Explore every episode of the podcast [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
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| Podcast Finale: Debbie & Sam Reflect on Five Years of Podcasting and Ten Gap Years | 31 May 2024 | 00:32:17 | |
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. ////////// 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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| Author Sarah Fay on Healing Her Own Mental Illness and Applying Less and Less of More and More to Life and Substack | 10 May 2024 | 00:40:12 | |
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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| Patty Ivey on Getting Breast Cancer at Age 70 and How It’s Changing What She Will Give Back to the World | 19 Apr 2024 | 00:39:08 | |
Today Debbie talks to Patty Ivey about life changes and opportunities opening up for her after being diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer last year. Inspiring doesn’t really cover it as a way to describe Patty. Neither does [b]old, as in [B]OLD AGE. Patty and Debbie go back at least 15 years, when Debbie was a regular at Patty's Down Dog yoga studio in DC. It was always special when Patty, the owner, taught a class. Her classes were different. They offered all the benefits that practicing yoga offers beyond what happens on the mat; with Patty teaching, the class was mind-expanding. She made yoga open up new possibilities for how to live. So when Debbie saw Patty posting beautiful, bald photos of herself on her LinkedIn page, she immediately got in touch to find out how she was doing. As Patty explains it, she is using life principles from yoga, which include leaving room for what we don’t know and focusing on something bigger than ourselves, as she looks ahead. She acknowledges an identity shift that has come with cancer. Some older version of herself is no longer there, but she's okay with that. Like most women, Debbie is terrified of getting breast cancer, but with Patty as a guide (she’s also a mentor and a life coach as well as being a serial entrepreneur), it seems there could be an upside. We hope you are as inspired by this conversation as Debbie was.
////////// Don't miss the Behind The Scenes for every podcast episode in Debbie's [B]OLD AGE newsletter on Substack. //////////
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| Lyn Slater on How To Be Old and Why She Is No Longer a Fashion Influencer | 29 Mar 2024 | 00:38:41 | |
Debbie speaks with Lyn Slater, a writer and activist and former social media influencer. She spent her mid-60s becoming an icon of fashion, racking up nearly 800,000 Instagram followers, representing huge brands like Ilia Beauty, Kate Spade, Moncler, and Visa (among many others), speaking on fashion panels, and in general living a very public life. Her memoir, “How to Be Old: Lessons in Living Boldly From the Accidental Icon" is just out. But… and there’s a big BUT, Lyn has given up that identity and is now, at 70, a writer and hands-on grandmother. She has renounced social media and no longer offers fashion or style tips. In this episode she tells Debbie that she was unhappy at the peak of her influencer career, what she learned from her mother’s decline and death, and how we have to tell the truth about old age to young women. ////////// Don't miss the Behind The Scenes for every episode in Debbie's [B]OLD AGE newsletter. ////////// Mentioned in this episode or useful:
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| Steven Petrow on His Sister Julie, the Importance of Choice, and Medical Aid in Dying | 08 Mar 2024 | 00:36:00 | |
In the Intro to this episode, you'll hear Steven Petrow talking about his sister Julie Petrow’s death last June 2023. After years of battling ovarian cancer, Julie, Steven’s five-years-younger little sister, chose to die in her New Jersey home by drinking a lethal cocktail. She was surrounded by her family. And it was legal. She used a procedure called MAID or medical aid in dying, which is now legal in 10 states in the U.S. plus the district of Columbia. But before she died, she made Steven, who is a bestselling author and a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, promise to write about how she chose to die, in order to raise awareness around MAID, a practice that many people don’t know about, or don’t understand, even though it was first legalized in Oregon, almost 30 years ago. So Steven did, publishing an essay about Julie and her decision in The New York Times a few months ago. It got a huge reception with over 600 comments on the NYT’s site. In this episode, Steven explains more:
////////// Don't miss Debbie's Behind The Scenes essay on Substack accompanying every episode of the podcast. //////////
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| Kirsten Powers on Changing the Channel From CNN Political Analyst to Easeful Living and Writing | 16 Feb 2024 | 00:34:43 | |
Today, Debbie talks with Kirsten Powers, a New York Times bestselling author, a liberal columnist and, most recently, an on-air political analyst with CNN. In 2023, after almost two decades, she left what she calls the “media circus” to pursue a different life as a writer and a life coach. Kirsten, who is 56, is [b]old by any definition. Prior to CNN she was at Fox (as a liberal voice) and before that she was a columnist for USA Today, The Daily Beast, American Prospect Online, and the New York Post. Her recent bestselling book is Saving Grace: Speak Your Truth, Stay Centered, and Learn to Coexist with People Who Drive You Nuts. Currently Kirsten writes a very popular newsletter on Substack, called, appropriately, "Changing the Channel." It's about living authentically, unlearning societal conditioning, and how to actually change your life. She published an essay recently about her plan to move to Italy with her husband because, as she put it, the U.S. is unlivable, with school shootings, the frenetic pace of life and because it’s too expensive. Somehow we are societally conditioned to accept this, as if it’s normal. But it’s not, Kirsten emphasizes. The post went viral, hitting a nerve with her many readers. Now she’s working on a book proposal. Since leaving her on-air job, Kirsten has been deliberately pursuing what she calls a "more easeful life" that is less striving and less accomplishment-oriented. It includes writing on Substack, which she loves. In this episode she also talks about her transition from evangelical christian to atheist. Kirsten is fast thinking and provocative and Debbie loved this conversation with her. ////////// Don't miss the Behind The Scenes for every episode in Debbie's [B]OLD AGE newsletter. ////////// Mentioned in this episode or useful:
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| Bestselling Author Dale Russakoff on Being a Southern Woman at Harvard, Ambition at 71, and How Family Matters Most | 26 Jan 2024 | 00:38:10 | |
Today, Debbie talks to Dale Russakoff, a veteran reporter for The Washington Post, a bestselling author, and a classmate from her Harvard/Radcliffe class of 1974. They talk about her surprising experience at Harvard as a woman from the South, her distinguished career as a journalist, and the importance of family. Debbie knew that Dale had been a reporter for The Washington Post for almost 30 years. And that she is the author of a best-selling book, THE PRIZE. But in this episode she told Debbie something she'd never heard before: what it was like to be a Southern girl at Harvard. Dale, who had a Southern accent then, said she was reluctant to open her mouth at first. She'd grown up in Birmingham, AL and when she arrived in Cambridge she learned that the Radcliffe admissions committee hadn’t admitted a woman from the South in many years, unless she had gone to a Northern boarding school. The committee thought girls who grew up and went to school in the South wouldn't have “the values" Radcliffe wanted; i.e. they would be racist. She and Debbie talk about what it was like to be a female student in the man's world of Harvard, how "ambition" fit into her college years and, later, how it related to Dale's career in journalism. They talk about the importance of family, including grandchildren. And how she feels AT. CAPACITY. (i.e. too busy) in semi-retirement, at age 71. ////////// Don't miss Debbie's Substack essay on the topic of being too busy or AT. CAPACITY. //////////
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THE FIRST TWO EPISODES IN THIS TRILOGY: Conversations with two more of Debbie's classmates from the Harvard/Radcliffe class of 1974:
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| Bestselling Author Mary Pipher on Forgiveness, Happiness, and Old Age | 22 Dec 2023 | 00:29:24 | |
* This is the last episode in 2023. Back on Jan. 26, 2024! * More recently, she has written Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing As We Age, about women navigating the transition from middle age to old age (the topic of this podcast!). In 2022, she published a memoir, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence. In her new book, just out in paperback, Mary, now 76, talks about her difficult childhood and her relationship with her parents, the importance of family and community, living in a small town in Nebraska, and what the particular challenges of getting old are. She also talks about forgiveness, about adopting Buddhism and her definition of happiness. Per the title, she’s obsessed with light, through trees, on walks, at certain times of day, in certain rooms, and in memories — and how the light makes her feel happy and complete. She says her knowledge about happiness comes from being someone who has struggled with sadness and anxiety much of her life, something that resonates strongly with Debbie. This is a great episode. Mary articulates so well what it’s really like to get old and yet still feel so alive. //////////
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| Winifred White Neisser on Ambition, Embracing 70, and What Comes Next | 08 Dec 2023 | 00:49:14 | |
Today, Debbie speaks to Winifred White Neisser, a classmate from the Harvard/Radcliffe Class of 1974. Winifred looks back on her career as a television executive in the all-male, all-white Hollywood entertainment industry and talks about what comes next. Both Debbie and Winifred are looking forward to celebrating their 50th Harvard reunion next year. Wini, as her friends call her, is very modest. She doesn’t think of herself as a [b]old woman. So it took Debbie a while to get her to talk about her success as an entertainment executive. She capped her 34-year career as Senior VP of Sony Pictures for Television Movies and Miniseries. Her award-winning projects include the movie A Raisin in the Sun for ABC and Call me Claus, a Christmas movie which starred Whoopi Goldberg. It’s her Midwestern upbringing, Wini told Debbie. They don’t brag or show off in Milwaukee, WI where she grew up. She was never propelled by ambition, she told Debbie. Nor did she plan out next steps as she rose to her position as a top exec. But it wouldn’t be accurate to say that her career “just happened.” ////////// Don't miss the Behind The Scenes essay on Substack accompanying this episode. ////////// This interview is a story of quiet capability and determination - and underneath, a fierce drive. Debbie was fascinated by her classmate’s story because, with one exception, it’s so different from hers. Debbie married at the absurdly young age of 21 (she was a junior at Harvard). She had her first baby at 25 and two more by age 31. Wini married much later and had her two children in her mid 30s, all the while climbing the TV executive ladder, first at NBC and later at Sony. In contrast, Debbie’s early motherhood derailed her career in journalism. She was married to a busy young doctor so someone had to hold down the fort at home. She stepped willingly into that role, but felt a good deal of frustration trying to work part-time as a freelance journalist. Underneath, she had the same fierce drive that Wini had. She just couldn’t express it, career-wise, until some years later. As the conversation continued, Debbie realized that fierce drive and determination sum up the common thread she shares with her female classmates from the Harvard/Radcliffe Class of 1974. There were only 300 women (Cliffies, as they were called) in a class of 1,500 students. So they were vastly outnumbered. They were polite about it, but they were all determined to be successful in their chosen fields — both in Harvard’s male-dominated classrooms and later in the world of work.
Note: it’s a bit confusing to explain but Radcliffe was the name of the women’s college that was part of Harvard in the 1970s and earlier, so technically the women attended Harvard/Radcliffe. Radcliffe has now been subsumed by Harvard. And the ratio of women to men in a Harvard class is now 50-50. So much has changed in 50 years. Hope you enjoy this compelling conversation with a 70-year-old (b)old woman.
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| Best Of: Debbie and Sam Go Back to France | 24 Nov 2023 | 00:34:01 | |
Updated with a new introduction, this is a replay of an atmospheric episode from 2019 when Debbie and Sam studied French in Provence in an immersion program. They planned to go back in 2020 but of course the pandemic intervened. Now, they’ve just completed another week of immersion in Avignon with their favorite French teacher, Julie Gaudin. ///////////// Don't miss the Substack essay accompanying this episode: Behind The Scenes With "French Debbie" ///////////// In the episode you'll hear accordion music and a few snippets recorded in a cafe where Debbie speaks French. Both she and Sam have a special relationship with France from their adolescent years. And they both have a longstanding bucket list item: to live in France for an extended period in order to practice and improve their French. They both agree you can’t become a true ex-pat in only two weeks but it’s enough time to adopt a daily routine and to make a friend or two at the local boulangerie and at a favorite bar serving artisanal beer. Despite their many trips to Paris and other parts of France, they continue to find the French language and French culture both mysterious and alluring.
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| Rona Maynard on How Adopting a Rescue Mutt When She Was 65 Made Her a Better Person | 10 Nov 2023 | 00:33:50 | |
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. ////////// Don't miss the Behind The Scenes essay for each new episode in Debbie's [B]OLD AGE newsletter. ////////// 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:
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| Debbie & Sam on the Acceleration of Aging: Smudged Glasses, Creaky Bodies and Before It’s Too Late | 27 Oct 2023 | 00:27:28 | |
Welcome back to Season 6! You might’ve noticed that we changed the name of the show to more accurately reflect the focus, which is to explore the transition from midlife to old age. [B]OLDER seemed a bit too general, so it's now [B]OLD AGE. Given our ageist society, it requires [b]oldness to say proudly, "I am old." This season our goal is to be even more honest and vulnerable about what it’s like as the clock ticks away. For this first episode, Debbie is joined by her husband, Sam Harrington, a popular recurring guest who is known for his dry humor. He's a retired physician and an author. They start by talking about how aging has suddenly accelerated for both of them, in their early 70s. Sam says he can see his telomeres fraying when he looks in the mirror. He notes that only a decade ago they still looked remarkably young in photos. (See photo accompanying this episode; in 2014 Debbie and Sam were hanging out in Madagascar with lemurs.) ////////// Don't miss the accompanying Behind The Scenes essay for this new episode in Debbie's [B]OLD AGE newsletter. ////////// They also talk about the long vigil of accompanying a dying parent and how that affects your own sense of old age; how health span has noticeably increased in the past 50 years; and what the stunning demographic shift to an aging society will mean. By 2030, there will be more adults over 65 than children under 18. Debbie notes the parallel between the acceleration of aging and the acceleration of global warming. At first the changes are slow and hardly noticeable. Then they happen all at once, like this past summer. But the conversation veers back to the physiological fact of aging. Sam's favorite mantra is that "80 might be the new 60, but 86 is the new 85." The current research to better understand and to slow aging may be too late to benefit them, Sam says.
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| Season 6 - Trailer | 20 Oct 2023 | 00:02:30 | |
When Debbie started this podcast almost five years ago, she was as she puts it "a mere 67." Old age seemed very far away. Now it doesn’t. So this season we’re focusing on the lived experience of old age. What’s it really like? What are the truths, both positive and negative, about moving from midlife to old age? How do you OWN being old in a society that devalues and even denigrates old people? ////////// Don't miss the BTS (behind-the-scenes) for every episode in Debbie's [B]OLD AGE newsletter. ////////// We’ll still talk about things like finding purpose and redefining retirement. But we’ll also look at the upside of slowing down; for example, "being" vs. "doing" when you’ve been driven by ambition your whole life. The point is to bring you honest and vulnerable dispatches of the ordinary and the profound. And so this little tweak in the name: it’s now the [B]OLD AGE podcast because it takes courage and [b]oldness to move gracefully from midlife into old age. We hope what we talk about here will help you on your own transition into [b]old age, wherever you are now. Maybe you're young and worrying about becoming middle-aged. Or you're in midlife and looking ahead. As always, send comments or questions to thebolderpodcast@gmail.com. And check out Debbie's new [B]OLD AGE newsletter where you can get the BTS (behind-the-scenes) on each episode of the podcast, read her personal essays, get writing tips, and more. You can leave your comments on every Substack post. Debbie promises to respond. Connect with Debbie:
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| Debbie & Sam Wrap Up Season 5: Anniversaries, Unexpected Death, God, Grandchildren, and More. | 21 Jul 2023 | 00:28:49 | |
Today, Debbie brings her husband Sam Harrington back on the show to wrap up another [B]OLDER season. You'll hear their 11-year-old granddaughter Ruthie talking about her recent trip with them to the Swiss Alps. Definitely a high point of the season and of the past year. A lot has happened during Season 5 of [B]OLDER: Debbie and Sam celebrated their 50th anniversary while they were in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Then, right after that, Debbie's 92-year-old mother died unexpectedly, prompting a lot of memories, much appreciation, and a blunt reminder of life’s finitude. We re-ran episodes with some of our most popular guests who talked about psychedelic therapy and about Covid’s place in the history of plagues.
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In Season 5 Debbie talked to new guests about cellular research on aging, about helping elderly parents plan ahead, what UNretirement is really like, and one of her all-time favorite interviews: a conversation with famed New York Times health columnist Jane Brody about what she learned from a half century at the Times. And finally, renowned writer and speaker Jonathan Merritt eloquently explained God and religion to Debbie, a non-church person. In this wrap-up you’ll hear Sam - hopefully not slurping his coffee but maybe a little - and teasing Debbie about "jumping right in." (She likes that podcast expression; he does not.) This is the finale of Season 5 of the [B]OLDER podcast. Have a great summer, thank you for listening, and we’ll be back in the fall. In the meantime, find Debbie on Substack where she writes about what it's really like to grow old(er)?
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| Jonathan Merritt on Personal Transformation and the Complicated Intersection of Faith and Culture | 07 Jul 2023 | 00:43:16 | |
Today, Debbie speaks to Jonathan Merritt, one of America’s most renowned writers on faith and culture. Debbie met Jonathan in the hot tub in Baja Mexico, but don’t get the wrong idea. They were both in Baja to attend a weeklong workshop organized by Modern Elder Academy. And as you’ll hear in this episode, "change and transformation" were very much on the agenda. You may have heard her talk about MEA. It’s billed as a midlife wisdom school whose core mission is to shift our negative mindset about aging. MEA is also a little bit of paradise. The campus, bursting with pink bougainvillea, sits on a wide, surf-pounded beach near Todos Santos, MX, just north of Cabo.
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Debbie and Jonathan were part of a group of about 20 in a recent workshop, pondering how to use sensory experience in the here and now to map out their futures. Debbie was intrigued with Jonathan’s thoughtful comments. She was also drawn to his Atlanta accent which she couldn’t quite place at first but which she recognized. She has a bunch of Georgia cousins. In the hot tub, Jonathan revealed a bit about why he had flown from New York to spend a week at MEA. She wanted to find out more so she invited him onto the show. And she wanted him to explain things to her, a non church-person. Jonathan is best known as a writer on the complicated intersection of faith and culture — as it applies to LGBTQ intolerance and evangelicalism — and much more. The son of an evangelical leader and a former pastor himself, Jonathan was outed as gay a decade ago. He moved to New York City and has since become an award-winning contributor to The Atlantic, a senior columnist for Religion News Service; has authored several books (including the critically-acclaimed How to Speak God From Scratch); has been interviewed on ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR and PBS; is a literary agent; has ghostwritten or collaborated on more than 50 books (with several titles landing on the NYTimes, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists); speaks and teaches at colleges, conferences and churches; has just finished writing his first children’s book; and is writing a TV series about religion and popular culture. Oh, and he just turned 40. Despite — or perhaps because of — his achievements, Jonathan is working on a transformation, his own “what’s next.” He’s an old soul, he tells Debbie, so he’s approaching this with intentionality; his week at MEA was just one step. On the podcast they talk about:
As Debbie tells Jonathan, she could listen to him explain things all day — especially as they relate to religion, church, community, identity, intolerance and more. And yes, it's okay to go to church, he told her. Even if you don't believe in God, per se. She loved this conversation and hopes you will too.
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| Karen Wickre on Aging in Place As a Singleton After a Stellar Tech Career | 23 Jun 2023 | 00:33:00 | |
Debbie brings her friend Karen Wickre back on the show to talk about "aging in place" and other things, including being a singleton in her 70s. They met over 20 years ago when Debbie interviewed Karen, who was editor of Google’s blog, for Debbie's book, The Corporate Blogging Book. Not surprisingly, Google was an early adopter of this new form of communication. They've stayed in touch ever since. Karen had a stellar career in tech, working at Google and then at Twitter. She retired when she was 65 (she didn’t call it “retirement” back then) and is now an editorial consultant. She lives alone in San Francisco where she's owned her apartment for over 20 years. Now that she’s completed a strategically-planned renovation, she plans to stay there to "age in place." She is the author of Taking the Work Out of Networking: Your Guide to Making and Keeping Great Connections. They talk about the power of networking, the importance of connections later in life, especially if you are a solo ager, planning ahead if you want to age in place, and what the definition of home is - beyond location - and how that might change as you grow older. Debbie shares her thoughts about what and where home is - as she looks ahead. Mentioned in this episode or useful:
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| Best Of: Dr. Bree Johnston on Psilocybin Trips and the Growing Acceptance of Psychedelic Therapy | 09 Jun 2023 | 00:47:05 | |
Debbie talks with Dr. Bree Johnston, a geriatrician and palliative care physician in practice for 35 years who is also certified in psychedelic therapies. This is a re-airing of an episode published one year ago. The topic of psychedelic therapy has gone mainstream in the past several years and especially in the past year. In the year since Debbie and Dr. Bree spoke, the use of psilocybin, MDMA and other psychedelics as therapy for addiction, depression and to ease fear of death has been increasingly in the news. The use of psilocybin is now legal or decriminalized in a handful of states in addition to Oregon. Dr. Bree is an especially clear speaker and talks openly about the benefits of her own psilocybin trips. She tells us she wishes she could prescribe them for her elderly patients who are anxious about dying. She explains everything you might want to know about different psychedelics, what their effects are, what to be wary of and more. As to how this topic fits into aging and reinvention, Debbie says were she to receive a fatal diagnosis from cancer or another disease, she's pretty sure she would seek a guided psilocybin trip to ease fear of dying. UPDATE on legal status of psychedelics
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| Sari Botton on Oldster Magazine and the Hot Topic of Growing Old | 26 May 2023 | 00:32:02 | |
Debbie talks to the incomparably prolific writer and editor Sari Botton about her popular online Oldster Magazine and how the topic of growing old touches a nerve with everyone from Millennials to GenXers (she is 57) to Boomers. Sari Botton publishes three different newsletters on Substack and she’s got over 1,500 paying subscribers. So growing old is definitely a hot topic - and not just for Boomers in their 60s and 70s. Her approach to aging is interesting; in fact, she’s been obsessed with growing older since she turned 10 and entered double digits. And she says she still feels 10 or 11 inside her head. She describes aging as traveling through time in a human body—of any gender, at every phase of life. Thus Oldster Magazine is about the experience of getting older and what that means at different junctures. In this episode Sari and Debbie talk about ageism (what it is and isn’t); Sari's experiences of growing older (no more wooden clogs for her); and the close to 100 interviews she's done on Oldster about growing older (and what we can learn from them). They also talk about Martha Stewart’s recent Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Cover. Does it make the point that you can look good in a swimsuit at any age (Martha is 81)? That age doesn’t matter?? Or is this just Martha Stewart being Martha Stewart? They also delve into Sari's new skincare routine (yes, a nod to getting older) and why birthday parties are so important to her. Sari is the author of the memoir in essays, And You May Find Yourself...Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen-X Weirdo and was a contributing editor and columnist at Catapult, and the former Essays Editor for Longreads. She edited the bestselling anthologies Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving NewYork and Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for New York. She teaches creative nonfiction at Bay Path University and Kingston Writers' Studio. She publishes Oldster Magazine, Memoir Land, and Adventures in Journalism. She is the Writer in Residence in the creative writing department of SUNY New Paltz for Spring, 2023.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
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| Abigail Thomas on Life at 81: Liquid Moments, Memory, French Toast and Writing | 12 May 2023 | 00:38:33 | |
Today, Debbie speaks with bestselling author Abigail Thomas whom Stephen King calls “the Emily Dickinson of memoirists." Her new memoir, titled "Still Life at Eighty," is a series of loosely connected essays on the topic of aging. But it's so much more than that. Abby, as she insisted that Debbie call her, is funny and frank and profane as she talks about the good and the bad of aging. Yes, there are aches and pains. No, she doesn't mind being old. In fact, she loves it. She no longer cares what people think of her and - just for the record - she is not afraid of death. As she puts it: "Please God, let there be no afterlife." In this conversation she and Debbie talk about her writing (Debbie finds it "transcendent"), her relationship to time and memories, her longterm friendship with literary agent Chuck Verrill (who died in early 2022), and why she loves working with clay. Mentioned in this episode or useful:
"STILL LIFE AT EIGHTY is a little jewel box of a book, full of epiphanies that are comforting and merciless in the gentlest possible way. Both a series of meditations and a user’s manual about growing old, I was amazed by its clarity... Even the title, with its deliberate ambiguity, is a very cool thing." — Stephen King PHOTO CREDIT: Jennifer Waddell
Get the inside skinny on every episode of [B]OLDER: Subscribe to Debbie’s newsletter for the inside story about every episode. You will also get her 34-page writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide. Request from Debbie: If you've been enjoying the podcast, please take a moment to leave a short review on Apple Podcasts. It really makes a difference in attracting new listeners.
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| Best Of: Plague Expert Nicholas Christakis on Why the Pandemic Will End in 2024 | 28 Apr 2023 | 00:55:56 | |
Today, Debbie re-runs the single most popular of 100+ episodes of [B]OLDER. Exactly two years ago, in the spring of 2021, she asked plague expert Nicholas Christakis, a distinguished Yale professor and author, the burning question: when will the COVID-19 pandemic end? His answer: 2024. It startled her and burst her bubble of optimism. Vaccines were widely available by then and it seemed like the beginning of the end. Surely he was exaggerating how long it would take for the COVID pandemic to wind down? No, it was only the end of the beginning, he told her. Today that makes sense. And of course, it was prescient. Tune into a re-run of one of the most fascinating episodes of [B]OLDER. (Note that Debbie refers to it as The Gap Year Podcast, the name she gave the podcast during the height of the pandemic. It's now the [B]OLDER podcast. Same podcast; different name.) PHOTO CREDIT: Evan Mann
***** NEW! Subscribe to Debbie's Substack. *****
SHOW NOTES from the original interview with Nicholas Christakis (May 7, 2021) Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, and a Sterling Professor at Yale, has been named to TIME magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. His fluency in explaining the intertwined science, epidemiology, psychology, sociology and history of pandemics - and his sense of humor - make this a compelling episode.
Debbie asks him point blank: when is the next pandemic? The answer is unnerving – sooner than you might think.
About Nicholas Christakis
Books by Nicholas Christakis
Articles and interviews
Mentioned or useful
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| One Year Later: Richard Eisenberg on the Unretired Life | 14 Apr 2023 | 00:35:41 | |
Debbie brings veteran journalist and prolific freelance writer Richard Eisenberg back on the podcast one year after he "unretired" from full-time work as managing editor of Next Avenue. When they spoke a year ago, he was just embarking on his new life. Today, he reflects on surprises, what he's learned, what he's working on, and more. Richard defines unretirement as a mixture of paid and unpaid work, as well as the opportunity to delve into unexplored passions, travel, volunteer, and spend more time with family. He tells Debbie that the biggest surprise so far is how challenging it has been to adjust to a wide-open schedule on his calendar. He has lots of days with a full plate but the blank days are discomfiting. Debbie suggests that he cheat and put "take a walk" or "pick up the dry cleaning" on his Apple calendar. He reveals that he much prefers a paper calendar and carries one around with him, with his appointments entered, changed, and scratched off. He and Debbie also discuss ageism, the ethics of writing with help from AI (aka Chat GPT), and fraudulent Medicare Advantage marketing. They also talk about the increasing number of age-friendly jobs and why older workers (who value flexibility, autonomy, etc.) are NOT getting them. This is a great conversation from a down-to-earth practitioner of the art of unretirement. You'll find links to some of his recent articles in the show notes below. All are about issues related to retirement and aging.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Recent Articles
Books he’s read and enjoyed recently:
[B]OLDER podcast episodes about intergenerational collaboration:
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| 100th Episode: Guy Kawasaki on ChatGPT, Remarkable People & Why Podcasting Is His Ikigai | 31 Mar 2023 | 00:38:40 | |
Debbie brings back a favorite recurring guest, Silicon Valley legend Guy Kawasaki, to talk about legacy, aging, ChatGPT, why podcasting is his "ikigai," and more — and to celebrate the 100th episode of [B]OLDER. Guy is the original Apple evangelist, a prolific author, a surfer (at age 68), and perhaps most importantly, a podcaster. Guy is the creator and host of the popular Remarkable People podcast. Podcasting is his ikigai (a Japanese expression meaning reason for being or purpose) and Remarkable People is his best work, he says. He and Debbie discuss ChatGPT, the natural language processing tool driven by AI that everyone is talking about. Guy offers ways he is using ChatGPT, including: - To write a first draft of a podcast intro for a guest - To write form letters to an insurance company (he settled his claim favorably!) - To write the first draft of his new book (based on his podcast). He is using ChatGPT as a more powerful thesaurus and in other ways. Listen to the episode for more tips and to hear how Guy makes Debbie laugh - and think.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
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| Expat Bonnie Lee Black on the Pros (& Very Few Cons) of Retiring to San Miguel de Allende | 17 Mar 2023 | 00:32:14 | |
Debbie Weil talks to Bonnie Lee Black, an author and blogger who retired in her 70s to affordable and magical San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. SMA, as it's called, has become a haven for expat retirees, especially single older women. It has been named (three times in a row) the Best Small City in the World by Condé Nast Traveler. And it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Debbie and her husband Sam spent three weeks there in February '23 and were charmed by the Spanish colonial architecture, the cobblestone streets, the tiny shops, the rooftop restaurants, the perfect weather, and of course the pink wedding cake cathedral, referred to as the Parroquia, in the main square. While they are not seriously considering retiring there, Debbie was intrigued by Bonnie's blog and her experiences as a permanente (permanent resident). Bonnie's blog post titled Watch Your Step (about the dangerously uneven sidewalks) caught Debbie's attention so she reached out to invite her onto the podcast. They subsequently became friends. Bonnie has been a professional writer and editor for more than 40 years (she's the author of five books), was an educator in the U.S., and now writes a popular weekly blog, the WOW Factor. Bonnie gives Debbie an insider's perspective on living full time in this beautiful place. First among the many pros is the low cost of living, making SMA affordable for single women living on a fixed income. And then there's the weather (yes, hard to overstate how perfect it is), the absence of ageism, the kindness of the people, the endless number of volunteer opportunities and classes to take and more. And she shares the one con for older retirees that Debbie noticed immediately upon arriving: those sidewalks. Bonnie also interviewed Debbie as part of her series on WOW (wise older women).
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
San Miguel de Allende
Recommended books about SMA
Selected WOW Factor blog posts:
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| Star Bradbury on How to Successfully Navigate the Care of Elderly Parents | 03 Mar 2023 | 00:25:36 | |
Debbie talks to eldercare expert Star Bradbury about some of the most important topics in her comprehensive new book, Successfully Navigating Your Parents' Senior Years: Critical Information to Maximize Their Independence and Make Sure They Get the Care They Need (BenBella Books, March 21, 2023). Soon after they spoke, Debbie's 92-year-old mother died unexpectedly, making the conversation especially timely. Star's book is a compendium of how to plan and care for an elderly parent - or your own care many years down the road. She covers every topic you could think of including different types of assisted living and home care, assistive robots for seniors (yes, it's a thing), living wills and advance directives, hospice and death doulas, cremation and green burials, and much more. "Expect the unexpected" is part of her message. And In my family's case, we were unprepared. We were stunned when our mom died. We had expected our dad to go first. The book is the result of her 25 years of experience in senior healthcare and senior living and her answer to the overwhelming complexity of options and situations when it comes to aging parents. Star is also speaking to those of us in our 60s and 70s (and younger) who should be looking at planning for what she calls “post-retirement."
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| Debbie & Julie-Roxane on Different Styles of Decision-Making No Matter Your Age | 17 Feb 2023 | 00:29:01 | |
Today, Debbie brings her producer and friend Julie-Roxane back on the podcast to talk about decision-making. When you plan ahead 10, 15 or 20 years how do you make the right decisions knowing the future is always uncertain? Julie-Roxane, 30, and Debbie, 71, discuss the challenges of decision-making, whether it’s deciding to have children or planning for old age. They talk about the concept of maximiser vs. satisficer, two different approaches to decision-making. (Can you guess which is more effective?) They end by reversing roles and giving each other advice about big upcoming decisions. Tune in for a rich intergenerational conversation.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Previous episodes with Debbie and Julie-Roxane:
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| Debbie & Sam on 50 Years of Marriage: Gratitude, Celebration... and Grief | 03 Feb 2023 | 00:29:30 | |
Debbie brings her favorite recurring guest, husband Sam Harrington, back onto the show. This is a special episode because they are celebrating 50 years of marriage today, Feb. 3, 2023. They were married a half century ago, in 1973. It was truly another age, pre-Internet and so much more. They were both 21. That's an astonishing fact: they were obviously too young to get married. But they did and the marriage has lasted. They acknowledge how lucky they are and how much they have to be grateful for. They have six grandchildren, they like hanging out together, and Sam is still teasing Debbie and making her laugh. They talk about the trivial and the existential and how it's okay to feel grief when they look back at their youthful passion and how young and beautiful they were. And how now is a time to think about their mortality and to try and enjoy each present moment. Things do change in a long marriage, as you’ll hear. One thing doesn’t, however. As always, Debbie and Sam disagree about a lot of things. "But that's all good..." A phrase they've adopted after watching W1A, a very funny British TV series starring Hugh Bonneville. Mentioned in this episode or useful:
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| Andrew Steele on Research at the Cellular Level That Could Slow Aging | 20 Jan 2023 | 00:44:21 | |
Today Debbie tackles the topic of aging (better? longer??) with Andrew Steele, an ebullient British scientist, writer and author of Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old. After earning a PhD in physics from Oxford, Andrew decided that aging - not cancer or other diseases - was the single most important scientific challenge of our time. Why? Because of the suffering that goes along with old age. So he switched fields to biogerontology, the study of the processes of aging at the cellular level. Andrew, 37, doesn’t advocate for immortality. As he puts it: “It’s not about extending lifespan, but rather healthspan." His interest, he maintains, is in helping humans stay healthier longer. Debbie asks Andrew what the most important biological aging processes are. He responds with a clear explanation of cell biology as it relates to aging: from senescent cells and cellular exhaustion to your epigenetic age, and more. And he explains that some of these genes and processes can be manipulated to slow or possibly reverse aging - at least, so far, in worms and mice. Andrew is exuberant and makes everything understandable.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Get the inside skinny on every episode of [B]OLDER: Subscribe to Debbie’s newsletter for the inside story about every episode. You will also get her 34-page writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide.
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| Jane Brody on Life and Lessons from a Half Century at The New York Times | 06 Jan 2023 | 00:36:32 | |
Today, Debbie talks to Jane Brody, the renowned New York Times columnist who until last year wrote the popular weekly Personal Health column. In this episode, she reflects on her 57-year career at the Times. They talk about how she moved from biochemistry to journalism and how she got hired by the Times at age 24. Instead of wilting under discouraging words from the editor who was interviewing her for a job, she responded, "Mr. Rosenthal, if I didn't think I could do this job, I wouldn't be here." Abe Rosenthal was the managing editor and later the legendary executive editor of The New York Times. Jane applied her no-nonsense style to reporting, writing with a distinctive mix of personal anecdotes, interviews with experts and scientific fact. She started the Personal Health column in 1976 (right when Debbie was starting work as a reporter). She invented the topic of personal health with the goal of teaching readers how to lead better, healthier lives. The column covered everything from common diseases to cancers to death and dying, as well as wellness, exercise, and nutrition. Jane talks about what it was like to be a woman in an almost all-male newsroom and how squeamish editors wouldn’t let her use the words sexual intercourse or penis. She changed that. She also tells us why she decided to retire at age 80 and what her new retired life looks like. Debbie hopes you'll enjoy listening to this episode as much as she did recording it. Jane Brody does not disappoint on the topic of making the most of growing older.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Articles by Jane Brody
Articles about Jane:
Mentioned writers and editors:
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| Clementina Esposito on Memoir Writing, the Ugly Truth, and the Impact of the Spoken Word | 16 Dec 2022 | 00:36:30 | |
Debbie Weil talks to friend and exceptional writing teacher Clementina Esposito about memoir, the difficulty of sharing ugly truths, and why making meaning through writing matters. Clementina is founder of the Clementina Collective, a collaborative created to help entrepreneurs and visionary leaders advance their causes and their careers through writing and speaking. In Clementina's words: "No one writes alone, everyone values the power of a well-told story, and ugly truths become beautiful in the end.” Debbie met Clementina a half dozen years ago when Clementina coached her in a public speaking program. They've been friends ever since. Clementina has been teaching memoir writing to a group of older students (60s to 80s). She and Debbie discuss the importance of reading aloud - of performing - what you’ve written and how maybe that should be a goal instead of publication. Reading out loud builds community and intimacy. They also talk about the difficulty and challenge of finding your voice and speaking your truth and sharing it with others – especially if you think it’s an ugly truth. And they conclude by agreeing that anyone can be a writer. Even if you doubt yourself, sharing your writing is how you make meaning of your life... and help your readers do the same.
Mentioned in this episode:
Debbie's recommended books about memoir writing:
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| Ayse Birsel on How to Apply Design Thinking to a Longer Life | 02 Dec 2022 | 00:34:17 | |
Today Debbie talks with Ayse Birsel. She’s an award-winning industrial designer whose firm has designed hundreds of products for brand name companies like Herman Miller, Ikea and Target. And that includes a product you may have sat on: a toilet seat. She’s taken her industrial design methodology, broken it down, simplified it, made it fun and inviting… and turned it into a process for life design. The result is her second and newest book: Design the Long Life You Love: A Step-by-Step Guide to Love, Purpose, Well-Being, and Friendship. One of her key points is that life, just like a design problem, is full of constraints -- time, money, age, location, and circumstances. And if you're an older adult reimagining your last chapter, you know what your final "constraint" is. You can’t have everything, so you have to be creative. You have to think like a designer. You have to get ideas and beliefs out of your head and down onto paper and cultivate an attitude of playfulness and optimism - if you want to change. So the book is filled with Ayse’s whimsical drawings, and her step-by-step maps: for how to make new friends, how to reimagine work, how to create meaning, how to separate achievement from success, how to check your well-being index, and more. One of Debbie's favorite exercises: how to reconcile yourself to unresolved issues. Make a list, Ayse says, pick three, personify them and write them a letter and then let them go. Ayse calls her method deconstruction / reconstruction. That means deconstruct your life, do a lot of exploring through scribbling and list-making and drawing, and then reconstruct the life you want. Her new book is jammed with exercises and lists and interviews with her favorite mentors. Ayse says you have to draw (even if you think you can’t) every day to rev up your creative brain. Debbie's advance copy is littered with yellow sticky notes as well as scribbles and arrows. She can't draw but is trying anyway.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Get the inside skinny on every episode of [B]OLDER: Subscribe to Debbie’s newsletter for the inside story about every episode. You will also get her 34-page writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide.
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| Joan Price on the Joys of (and Differences in) Senior Sex | 18 Nov 2022 | 00:31:36 | |
Today Debbie talks about a topic that interests us all, no matter our age… sex. Given the focus of the podcast, she decided to go right to a senior sexspert, Joan Price, for a very frank conversation about all things related to, well, senior sex. Joan, who is 79, has legions of followers on her blog, for her books, DVDs and webinars. She was quoted in a New York Times Magazine cover story this year and now gets so many requests for podcast interviews that she mostly turns them down. She agreed to come on [B]OLDER after listening to the recent episode with nonagenarian author Hilma Wolitzer (Season 4, Episode 20) about writing through grief. Joan calls herself an "advocate for ageless sexuality.” The media calls her “the woman leading a sex revolution for seniors” and, her favorite, "a wrinkly sex kitten." Debbie and Joan talk about why senior sex is an embarrassing subject but, more importantly, they talk about how to expand our definition of sex and how to adjust our relationship to body image as we age. They get right into it. No words are off limits so they talk about orgasms and sex toys and more. Joan explains the different types of desire (and why that’s important to understand as you get older). After this episode we promise that you’ll know what PIV stands for... if you don’t already. Bottom line, Joan's message is that yes, sex is different after 60 or 70 or 80… but in some ways, she says, it’s better. Joan is funny as well as frank. "Spicy” is one of her favorite words. You’ll definitely want to check out her website joanprice.com for tons of resources.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
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| Veteran Blogger Shel Israel on Reinvention, Writing, and Moving Across Country at 78 | 04 Nov 2022 | 00:32:58 | |
Today’s episode was a chance for Debbie to reconnect with an old friend, Shel Israel, whom she met about 20 years ago… in the blogosphere. Yes, there really was a blogosphere in the early 2000's. Shel and Debbie and a bunch of others were pioneers and they all knew each other. They'd meet at conferences and promote each other’s blogs AND explain blogging to everyone else. In early 2006, Shel co-authored perhaps the first serious book about business blogging. And Debbie wrote the second one, published later that same year. Shel's book has a much sexier title, Naked Conversations. Debbie's is The Corporate Blogging Book. Debbie and Shel talk about his decision to leave California after 50 years and move across country to Florida, just in time for Hurricane Ian. Debbie asks how he fared and how he plans to make friends and become part of his new community in St. Petersburg. He’s got some surprising answers. As a tech pioneer and an optimist, he considers everyone he meets on social media to be a friend. He’s using Facebook to connect and to create a new network. And he’s even got a spreadsheet with 13 prospects on it… 13 prospective friends, that is. This is an open and honest conversation which, not coincidentally, is the hallmark of good blogging. They talk about how important writing is to Shel, why he left a lucrative career in PR. and how he approaches tech-business ghostwriting and other projects.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
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| Debbie & Sam Explore Iceland with Two Grandchildren | 21 Oct 2022 | 00:32:49 | |
Welcome to Season 5 of [B]OLDER where Debbie Weil talks about "making the most of growing older," both the good and the not-so-great parts of aging. But today it’s all GOOD. Becoming a grandparent is something many people look forward to. Debbie and her husband, Sam Harrington, are lucky enough to have six grandchildren thus far. In this episode she chats with Sam (aka "Ba"), to debrief their trip to Iceland this past summer with two grandchildren. They talk about why they chose Iceland, and which grandchildren they took with them - and why - and how Dorothea and Lius fared as fellow travelers with their grandparents. They both remark on the stunning natural wonders of Iceland, most notably the glaciers, the volcanic lava fields, and the waterfalls. They also reflect on their experience as grandparents and how it’s (mostly) different from being a parent. This is a leisurely conversation and perhaps most useful if you have grandchildren or if you have ever considered traveling to Iceland. No matter why you’re listening, be sure to get to the last few seconds… for a nice surprise.
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| Season 5 - Trailer | 14 Oct 2022 | 00:01:44 | |
[B]older is back for season 5. And we're back at it: unraveling what it means to make the most of growing older. Each episode is a frank 30-minute conversation with a best-selling author, expert, or exceptional individual on a topic related to aging. For host Debbie Weil, 70, it’s a real-time exploration of growing old. But don’t worry; she’s not embracing old age just yet. She’s still (boldly) figuring things out. She asks the hard questions about how to use this later stage of life to create, to find meaning, and to make a difference. In the podcast Debbie delves into all the current topics related to aging: the unretired life, reinventing work, slowing down, aging better, ageism, living your purpose, grownup gap years, grandparenting, intergenerational collaboration, effects of the pandemic, grief and widowhood, surviving cancer, and more. As well as other stuff that piques her interest; for example, the craft of writing. Her husband, physician author Sam Harrington, is a popular recurring guest. The Debbie & Sam shows feature his dry humor and medical expertise. Join us for another great season diving into what it means to be growing [b]older!
Get the inside skinny on every episode of [B]OLDER: Subscribe to Debbie’s newsletter for the inside story about every episode. You will also get her 34-page writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide.
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| Debbie & Sam Wrap Up Season 4 | 08 Jul 2022 | 00:30:10 | |
Debbie Weil brings her husband Sam Harrington back on the show for a dose of his dry humor and to wrap up Season 4. Sam shares some of his favorite episodes (see below) and they discuss several topics in the news: Medical Aid In Dying and the 100-year life. If you've listened to Sam in previous episodes, you can probably guess what he thinks about living to 100. Sam is a retired physician; friends and family affectionately call him Dr. Death. They also talk about grandparenting and what you can expect from Season 5. Sam's favorite episodes from Season 4
Mentioned in this episode:
Previous episodes featuring host Debbie Weil and her husband Sam Harrington:
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| Hilma Wolitzer, 92, on Writing Through Grief and Turning Domestic Life Into Art | 01 Jul 2022 | 00:42:41 | |
Today, Debbie talks to writer and novelist Hilma Wolitzer, age 92. She’s just published a new book of short stories titled "Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket." So yes, this is someone who is "making the most of growing older." Hilma's stories of sharply observed domestic life were published in the Saturday Evening Post and Esquire in the 1960s and 1970s. She has taught writing at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, NYU, and Columbia. She's also the author of nine novels and the recipient of national awards and fellowships. Her husband of almost 70 years died of COVID in the first months of the pandemic. It was as if he vanished, she told Debbie. She and her husband Morty both got Covid in April of 2020. They were taken to separate hospitals in New York City. She never got to say good-bye. He died two days before she was released from the hospital and went home to her apartment. As she tells Debbie on the podcast: "There were his slippers next to the bed. There was a pair of his drugstore eyeglasses. He seemed to have vanished and that was the sense I tried to depict in (the final) story (of her new book). Disappearance rather than dying." She was encouraged to write through her grief, and to write this story and add it to a new collection, by her daughters: New York Times bestselling novelist Meg Wolitzer and artist Nancy Wolitzer. She titled the new story, "The Great Escape." It is as diamond sharp and perfect - and funny - as her earlier writing. There's even sex.
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide.
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| Paula Span on Ageism, Journalism, and the Art of Grandparenting | 17 Jun 2022 | 00:42:53 | |
Today, Debbie speaks with Paula Span, a veteran journalist and the author since 2009 of the New York Times’ column, The New Old Age. The column explores, as the Times’ puts it, “the unprecedented challenges posed by a rapidly aging population.” That’s a pretty broad topic so Paula covers everything from the cost of growing older, to social security for same sex couples, to stubborn aging parents, to the evolving status of medical aid in dying (MAID), formerly known as death with dignity. In 2017, after becoming a grandmother, she added a second Times column, Generation Grandparent. She’s adapted those essays for her audiobook “The Bubbe Diaries,” released by Audible in 2021. She’s also a revered professor of journalism, having taught at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism for over two decades. She is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families with Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions,” published by Hachette. She and Debbie talk about how she explores the topic of pernicious ageism for the Times - not with personal opinion - but with research and data and expert interviews. Each of her columns gets a huge response with readers leaving as many as 500 comments. They talk about her approach to writing as a freelance journalist (always say YES, she tells Debbie, no matter what the assignment is). And they talk about her artful approach to grandparenting. She lives in Montclair, N.J., and travels to Brooklyn once a week to care for her granddaughter. This is an intriguing behind-the-scenes peek at writing for the Times from a veteran journalist.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide.
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| A’lelia Bundles on Legacy, Leadership, and Growing Bolder at 70 | 03 Jun 2022 | 00:37:48 | |
Today, Debbie Weil talks to A’Lelia Bundles: her college classmate and friend of almost 50 years. A’Lelia, or LeLe, as her friends call her, is an award-winning journalist, author, historian, biographer, speaker and nonprofit leader. She speaks at conferences, colleges, and corporations about entrepreneurship, philanthropy, historic preservation, financial literacy and women’s and African American history. She calls herself a truth seeker. She's also distinguished by her warm and humorous style. It's infectious, as you'll hear. She and Debbie are both members of the Harvard/Radcliffe class of 1974. (Another notable member of their class is Merrick Garland, United States Attorney General.) A'lelia is the great-great granddaughter of Madam C.J. Walker, the 19th century hair-care entrepreneur, activist, and philanthropist, and the first black woman millionaire in America. She is the author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker, a New York Times Notable Book and the definitive biography of her trailblazing great-great grandmother. Self Made, the fictional Netflix series starring Octavia Spencer, is "inspired by" (although not factually based upon) her biography. A'lelia is at work on her fifth book, The Joy Goddess of Harlem: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance, about her great-grandmother whose parties, arts patronage and travels helped define the era. A former network television news executive and producer at ABC News and NBC News, she is a vice chair emerita of Columbia University’s Board of Trustees and chair emerita of the board of the National Archives Foundation. She is the founder of the Madam Walker Family Archives, the largest private collection of Walker documents, photographs and memorabilia. Debbie and A’Lelia talk about not retiring, the pain of writing a book, and the importance of community and friends - especially the women in their college class. They discuss the legacy she wants to leave behind as a black woman and what she is looking forward to as she turns 70. Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide.
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| Dr. Bree Johnston on Psychedelic Therapy to Ease Fear of Death | 20 May 2022 | 00:46:51 | |
Today, Debbie talks with Dr. Bree Johnston, a geriatrician and a palliative care physician who is also certified in psychedelic therapies. In case you haven't noticed, the topic of psychedelic therapy has gone mainstream in the past several years. Taking a guided psilocybin trip is now viewed as a highly effective way to ease fear of dying. But it's complicated. It took Debbie several months to find just the right person to interview about the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. Her research led her to Dr. Bree Johnston who is perfectly credentialed for this topic as well as being a notably clear and wise teacher for [B]OLDER podcast listeners. She's been a practicing physician for 35 years and recently became certified in Psychedelic Therapies and Research through the California Institute of Integral Studies. They talk about: - The problem of legality (she predicts psilocybin therapy will be legal in a few years) They also explore the complexity that comes with medicalizing psychedelics as well as the ethics surrounding legalization. This is a highly informative conversation with a knowledgeable physician. Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide. Connect with me:
We are looking for a sponsor or a podcast network If you are interested in reaching a smart and thoughtful audience of midlife, and older, listeners, contact Debbie Weil. Media Partners Support this podcast:
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| Bestselling Author Dan Pink on the Power of Regret at Any Age | 06 May 2022 | 00:44:07 | |
Debbie talks with five-time New York Times bestselling author Dan Pink about his latest book: The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward. His books have been translated into 42 languages and have sold millions of copies around the world. She met Dan many years ago when she lived in DC and has been a fan ever since she read his first book, Free Agent Nation. That book was one of the first to legitimize solopreneurs and to predict the revolution in the workplace. The premise of his new book is that while many people (especially Americans) proclaim "I have no regrets!" that statement is wrongheaded and, as Dan delights in pointing out, simply not true. We all have regrets and regret is a valuable emotion that can lead us to better understand ourselves and even to live our lives differently. The book is partially based on the results of Dan's World Regret Survey. He read through 15,000 replies from 100+ countries and deduced that there are really only four core regrets.
Debbie went into this episode thinking that "regret" has a special resonance for those past midlife who may be reflecting on what lies behind them - or what DOESN’T lie behind them - because they didn’t do it. But Dan is pretty clear that regretting an inaction - what he defines as a Boldness regret - can come at any age. And that it's never too late to do something about it. Debbie reveals one of her biggest regrets to Dan and he offers some on-air therapy for how she should deal with it. They also talk about Dan’s "failure resumé" and what he learned from it. This is an entertaining and informative episode. But it doesn't cover everything in Dan's new book. Be sure to pick up your own copy to learn more about self-disclosing, self-compassion, and self-distancing when it comes to your own regrets; when to "undo" something you did in the past; and the importance of maintaining connections with friends. Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide. Connect with me:
We are looking for a sponsor or a podcast network If you are interested in reaching a smart and thoughtful audience of midlife, and older, listeners, contact Debbie Weil. Media Partners Support this podcast:
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| Suzanne Carmichael on Reimagining Widowhood | 22 Apr 2022 | 00:32:28 | |
Debbie talks to Suzanne Carmichael about navigating a new phase of her life as a widow at age 78. Becoming a widow is one of Debbie's greatest fears. But it is a reality for many married women after age 65. So she invited Suzanne, a new friend in coastal Maine, onto the show. Debbie wanted to learn more about how she is handling this difficult experience. Suzanne's husband Don passed away in August of 2020 after what she calls a 46-year love affair. The early stages of grief were awful, she tells us. But then she realized she still had a lot of energy and wanted to do something with it. Thus was born her blog, titled Aging Fearlessly. Suzanne has also created a new nonprofit, Maine Widows in Action, to support and educate widows who want to be change agents in their communities and beyond. It’s a perfect match for her background as a retired public interest attorney. This is a nuanced conversation about loneliness, pain, bravery, opportunity, and practicality. Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide. Connect with me:
We are looking for a sponsor or a podcast network If you are interested in reaching a smart and thoughtful audience of midlife, and older, listeners, contact Debbie Weil. Media Partners Support this podcast:
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| Debbie and Julie-Roxane on Messy Conversations About Old Age and Dying | 08 Apr 2022 | 00:49:04 | |
Debbie hands over the mic to her producer, Julie-Roxane Krikorian, for a deep dive on the conversations we need to have with ourselves and our loved ones about old age and dying. Together, they unpack the difference between theory and practice when it comes to these emotionally-loaded conversations. They talk about the challenges of becoming weaker and more vulnerable as our bodies decline, and the flipping of the dynamics of care between parents and children at the end of life. They discuss the difficulty of giving space to our aging parents all the while trying to support them with practical help. They also talk about a reframe from weakening to softening and how to become elders who lead the way into the unknown of aging and dying. Debbie shares her personal journey with this topic as a daughter, a big sister of four, and a mother of three. She even reveals what her “dream death” is. This is a real and honest account of Debbie’s experiences and, we believe, a useful conversation to anyone navigating the complex waters of aging parents and aging ourselves. Don't worry, there's plenty of humor.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide. Connect with me:
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| Nicholas Christakis With a COVID Update and the Connection Between Pandemics, War, and Climate Change | 25 Mar 2022 | 00:55:20 | |
Debbie Weil brings Nicholas Christakis back on the show for an update on all things COVID. Their conversation one year ago was one of the most popular episodes of Season 3. Nicholas is a Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale. He's a physician, a sociologist, and a public health expert and he's the bestselling author of several books, including, most recently, Apollo's Arrow, about the coronavirus pandemic. The book is out in paperback, with a new Preface and a new Afterword. Debbie wanted to ask Nicholas where are we now with the COVID-19 pandemic, where are we going, and what does this all mean in an historical context. She could listen to Nicholas all day as he weaves together the history, the science, the epidemiology, the psychology and the sociology of pandemics, or plagues as he calls them. Not surprisingly, he's an in-demand expert for commentary about the coronavirus pandemic. Vaccines were widely available when the two spoke a year ago. Debbie, like many others, thought that meant the beginning of the end of the pandemic. Not quite, Nicholas said at the time. He was spot on in his predictions, saying that not until 2024 would the pandemic be behind us. A year later, he says we are finally through phase one of the pandemic. He expects we'll reach herd immunity several months from now. He and Debbie discuss Long COVID, whether we should still be wearing masks, the continuing importance of getting thrice vaccinated, what metric to pay the most attention to (number of deaths per day), addressing disinformation around this pandemic, and more. He notes that historically there has been a confluence of disasters associated with plagues, including war, famine, and climate change. When the war against Ukraine erupted, he was astounded but also not surprised. World War I accompanied the 1918 pandemic. This time, Ukraine and climate change are the accompanying global disasters. Nicholas ends by reminding us that plagues are not rare and may continue to become more present in our lifetime – but that we have the tools and technology to get through them. Tune in for a fascinating conversation about where we are now with the COVID pandemic.
About Nicholas Christakis Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide. Connect with me:
We are looking for a sponsor or a podcast network If you are interested in reaching a smart and thoughtful audience of midlife, and older, listeners, contact Debbie Weil. Media Partners Support this podcast:
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| Bradley Schurman on Our Aging Population and How It Could Eradicate Ageism | 11 Mar 2022 | 00:35:02 | |
Today Debbie speaks with Bradley Schurman about the megatrend of an aging population, both in the U.S. and globally. Bradley is a demographic futurist and the author of a provocative new book: The Super Age: Decoding Our Demographic Destiny. The aging of our population represents the intersection of two other megatrends: decreased birth rates and increased longevity. The numbers are staggering: By 2030, one out of five Americans will be over 65. To put it another way, In the next two years the number of those 65 and over, in the U.S., will be equal to those under 18. So what does this mean? Well it’s complicated. Obviously it means that society needs to adapt and to change. But Debbie's question to Bradley is, will it - and how long will it take? There are so many interrelated factors. In his book he talks about the economy (the impact on social security and medicare and more), societal attitudes (meaning ageism), workplace policies, lifetime education and training, housing, geography (urban vs. rural), advertising and marketing, and the startling inequities in longevity between the well off and the poor and between races. In their conversation they focus on the workplace and the changes that will have to happen in order for businesses and the economy to thrive. Bradley is an incorrigible optimist, as you’ll hear, and Debbie so very much wants to believe him. In his future scenario older workers will be welcomed into the workforce well past retirement age, both society and government will change how older people are viewed and treated, and older people will move from the sidelines where they are now, often seen as expendable and not useful, to center stage. Bradley says this can happen in a decade. Debbie is skeptical about how fast we’ll see change. Lots to think about in this conversation and in Bradley’s new book.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide.
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| Richard Eisenberg, Renowned Editor, on Taking Practical First Steps Into Unretirement | 25 Feb 2022 | 00:37:06 | |
Today, Debbie talks to Richard Eisenberg, a veteran journalist and author who has covered careers and personal finance for 40+ years. Richard recently "unretired," as he puts it, from his 10-year run as managing editor of Next Avenue, the comprehensive online news source for Boomer and Gen X Americans. As a journalist, he's made it his mission to cover money, work and purpose in a way that is useful and practical and lessens readers' stress. Debbie wondered how he would apply this approach to his own next chapter. Not surprisingly, he has a pragmatic plan for how to put together the pieces of "what’s next” for himself. He tells us that his unretired life will include some work - writing and editing - but as a freelance. He also wants to mentor, travel, and spend more time with his sons on the West Coast. That's the plan so far but how it will all fit together is yet to be seen. And that's a little scary. No matter. As you’ll hear, Richard is okay with taking small steps and experimenting to find the right balance. In other words, he is practicing what he's been preaching to readers for decades. Debbie agrees with much of what Richard says so there’s not much drama in this episode but it’s a lovely and relaxed conversation. He and Debbie talk about the persistence of ageism in our society and the deeply entrenched “decline” narrative. And they delve into what has become a new meme: the 100-year-life and what it means from a policy and financial perspective. Richard reminds Debbie that health-span is a better concept than age span.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Richard's new "Unretired" column for Market Watch
Selection of Richard's articles for Next Avenue
Books
Also mentioned:
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide. Connect with me:
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| Suzanne Watkins on Finding Her Wings at Age 60 | 11 Feb 2022 | 00:24:39 | |
Debbie talks with Suzanne Watkins, a friend she met several years ago, who became an international flight attendant at age 60. If you've ever wondered about the life of an international flight attendant - all those hours on your feet, exotic destinations, and constant jet lag - this episode's for you. So she applied to be an international flight attendant. She tells us about the bootcamp, a brutal selection process she survived in order to get hired by a private charter company that flies various groups, including the military, around the world. The airline industry is surprisingly open to hiring older employees, she tells us. The job is exciting but challenging. Her passengers, often military personnel, may carry semi-automatic rifles but they are always compliant, following her orders to stow them with "butts to the captain and muzzles to the rear." The disruption of her circadian rhythm is very hard, Suzanne says, as is being on call with only two hours notice to work the next flight. She sometimes works for 23 hours straight and then gets 9 hours off. Her biggest challenge is getting enough sleep. But she seems to thrive on the unpredictability. Her schedule might take her from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria to Guam, which is the largest of the Mariana Islands in the north Pacific and also a U.S. territory. Debbie had to look that one up. They end this delightful conversation with Suzanne offering a few tips for those thinking about reinventing themselves at midlife or later.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide. Connect with me:
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| Carl Honoré on Being [B]older, Slowing Down, and Aging Better | 28 Jan 2022 | 00:37:56 | |
Today, Debbie brings Carl Honoré on the show for a conversation about the slow movement and about aging and ageism. Carl has a book titled BOLDER: Making the Most of Our Longer Lives so Debbie's first question is whether he minds if she uses the word as the new name for the podcast. Carl says It's absolutely fine to use [B]OLDER. (Book titles can't be copyrighted.) As he puts it, the more fire power we can aim at the "ageist industrial complex," the better. We'll continue doing our part on this podcast. Carl is a bestselling author and speaker and is considered the voice of the Slow Movement as well as a spokesman for anti-ageism. His two TED Talks, on the Power of Slow and the Power of Aging have racked up millions of views. His first book, In Praise of Slowness, makes the point that slowing down is a better way to approach life. As he puts it: "to connect more, create more, focus more and achieve more." He’s also written a book about slow parenting. Bolder, his more recent book, was inspired by an incident on the ice hockey rink when he realized, after scoring the winning goal, that he was the oldest member of the team. That struck a chord with him (he was in his 40s at the time) and he realized he needed to reexamine his ageist assumptions about himself, as well as society’s assumptions about aging. They talk about: - How Carl moved from slowness to aging as a focus of his work. The connection is "drilling down to the stuff that really matters and focussing on that," as he puts it. - Whether the Slow Movement has really caught on in the past two decades. Carl says it has; Debbie is a bit more skeptical. - Why ageism is still difficult to root out. They discuss how changing our language around aging is hard (but we should keep trying!). And why we should consider the practice of contemplating death… lightly, as a way to remember to enjoy the here and now. This is a wonderful conversation with a highly articulate author and thinker on the topics of slowness and aging.
Mentioned in this episode or useful: Note: The subtitle of the American edition of Carl Honoré's book is: How to Age Better and Feel Better About Aging.
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide. Subscribers often print it out to save.
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| Tom Peters on [B]OLDLY Turning 80: His Childhood, His Passion, His Outrage, His Mission | 14 Jan 2022 | 00:48:09 | |
Debbie talks to legendary business author and speaker Tom Peters. And if you're wondering why she's interviewing a business management guru, it's because Tom exemplifies the new name of the podcast: [B]OLDER. I.e. getting bolder as you grow older. Tom is the co-author of In Search of Excellence, published 40 years ago and considered one of the most influential business books ever written. The book makes the argument that excellent companies treat their employees with respect. They put people first. Tom is known for being brash, fanatical, even outrageous (a combination of Billy Graham and Sid Vicious as one commentator put it) and he's been haranguing audiences and readers around the world for decades with his philosophy of people first. Haranguing, because many companies are still not doing it. Although the pandemic may have changed that a bit. In 2017 he received the Thinkers50 Lifetime Achievement Award. He also coined the term Personal Branding. And he’s not stopping as he turns 80. In this conversation, he reflects on why women should be leading; passion and outrage and why they are the most important quality in a good speaker; his love for research and data and the concept of compassionomics. He also gets personal, opening up about his childhood and his mother's influence and reiterating why he is not done yet. He's as fanatical as ever (especially on the topic of women getting things done) and you’ll hear Debbie occasionally interrupting or trying to interrupt him in this conversation. Not something Debbie normally does but Tom's Director of Programs, Shelley Dolley, encouraged her to do so. Debbie met Tom almost 15 years ago when he interviewed her for his Cool Friends series, shortly after her book (The Corporate Blogging Book) came out. Coincidentally, he is married to a high school classmate of Debbie's, designer Susan Sargent. His newest book, Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism, is more relevant than ever with its emphasis on creating a humane workplace. It's his eighteenth book and it may be his last, he tells Debbie. Much of his written and speech material is available—free to download—at tompeters.com and excellencenow.com. Enjoy this spirited and wide-ranging conversation with a legendary thinker. Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide.
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We Are Looking For a Sponsor or a Podcasting Network If you are interested in reaching a smart and thoughtful audience of midlife, and older, listeners, contact Debbie Weil.
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| Oliver Burkeman on Embracing Finitude and Completing a Few Meaningful Things | 17 Dec 2021 | 00:43:58 | |
This is the last episode before we take a podcasting break for the holidays. See you back here in January 2022! And yes, we’re trying out a new name. The focus of the podcast has become broader than the topic of “taking a gap year.” So the new name is [B]OLDER: Making the most of growing older. In other words, boldly reinventing life and work at midlife and beyond.
Debbie is always on the lookout for guests who can lend a new perspective to the concept of time and our perception of how much of it we have. So when she read Oliver Burkeman’s new book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, she knew he had to come on the show. Plus the book is terrific and it's getting lots of notice. The first sentence is “The average human life span is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short.” In other words, about 4,000 weeks. Oliver is a British author and journalist who wrote a popular weekly column, This Column Will Change Your Life, for The Guardian for over a decade. He has reported from London, Washington and New York and recently moved with his wife and son from Brooklyn, NY back to Yorkshire in the UK to be near his family. He has established himself as a tongue-in-cheek expert on productivity and time management and how that does - or does not - lead to happiness. He sums up his new book very nicely in his Twitter profile: explaining that 4,000 Weeks is about embracing limitation and finally getting round to what matters. As he's 46, he's only lived about 2,400 of those 4,000 weeks himself but he tells Debbie in this episode that he may be getting closer to a better relationship with time. Debbie and Oliver talk about time and self-worth, why we are so future-oriented, the connection between time and happiness, and why it might be okay that we use social media as a distraction. Oliver is a contrarian thinker but he's truly interested in how to build a meaningful life. Debbie had a number of aha moments in this conversation and listeners will too!
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
References:
Note from Debbie If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners. Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide. Connect with me:
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We Are Looking For a Sponsor or Podcast Network If you are interested in reaching a smart and thoughtful audience of midlife, and older, listeners, contact Debbie Weil.
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| Debbie & Sam on Entering the Land of the Old | 11 Dec 2021 | 00:24:08 | |
Yup, it's Debbie's 70th birthday today. She's been chewing this milestone over for months, knowing that turning 70 means entering the land of the old. Time is running out so fast. How many more good years does she have left before entering the land of the old, old? Realistically, at 70, she's got 10 to 15 good years of active living left. A sobering thought. She invites her husband Sam back on the show to talk about their bucket lists for this eighth decade. She and Sam both turned 70 this year. They share some of their projects for the coming decade, from getting a puppy (Debbie's idea, so far not shared by Sam), to traveling again (they hope), to how they plan to deal with their own old, old age. They also discuss the idea of being challenged and the difference between challenges and accomplishments.
Mentioned in this episode or useful:
Related episodes:
Previous episodes featuring host Debbie Weil and her husband Sam Harrington:
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