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    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil

    A podcast about (b)oldly moving from midlife to old age in a society that devalues and/or misunderstands what (b)old age is *really* like. Debbie, who is 72, explores that question in frank 30-minute conversations with a best-selling author, expert, or exceptional individual. With her guests she delves into the unretired (non-retired) life, slowing down, ageism, physical deterioration, grandparenting, intergenerational collaboration, grief and widowhood, and more. As well as other stuff that piques her interest: for example, 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 very busy "unretired" life on an island off the coast of Maine. Over 100 previous episodes at https://debbieweil.com/podcast MEDIA PARTNERS: Encore.org Modern Elder Academy (Formerly) Next For Me
    enDebbie Weil116 Episodes

    Episodes (116)

    Steven Petrow on His Sister Julie, the Importance of Choice, and Medical Aid in Dying

    Steven Petrow on His Sister Julie, the Importance of Choice, and Medical Aid in Dying

    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:
     

    • What the term medical aid in dying means and what it is exactly (it used to be called physician assisted suicide, but a physician is NOT present)
    • Why he thinks only 9,000 people have availed themselves of the procedure since it first became legalized
    • Why it’s mostly used by educated whites (for one thing, the cocktail of lethal drugs cost $700 to $900 and is NOT reimbursable)


    This is simply a fascinating episode and Steven is a lovely guest, eloquent, respectful, and informed. It was such a pleasure to have him back on the show. As always, see below for links to his articles and books, including the NYT article, and a link to the first time he was on the show almost three years ago.  

     

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    Don't miss Debbie's Behind The Scenes essay on Substack accompanying every episode of the podcast. 

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    Mentioned in this episode or useful:


    Connect with Debbie:

     

    Our Media Partners:

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

     

    How to Support this podcast:

     

    Credits:

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enMarch 08, 2024
    money
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    expert
    personal growth
    personal development
    mindfulness
    failure
    intuition

    Kirsten Powers on Changing the Channel From CNN Political Analyst to Easeful Living and Writing

    Kirsten Powers on Changing the Channel From CNN Political Analyst to Easeful Living and Writing

    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. 

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

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    Mentioned in this episode or useful:

     

    Connect with Debbie:

     

    Our Media Partners:

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

     

    How to Support this podcast:

     

    Credits:

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enFebruary 16, 2024
    money
    substack
    writing
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    religion
    faith
    expert
    personal growth

    Bestselling Author Dale Russakoff on Being a Southern Woman at Harvard, Ambition at 71, and How Family Matters Most

    Bestselling Author Dale Russakoff on Being a Southern Woman at Harvard, Ambition at 71, and How Family Matters Most

    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.

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    Don't miss Debbie's Substack essay on the topic of being too busy or AT. CAPACITY. 

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    Mentioned in this episode or useful:

     

    THE FIRST TWO EPISODES IN THIS TRILOGY:

    Conversations with two more of Debbie's classmates from the Harvard/Radcliffe class of 1974:

     

    Connect with Debbie:

     

    Our Media Partners:

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

     

    How to Support this podcast:

     

    Credits:

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enJanuary 26, 2024
    money
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    expert
    personal growth
    personal development
    family
    mindfulness
    failure

    Bestselling Author Mary Pipher on Forgiveness, Happiness, and Old Age

    Bestselling Author Mary Pipher on Forgiveness, Happiness, and Old Age

    * 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 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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    Don't miss the Behind The Scenes essay on Substack accompanying this episode
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    Mentioned in this episode or useful:

     

    Connect with Debbie:

     

    Our Media Partners:

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

     

    How to Support this podcast:

     

    Credits:

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enDecember 22, 2023
    money
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    expert
    personal growth
    forgiveness
    personal development
    meditation
    anxiety

    Winifred White Neisser on Ambition, Embracing 70, and What Comes Next

    Winifred White Neisser on Ambition, Embracing 70, and What Comes Next

    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.”

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    Don't miss the Behind The Scenes essay on Substack accompanying this episode.

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    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. 


    So much has changed for women in the past 50 years so this conversation with Wini is the first of several Debbie is planning with these [b]old women, her 1974 Radcliffe classmates. 

    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.

     

    Mentioned in this episode or useful:

     

    Connect with Debbie:

     

    Our Media Partners:

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

     

    How to Support this podcast:

     

    Credits:

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enDecember 08, 2023
    money
    career
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    expert
    personal growth
    personal development
    mindfulness
    failure

    Best Of: Debbie and Sam Go Back to France

    Best Of: Debbie and Sam Go Back to France

    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.

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    Don't miss the Substack essay accompanying this episode: Behind The Scenes With "French Debbie"

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    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.  

     

    Mentioned in this episode and/or useful links for visiting Avignon and Provence

    • Séjour linguistique means staying with a teacher (or prof) in their home for language immersion.
    • Julie Gaudin's immersion program in Avignon
    • A list of other French immersion programs via  FrenchToday.com Note: in the episode Debbie mistakenly refers to the site as FranceToday.
    • Pithiviers is a town south of France where Sam lived on a farm when he was 18. It was also the site of the infamous Pithiviers internment camp during the Second World War.
    • Collège Cévenol in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is where Debbie went to school for a year when she was 14.
    • Alliance Française in Paris
    • L’Atelier de Belinda (wonderful tiny restaurant in Avignon)
    • Les Halles, the famed covered market in Avignon filled with magnificent displays of fish, meat, vegetables, fruit, cheese, olives, bread, lavendar honey, wine and more. Sam discovered “les bulots”: whelks or large snails best eaten alongside raw oysters and with a glass of white wine.

     

    Connect with Debbie:

    How to Support this podcast:

     

    Our Media Partners:

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

    Credits:

     

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enNovember 24, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Mentioned in this episode or useful:

     

    Connect with Debbie:

     

    Our Media Partners:

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

     

    How to Support this podcast:

     

    Credits:

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enNovember 10, 2023
    money
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    expert
    personal growth
    personal development
    mindfulness
    failure
    intuition

    Debbie & Sam on the Acceleration of Aging: Smudged Glasses, Creaky Bodies and Before It’s Too Late

    Debbie & Sam on the Acceleration of Aging: Smudged Glasses, Creaky Bodies and Before It’s Too Late

    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.)

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

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    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.

      

    Mentioned in this episode or useful:

     

    Connect with Debbie:

     

    Our Media Partners:

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

    How to Support this podcast:

    Credits:

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enOctober 27, 2023
    money
    life span
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    expert
    personal growth
    personal development
    mindfulness
    failure

    Season 6 - Trailer

    Season 6 - Trailer

    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? 

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    Don't miss the BTS (behind-the-scenes) for every episode in Debbie's [B]OLD AGE newsletter.

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    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:

    Our Media Partners:

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

    Credits:

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enOctober 20, 2023
    money
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    expert
    personal growth
    personal development
    mindfulness
    intuition
    legacy

    Debbie & Sam Wrap Up Season 5: Anniversaries, Unexpected Death, God, Grandchildren, and More.

    Debbie & Sam Wrap Up Season 5: Anniversaries, Unexpected Death, God, Grandchildren, and More.

    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. 

     

    *****

    NEW! Read and subscribe to Debbie's Substack.
    Substack is the new home for Debbie's newsletter. She offers behind-the-scenes commentary on the latest episodes of the podcast. She also writes from a personal perspective about entering the land of the old at 71.

    *****

     

    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)?

     

    Mentioned in this episode or useful:

     

    More links

     

    Connect with Debbie:

     

    Our Media Partners:

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

     

    Credits:

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enJuly 21, 2023
    money
    substack
    psychedelics
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    expert
    personal growth
    personal development
    mindfulness

    Jonathan Merritt on Personal Transformation and the Complicated Intersection of Faith and Culture

    Jonathan Merritt on Personal Transformation and the Complicated Intersection of Faith and Culture

    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. 

     

    *****

    NEW! Subscribe to Debbie's Substack.
    Substack is the new home for Debbie's regular newsletter. She offers behind-the-scenes commentary on the latest episodes of the podcast. She also writes from a personal perspective about entering the land of the old at 71.

    *****

     

    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:

    • The urge to embrace spirituality (and religion) as you get older.
    • Why Sunday service at Yale’s Battell Chapel felt like a safe place for Debbie to weep after her mother died recently — even though she is not a church-person.
    • The definition of evangelicalism.
    • The connection between evangelicalism and fundamentalism and far right conservative ideologies.
    • The Rev. Tim Keller and his untimely death in May 2023 at age 72 (in his obituary, the NYT dubbed him Manhattan’s Pioneering Evangelist).
    • Jonathan’s personal story of being outed as gay  just days before his 30th birthday, and then moving from Atlanta to NYC to start a new life.
    • Appreciative inquiry and the art of asking ourselves the right questions.
    • Jonathan’s adaptation of The Ignation Examen as part of his daily intentional practice.
    • And, despite his notable success as a journalist, speaker, literary agent, ghostwriter, creative and more, why he’s feeling the need to transform himself at age 40.

    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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    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enJuly 07, 2023
    money
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    religion
    faith
    expert
    change
    transformation
    personal growth

    Karen Wickre on Aging in Place As a Singleton After a Stellar Tech Career

    Karen Wickre on Aging in Place As a Singleton After a Stellar Tech Career

    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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    Substack is the new home for Debbie's regular newsletter. She offers behind-the-scenes commentary on the latest episodes of the podcast. She also writes in more depth, from a personal perspective, about the land of the old: the positives, the negatives, and the surprises. 

    *****

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    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enJune 23, 2023
    sf
    money
    networking
    aging
    gig economy
    san francisco
    happiness
    expert
    personal growth
    personal development

    Best Of: Dr. Bree Johnston on Psilocybin Trips and the Growing Acceptance of Psychedelic Therapy

    Best Of: Dr. Bree Johnston on Psilocybin Trips and the Growing Acceptance of Psychedelic Therapy

    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

     

     

    RECENTLY IN THE NEWS:

     

    *****

    NEW! Subscribe to Debbie's Substack.
    Substack is the new home for Debbie's regular newsletter. She offers behind-the-scenes commentary on the latest episodes of the podcast. She also writes in more depth, from a personal perspective, about the land of the old: the positives, the negatives, and the surprises. 

    *****
     

    COMPLETE SHOW NOTES:

    Complete show notes with more resources and links from the May 2022 airing of this episode are here.

     

    NOTE FROM DEBBIE

    If you've been enjoying the podcast, please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference.

     

     

    Connect with Debbie:

     

     

    Media Partners

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    • MEA and with thanks to Chip Conley
    • NEXT FOR ME: former media partner (and in memory of Jeff Tidwell)
       

    Credits:

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enJune 09, 2023
    money
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    professor
    mdma
    lsd
    expert
    personal growth
    personal development

    Sari Botton on Oldster Magazine and the Hot Topic of Growing Old

    Sari Botton on Oldster Magazine and the Hot Topic of Growing Old

    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:

    More from Oldster:

     

    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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    Credits:

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enMay 26, 2023
    money
    entrepreneur
    substack
    writing
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    expert
    personal growth
    personal development

    Abigail Thomas on Life at 81: Liquid Moments, Memory, French Toast and Writing

    Abigail Thomas on Life at 81: Liquid Moments, Memory, French Toast and Writing

    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.

    Abby is the daughter of renowned science writer Lewis Thomas, the mother of four children and a grandmother of 12. She is the bestselling author of several previous memoirs, including "A Three Dog Life" and "What Comes Next and How to Like It." She lives in Woodstock, NY with her dogs, where she writes and teaches writing.
     

    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.
     

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    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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    • CoGenerate (formerly Encore.org)
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    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enMay 12, 2023
    70s
    money
    creativity
    writing
    art
    aging
    cancer
    gig economy
    happiness
    expert

    Best Of: Plague Expert Nicholas Christakis on Why the Pandemic Will End in 2024

    Best Of: Plague Expert Nicholas Christakis on Why the Pandemic Will End in 2024

    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.
    Substack is the new home for Debbie's regular newsletter. She offers behind-the-scenes commentary on the latest episodes of the podcast. She also writes in more depth, from a personal perspective, about the land of the old: the positives, the negatives, and the surprises. 

    *****

     

    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. 

    • You’ll hear why he chose to publish his latest book, Apollo’s Arrow, in the fall of 2020, before we knew the end of the story of COVID-19
    • How his childhood experiences with illness and death affected his career choices
    • What the predictable three phases of a pandemic are (in 2021 we were still in the immediate phase)
    • Why he thinks this pandemic won’t be over until 2024
    • They also talked about separating the biological vs. the psychological impacts of the pandemic
    • What herd immunity actually means and whether we’ll get there
    • And what the public health messaging around the pandemic should be

    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

     

    Connect with Debbie:

     

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    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enApril 28, 2023
    podcast
    money
    pandemic
    podcasting
    vaccines
    medicine
    coronavirus
    covid-19
    sociology
    doctor

    One Year Later: Richard Eisenberg on the Unretired Life

    One Year Later: Richard Eisenberg on the Unretired Life

    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:

     

    Connect with Debbie:

    Our Media Partners:

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

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    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enApril 14, 2023
    books
    travel
    money
    chatgpt
    writing
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    writer
    expert

    100th Episode: Guy Kawasaki on ChatGPT, Remarkable People & Why Podcasting Is His Ikigai

    100th Episode: Guy Kawasaki on ChatGPT, Remarkable People & Why Podcasting Is His Ikigai

    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:


    Episodes of Remarkable People that Debbie has especially enjoyed or that Guy mentioned:


    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. 


    Connect with Debbie:


    Our Media Partners:

    • CoGenerate (formerly Encore.org)
    • MEA and with thanks to Chip Conley
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    Credits:

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enMarch 31, 2023
    podcast
    interviews
    ai
    money
    tech
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    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    interview

    Expat Bonnie Lee Black on the Pros (& Very Few Cons) of Retiring to San Miguel de Allende

    Expat Bonnie Lee Black on the Pros (& Very Few Cons) of Retiring to San Miguel de Allende

    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:

    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.  

     

    Connect with Debbie:

     

    Our Media Partners:

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

     

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    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enMarch 17, 2023
    money
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    blog
    expert
    personal growth
    personal development
    mindfulness
    failure

    Star Bradbury on How to Successfully Navigate the Care of Elderly Parents

    Star Bradbury on How to Successfully Navigate the Care of Elderly Parents

    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."

     

    Mentioned in this episode or useful:

     

    Get the inside skinny on every episode of [B]OLDER:

     

    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.

     

    Connect with Debbie:

     

    Our Media Partners:

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

     

    How to Support this podcast:

     

    Credits:

    [B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil
    enMarch 03, 2023
    money
    aging
    gig economy
    happiness
    expert
    personal growth
    personal development
    mindfulness
    failure
    loneliness
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