Aging Well: Finding Beauty in the Gray
Aging Well: Finding Beauty in the Gray is a podcast for everyone in or approaching the retirement years. There’s a lot to unpack here apart from the financial planning component, and we’ll do just that. We’ll explore new interests, priorities and goals and finding purpose for ourselves and in our relationships. Join me each episode as I share stories and chat with guests learning to live their best next act, lives. Have a question or comment? Please reach out to me, Hugh Willard, at willowwaycreations@gmail.com or via any of the social media links at the top of this page.
Episodes
108 episodes
The Open Water Beckons: Lynn Edgar's healing path following knee replacement surgery
Lifelong athlete Lynn Edgar had knee replacement surgery in the Fall of 2022. In March of this year, she celebrated her ongoing recovery and dedicated work by completing the 2.5 mile Nevis to St. Kitts Cross Channel Swim under adverse Caribbean...
On the Road Again with Mark Edgar
Approaching retirement and newly single, Mark Edgar decided one year ago to sell his home and most of his possessions, buy a truck and towable RV and head out to see the country. With faith and perseverance, he made his way around the Uni...
Lighting a Better Way Through Music: Multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, teacher, and storyteller Bett Padgett
Through both straightforward advocacy and whimsy, Bett Padgett's songs cross the borders of Celtic, Old-time, Folk, and New Age to help us learn more about today's social, environmental, and political climates, indeed to learn more about oursel...
Cinema Verite Meets the 21st Century: Les and Mary Thornbury and the good work of documenting senior artists
Les Thornbury is a documentarian and astute student of nature and people, in other words, of life. After time spent in Vietnam aboard a "wallowing, wood-hulled minesweeper," he retuned home in 1972 and borrowed an old, spring wound Bolex film c...
What Do I Expect in the Time Ahead?: Dr. Rosanne Leipzig and Honest Aging
In this episode, we welcome Dr. Rosanne Leipzig, an internationally acclaimed geriatrician with a superlative 40+ year career. She is the Gerald and May Ellen Ritter Professor and Vice Chair, Emerita of the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics an...
Love Across the Generations: Mercedes Bristol and Texas Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Mercedes Bristol is the founder and executive director of Texas Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. Mother for a second time to five biological grandchildren, she has pressed forward with clear-eyed love, courage, and conviction. Tune in to hea...
"Forget Perfection. Make a Mess.": Author Abigail Thomas and her latest memoir Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing
Stephen King calls Abigail Thomas the "Emily Dickinson of memoir." Thomas' remarkable path has taken her from raising her family through times of color and challenge on the Upper West Side of Manhattan to her current home in Woodstock, NY. Alon...
Keeping His Eyes on the Prize: Kered Whitcraft and his art-filled perseverance
Kered Whitcraft, medically retired years ago due to lifelong and worsening visual impairment, refused to concede to the doctors' repeated conclusions that he would be blind by now,. Instead, Kered has boldly pushed forward in life. This is seen...
Earth Day Every Day: Maine naturalists and educators Dan Gardoqui and Cappy Caprio share stories of respecting and caring for our home
Dan Gordoqui is a Registered Maine Guide and Certified Wildlife Tracker. He brings his skills and passion to bare via his nature-based consulting, training, and guiding business Lead with Nature. Cappy Caprio is a high school English teacher, w...
Loving Pets and People: Lori Hensley and the good work of Beyond Fences
Lori Hensley left a long career as a teacher and school counselor to join Beyond Fences, an organization in Durham, North Carolina that tirelessly works to break down the effects of poverty and structural inequities that create barriers to affo...
The Power of Art, Creativity, and Community: Mark Campbell and Art With Elders
Mark H. Campbell is an accomplished visual artist with numerous works in public and private collections nationally and internationally. He is also the Executive Director of Eldergivers, the parent organization of Art With Elders (AWE) in San Fr...
The Sweet Aroma of One Family's Traditions: Annette Council on carrying forward her mother's legacy
Annette Council, youngest daughter of Mildred (Mama Dip) Council is the author of The Recipe: Have a Seat at Our Table... and the founder of Sweet Neecy Cake Mix Company. She grew up learning baking and so much more about living a life...
From Irish Triplets to Dragon Boat Races: Sandi Shortt's remarkable journey of purpose and healing.
Sandi Shortt, from Ontario, Canada, is, among many things, the mother of three adult sons and seven wonderful grandchildren. She is long-term widowed and a survivor of cancer. Out of these myriad and profound life experiences, Sandi became a mi...
Lily Unleashed: Author and animal welfare advocate Jo Anna Kloster on her passion for pound puppies
Join us to hear more about Jo Anna's crusade against puppy mills and their destructive practices. After retiring, Jo Anna became passionately involved in this cause, to include lobbying legislators on Capitol Hill. Out of her inspiration, she w...
The Open Road Beckons: Rebecca Tuttle vanquishes fear and takes a 40 year old VW van cross-country
Author/essayist and 11th generation New Hampshire farm girl, Rebecca Tuttle, heeds her daughter's request to drive a VW van from Maine to her daughter's home in California. Rebecca shares her tales from the road during her seminal, heroine's jo...
Honoring the Art of Our Lives: Dr. Dorian Mintzer with Alan C. O'Hare
Dr. Dorian Mintzer, author, retirement coach, consultant and popular speaker, joins us on the show to share more about her dear friend and colleague, Alan C. O'Hare. Among many things, Alan is a community psychologist, actor, writer, director, ...
Hugh Willard: Welcome to Season Two
Following the great success of Season One, we are back for more stories of adventure, connection, joy, challenge, and the passions of people living their best Third Age lives. We also have more experts coming on to help us think of ways to be m...
Tis the Season: Mrs. Merry Claus and Santa MikeE give us a backstage tour of their Christmas production
Mrs. Merry Claus, aka Lou Shelton, and Santa MikeE, aka Mike Eckardt, drop by the show to share their experiences as professionals in their respective roles. They, and many others like them, take their craft most seriously and devote countless ...
Latke Redemption, Canned Biscuits Reclamation, and a Blue Chanukah Bush? Scott Huler & June Spence and their family stories of Chanukah
Scott and June are married and have two teenage sons. Scott is Jewish, June is Jewish-ish. Join us to hear these two writers share their stories of melding traditions during the Festival of Lights. They shared some of their experience in Our St...
Jewish Santas and Second to None Latkes: Ruth Lebed and her joys and memories of Chanukah
Ruth Lebed is a retired attorney and more importantly, a Jewish mother, living in Wisconsin. From her earliest days living in a Jewish enclave in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, she has enjoyed the traditions and celebrations ...
The U-Curve of Happiness. Dr. Katharine Esty and Aging Well into the 80's.
Dr. Katharine Esty has had a long and distinguished career as a social psychologist, psychotherapist, consultant, and author of four books, including Eightysomethings: A Practical Guide to Letting Go, Aging Well, and Finding Unexpected Happines...
Love Beyond a Lifetime: Dean Lambert and the Love Always Project
Our guest this week is Dean Lambert, project director of the non-profit Love Always Project. This important grassroots movement is created to encourage people to preplan and pay for their funeral as the ultimate act of love for those they will ...
Burned Bridges with Steel Girders: Pam LeBlanc's Grand story of reconciliation and healing
Pam LeBlanc is an Austin, Texas based freelance writer specializing in stories about adventures in the great outdoors. Six years ago, she reached out to an old friend, Marcy, with an invitation to repair their fractured relationship. An intensi...
Finding Beauty in the Gray: Excerpts from Hugh Willard's upcoming book.
Podcast host, psychotherapist, and author Hugh Willard has signed with Warren Publishing to put out his latest book, Finding Beauty in the Gray: Stories and Verse From the Third Age. This is a collection of essays and poems about everyday folks...
Freemales and Wusbands with Jhobbies? Bestselling author Jan Cullinane and the Single Woman's Guide to Retirement
Jan Cullinane is a best selling author, consultant, speaker, and retirement expert practicing what she preaches in her books The New Retirement: The Ultimate Guide to the Rest of Your Life; Retire Happy!; and AARP's The Si...