite poets: Emily Dickinson and Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Rona learns how to be kind (kindness was not stressed when she was growing up in a household full of ambition), how to befriend strangers and the homeless, how to appreciate the details of changing seasons and the outdoors (after working at a desk for so many years), how to be more patient, and how to live in the moment.

Because of course while she was growing old - eight years pass - her dog was growing older. Casey is now 10, while Rona's in her mid-70s, and he’s teaching her how to embrace old age. Just take it one walk, one squirrel, one bowl of dog food (two if you’re lucky), and one day at a time.

Mentioned in this episode or useful:

 

Connect with Debbie:

 

Our Media Partners:

  • CoGenerate (formerly Encore.org)
  • MEA and with thanks to Chip Conley
  • Next For Me (former media partner and in memory of Jeff Tidwell)

 

How to Support this podcast:

 

Credits:

Debbie's Story: Connecting the Dots Backwards

Season 2 · Episode 6

vendredi 20 décembre 2019 • Duration 08:30

As a special episode to celebrate the conclusion of the first year of this podcast, host Debbie Weil shares her own story.

At her recent college reunion, she performed a five-minute story on the theme of picking up the pieces. That means finding happiness after a setback or a challenge or, in the case of some of her other classmates who told stories, a personal tragedy.

Debbie's story starts when she is a young mother and takes us up to the present day. Don't worry; it goes fast. Her story unfolds in five minutes with some unexpected twists and turns. We knew this story had to air on the podcast because it's a version of one we hear over and over from so many: what happens when things don't go as planned?

Tune in to hear a story of how life can lead you down a path you never could have imagined. Debbie's is a story of dreams fulfilled after the age of 60. It's a story that proves it’s never too late to reinvent yourself.

Mentioned in this episode

Support this podcast:

Credits:

Connect with us:

Thanks to our Media Partners!

  • Encore.org, an ideas and innovation hub tapping the talent of those 50+ as a force for good.
  • Modern Elder Academy Navigating mid-life transitions: Grow Whole, Not Old.
  • Next For Me Rewriting +50 life through new work, a new purpose, or a new social contribution.

An Executive's Story: Taking a Sabbatical With Susan De Cuba

Season 2 · Episode 5

vendredi 6 décembre 2019 • Duration 30:28

Debbie talks with Susan De Cuba, an accomplished nonprofit executive who spent the last 13 years of her career as CEO of a hospice group in Florida.

When Debbie met Susan, she was at the end of her gap year. After 40+ years of non-stop work, she had decided to take a year off - but in a purposeful way. Susan is practical and she is strategic. And she had a goal - to figure out her next step.

Listen in as Debbie picks her brain about:

  • The steps in her decision-making that led her to leave a high-profile career
  • How as a leader you see junctures, or forks in the road, where you can continue on the same path - or step off and do something different
  • How she divided her gap year into fiscal year quarters, like any successful executive making an annual plan, and what she chose to do
  • What it was like to jump into the unknown
  • And finally, how she ended up creating a new consulting career, by combining her existing skills and experience

She felt a desire to serve others and she also knew she wanted freedom and flexibility. Most important, we talk about how she remained open to possibilities, especially around money and resources, and how that led her through a rejuvenating and, ultimately, successful gap year.

PHOTO: Susan dancing in Mexico at the beginning of her gap year sabbatical.

Mentioned in this episode

Support this podcast:

Credits:

Connect with us:

Thanks to our Media Partners!

  • Encore.org, an ideas and innovation hub tapping the talent of those 50+ as a force for good.
  • Modern Elder Academy Navigating mid-life transitions: Grow Whole, Not Old.
  • Next For Me Rewriting +50 life through new work, a new purpose, or a new social contribution.

Aging Myths and Misconceptions and How They Translate Into a Missed Market Opportunity

Season 2 · Episode 4

vendredi 22 novembre 2019 • Duration 27:39

Recently this podcast was invited to co-host a Next For Me event in NYC called “Myths & Misconceptions: The Truth About 50+ Consumers." (Full disclosure: NFM is one of our sponsors.) The other co-hosts were Stria News and Silvernest. Stria News is a media platform for the longevity market that inspires cross-sector solutions for our aging society. Silvernest is an online service that pairs boomers, retirees and empty nesters with compatible housemates for long-term home sharing.

The event took place at Trove Social, a social club for people in their prime, in lower Manhattan. About 50 people attended, all of whom are active in one way or another with the midlife reinvention movement. That included members of the media, marketers, entrepreneurs and consumers.

The goal was to discuss, honestly and openly, the myths and misconceptions surrounding the age 50+ demographic and how this translates into a lost market opportunity. And to bust those myths. You’re probably familiar with a lot of them:

 

  • Older people are grumpy.
  • Older people hate technology and don’t use it.
  • Older people don’t spend money.
  • Older people don’t have sex... and they don’t want to.
  • Older people have less to contribute.

 

The underlying question: what if more people recognized that those 50 and up are a vast, diverse and untapped source of potential dollar revenue as well as being overlooked contributors to society?

Some of us might still be having sex while others don’t. Some of us love technology and the latest iPhone while others tolerate it or ignore it. The point is that the millions of members of this age 50-plus demographic are all different. And yet we all seem to be confronted with the same ageist attitudes and the same misconceptions about who we are as individuals.

In this episode Debbie chats with Jeff Tidwell, co-founder of Next For Me. This is a follow-up to Debbie's conversation with Jeff in EP8 of Season 1. She also talks to Susan Donley, founder, publisher and CEO of Stria News, and to Wendi Burkhardt, co-founder and CEO of Silvernest.

PHOTO: Debbie, left, and Wendi Burkhardt of Silvernest.

 

 

Mentioned in the episode

Support this podcast:

Credits:

Connect with us:

Thanks to our Media Partners!

  • Encore.org, an ideas and innovation hub tapping the talent of those 50+ as a force for good.
  • Modern Elder Academy Navigating mid-life transitions: Grow Whole, Not Old.
  • Next For Me Rewriting +50 life through new work, a new purpose, or a new social contribution.

 

 

Nomadic Matt on travel as a way to reinvent yourself

Season 2 · Episode 3

vendredi 8 novembre 2019 • Duration 22:15

Matthew Kepnes is best known as Nomadic Matt, the name of his eponymous website dedicated to traveling smarter, cheaper and longer. He tells us in the first few pages of his new memoir that he has spent more than 3,000 nights in a thousand different cities in 90 countries so Debbie figured he would be the perfect guest to talk about travel as a way to reinvent yourself.

Now 38, Matt recently settled down in Austin, Texas after over 10 years of longterm traveling in Asia and other parts of the world. We talk about the emotional aspects of travel, the courage it takes to detach yourself from societal expectations (keep a steady job, stay in one place), the difference between travel and a vacation and the importance of journaling or writing while you are on the journey. Only by recording what you are thinking and feeling while in the midst of it can you look back later to truly understand the experience.

Matt also shares his encounters with older travelers and the common fears that he hears in people 50 and older who want to travel on the cheap.

Mentioned in the episode

  • Nomadicmatt.com is full of resources for traveling at any age
  • Ten Years a Nomad by Matthew Kepnes (part memoir and part philosophical exploration of why we travel)
  • Vagabonding by Rolf Potts (the original book about the art of longterm world travel)

Support this podcast:

Credits:

Connect with us:

Thanks to our Media Partners!

  • Encore.org, an ideas and innovation hub tapping the talent of those 50+ as a force for good.
  • Modern Elder Academy Navigating mid-life transitions: Grow Whole, Not Old.
  • Next For Me Rewriting +50 life through new work, a new purpose, or a new social contribution.

Exploring Middlescence with Barbara Waxman

Season 2 · Episode 2

vendredi 25 octobre 2019 • Duration 26:01

Barbara Waxman, a gerontologist, author and coach, has coined the term middlescence to describe a new stage in midlife and beyond.

She describes it as a transitional period often accompanied by physical changes, as well as social and economic changes. Sound familiar? Physical and hormonal changes are what we think of when we talk about adolescence. More important, Middlescence is like adolescence but with wisdom thrown in. Barbara defines it as the period from age 45 to 75ish. In her words, it is “a turning point from which adults continue to develop and grow. (It is) a life stage created by increased longevity patterns in the 21st century.”

Our conversation ranges widely, from exploring the concept of Middlescence, to redefining success in this stage of life.

What we talked about:

  • Why midlife is such a popular topic right now
  • Middlescence vs. adolescence
  • How to counter ageism
  • How to change the narrative of how we feel when we look in the mirror and see our aging selves
  • Barbara’s gap year in Italy – she calls it repotting (like a plant)
  • The importance of lifelong learning
  • What contributes to thriving or not thriving
  • The 5 essentials mindset and why it is so important

Mentioned in this episode:


Support this podcast:

 

Credits:

 

Connect with us:


Thanks to our Media Partners!

  • Encore.org, an ideas and innovation hub tapping the talent of those 50+ as a force for good.
  • Modern Elder Academy Navigating mid-life transitions: Grow Whole, Not Old.
  • Next For Me Rewriting +50 life through new work, a new purpose, or a new social contribution.

A Year of Wellness with Katie Tremper

Season 2 · Episode 1

vendredi 11 octobre 2019 • Duration 33:02

Debbie and Katie Tremper talk about the challenges of slowing down to take care of yourself. More recently, Katie, 56, has also been coping with a chronic illness, MS. Ironically, her diagnosis has helped her reconnect with herself.

In this conversation Katie is remarkably open about why she is starting a Year of Wellness. After 33 years as a nonprofit executive in education, she is making a radical life change. But her story is about more than deciding to taking a grown-up gap year. Katie was diagnosed with MS - multiple sclerosis - several years ago. She talks about what it means to live with a chronic illness, all the ups and downs and frustrations.

Her goal for her Year of Wellness is to reduce and slow her symptoms. She and her husband have downsized from high pressure San Francisco to the smaller quieter city of Davis, CA and she plans to take better care of herself in a multitude of ways: from cooking and eating more healthy foods to exercising to finding moments of joy in her daily life. We talk about the complexity of slowing down after a lifetime of working so hard. We also talk about dying and whether the horizon has shifted for her.

After we spoke, Katie offered this revealing update via email about her Year of Wellness:

"We have completed our move to Davis, where we are now the proud owners of a lovely little house in a quiet neighborhood, surrounded by lots of trees and great neighbors. A big part of my vision for my "Year of Wellness" is finding a place of peace, and I think I have found it! Although I have not been working at a job for almost 3 months, I have been very busy with the move.

One big learning for me is to ASK for help when I need it. I didn't do that going into the move, and we ended up bringing a lot of boxes that I wish I'd been able to go through, sort and purge beforehand.

My "bucket list," or program that I have envisioned and developed has not changed. It includes: establishing healthy daily habits to improve my mind, body and spirit; managing our finances (to include learning to live on 1/2 the income we had last year); exploring and expressing my creative side, and having fun, laughing, and experiencing joy.

I've not been able to implement everything as quickly as I would have liked, but I remind myself that the changes we are going through (jobs, major move, chronic illness) are big, stressful, and exhausting at times.

I also haven't begun a creative endeavor yet... I want to start writing regularly. I also haven't done much cooking or developing a better diet and nutrition plan for myself. But I'm being compassionate with myself on not being as "successful" as quickly as I imagined, and I truly believe that I will get to all of my goals, in some form or another, by the end of this calendar year.

My career has been dedicated to helping other people realize their goals and dreams through education, but I have become burned out, exhausted, and spent after three decades. I've always had a hard time with self-care (God forbid I try to take care of myself first) and I realized that was part of my problem.

One thing that has surprised me is that I am not having the chronic pain I was having the past couple of years in San Francisco, when I was so stressed it was making me sick. MS causes inflammation throughout the body, and I regularly had headaches, backaches, and tendonitis.

I know have the time to be more present in the moment, and to really spend quality time with people and doing things I love." - Katie Tremper

PHOTO: Katie posing with Debbie's husband Sam, in Baja, Mexico.

Mentioned in this episode

Support this podcast:

Credits:

Connect with us:

Thanks to our Media Partners!

  • Encore.org, an ideas and innovation hub tapping the talent of those 50+ as a force for good.
  • Modern Elder Academy Navigating mid-life transitions: Grow Whole, Not Old.
  • Next For Me Rewriting +50 life through new work, a new purpose, or a new social contribution.

Season 2 Trailer

Season 2

mercredi 2 octobre 2019 • Duration 02:57

The term gap year symbolizes so much more than taking a time out. It is a frame for examining such topics as reinvention, a new purpose, aging with wisdom, trying new things, bucket list travel, a new approach to health and well-being, and more. All the topics that relate to living well in this stage of life.

My guests in Season 2 will be a mix of inspiring individuals who are taking or have taken grown-up gap years along with well-known authors and experts on all the topics I’ve mentioned.

Join us on this new season of Gap Year for Grown-Ups, and let’s dive deep... into what’s next.

And as always, if you’ve got ideas for future shows or guests, email us at [email protected]

We will publish a new episode every other Friday, starting Oct. 18, 2019. (With a week off here or there over the holidays.)

Debbie Weil, your host

Our Media Partners

  • Encore.org, an ideas and innovation hub tapping the talent of those 50+ as a force for good.
  • Modern Elder Academy Navigating mid-life transitions: Grow Whole, Not Old.
  • Next For Me Rewriting +50 life through new work, a new purpose, or a new social contribution.

Credits:

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