Friday Flames | 11.10.23
On our six-month anniversary, a Very Special Synopsis of what we learned from our first 23 podcast guests.
Welcome and thank you
For the benefit of everyone reading this—from our first supporters to the big batch of new subscribers who’ve signed on this month—this is an appreciation post, because we started this podcast about our flummoxed 50s exactly six months ago today.
We’re frankly not sure how many six-month anniversaries we’ve acknowledged during the 27 years we’ve known each other (our marriage, our kids’ births, the day our divorce was final, etc.), but this one, which has offered up so much experience, expertise, and perspective, might be our favorite.
Our community is small but growing rapidly, thanks to everyone who has participated with such enthusiasm and candor. Everyone’s dealing with something, often flying by the seats of our pants without a map or manual, and we clearly don’t get the chance to talk about it as much as we’d like. With topics including but not limited to:
Empty nesting with
:
Eldercare with
and Emily Gavin:
Creativity with
and :
Entrepreneurship with
:
Finding a new path with
and :
Recovering from catastrophic injury with Jodie Ousley:
Parenting our older children with Erin Hunter, Dawn Friedman, and
:
Grief cleaning with Elizabeth Mosier:
And of course, the complete guide to romance with That Hot Mike Zarin.
There are many more topics to come, including any that you’d like to suggest here in the comments or in our Facebook discussion group.
Thank you all for listening and subscribing and reading and appearing and supporting this effort, which is already becoming so much more than its parts. And partly because we believe in the scientific benefit of gratitude, we’re already feeling better about what the next 27 years might bring.
This week on the podcast
After she downsized into a motor home and traveled the country compiling stories of Who We Are Now after the pandemic, author Michelle Fishburne says it's never too late to reinvent yourself.
Episode 23: "There was always a moment in every interview when my jaw dropped."
Listen now (64 mins) | Fair warning: After you listen to this episode, you might develop a compelling aspiration to downsize everything into a 30-foot motor home and hit the road. Author and recovering attorney Michelle Fishburne did that in 2020 and spent much of those 12,000 miles talking to hundreds of people across the country about how they endured the COVID lockdown.
Currently reading
Magda is reading Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest, by poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib. This is a collection of essays about and to ATCQ, one of Magda's favorite musical groups of all time. Every essay is lyrical and clever and evocative, and everyone who loves or just likes ATCQ a little should read them.
Doug is reading The Body Keeps the Score, the now-classic book about how we process trauma by the wonderfully named Bessel van der Kolk. It’s an astonishing reminder of how prevalently we all suffer, but an even more encouraging—and accessible—treatise on the science-based treatments that help us survive.
Currently watching
On theme with this week’s podcast guest, Doug watched Nomadland, where (as we learned in Jessica Bruder’s book) “the American dream has been whittled down to self-sufficiency and the open road.” The movie’s tone is beautiful, bleak, and rambling, just like the life. And the story begins in a company town really called Empire, which really did fall. Metaphor much?
The end of Daylight Saving Time has launched a new, nightly ritual: Mike puts something on, and Magda falls asleep. It's starting to become comical. We should probably rename this segment “What Magda wants to be watching,” so we can mention Moonlighting and the new season of The Morning Show.
Currently cooking
Magda likes to cook a pre-Thanksgiving dinner just to take the edge off the buildup to Turkey Day, and this year she may have launched a new tradition by cooking turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted broccoli, and cranberry sauce on Mike's birthday. Then she commemorated his birthday pies in her 1000th Instagram post. How many weeks in a row can she obsess about Thanksgiving food? Probably at least four.
Screw pumpkin spice. Autumn is squash season, and when Doug made this delicious harissa butternut soup with coconut milk and cilantro, he knew it’s the exact type of meal you need when you’re preparing to eat dinner in the dark until March 10, 2024.
Next on the podcast
For Episode 24: If you’re a professional in the mood for a change, Emily Benson PhD has spent 15 years assessing talent and facilitating up-level career pivots. So there.
Thanks for reading, and you guys are the best.
Magda and Doug