Suddenly Senior

Joanna Maxwell has been the director of the age discrimination team at the Human Rights Commission and is the author of many books including The New Retirement. A passionate advocate for embracing old age she tells us that happiness peaks at the age of 80.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been another long nana nap between episodes but a lot has been happening for us. Ange has become a grandparent, and Ian had a heart attack ... in a hospital!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dementia is the leading cause of death for Australian women. Unless we find a cure soon it's estimated that 812,500 people will be living with dementia by 2054. But dementia is not inevitable. Professor Ian Hickie from the Brain and Mind Research Institute has a few tips for preventing it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She’s been at the helm of some of Australia’s glossiest mastheads (think Cleo, Mode, Elle, Women’s Weekly) and now steers the children’s cancer charity Camp Quality. Despite her remarkable skills Deborah Thomas has still felt the weight of the ‘age ceiling’. But age, she says, has gifted her with patience, empathy and a house full of friends and family.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Retreating to an exotic Caribbean island sounds like a dream retirement plan for many, but for Jaslyn Hall it's a homecoming. Originally born in Barbados, Jaslyn introduced Australians to global beats with her world music show on triple j in the 1990s. Now she wakes at 4.30 every morning to begin her exercise regime, and then gets started on writing scripts for puppets.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maggie Beer is a bloody champion! For years she’s been encouraging and teaching Australians how to source and prepare tasty, and healthy, fresh food. Now she’s on a mission – a Big Mission - to improve the food in aged care homes. Thanks Maggie! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 - buy tickets HERESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. Find Suddenly Senior on FB here and on Instagram here Join the Juvenile Geriatric Substack here Find Jane's work hereSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.