AGELESS: Opening Doors With Amanda Lamb

Mary Eisenhauer is the perfect guest for AGELESS because she recently wrote and published a book called "Reimagining Midlife" which contains stories of 35 women and their often surprising journeys to figuring out next chapters. Clearly, Mary's mission is right in line with this podcast! Mary is a human resources' professional, the married mother of daughters, and someone who is committed to showin...

Sharon Lawrence is a name most people know well. She is a star on the big screen, the little screen, and on the stage. She is probably best know for her longtime role as Sylvia Costas on NYPD Blue. She's also a huge supporter of women in her industry and a committed environmentalist. But here in North Carolina, we're proud to call her family. The Carolina native is now bringing her talent along wi...

With the new year approaching, I decided it was time to unpack the journey I've experienced in 2024 producing and hosting my podcast, AGELESS. My lovely friend and former colleague, who also happened to be my very first guest on the show in January 2024, Sloane Heffernan, agreed to put me in the hotseat to talk about the ups and downs of being a one-woman show and all that I've learned in the past...

      North Carolina State University's Coach Kay Yow died in 2009 after a 22-year battle with breast cancer. She was one of the most successful women's basketball coaches in history, amassing more than 700 wins during her 38-year career. Yet, she is more than just a sports icon, she was a helper, someone who left a lasting legacy of helping others on and off the court. Yow had the foresight to st...

Julie McKnight was born to be a performer. She grew up around famous musicians who encouraged her in Los Angeles.   But a pregnancy in college, and an early marriage to Brian McKnight who would eventually become a successful R&B singer, threatened to derail Julie's career. Like many women, her dreams took a backseat to family. But eventually, she found the strength to break out on her own as a sin...

Holly Richard has gone through the worst thing that anyone can ever experience, the loss of a child. In 2019, her 28-year-old Army veteran son, Derek, died after being diagnosed with a tumor called glioblastoma, the Titanic of brain tumors. It nearly broke her. But instead of staying in a dark place, Holly chose to share her painful journey in a book and to work hard to help support other brain ca...

Maura Allard's journey started down a rocky path. She was a college dropout who was kicked out of her home as a teenager and fell into addiction. Several relationships ended poorly, one in death, the other in divorce. But when Maura finally got sober, her career thrived. She started a business and became a realtor, but something was always missing. It wasn't until she started learning about the me...

83-year-old Florence Nash is a poet and a storyteller with a melodic voice that I could listen to all day. She's also an accomplished musician and a believer that the arts make all our lives more joyful. Raised near the banks of the Tar River in tiny Tarboro, North Carolina, Florence eventually spread her wings. They took her all over the world to live in many places including California and Europ...

B.J. Council came by her career the old-fashioned way, hard work. She came from a farming family, an educator mother, and a foundation of community service. B.J. tried college, and it wasn't for her. So, after working multiple jobs to pay the bills and sleeping on friends' floors, she decided to go to the Durham Public Safety Academy. She graduated as a firefighter and a police officer. She spent...

Her name sounds a lot like the name of a character in a movie. And in a way, Tina Tart's life is like a movie. She's a country girl from a small town in North Carolina who came to the big city of Raleigh to attend college and begin her professional life. But something was always getting in the way…that something was bipolar II disorder. After many years of struggling, Tina was finally diagnosed an...

Martha Lopez-Anderson is member of a club that no one wants to be part of. After the sudden death of her seemingly healthy 10-year-old son from sudden cardiac arrest in 2004 blindsided Martha and her family, she immersed herself in education and training related to the prevention and treatment of SCA in youth. She joined Parent Heart Watch which is made up of parents who tragically lost children f...

****PLEASE NOTE THIS PODCAST CONTAINS DETAILED REFERENCES TO KIDNAPPING, CHILD ABUSE, VIOLENCE, AND SEXUAL ASSAULT.**** You may be familiar with a recent movie that just dropped on Netflix called "Woman of the Hour" with Anna Kendrick. It is the fictionalized version of a true story about a serial killer and rapist name Rodney Alcala. He's known as the "Dating Game Killer." There have been countle...

Marla Bedrosian was on a successful track in corporate America, managing hotels up and down the East coast for a global hospitality company. Along the way, she learned a little bit about wine from the sommeliers at the hotels she oversaw. Eventually, that knowledge and interest fueled the fire beneath her to make a big change. She and her husband decided to become farmers and purchase a boutique w...

Darlena Moore grew up in the beautiful city of Asheville in the North Carolina mountains. The devastation that Hurricane Helene left behind has been tragic for her and her family, as well as heartbreaking. She is continuing to help in the recovery there in any way that she can. But at the same time, she is on her own personal mission. Darlena and her siblings were born into poverty and lost their...

Like the title of her first book, "Bare Naked in Public," Christine Amoroso is baring everything—not literally, but emotionally, as she unpacks a life where happiness often seemed elusive. Pregnant and married at age 17, she pulled herself up by her bootstraps to have multiple successful careers in accounting and education. But eventually, she realized that her workaholic ways and poor choices in...

 At almost 68 years old and with more than 40 years in the broadcast industry, Susan Murphy has had more career reinventions than Madonna. She started as one of the nation's first radio traffic reporters in Philadelphia, then moved to Florida to become a TV news reporter and a "weather girl" (back when they called it that). At 25, she helped start the first traffic reporting service in New York, a...

Shea Butler is a passionate traveler who divides her time between Washington state, Vancouver, and Los Angeles. She was born in Cairo, Egypt to American parents living abroad. Her most awe-inspiring trip was a horseback riding safari through Botswana. There's nothing like being charged by two lions to get your creative juices flowing, she tells me. In addition to her travel adventures, Shea is a t...

Crystal Roberts grew up in a family of educators where she was always challenged to do her best—especially when it came to writing and public speaking. She was one of two black children in her elementary school out of 700 students. But like all the other obstacles she faced in her life, Crystal handled it with confidence and grace. From a job loss, to caring for her ailing father, Crystal was powe...

Cara Amore has a resume that reads like magical realism—is it possible to be so many things in one lifetime? She was a chef, worked in corporate America, spent 17 years as a private investigator, and now, wows audiences with her tough and snarky New York brand of female comedy. Cara is a person who is not afraid of transformation. In fact, she's done it so many times many would say she's an expert...

There's no other way to describe her. Kathy Olevsky is one tough cookie. She has a black belt in karate and co-owns a karate school in North Carolina. She teaches other black belts and is also an expert on self-defense. Kathy's book,  Take Control , teaches women how to defend themselves in every situation. But even her tough exterior couldn't protect her from a health crisis.  At age 50, Kathy wa...

Lynn Wilder wasn't sure how she would cope after the death of her transgender daughter by suicide. It was the hardest thing she ever had to face in her entire life. The pain was almost unbearable. But somehow, she managed to pick herself up and go on. Lynn was a massage therapist by trade, but when she learned about craniosacral therapy that helps people with severe headaches and migraines, she kn...

After getting degrees in communications and multiple graduate degrees in theology, Valerie Fields just knew she was going to be a successful public relations professional. But after a great start working in public relations for Disney, she found herself sending out 75 resumes with no response. She even changed her name on her resume to "V.K." because she thought being a woman might be an obstacle...

 Sara West had a great career in corporate America. She worked in recruiting for a big tech company. She made good money, had good benefits, and had achieved a high level of seniority in her job. But after going through a contentious custody battle with her ex-husband over their three children, Sara decided that she wanted to get into family law so that she could help other single mothers navigate...

T his week on AGELESS…Robbie Hardy has done it all. She's been a teacher, a school bus driver, a researcher, and a corporate executive in the tech space. But her real passion is helping women entrepreneurs get the angel funding and the support they need to launch their businesses. After being the only woman in the room for so many years, Robbie is proud to say that she is helping change who sits a...

Lisa Lofty once walked the runways as a model along the East coast. But later in life, she would find her real jam in an unlikely place. She started leading a fitness ministry at her church. Eventually, there was so much interest in what Lisa was doing that she started her own fitness business in the Washington, D.C. area. She had always loved hiking, but when the pandemic hit, Lisa found herself...