[B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil

As a special episode to celebrate the conclusion of the first year of this podcast, host Debbie Weil shares her own story. At her recent college reunion, she performed a five-minute story on the theme of picking up the pieces. That means finding happiness after a setback or a challenge or, in the case of some of her other classmates who told stories, a personal tragedy. Debbie's story starts when...

Debbie talks with Susan De Cuba , an accomplished nonprofit executive who spent the last 13 years of her career as CEO of a hospice group in Florida. When Debbie met Susan, she was at the end of her gap year. After 40+ years of non-stop work, she had decided to take a year off - but in a purposeful way. Susan is practical and she is strategic. And she had a goal - to figure out her next step. List...

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

Matthew Kepnes is best known as Nomadic Matt, the name of his eponymous website dedicated to traveling smarter, cheaper and longer. He tells us in the first few pages of his new memoir that he has spent more than 3,000 nights in a thousand different cities in 90 countries so Debbie figured he would be the perfect guest to talk about travel as a way to reinvent yourself. Now 38, Matt recently settl...

Barbara Waxman , a gerontologist, author and coach, has coined the term middlescence to describe a new stage in midlife and beyond. She describes it as a transitional period often accompanied by physical changes, as well as social and economic changes. Sound familiar? Physical and hormonal changes are what we think of when we talk about adolescence. More important, Middlescence is like adolescence...

Debbie and Katie Tremper talk about the challenges of slowing down to take care of yourself. More recently, Katie, 56, has also been coping with a chronic illness, MS. Ironically, her diagnosis has helped her reconnect with herself. In this conversation Katie is remarkably open about why she is starting a Year of Wellness . After 33 years as a nonprofit executive in education, she is making a radi...

The term gap year symbolizes so much more than taking a time out. It is a frame for examining such topics as reinvention, a new purpose, aging with wisdom, trying new things, bucket list travel, a new approach to health and well-being, and more. All the topics that relate to living well in this stage of life. My guests in Season 2 will be a mix of inspiring individuals who are taking or have taken...

In the last episode of Season 1 of Gap Year For Grown-Ups , Debbie reflects on how the podcast has evolved. Initially she aimed to appeal to adults of any age seeking a timeout. But she realized that her focus was really on mid-life reinvention (50+), whether it's a gap year or a gap week, as a way to reflect, redirect, find new meaning and purpose - and find happiness. And of course that is the t...

Debbie sits down with Dr. Joy Dryer, a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst who has been in private practice for 40 years. Dr. Joy (as her patients call her) works with individuals, families and couples making transitions. So the big existential questions have special interest for her: Who am I right now? Who do I want to be? And where? And with whom? These are essential gap year questions, esp...

In this episode Debbie talks with Sam, her husband and gap year co-conspirator, about a longstanding bucket list item: to live in France for an extended period in order to practice and improve their French. Coincidentally, both have childhood ties to France. Debbie speaks semi fluently and Sam almost as well. After two weeks in Avignon, they’re back in the U.S. where they sit down to make sense of...

In this episode Debbie talks about the most surprising result of her gap year: she created, produces and directs Island Women Speak , a popular multi-generational women's storytelling event in Stonington, Maine, the small coastal town she now calls home. She calls it a gap year accomplishment because it's a new and unexpected thing she never imagined herself doing. She has coached and edited nonfi...

In today's episode, Debbie interviews Jeff Tidwell, a 35-year digital veteran who has worked with big brands like eTrade and WebMD, as well as with numerous startups, on product, community, marketing and user experience strategies. He’s lived and worked in New York, San Francisco and LA. About two years ago, as he approached 60, he began to feel conscious of his age in a youth-oriented industry. T...

Today’s episode is Part 2 of our broadcast from Chip Conley’s Modern Elder Academy, the world's first wisdom school , located at the southernmost tip of Baja California, Mexico. Debbie spent a week at this magical place recently, along with a group of 17 other compadres. Her cohort ranged in age from 42 to 78. All were there to learn how to become a modern elder - someone who reframes a lifetime o...

Debbie interviews Chip Conley, New York Times best-selling author, rebel hospitality entrepreneur and now a rock star of the mid-life transition movement. After selling Joie de Vivre Hospitality, the second largest boutique hotel brand in the U.S., Chip was invited at age 52 to work for AirBnB as an advisor to the young founders. He soon found himself to be both mentor and intern; the result was h...

Debbie chats with her husband, Sam Harrington, about the experience of writing a book and about being a first-time author. Yes, writing a book was on Sam's bucket list but he never seriously considered it until their gap year when he had the time and mental space to focus on it. A practicing physician in D.C. for 31 years, he realized he had deep knowledge and a strong point of view about how the...

In today's episode, Debbie interviews Karen Wickre, an old friend and former editorial director at both Google and Twitter. Karen left Twitter in 2016 at age almost 65 - not to retire but to reinvent herself as a writer and consultant. She is the author of the new book Taking the Work Out of Networking . Karen shares tips and strategies on how to manage the transition from corporate life to what c...

Debbie interviews Julie-Roxane Krikorian and Alasdair Plambeck, a young couple living in a tiny house in southwest France whose gap year turned into real life. They unpack the money question: do you really need a lot of money to take a gap year? Debbie addresses the privilege question: is a gap year just a First World concept for those who have the luxury of dropping out of their current life? Ful...

Debbie talks to Sam about the origins of their gap year. Sam was a successful physician in private practice in Washington DC. He explains the logistics, the timing and the deeper questions about making the life-changing decision to leave his medical practice after 31 years. Together, Debbie and Sam talk about why their gap year was not the same thing as a sabbatical or retirement. Mentioned in thi...

In Episode 1 Debbie explores the difference between student and grown-up gap years. She reminisces with her 88-year-old father about her first "gap year" when, as a 14-year-old, she was sent to school in France for one year. No, she was not allowed to go to Paris for a holiday break in the company of several 16-year-old boys. Then she interviews her three adult children who each took a gap year be...

A podcast hosted by Debbie Weil for grown-ups who believe you can step out of your default life for a gap or timeout, to find meaning and purpose, and especially when you are 50+ and figuring out what comes next. Host: Debbie Weil Special Guest: Sam Harrington Gap Year blog: Gap Year After Sixty Producer: Julie-Roxane Sponsored by Next For Me Subscribe on iTunes