Boomer Banter, Real Talk about Aging Well

"We have to do everything we can to avoid exceeding the 1.5 degrees temperature increase right now. According to the IPCC report, that is projected to happen in less than ten years, if we keep at the current pace. We have to do everything possible to reduce emissions and change the energy supply - it's not too late to save the planet!" ~ Samuel Rubin That was the message of my conversation with Dr...

Kathi Kulesza is an inspiring leader and speaker with over three decades of experience in the hospitality industry. She has shared her life changing lessons with over 20,000 up and coming leaders at 600 plus events. In this episode we shared our experiences as Boomer Women in male-dominated workplaces and how we tried to blend in, wore business suits, and hadn't learned how to be assertive. There...

Ken Dolan-Del Vecchio is an award-winning leader and keynote speaker in the field of workplace mental health. He is also the author of The Pet Loss Companion, a book about the lessons learned from facilitating pet loss support groups. Ken co-hosts the podcast, The Pet Loss Companion podcast, where they answer listeners questions about the loss and aging of their pets. "Grief is the elemental human...

Sky Bergman is an accomplished award-winning photographer and filmmaker. She is a professor emeritus of photography and video at Cal Poly State University. Her inaugural documentary, Lives Well Lived , explores the inspiring stories of 40 people with 3000 years of collective life experience and how to live life to its fullest. "My grandmother had a motto to always be kind. And I think that that's...

"We don't have to hold ourselves to these amazing standards. And I think with our club, we just mostly want a community where we can be like, hey, I'm not alone. I'm not having these feelings alone, I'm not feeling judged alone. We can all help support each other and have these shared feelings and talk about it and be like, hey, I don't have to be this way or this way because someone wants me to b...

Despite being expected to feel nothing but gratitude for having been "selected" and "rescued" by her adoptive parents, Doris Blumenthal embarks on a journey to reconnect with her biological family and unravel the heartbreaking irony of her commodified existence. Doris Blumenthal had always been aware she was adopted and felt the pressure of being a "selected" child. After her parents passed away,...

Description: In this episode, Wendy Battles shares her personal journey of getting out of her comfort zone and finding her true purpose. From her experiences as a voice actor, becoming a coach, and now a podcast host, she reflects on self-discovery and the process of figuring out what she likes and dislikes. Wendy also shares insights on the importance of self-reflection, especially during midlife...

Description: Today I speak with Elly Katz, founder of a unique program that connects older adults, "sages," with younger generations, "seekers." The program aims to provide a platform for intergenerational learning and share hard-earned life lessons. During the discussion, Elly shares the impact the program has had on both sages and seekers, including increased happiness and relevance for the...

As I welcomed a new year, I found myself contemplating the power of words and their ability to shape our lives. Instead of setting resolutions I might break or forget, I chose a 'word of the year', a guiding light in my journey of personal growth. This episode explores my journey with last year’s word ‘acceptance’ and how this year’s word ‘connect’ was chosen. You’ll learn the process of selecting...

This episode was live on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and I started it by reading a portion of the "I have a Dream" speech. Which led to my first question. "Is hope and positivity the same thing, and how important are they to our mental health as we age?" Dr. Joe Casciani spent 40 years as a psychologist and manager of mental health practices specializing in the care of older adults. He now has a p...

From football player to Certified Financial Planner to podcaster, Joe Allaria is passionate about educating his clients and his listeners. He spoke to us about the 3 levels of financial retirement. Level one: Survival - Can I pay my bills when I retire? Typically, people that have this fear have not worked with a financial planner and are simply guessing at their financial state. Level two: Surviv...

Dr. Sara Hart, who at the age of 74 cycled 540 miles in the AIDS ride from San Francisco to LA is a woman on a mission. She is helping older women find the spark in their lives to light their way in the world. Sara had an idea that she wanted to do something to address how society sees older women and find ways to turn that around. After a couple of interesting interactions, she realized that Prim...

This episode begins the conversation on Hey, Boomer to start to find the opportunities for the generations to build bridges of understanding. There are so many reasons the generations are separated, which has caused misperceptions, blaming and shaming, going both ways. We are at time when solutions to things like climate change, mental health, the high cost of education, longer lifespans would ben...

Have you had the experience where a healthcare professional seems to speak in a condescending manner to you or to your older parent? Have you been called "sweetie" or "dear" one time too often? How about when the healthcare worker asks a question like "What would we like for dinner?" Jeanette Leardi is a social gerontologist who realized how ageism was affecting older adults in healthcare situatio...

Mark Twain said, "The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." Purpose is your natural way of being and your purpose may change over your lifetime. It is not static. When we leave our careers many of us lose our sense of identity and then we lose our reason to get up in the morning. Anna Hall worked in senior living communities, and she saw how t...

Dennis Gillan lost 2 brothers to suicide in the span of 11 years. It took him a long time before he could talk about this loss. Now he has started a non-profit organization called HalfASorrow.org to educate people about suicide prevention. In this episode Dennis shared how he began to address the problem initially by volunteering on a suicide hotline. It took awhile before he could talk about what...

She was a young girl when her family emigrated from Czechoslovakia after WWII. Some of the family was not able to leave, some of the family moved to Bavaria in Germany. Pipka Ulvilden was raised in North Dakota, and Michigan and now lives in Sister Bay, Wisconsin, an idealic artist community by Lake Michigan. As a single mother she made the decision to be a full-time artist and opened a boutique s...

This is a story of inspiration, of what we can do when we want to and surround ourselves with people who believe in us. It started out as a story of Margaret Caterisano, the costume designer at Furman University, who started to write plays during the pandemic. She submitted one of her plays to the SheNYC 2022 Summer Arts Festival and her play was selected as one of 9 out of over 300 submissions to...

The year was 1970. The prior year my family had visited Washington and I saw all these young people working on the floor of the Senate. They were Senate pages, and that looked like something I really wanted to do. For some reason, I did not notice that they were all boys.   In 1970, when I was 16, I wrote to my Senator about being his page. I was told that girls were not allowed to be pa...

Omkari Williams went from a career as an actor to political campaigns and fundraising to activism. She walks us through this transition and what was the turning point that guided her into activism. Her work with her clients and in her training is to help people find sustainable ways to contribute to society and make a difference. We all matter and we all have a role to play. She encourages people...

Rhonda Cook was a gutsy reporter who "fell into" her work as an inmate advocate. She developed the trust of inmates in the prisons where she was was assigned and they would call her and let her know about what was going on in the prisons. In 1998 she started to hear about sexual abuse in a woman's prison. The story covered 18 months of work, and resulted in multiple firings and changes in the pris...

Live Life in Crescendo was the personal mantra of Stephen R. Covey, author of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People . He worked with his daughter, Cynthia Covey Haller, to share his ideas about the Crescendo Mentality. Unfortunately, Stephen, R. Covey passed away before the books was completed, but Cynthia continued the work and released the book last month. In this episode, she shares that...

Celebrate aging. We rarely take the time to celebrate aging, because we have been sold the idea that aging is something to be avoided and not celebrated. There is a profit motive behind shaming us and telling us how to look, how to feel, how to think, so that we will buy anti-aging products. These messages reinforce our own internal biases about aging. Janine Vanderburg leads Changing the Narrativ...

Gramps Jeffrey was in isolation with his wife, children and 6 children during Covid and he had an opportunity to observe the kids up close. From that experience he wrote a book called, " I Don't Want to Turn 3. " It tells the story of a tough lesson learned and the resolution shared with the whole family. In our discussion we talked about how parenting today has changed from how we were parented a...

Margit Novack is such a generous guest and she openly and honestly shared her wisdom and experience around the experience of moving as an older adult. Topics covered include: Impact of individual perception of aging Intentionality of self-care Navigating downsizing your home. The hardest move is from the family home. Honestly looking at reasons why moving an older parent into senior living is good...