A podcast for anyone who’s getting old…..or planning to.
He’s only just turned 60 but he's already familiar with issues around aged-care facilities, because he’s been trying to keep young people out of them. Tim Ferguson is best known for his comedy work with The Doug Anthony Allstars but has many other accomplishments under his belt, not least his advocacy for disability rights.
Sleep becomes such a valuable commodity in our older years but unfortunately, for many of us, it gets harder to fall asleep as we age. Dr Stan Rodski is a neuroscientist, a neuroplastician, and most importantly a sleep expert! He shares his tips for regular good quality sleep. You can read more in his book The Neuroscience of Excellent Sleep.
Youth is the currency of the music industry but Deborah Conway believes you can make age work for you if you apply a bit of creative thinking. During the 90s she was the 'it' girl of the Australian music scene. At the age of 64 she’s still as creative, passionate, and fired up as she ever was and has recently released a memoir titled Book of Life.
As a founding member of the Warumpi Band Neil Murray inadvertently wrote Australia’s unofficial national song. He also helped record the first rock song sung in an indigenous language. After a life on the road touring and performing, these days he’s focussing on living a simple life and preserving energy which has become a precious resource.
Robert Tickner began his advocacy with Friends of the Earth and ended up becoming the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in the Hawke/Keating governments. He's still fighting for the underdog as Chair of the Justice Reform Initiative, as well as being Co-chair of the EveryAGE Counts initiative to combat ageism. He says ageism is rife in the employment sector and says it's just a matter of time until class actions are launched.
As we grow older we find ourselves grieving the loss of many things; our friends and family, our homes and neighbourhood, our bodies and minds, and more surprisingly many of us grieve the loss of our own sense of self. Writer Carol Lefevre likens this grief to a type of ‘homesickness’, elusive and bone gnawing in nature.
Bryan Brown's acting career started in the 70s with films like The Odd Angry Shot and Breaker Morant and he quickly became a fixture on our screens, and still is. But he’s also a producer and a writer of books, his most recent titled The Drowning. He doesn't think about death much, has no plans to retire, and keeps fits by surfing whenever he can.
Iva Davies followed an unconventional path to pop-star status. Initially immersed in the world of classical music (he even did a stint in the ABC Training Orchestra) he went on to pioneer Australia’s electronic music scene with his band Icehouse and has become one of the country’s most highly regarded composers and multi-instrumentalists. He’s currently on tour and if you want buy tix head to this website - https://icehouse-ivadavies.com/tour-dates/
Grahame Bond changed Australian TV forever with his mad-cap creation Aunty Jack, a fat and feisty persona who frequently threatened to ‘rip your bloody arms off’. This led to a portfolio career with digressions into advertising, lifestyle television, and blockbuster stage shows like Boys Own McBeth and 2JJs Nude Radio. Luckily this all took place before cancel culture emerged.
Australian actor Heather Mitchell has been on our screens or stages every year since her career began in the 1980s. Now into her 60s she’s still got plenty of job offers rolling in. She says that’s because older women no longer buy into old norms around the ageing process and there’s demand for their stories to be told. Now she’s telling her story in a memoir called Everything and Nothing and she’s excited about the next stage of her life.
First he was Fat, Forty and Fired. Then he was Fit, Fifty and Fired Up. Now Nigel Marsh reckons he’s Smart, Stupid and Sixty. He must be doing something right because his TED speech on work/life balance has clocked up over four million hits. Oh, and he also hosts The Five of My Life podcast.
If you’ve started waking suddenly in the night with an acute and anxious awareness of the inevitability of death, you’re not alone. After experiencing this herself, journalist and author Jane Hutcheon discovered that it’s a common phenomenon for people in their late 50s and 60s. That’s when she realised she’d become a juvenile geriatric.
Not all 'influencers' are young and vacuous, posting thousands of images on Instagram which promote products that end up in landfill. Lex Marinos (Kingswood Country, Aunty Jack, Matlock Police) was recently crowned Senior Influencer of the Year for his role as co-host of the podcast Baby Boomers Guide to Life in the 21st Century.
If there was an aesthetic that defined Australia’s rock/pop culture in the 80s then Reg Mombassa was surely a master crafter of it. His band Mental As Anything was heard on radio around the country and it seemed everyone wore a Mambo t-shirt featuring his darkly-comic art.
One of the biggest worries many of us have as we age relates to brain function. So what can neuroscience tell us about the ageing brain, can we improve brain function and is it different for men and women. Dr Sarah McKay is an author and neuroscientist and the creator of The Neuroscience Academy.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned making this podcast it’s that a lot of people prefer to avoid the topic of ageing. But Keryn Curtis has made a living out of it. She became fascinated with gerontology in her 40s and says it changed the way she views life. She also reveals the preferred word to describe people who've reached a certain age.
Ian Henschke once graced our screens as a hard-hitting journalist on programs like Four Corners and 7.30 Report. Now he's your Chief Advocate for National Seniors Australia which means …
Michael Caton has been a constant presence on Australian screens since the 1970s and became a household name palying Harry Sullivan in The Sullivans. But he …
Doug Mulray was king of the airwaves in Sydney in the 80s (and a nude model) but stepped away from the microphone 20 years ago. These days he …
At the age of 15 she stunned the world when she took out five medals, three of them gold, at the 1972 Munich Olympics. At the age of 61 she stunned her competitors when …
Australians have been listening to his Health Report for decades, but thanks to the Coronacast podcast Dr Norman Swan has become a global sensation. Now he’s encouraging …
As his alter-ego H.G. Nelson he's been making Australians laugh at their sporting obsessions for decades. But there's more to Greig Pickhaver than comedy and acting. In his later years he's been …
Many folk explore genealogy as they age but for Anita Jacoby the prompt to investigate her family's past came from a chance conversation at a party. She's one of the …
There are many strings to James Valentine’s bow. On weekday mornings he hosts one of Australia's most coveted roles in breakfast radio but at night you might find him …
When you’re planning a holiday in an unfamiliar place, you’ll probably enjoy it more if you do a bit of research before arriving. That’s exactly how Dr Anne Ring has …
Clive Hamilton is one of Australia’s most well-known public intellectuals. A provocateur since youth he's plans to continue challenging baseless assumptions, even when …
Miriam Margolyse has graced our screens for many years. She’s gone from sexy voice-over girl, to serious thesbian, to self-described Fat Jewish Lesbian in …
For the last couple of months Angela and Ian have been having a blast chatting with mates about growing old. This week they're probing themselves about …
Meredith Burgmann has been an activist since her university days and went on to become a Labor MP in NSW. Radicalised by the Vietnam War she’s been arrested many times and …
A true trail blazer in sports journalism Debbie Spillane was the first woman to commentate cricket on ABC Radio. She went on to co-host Hard Coffee on triple j, and then …
Joe Camilleri has been rocking the blues groove for decades and with a string of hits to name has well deserved his place in the ARIA Hall of Fame. Ask him what shape he’s in …
It’s been some decades since Derek Smalls came to fame as the bass player in the rock band Spinal Tap. A documentary about the band made him a household name but …
Renee Geyer is fierce, funny, and arguably Australia’s finest voice. She’s never been the quiet type and old age certainly isn’t tempering her voice. She refuses to …
There’s not much that Wendy Harmer hasn’t conquered. A successful comedian, author, and broadcaster, she’s recently stepped aside from …
After being at the helm of Vogue Australia for more than a decade Kirstie Clements knows a thing or two about style. She’s a senior now too, so she’s well placed to …
With a career dating back to the 60s Richard Clapton has given Australia some of its greatest hits. He’s thankful for a vocation which has kept him young at heart but …
Having spent much of her career in the youth dominated advertising industry, Jane Caro knows well the euphemisms of ageist talk. She says the best thing about ageing is …
Bob Downe has been an “old show-biz clack” for more than two decades, forever in denial of ageing. His creator, comedian Mark Trevorrow however, wouldn’t be …
Michael Lynch has managed and directed some of the world’s most influential cultural institutions. Since losing his life partner he’s been navigating grief and loneliness and …
Mikey Robins has gone from hosting triple j’s breakfast program to talking history with mostly old men. He’s thankful he made it to 60 and spends his time playing …
Ian Hickie is really brainy. That’s why he’s a Professor with Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre. Here he finally reveals what’s worse for an ageing brain – pot or booze.
Jean Kittson has been making Australians laugh for decades. Once the Queen of the comedy circuit these days she’s more likely to perform at a senior’s festival …