[B]OLD AGE With Debbie Weil

Today is a special episode because, after five years, this podcast is ending. You’ll hear why in this episode. Debbie and her husband, Sam Harrington, talk about why it’s time for a finale, about getting old, about legacy (and how it’s different for the two of them, right now), about their life during the past decade, how it's changing even now (they're both 72), and about what lies ahead, at leas...

Today, Debbie talks with Sarah Fay, a 52-year-old award-winning author, writing teacher, and mental health keynote speaker whose work has been featured on NPR, Oprah Daily, Forbes , The Los Angeles Times , and more. Her journalistic memoir Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses (HarperCollins, 2022) was an Apple Best Books pick and was hailed in The New York Times as a “fiery manifesto o...

Today 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,...

Debbie 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 Bol...

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 le...

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...

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 yea...

* 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, sh...

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....

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 . ///////////// Don't miss the Substack essay accompanyin...

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....

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...

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?  /...

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 d...

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 abou...

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...

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 a...

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 Bo...

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...

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...

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 w...

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 pod...

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...

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 especia...

Today, 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 maxi...