The Cool Grandpa Podcast

Matt Paxton is joining our conversation this week to discuss how we can keep AND share valuable memories but let go of stuff that doesn't serve us anymore. You might recognize Matt from the television show Hoarders or its current show, Legacy List . Matt is also an author, speaker, and all-around good guy. In this conversation with Matt, we talk about how Matt started cleaning up homes for a livin...

Cynthia Kane from It's Their Turn joins this week's conversation to discuss the importance of excellent communication between parents and grandparents. Cynthia brings her background as a genetic counselor to help parents and grandparents who are daily caregivers to their grandchildren align with the adult children's caregiving expectations. As we discuss Cynthia's background in leading complicated...

Cynthia Covey Haller joins us to discuss the book Live Life In Crescendo, which she and her late father, Steven Covey, wrote. We discuss the idea for the book and how it came about. Cynthia shares with us how her father thought that expanding a person's life was the eighth habit that would lead to a successful life. For those unfamiliar with the musical term, Crescendo means increasing loudness or...

This week's conversation is with adolescent substance use expert Richard Capriola. Rick joins the conversation this week to discuss the University of Michigan's annual survey of adolescent use of substances. For those of you who don't know, this survey asks middle and high schoolers about their attitudes and use of drugs. We review the latest attitudes that our children and grandchildren have towa...

Jeff Williams has spent over thirty years helping professionals transition from one career path to another. Started in the 1990s as a resource to help people who were being laid off during the corporate restructuring, Jeff has grown and developed a team of experts who are now working with people wanting a second or encore career. We start this informative conversation discussing Jeff's transition...

Daniel Grissom is passionate about helping men learn more about the Word of God and how to use that knowledge to lead their families. He is a great guy from Atlanta, Georgia, who works to develop sales leaders in his professional life and faith leaders in his ministry. We learn about the great work that Daniel is doing working with fathers to make the Bible accessible to digest and easy to live. S...

This week's episode is a solo show. I just finished Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle Is The Way. This was a great book that seemed to hit at the right time. I was recently laid off from a non-profit where I had just started working. The Obstacle Is The Way is an excellent book about Stoicism. The part of the book that hit home for me is the concept that each individual needs to have a citadel or a plac...

Cindy Liljedahl joins the conversation to discuss her memories of not just her grandparents but also one of our great-grandfathers. If Cindy sounds familiar to you, that is because she is half of the AdventuRetired team. Last week, we had Cindy's husband, Curt, on the show to discuss his grandfathers. Cindy and I shared a very nice discussion centered on her grandfathers, Bill DeMoss and Bernard T...

Curt Liljedahl from AdventuRetired is back to talk and share with us his memories of his grandfathers. Curt will introduce you to his grandfathers, James Bertelson, and JM Liljedahl. We take our time getting to know each of these gentlemen's backgrounds and their lasting influence on Curt. You will hear the fun stories of how Curt and his siblings used to roughhouse around and do things his father...

Doug Sohn from Success After Sixty joins our conversation to discuss how aging people can look around and see what their age and experience make possible. We talk with Doug about how, as a father of six and a successful lawyer. Shortly before his birthday, he experienced a series of mini-strokes that caused him to re-examine his life. Doug shares how, even though he had followed and learned from p...

Welcome to 2024! As we kick off this new year and new opportunities for learning, leading, and loving our families, I wanted to talk with you about navigating three challenges that Grandfathers experience when caring for grandchildren. The first challenge that I think a lot of grandfathers face is what to do about disciplining the grandkids when they are in our care. I get it. As a fun and cool gr...

Ted Page joins the conversation this week to discuss his work to define and capture what it means to be a "Good Grandpa." Since the last time we spoke, Ted has started a journey of writing a book that he hopes allows him to capture the different ways and attitudes of being a grandfather. In his own words, Ted hopes "...to harvest and share the collective wisdom of grandpas all around the world in...

If you are like me, it can sometimes be confusing or downright baffling what to do for your friends and family members when it comes to Holidays, Birthdays, or heck, just when you want to do something nice for them. I know that there are all different kinds of ways that people express appreciation and love for those people close to them, but I think for most of us, it comes down to feeling like we...

Todd Howard joins our conversation to talk about the importance of men finding connections and friendship. Todd is a great guy from North Atlanta. You are going to find that Todd is as passionate as I am about supporting men in building and maintaining friendships as we grow older and take on more responsibilities in our lives. What is excellent about Todd is that he wasn't content to see a proble...

This week is Thanksgiving here in the United States. I am spending much of this week with my family AND knocking out items on my to-do list. I did want to take this opportunity to make sure that you and I got connected for a short conversation that hopefully hits home for you. First, I want to remind you that if you haven't set your goals for this year, I encourage you to do so. While creating goa...

Stephen Gomes joins us this week to talk about his grandfather's impact on him while growing up. We talk about how, between Stephen's father and grandfather, he had a well-rounded environment to grow up in. Stephen and I talked about how lucky he was to have a grandfather who would spend a day or half a week focused on him and what was happening in his world. We had a fun discussion about Stephen'...

Brittany Johns joins our conversation this week to discuss the important topic of grief. Brittany has been working in the healthcare industry for over 13 years and is certified in grief counseling. She runs and operates  New Beginnings Grief Recovery in Bend, Oregon. During our conversation, we talked about what grief is and is not. An important area for grandparents and parents to understand is t...

My wife, Karen Mangum, joins our conversation to talk to us about the traditions that she and her family had during the end-of-the-year celebrations. Karen talks about how, at Thanksgiving, there would be up to 30 people at her grandparents' house. Even with those numbers, Karen remembers that the house would be quiet enough for meaningful conversations among family members. Some of Karen's other...

Scott Rammage joins the conversation this week to talk about his grandfathers and his project, The Brotherhood of Fatherhood, that seeks to help men be the leaders and whole men they intended to be. As we begin our discussion, Scott talks about his two grandfathers. His mother's father was a janitor and worked hard to provide for his family. We learn how his grandfather was a lightning rod for bla...

Our conversation with Renee Balcom Renee is one of these folks who take a career turn and unexpectedly find their passion in service and educating others. You will enjoy hearing how Renee started in Silicon Valley in the 1970s and quickly rose to the ranks of the CEO of a technology company in the 1980s. After having enough of Silicon Valley, she moved what she refers to as her tribe to Southwest...

Our conversation with Stephen Gomes Stephen Gomes joins us this week to talk about Reverse and Flex Mortgages. Stephen does a great job explaining how the different lending options or products are a step up from what was available back in the 1970s and 1980s. Like many of you, I didn't know how much these products had changed or if they had changed from their early incarnations. I brought up with...

Our conversation with Debra Weller With Autumn starting to turn the leaves colorful and leaving a bit of an evening chill in the air, our thoughts begin to turn towards festivals and the end of the year. Debra Weller, a master storyteller, joins us again to discuss the great traditions of end-of-the-year storytelling. Debra discusses the rich traditions that just about all cultures have for gather...

Our Monthly One-on-One Conversation This month's conversation is about goals. I know this isn't November or December, the usual months when we start thinking about goals or New Year Resolutions. I felt that we needed to talk about goals as we head into the last quarter of the year so that our thoughts about goals and their importance don't get lost in the shuffle of holidays, visits with grandchil...

Our conversation with Chris Bruno Chris Bruno from ReStory Counseling joins us today to discuss men entering their second stage of life. We discuss how this second stage of life can be the most powerful in our story. While we will undoubtedly experience decline in many different areas, IF we are open to working on ourselves, we CAN use these years to, as Obi-Wan Kenobi said, "...become more powerf...