[B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil

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...

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 go...

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 he...

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...

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....

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 ye...

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-a...

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 t...

[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) f...

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; frien...

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 Brea...

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...

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 Americ...

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 f...

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 t...

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 Augus...

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 t...

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, ab...

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: B...

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 use...

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. Suzanne wanted a career change when she turned 60 and realized that her life was "not a dress r...

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 pow...

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.  Th...

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 lo...

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...