Seniors in the Building

We begin by sharing our experiences of growing up in rural communities with extended family around and continue to reference the influence of extended family throughout the conversation. It is in exact contrast to the experience we had raising our own children and being separated from extended family by either distance or our parents’ death. We touch on genetics and how familial features and healt...

Starting with a clip from our first attempt at a podcast, we marvel at how far we have come in understanding the technology, which sets the tone for our conversation. We have seen many changes in technology in our lifetimes and the themes of adapting and learning are paramount to the discussion. How do we learn new technology? Why might we resist? What happens when technology fails, and we must tr...

Things we thought would inspire us in retirement, don’t and what we now find inspiring is surprising. That runs the gamut from thinking about hockey differently and ditching previous hobbies for new ones to the exploration of quantum physics and following Chris Hadfield’s observations from space. The gift of time allows us to explore our interests at length and to delve into a particular project o...

Thoughts of death are more frequent in our seventies, and the number of years ahead of us are fewer. We are paying more attention to what we do before we die, and how we want to be remembered. We recall the division of material goods from our parents and how much we should involve our children in the task of divestment of goods. We discuss creative ways to leave a legacy. We also discuss death bas...

Spirituality can take on deeper significance in later life, becoming a vital source of meaning, comfort and resilience. It can be a very broad topic, taking in many different religious and meditative traditions. But what does it mean for us? We reflect on our lives, relationships with our families and the broader community, connecting to something outside ourselves and finding peaceful spaces. We...

Food is essential to life, and we thought it was important to talk about our relationship to food now. We found ourselves remembering big family gatherings for harvest or holidays, and the wonderful food we enjoyed in our Canadian, German, English and Scandinavian traditions. We explore where some of our attitudes towards food came from and how that has shaped our eating habits today. We also disc...

We explore nurturing - social, physical, spiritual, cognitive, emotional and familial - as we move through the space between independence and vulnerability. Once taken-for-granted routines like driving or medical checkups now demand personal advocacy and initiative. Nurturing takes effort - and raises the question, "Are we enough?". We also reflect on how aging is shared with our children and gran...

Finding ourselves suddenly older can be startling. People tend to respond to us in a different way, and we see ourselves differently. We thought we had more time to think about our future. Now it is here! We begin the conversation with the emerging political climate and how false news, climate change denial and other challenging issues evident today affect our outlook and our future. What sort of...

In the previous podcast we got a bit sidetracked in our conversation about coping with fear and anxiety. We decided to continue with that topic. When we are faced with threats, what is our "fight or flight" response? And what about a "tend and befriend" response? What are the things that may create fear and anxiety for older people? What causes fear and anxiety for us? We explore these questions a...

A conversation that started out as how do we cope with fear and anxiety, became an exploration of who we are now as we are growing older. We d0 talk about how we alleviate stress in our daily lives. We share some of the past experiences that have shaped our current strategies, including silent retreats, forest bathing, and learning how to just 'be'. But the question of who we are now, since we are...

A meaningful conversation about the struggle to find and maintain the things that sustain us and bring meaning to our lives as we age. With honesty and humour, the Seniors in the Building podcast members talk about family, advocacy, spirituality, sports and gratitude, among other things as they reflect on what has changed over time and what brings hope and joy to them today.

From Africa to India, through Europe and across Canada, Jack, Signe, Elaine and Rick share some of their travel adventures, answering the question "What Have I learned from travelling that I take into the future? An interesting conversation develops around how their lives were changed by travel, including the shifts in worldview, cultural awareness, parenting styles and ability to adapt.

Welcome to Seniors in the Building, a podcast exploring what it means to grow older. Meet Rick, Elaine, Signe and Jack and learn how they rekindled their friendship after 30 some years, and why they decided to start a podcast. Listen as they share with humour and honesty how it feels to learn and use new technology (somewhat awkwardly at first) then as they warm up to the topics they hope to cover...