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[B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
143 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 days ago - ★★★★★ - 16 ratingsA podcast about (b)oldly moving from midlife to old age in a society that devalues old people and/or misunderstands what (b)old age is *really* like. Debbie, who is 72, explores that question in frank 30-minute conversations with best-selling authors, experts, and exceptional individuals. With her guests she delves into the unretired (non-retired) life, ageism, ambition, slowing down (or not), physical deterioration, grandparenting, intergenerational collaboration, grief and widowhood, and more. As well as other stuff that piques her interest such as the craft of writing.
She invites her husband, Sam Harrington, on as a frequent guest. He’s a retired physician with a dry sense of humor and he makes her laugh. Debbie and Sam took a grownup gap year at age 61, leaving behind a professional life in Washington D.C. Now in their early 70s, they live a busy and productive "unretired" life on an island off the coast of Maine. Debbie writes for Substack at debbieweil.substack.com.
Over 100 previous episodes at debbieweil.com/podcast
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Episodes
Patty Ivey on Getting Breast Cancer at Age 70 and How It’s Changing What She Will Give Back to the World
April 19, 2024 06:00 - 39 minutes - 35.8 MBToday 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 pract...
Lyn Slater on How To Be Old and Why She Is No Longer a Fashion Influencer
March 29, 2024 06:00 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MBDebbie 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 id...
Steven Petrow on His Sister Julie, the Importance of Choice, and Medical Aid in Dying
March 08, 2024 07:00 - 36 minutes - 33 MBIn 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 Steve...
Kirsten Powers on Changing the Channel From CNN Political Analyst to Easeful Living and Writing
February 16, 2024 07:00 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MBToday, 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 ...
Bestselling Author Dale Russakoff on Being a Southern Woman at Harvard, Ambition at 71, and How Family Matters Most
January 26, 2024 07:00 - 38 minutes - 34.9 MBToday, 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...
Bestselling Author Mary Pipher on Forgiveness, Happiness, and Old Age
December 22, 2023 07:00 - 29 minutes - 26.9 MB* This is the last episode in 2023. Back on Jan. 26, 2024! * Debbie talks to Mary Pipher, a psychologist and bestselling author of 11 books including the ground-breaking Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. She was the first psychologist to recognize and articulate why life was difficult for adolescent girls and why so many of them felt bad about themselves. More recently, she has written Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing As We Age, about w...
Winifred White Neisser on Ambition, Embracing 70, and What Comes Next
December 08, 2023 07:00 - 49 minutes - 45.1 MBToday, 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 a...
Best Of: Debbie and Sam Go Back to France
November 24, 2023 07:00 - 34 minutes - 31.2 MBUpdated 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 he...
Rona Maynard on How Adopting a Rescue Mutt When She Was 65 Made Her a Better Person
November 10, 2023 07:00 - 33 minutes - 31 MBToday, 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...
Debbie & Sam on the Acceleration of Aging: Smudged Glasses, Creaky Bodies and Before It’s Too Late
October 27, 2023 06:00 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MBWelcome 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 Harringt...
Season 6 - Trailer
October 20, 2023 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.3 MBWhen 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 new...
Debbie & Sam Wrap Up Season 5: Anniversaries, Unexpected Death, God, Grandchildren, and More.
July 21, 2023 06:00 - 28 minutes - 26.4 MBToday, 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, pr...
Jonathan Merritt on Personal Transformation and the Complicated Intersection of Faith and Culture
July 07, 2023 06:00 - 43 minutes - 39.6 MBToday, 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 minds...
Karen Wickre on Aging in Place As a Singleton After a Stellar Tech Career
June 23, 2023 06:00 - 33 minutes - 30.2 MBDebbie 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 s...
Best Of: Dr. Bree Johnston on Psilocybin Trips and the Growing Acceptance of Psychedelic Therapy
June 09, 2023 06:00 - 47 minutes - 43.1 MBDebbie 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 in...
Sari Botton on Oldster Magazine and the Hot Topic of Growing Old
May 26, 2023 06:00 - 32 minutes - 29.3 MBDebbie 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...
Abigail Thomas on Life at 81: Liquid Moments, Memory, French Toast and Writing
May 12, 2023 06:00 - 38 minutes - 35.3 MBToday, 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...
Best Of: Plague Expert Nicholas Christakis on Why the Pandemic Will End in 2024
April 28, 2023 06:00 - 55 minutes - 51.2 MBToday, 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...
One Year Later: Richard Eisenberg on the Unretired Life
April 14, 2023 06:00 - 35 minutes - 32.7 MBDebbie 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 ...
100th Episode: Guy Kawasaki on ChatGPT, Remarkable People & Why Podcasting Is His Ikigai
March 31, 2023 06:00 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MBDebbie 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...
Expat Bonnie Lee Black on the Pros (& Very Few Cons) of Retiring to San Miguel de Allende
March 17, 2023 06:00 - 32 minutes - 29.5 MBDebbie 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...
Star Bradbury on How to Successfully Navigate the Care of Elderly Parents
March 03, 2023 07:00 - 25 minutes - 23.4 MBDebbie 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...
Debbie & Julie-Roxane on Different Styles of Decision-Making No Matter Your Age
February 17, 2023 07:00 - 29 minutes - 26.6 MBToday, 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 mo...
Debbie & Sam on 50 Years of Marriage: Gratitude, Celebration... and Grief
February 03, 2023 07:00 - 29 minutes - 27 MBDebbie 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 gra...
Andrew Steele on Research at the Cellular Level That Could Slow Aging
January 20, 2023 07:00 - 44 minutes - 40.6 MBToday 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 ...
Jane Brody on Life and Lessons from a Half Century at The New York Times
January 06, 2023 07:00 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBToday, 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 ...
Clementina Esposito on Memoir Writing, the Ugly Truth, and the Impact of the Spoken Word
December 16, 2022 07:00 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBDebbie 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 beauti...
Ayse Birsel on How to Apply Design Thinking to a Longer Life
December 02, 2022 07:00 - 34 minutes - 31.4 MBToday 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 ...
Joan Price on the Joys of (and Differences in) Senior Sex
November 18, 2022 07:00 - 31 minutes - 28.9 MBToday 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 a...
Veteran Blogger Shel Israel on Reinvention, Writing, and Moving Across Country at 78
November 04, 2022 06:00 - 32 minutes - 30.2 MBToday’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...
Debbie & Sam Explore Iceland with Two Grandchildren
October 21, 2022 06:00 - 32 minutes - 30 MBWelcome 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 Icelan...
Season 5 - Trailer
October 14, 2022 06:00 - 1 minute - 1.59 MB[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 c...
Debbie & Sam Wrap Up Season 4
July 08, 2022 06:00 - 30 minutes - 27.6 MBDebbie 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 ...
Hilma Wolitzer, 92, on Writing Through Grief and Turning Domestic Life Into Art
July 01, 2022 06:00 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MBToday, 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 auth...
Author Hilma Wolitzer, 92, on Writing Through Grief and Turning Domestic Life Into Art
July 01, 2022 06:00 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MBToday, 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 Writer's Conference, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, NYU, and Columbia. She's also a noveli...
Paula Span on Ageism, Journalism, and the Art of Grandparenting
June 17, 2022 06:00 - 42 minutes - 39.3 MBToday, 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. ...
A’lelia Bundles on Legacy, Leadership, and Growing Bolder at 70
June 03, 2022 06:00 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MBToday, 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 ...
Dr. Bree Johnston on Psychedelic Therapy to Ease Fear of Death
May 20, 2022 06:00 - 46 minutes - 42.9 MBToday, 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 res...
Bestselling Author Dan Pink on the Power of Regret at Any Age
May 06, 2022 06:00 - 44 minutes - 40.4 MBDebbie 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...
Dan Pink on the Power of Regret at Any Age
May 06, 2022 06:00 - 44 minutes - 40.4 MBDebbie 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...
Suzanne Carmichael on Reimagining Widowhood
April 22, 2022 06:00 - 32 minutes - 29.7 MBDebbie 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, sh...
Suzanne Carmichael on Reimagining Widowhood By Becoming a Change Agent
April 22, 2022 06:00 - 32 minutes - 29.7 MBDebbie 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. She invited Suzanne, a new friend in coastal Maine, on the show to learn more about how she is handling the 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 realiz...
Debbie and Julie-Roxane on Messy Conversations About Old Age and Dying
April 08, 2022 06:00 - 49 minutes - 44.9 MBDebbie 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 disc...
Nicholas Christakis With a COVID Update and the Historical Connection Between Pandemics, War, and Climate Change
March 25, 2022 06:00 - 55 minutes - 50.7 MBDebbie 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 After...
Nicholas Christakis With a COVID Update and the Connection Between Pandemics, War, and Climate Change
March 25, 2022 06:00 - 55 minutes - 50.7 MBDebbie 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 After...
Bradley Schurman on Our Aging Population and How It Could Eradicate Ageism
March 11, 2022 07:00 - 35 minutes - 32.1 MBToday 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 year...
Richard Eisenberg, Renowned Editor, on Taking Practical First Steps Into Unretirement
February 25, 2022 07:00 - 37 minutes - 34 MBToday, 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 ...
Richard Eisenberg on Taking Practical First Steps Into Unretirement
February 25, 2022 07:00 - 37 minutes - 34 MBToday, 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 ...
Suzanne Watkins on Finding Her Wings at Age 60
February 11, 2022 07:00 - 24 minutes - 22.6 MBDebbie 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. Suzanne wanted a career change when she turned 60 and realized that her life was "not a dress rehearsal." She’d spent years working a typical 9-5 in the travel industry helping others plan t...
Carl Honoré on Being [B]older, Slowing Down, and Aging Better
January 28, 2022 07:00 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBToday, 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...