Older Women & Friends: Stories of Aging Well

Send us a Text Message. How can playful dares and simple activities transform your journey, no matter your age? Join us as we chat with the vibrant Jodi Silverman, who shares her inspiring path from playful childhood adventures in Northeast Philadelphia to becoming a beacon of joy for midlife women. Jodi takes us through her career transitions from retail to outside sales, and finally to entrepren...

Send us a Text Message. Are some or most of your precious memories stuffed in a box (boxes) and stuck in a closet?  Have you sworn you’ll organize the photos, keepsakes, and letters from an old boyfriend but just haven’t found the time? It’s understandable. You’ve been crazy busy.  But you’re not getting any younger, and in those boxes are stories you want to share with your children and...

Send us a Text Message. This episode is the first of several that celebrates older female artists.  If you or someone you know fits the bill, please email me at j.leder@comcast.net. What makes an artist tick? How can she find the time to create, given all the demands of everyday life? What barriers do female artists face that many men do not? How important is having a purpose in life about wh...

Send us a Text Message. As older women and men, we have seen a lot: suffering, miracles, and so much more. "And we're not finished yet," says guest Janis Johnston, retired therapist, author, and blogger. "We can ask ourselves what is the next thing we might learn. What is meaningful? Answering questions like these helps us find creativity in our lives."  Okay, I can hear the rumbling: I'm nev...

Send us a Text Message.   Here's a whopper: there are approximately 67 million grandparents in the U.S. today. Slightly more than twenty-six percent of them in the U.S. are mid-lifers.  That's crazy, right?  Many grandparents are still working, many have older children living in the house, and many may be taking care of their parents. While there is little research, millions of gran...

Send us a Text Message.   For some of us, turning 80 is right around the corner; for others, 80 might seem a lifetime away. No matter your age, listening to the stories of older women and the wisdom they’ve earned can be instructive and uplifting. I don’t know about you, but every time I read about someone who has lived beyond the current life expectancy averages of 79.3 years for women...

Send us a Text Message. I believe in the power of stories, and Yvonne Marchese's story is a doozy. She is what she calls a "serial pivotal,"  person, a person who has changed course many times in her life. For many years, she was filled with frustration, anger, and even depression. The future held little promise.  But when she was in her late 40s, she had what she calls a "Mid-Life Awake...

Send us a Text Message. In the late 70s, Jan Yager was single and convinced she'd never find a life partner. So, she turned her attention, research, and writing to the importance of friendships and the many ways friends impact our lives.  Studies show that a network of good friends makes our lives more satisfying and that, as we age, it is important to replenish our circle of friends. Yager d...

Send us a Text Message.   One of the first questions I ask a guest is to describe her childhood. It never fails that the child they describe is in so many ways the older woman they’ve become, As either a Jesuit or Aristotle said, “Show me a child until he (she) is seven and I will show you the man (woman.)” Diana Place is the  founder of the 333 Collective, QUEST Gathering & Celebrat...

Send us a Text Message. If you read Bonnie Marcus' second book, Not Done Yet, and listen to her podcast, "Badass Women At Any Age," you'll discover a woman who knows her sh-- and isn't afraid to tell readers and listeners that she's pissed, real pissed, because older women in the workplace continue to be overlooked and passed over. Bonnie may have you laughing with her sassy, savvy approach, but t...

Send us a Text Message.   Either you or someone you know is single for the first time in decades. Add to that the number of older adults, particularly women, who have been widowed, and you are in a tsunami of people 65+ who are looking for love.   Author, journalist, and relationship expert Francine Russo knows more than most about the loss of a partner. She has been widowed twice,...

Send us a Text Message. It's become a cliche: older women in the media are portrayed as mothers, grandmothers, washed-up lovers, mother-in-laws.  Think of the invasive mother-in-law in "Everyone Loves Raymond." And the same goes for "Steinfeld." And then think of how men in their 60s, particularly in movies, are paired with women in their late 20s or early 30s. James Bond gets older every yea...

Send us a Text Message.          I’m a big fan of the AARP Bulletin and was particularly taken by a cover article titled Super Agers. I’d never heard that term before. Is a Super Ager someone whose appearance belies their age? Or is it someone who can do the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle in pencil? Or are we talking about something much bigger? Who better to answe...

Send us a Text Message.       Diana was that bookish girl who sat in the front of the classroom and always had her homework done. A self-described latch-key kid with a lot of time on her hands, she loved to record bits of Disney and other cartoons in many different voices and then sit back and listen to herself. It’s no surprise that years later, she landed a job as an on-air music...

Send us a Text Message.      We all have bumps in our lives ranging from not-so-major (Think: a fender bender or a lost credit card) to the big stuff, like divorce, the death of a loved one, or the loss of a job. The challenge is navigating life’s biggest changes and coming out stronger and happier on the other side. How the heck do we do that?       Linda Rosset...

Send us a Text Message. Janine Vanderburg is one of those women I’d want to be on my team. I don’t know if she can play pickleball, but I do know that her commitment to, as she says, “slaying the ageism dragon”  is vital—some might say all-consuming. She does a lot of great stuff, but it is “Changing The Narrative,” the organization she founded in 2018 that has been the leader in working to c...

Send us a Text Message. Shannon Jarrott’s grandmother never lived in the family’s home but played a big role in Shannon’s and, eventually, her younger brother’s lives. Her grandmother was there when she got off the school bus. She was there for the long, carefree summer days. She is, says Shannon, why she became a gerontologist and expert on intergenerational relationships—relationships between a...

Send us a Text Message. Ageism does its best to stereotype older women (and men) as invisible, unhappy, and dependent. The message is: "If you think life sucks now, just wait because the longer you live, the worse it's going to get." Yikes! But Ashton Applewhite, age advocate and author of "This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism," shakes down the myths of ageism and showers listeners with th...

Send us a Text Message. “Your decisions should be based on your curiosity, not your fear.”     Are you curious why older people are the happiest demographic in the country? I know I am, which is why Sky Bergman, photographer, professor, and documentary filmmaker, is my guest in this not-to-be-missed episode. Sky’s first documentary, “Lives Well Lived,” is based on interviews with forty o...

Send us a Text Message.  We’re so beyond periods. Hell, it’s menopause and post-menopause that we care about.       And as for changing the world . . . well, we’ve got a lot on our minds that does not include young girls and their periods.       Hold up. There’s a story here that reads like fiction. Millions of girls have no idea what is happening to their bodies...

Send us a Text Message. Joanne Greene was the take-charge mother, wife, professional who never saw a challenge she couldn't meet. Busy, busy. Constantly on the go. No time to take a breath and consider what was driving her to live her life at break-neck speed. And then a traumatic accident forced Joanne to give up total control and depend on others for everything. During her recuperation, which to...

Send us a Text Message. Patricia Greenberg was on a track to be a dentist. But her path changed when she took a home economics class in college and fell in love with dietetics and wellness. Since then, she has been a dietician, a chef, the owner of a vegetarian restaurant, and now a sought-after spokeswoman for taking care of ourselves from the inside out—what she calls “an Inside job.” Patricia i...

Send us a Text Message. Judy Foreman is a survivor of physical and emotional abuse from both her mother and father. Her dad – she had to call him by his first name only—was an alcoholic, a bully, and the perpetrator of unending abuse until Judy left home for Wesley College. Her mother could not or would not express love and affection. Judy can’t remember a time when her mother hugged, kissed, or s...

Send us a Text Message. You might wonder what a 31-year-old woman in her thirties knows about fashion for older women. I had the same question. Who is Londoner Jacynth Bassett, and why, as a late twenty-something, did she leave her law studies behind to launch an online women’s clothing boutique—an all-inclusive boutique that has older women in mind? Bassett explains that she has always been a fas...

Send us a Text Message. “I'm too old to start a new career”“I shouldn’t exercise a lot because I can easily injure myself.”“Both of my parents died young, so I guess that’s my fate, too.”“I’d better give up driving now, even though my eyesight is good.”Sound familiar? Have you heard these gender myths bandied about, and maybe deepdown, you actually subscribe to some of them? That’s where Helen Hir...