On the northshore of Chicago, there has existed a magical boutique gift store for 37 years. Its name: The Yellow Bird. Recently the shopping center where it had thrived all those years, was sold to make room for new residential buildings and some commercial. Yellow Bird’s lease was over but Carol was not. Yellow Bird’s owner, Carol Schaner, 87, was…

Andrea Gilats—writer, educator, artist, yoga instructor—believes that “when one writes a memoir, one has to be oneself.” Andrea’s captivating new memoir, Radical Endurance: Growing Old in an Age of Longevity, reveals her journey of ‘discovery through the pitfalls and possibilities of aging.’ She reflects on dealing with prolonged grief following th…

For 15 years, Karen Allen (age 73), actor and director of stage and film, and Sarah T. Schwab (age 39), writer, director and producer, have enjoyed collaborating on theatre and film productions, notably addressing oft-avoided discussions about dying and loss. Their award-winning film, A Stage of Twilight—written and directed by Sarah and starring K…

Sharon A. Brangman, MD, Syracuse NY, is a geriatrician who has been a leader in the field of geriatrics for over two decades. Her focus is directly on the phenomenon of normal cognitive aging, concentrating on prevention. Dr. Brangman serves as Chair of the Department of Geriatrics, Director of the Center for Excellence for Alzheimer’s Disease and …

From a very young age, Pamela Rand, 81, described herself as a comic, a clown, a funny kid who liked to make people laugh. She continues today to sing, dance, speak in multiple accents and create skits on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTock. Laughing at herself is her prime mode of comedy. In her early 20’s, Pamela went to Clown School in Pari…

For 50 years, Marcia Naomi Berger, 79, has experienced a journey from madness to love and meaning. Her first manic episode was at 29, when she was already a well-respected licensed clinical social worker - an experienced psychotherapist well-trained in cognitive-behavioral, family systems, process, and psychodynamic approaches. She draws from many …

Anne Burke, age 80, retired Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, began her career as a physical education teacher, earned her undergraduate degree as an adult student at the School for New Learning/DePaul University, completed a law degree while raising four children, and created the Special Olympics. Her law practice centered on helping vu…

Ruth Schimel, 84, has original ways to make the most of life’s possibilities. An author of over 70 published articles and seven books, she was previously a diplomat/foreign service officer at the Department of State. She has also taught at four universities. With her mother, Ruth created the Schimel Lode to promote collaboration and innovation in t…

Susan Baur, 84, has been a writer, historian and psychologist for 50 years. As a child, nothing grabbed her passion like listening to her father’s stories which seemed to describe other worlds that exist inside our own. Pursuing these other worlds ever since, the force of nature keeps pulling at her very being and led her first into an obsession wi…

Karen Ross, 76, is a champion who keeps reinventing herself. Self-confident, curious and proactive, Karen never stops finding new ways to stay involved, support herself and others, and meet interesting people. She thought she would be a musician and entered college intending to major in music. However, Broadway show music is what interested her and…

Elderwerks’ dynamic CEO and Founder, Jennifer Prell, understands older adults. She believes elders deserve respect and loving care. She gets worked up when talking about how difficult it often is for older people, no matter their income level, to find proper housing as they age. Adult children reach out because a parent is declining. That parent do…

The hardest part of getting older is the realization that some dreams are never going to be realized. Some situations are not going to change. Jackie Greenbaum, however realistic she remains, has lived her life as though dreams are meant to be followed. Discouraged from a career in law at a young age, Jackie pursued teaching, only to find it unsati…

If we are looking for what we enjoy doing, then, logically, we’re going to be good at it. Joyful thoughts spiral upward. We are on this planet to love and be loved, to be truly authentic. Gail Sussman Miller, Inspired Choice.com, believes how we think, and communicate, is a key issue for leaders of organizations. She helps them manage difficult con…

Wendy Green, founder and host of Hey, Boomer,! knows about personal transformation first-hand and coaches women to “live the meaningful, purposeful life they want to live.” Wendy left the world of corporate training to focus on women’s experiences of growing older—as a coach, podcaster, show host, and blogger. Podcast guests, along with members of …

Sally Jean Fox’s 2023 book, Meeting the Muse After Midlife: A Journey to Meaning, Creativity, and Joy, tells her story of finding joy in being creative after 50, as she explored gardening, clowning, improv theatre, storytelling, and singing. Always keen on writing, Sally took up painting at age 69 and exhibited 30 paintings three years later. Altho…

Cheri Boublis is Senior Director for Hospitality Services at Plymouth Place in LaGrange Park, Illinois, a model for active community living. Cheri collaborates with the leadership, residents, vendors, and the larger community to offer wide-ranging services for adults who choose a vibrant lifestyle. Choice is the guiding concept for most everything …

Joy has always been a part of Beverly Pimsleur's life. Her extended family in Louisville KY loved to be together, to dance, sing and have fun. She recognized the importance of language from a young age and started learning French in high school. She met her husband, a French professor, on a blind date in her twenties and changed her plans about liv…

As an educational leader and mentor, Dr. Helen Benjamin tells stories about growing up in the segregated South, living and working in two worlds—Black and White, and helping younger Black professionals navigate their CEO roles in community colleges. In semi-retirement, Helen leads HSV Consulting, Inc, works with “dozens of colleges, boards, and CEO…

Do you want to share housing but find the transition scary? We often live in shared housing when we are single: college, roommates in camp, at conferences, during our early careers. Living with housemates as we age is no different. Annamarie Pluhar, 70, is a well-spoken advocate for shared housing and offers valuable ways of thinking to simplify th…

Mary Mitchell, age 74, sheds light on aging and ageism in her occasional column for the Chicago Sun Times, Starting Over. Mary ‘started over’ five years ago when she switched her journalistic authority on race relations in Chicago to concentrate on matters of growing older. She advocates that longevity is a blessing and aging offers an opportunity …

Ann Anderson Evans, age 82, lives in Vermont. She is a writer, linguist, and former professor. Her first memoir, Daring to Date Again (2014), which tells the story of what happened after she started dating at 62, won multiple prizes. Her sequel The Sweet Pain of Being Alive: A Memoir of Love and Death (Jan. 2024), narrates her attempt to find out w…

Susan Gangsei, a classically trained tapestry artist from Minneapolis, MN, uses her talent to create images of women aging. Her recent series, The Sacred Journey of Aging, features the “beauty, strength, and wisdom of older women.” Susan treats viewers to her tapestries that represent different passages of growing older—feeling invisible, making mi…

Visionary and disrupter, Jacynth Bassett, is an award-winning, highly sought after consultant and expert in the anti-ageism/ age-inclusive & positive movement. At only 31, she is widely recognized as a leading pioneer and voice, awarded ‘Anti-Ageist Activist’ of 2023, at the inaugural Advantages Of Age Awards 2023. and named one of Evening Standard…

LIfe is a constant adventure for Michele Kurlander, 79. She lives in Chicago, yet her heart is in France. A fluent francophile, Michelle spends much of her life traveling between Chicago and Paris. There she has met dear friends who live all across the world. When she becomes interested in an artist, an author, a performer, Michele’s obsession with…

Dr. Pamela Meyer is a prolific author, international consultant and keynote speaker, and college teacher whose areas of focus are leadership agility, organizational change, and adult learning. In her most recent book, Staying in the Game: Leading and Learning with Agility for a Dynamic Future, Pamela draws on her experiences as an amateur, gold med…

Sheila Solomon’s career in mass media arts spans 50 years. She was among the first African American women to work in the newsrooms of regional and national newspapers. Sheila became a dedicated advocate for affirmative action—bringing people of color into the news business and reporting on race issues in professions outside of journalism. While wor…

As the founder of AGEIST Magazine and Super Ager podcast, David Stewart is a passionate champion of the modern 50+ lifestyle. While interviewing David is a departure from interviewing women 70-110+, we feel that what he has to say contributes to our mission of aging reimagined. Women are the ones who are changing things. Men never experienced ageis…

When Sandy Gordon retired at 70, from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Rosemont, Illinois as Director of Public Relations, a colleague gave her a toast. It said in part: “Sandy has the kind of talent that startles people. Really. Her co-workers and colleagues often sit around wondering how she comes up with her ideas. Ideas that seem t…

Coleen T. Murphy, Ph.D is Director, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, James A. Elkins, Jr. Professor in the Life Sciences, Department of Molecular Biology, and LSI Genomics, Princeton University. She is also Director, Paul F. Glenn Center for Aging Research at Princeton and Director of Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging…

Dr. Tracey Gendron is an internationally recognized gerontologist with almost 30 years of experience as a grant-funded researcher. She speaks to audiences globally about the real world impact of age bias. She is determined to change people’s negative views about aging. “Ageism, she says, is complicated - more nuanced than most people think it is. A…

Carol Stitzer, 80, lives life in the moment. All you have to do is listen to her and you immediately understand that she is positive, talented, energetic and happy. From early childhood education to development professional, fundraiser, artist and volunteer, Carol never lacks for the next big thing. She fine-tuned her skills at the Center for Ameri…

A life of social service requires a deep commitment to reaching out, helping out and finding those paths that have meaning to you. Throughout Nancy Hanson’s entire life, she has been doing just that. Following in the footsteps of her mother, Nancy knows no other way of being. Early on, she joined the League of Women Voters and in each of the cities…

Catherine (Kate) Saccany was born to run. She took up jogging and ran barefoot for her first 30 months because there were no running shoes for women. A career banker, Kate joined LaSalle Bank. Coincidentally, LaSalle sponsored the Chicago marathon. She bought her first pair of running shoes, qualified for the marathon and has not stopped since. Yes…

Joy, love, compassion - the foundation of Eme’s life and her stories. Eme McAnam was a singer-songwriter who charted in the top 100 in Country Music. Her career has taken many turns: Singer/songwriter, novelist, art photographer. Her newest novel, Freefalling: A Novel of Senior Romance, is based on a topic she knows well from her 91/2 years serving…

Educational equity, intercultural communication, and teacher education are the threads of Dr. Gretchen Wilbur’s 30+-year career as an educational leader. Upon retiring from DePaul University in 2019, Gretchen traded an urban lifestyle in Chicago for the rural mountains in Jamaica where she lives with the Maroon people. As the only resident who is W…

[spp-player] Carol Marin, age 75, is an award-winning television and print journalist renowned for her nearly 50 years of investigative stories on politics, public corruption, and organized crime. In 2016, Carol co-founded and directs DePaul University’s Center for Journalism Integrity and Excellence where she teaches a two-quarter long course in A…

Sex educator, Joan Price, is the voice for ‘ageless sexuality.’ In her books, webinars, presentations, newsletter, and blog, Joan talks frankly about spicy and satisfying sex for seniors, whether partnered or solo. She is the first to address sex and grief in her recent book, Sex After Grief: Navigating Your Sexuality After Losing Your Beloved. Joa…

We love all our interviews. However, meeting Betty Werrenrath in person, and interviewing her in her apartment at the Presbyterian Homes in Evanston, IL was a unique experience that we would not have traded. Betty is inspiring, positive, upbeat and interesting. She was born January 28, 1914 in Harrisburg, PA. The daughter of a progressive preacher’…

Patti Temple Rocks has had a long, successful, and immensely rewarding career in marketing and communications and still she is not done. Her work and her articles and books have been written about in major publications such as Fast Company, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal. Inc. Patti started her career at Dow Chemical in 1981. It was not until many…

Dr. Susan Mazer is a full-time performing jazz harpist and former President, Co-founder, and CEO of Healing HealthCare Systems, producers of The C.A.R.E. Channel, the only evidence-based, 24-hour relaxation channel for patient television. Now in its 30th year, C.A.R.E. is being broadcasted in over 1,100 hospitals nationally and internationally incl…

When nearing 50 years of age and recently widowed, Judy sold everything, bought an around-the-world airline ticket, and set off alone on a year-long journey without a planned itinerary. “The outer journey serves as a container” for Judy’s inner “struggle to find her way as a sober, single, independent woman.” A master teacher and published author o…

Through Top Sixty Over Sixty, Helen writes articles and speaks at conferences to encourage a reframed narrative of aging, one that reflects the age realities of the 21st century. She emphasizes the need for a longevity focus, encourages an entrepreneurial mindset, and cautions against internalized ageism which undermines the potential of older adul…

Janis Clark Johnston is a family psychologist, speaker, and author of several books, most recently Transforming Retirement: Rewire and Grow Your Legacy. When she experienced 9/11, Janis says, she became more sensitive to other’s pain and loss. Planning rituals to honor the person you lost helps you to grow during the grieving process. Keeping a gra…

Emily Clionsky, MD, and Mitchell Clionsky, PhD, are a physician and neuropsychologist couple who have cared for their own parents with dementia, created a test used by doctors to measure cognitive function, and treated more than 25,000 patients with cognitive impairment. They partner at a private practice, Clionsky Neuro Systems, Inc., based in Spr…

Diane Slezak is CEO of Age Options, a nonprofit advocacy organization she has been involved with since 1976. Age Options caters to older adults and those who care for them with resources and service options so older adults can live their lives to the fullest. The explosive demographic of baby- boomers has sparked pressing issues, including home-del…

Since becoming CEO of The Village Chicago in 2019, Darcy has overseen the growth and vitality of The Village—including over 500 comprehensive programs that focus on social, emotional, and physical well-being. She promotes improved quality of life for older adults and intergenerational collaboration at work, at home, and in the community. Darcy and …

For much of her life, Susan Cartland-Bode has shared her gift of music-- as a soloist and choral singer, voice teacher, player of piano and violin and, most recently, fiddle. A resident of Plymouth Place in LaGrange Park, IL, Susan performs solos, sings with the Plymouth Place Singers, and directs the Singing Sages, a group that offers sing-along p…

Rhea Zakich, age 88, touches human hearts as an author, speaker, workshop and seminar leader, and creator of the world’s popular communication game the UNGAME (1973)—5 million sold and still selling. Her dramatic story of the UNGAME has been told on TV and radio programs as well as in major newspapers and publications such as Readers Digest, Redboo…

Catherine Hiller is inspired to write against the grain. In her current novel, Cybil Unbound, (her 10th book and 6th novel), she delicately characterizes an older woman and her new-found sexuality. Catherine believes the capacity to fall in love can strike at any age. "It is a rare depiction about sexual adventure in a woman's later years. Cybill i…

Taru Fisher coaches women to make aging fearless, fulfilling, and fun. She encourages women to fully respect their own aging process and be vibrantly visible. Taru is a certified NLP Health Practitioner and NLP Coach specializing in aging. She also is a Healer Certified Medical Cannabis Wellness Advisor and a provider of Health and Wellness Coachin…