AGEIST

Is it possible that "midlife reinvention" is another way of telling people over 50 that they are failing? In this episode, AGEIST culture writer Sheri Radel Rosenberg joins David Stewart for a clear-eyed conversation about the pressure to find a new identity and turn aging into a public performance. Together they examine the difference between evolution and escape, from Instagram’s endless offers of transformation to menopause marketing, gray hair, empty nests, aging style, and the agency that accompanies self-knowledge. Rosenberg makes the case for looking back at the person you were before the world started editing you, then expanding upon the skills, taste, humor, and hard-earned clarity already in place.
Join Us at the 2026 Super Age Games! Visit games.superage.com to learn more.

Special Thanks to Our Sponsors
True Nutrition: Stop settling for what's on the shelf and build the protein blend that fits your lifestyle at truenutrition.com/AGEIST and use code AGEIST for 20% off your first custom blend.
Timeline Nutrition: Our favorite supplement for cell support and mitochondrial function. Listeners can now get 20% off their first Timeline purchase by using the code “AGEIST” at checkout at TimelineNutrition.com/ageist.
LMNT Electrolytes: Try the all-new Lemonade Iced Tea! Our #1 electrolyte mix for optimal hydration. Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase by using our link here. Find your favorite LMNT flavor, or share with a friend.

Key Moments
“I think it's a story that we're being sold as some sort of liberation from the life you currently have.”
“Reinvention can feel performative because it's photogenic... It's something that you can make a reel with and say, 'Look at my reinvention journey'.”
“I really think you know who you are and you don't have to go and and start everything all over.”

Connect with Sheri Radel Rosenberg
Sheri's Essay: The Midlife Reinvention Trap
Website
AGEIST Author Page
Substack
Instagram
LinkedIn

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In this re-aired favorite conversation, Dr. William Li makes the case for a more reasonable way to think about health, one that gives people agency without trapping them in food fear, rigid rules, or social media panic. He reframes some of the biggest anxieties around aging, including cancer, inflammation, glucose, vascular health, and protein, with a physician-scientist’s insistence on context. The practical takeaways are clear: support blood vessel health, feed the microbiome, choose protein intelligently after 50, and understand how added sugar and natural sugars do very different things in the body. This is a conversation about using food as medicine in daily life, without turning health into another source of stress.

Join Us at the 2026 Super Age Games! Visit games.superage.com to learn more.

Special Thanks to Our Sponsors
True Nutrition: Stop settling for what's on the shelf and build the protein blend that fits your lifestyle at truenutrition.com/AGEIST and use code AGEIST for 20% off your first custom blend.
Timeline Nutrition: Our favorite supplement for cell support and mitochondrial function. Listeners can now get 20% off their first Timeline purchase by using the code “AGEIST” at checkout at TimelineNutrition.com/ageist.
LMNT Electrolytes: Try the all-new Lemonade Iced Tea! Our #1 electrolyte mix for optimal hydration. Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase by using our link here. Find your favorite LMNT flavor, or share with a friend.

Key Moments
“One of the biggest myths about inflammation is that it is categorically bad. And that's just not true.”
“But we all have cancer in our body, even children. Everybody has cancer.”
“Health care isn't what actually happens in the medical clinic. Medical clinics are used for disease care. Sick care. Health care is what actually happens at home.”

Connect with Dr. William Li
Website
Book
Instagram
Eat to Beat Disease Newsletter

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Tune in to hear more on this episode of The AGEIST Podcast or check out the full interview transcript.
Say hi to the AGEIST team!

What happens when aging and sexuality change not only how we look, but how much of the world looks at us? In this episode, writer Stephanie Fairyington joins David Stewart for a sharp conversation about beauty, the idea of “ugliness”, gender, queer identity, and the strange relief that can come when midlife loosens the grip of outside judgment.
Fairyington, author of Ugly: A Letter to My Daughter, argues that ugliness is not a personal failure but a cultural construction, one tied to femininity, visibility, motherhood, and power. The conversation moves from aging and female desirability to icons like Tammy Faye and Barbra Streisand as well as department-store mirrors and the work of deciding which cultural scripts are worth resisting.
Join Us at the 2026 Super Age Games! Visit games.superage.com to learn more.

Special Thanks to Our Sponsors
True Nutrition: Stop settling for what's on the shelf and build the protein blend that fits your lifestyle at truenutrition.com/AGEIST and use code AGEIST for 20% off your first custom blend.
Timeline Nutrition: Our favorite supplement for cell support and mitochondrial function. Listeners can now get 20% off their first Timeline purchase by using the code “AGEIST” at checkout at TimelineNutrition.com/ageist.
LMNT Electrolytes: Try the all-new Lemonade Iced Tea! Our #1 electrolyte mix for optimal hydration. Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase by using our link here. Find your favorite LMNT flavor, or share with a friend.

Key Moments
“I experienced the wider culture's disinterest in me as a kind of gift. Like it's a shield or protection from unwanted detention so I can kind of move through the world peacefully without feeling like I'm being assessed and measured against whatever standard because I'm not young anymore.”
“I don't think that female desirability has an expiration date.”
“There's no real liberation from it. Like you can kind of become aware of the strings puppeteering your behavior, right? But you can't clip the strings, right?”

Connect with Stephanie Fairyington
Website
Book
Author Page
Muck Rack
Instagram: @stephaniefairyington
Email: StephFair@gmail.com

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Click Here for the full interview transcript.
Say hi to the AGEIST team!

Adam Smith, MA, Senior Spiritual Wellness Provider at Canyon Ranch Tucson, brings clinical spiritual care training, pastoral care education, and years of experience supporting people through trauma, hospice, loss, and life transitions to the table. In this conversation with David Stewart, he argues that modern life has left many people overstimulated, over-measured, and disconnected from the deeper practices that make a life feel complete. .
Adam explains how choosing uncertainty over worry can create calm, why walking meditation can reconnect us to the body, and how flow state depends more on adaptability than mastery. As you listen, take note of his suggestions for practical language in resilience after 50: less obsession with control, more self-compassion, more presence, and a willingness to trade the spectacular for the nourishing.
Join Us at the 2026 Super Age Games! Visit games.superage.com to learn more
Special Thanks to Our Sponsors
Timeline Nutrition: Our favorite supplement for cell support and mitochondrial function. Listeners can now get 20% off their first Timeline purchase by using the code “AGEIST” at checkout at TimelineNutrition.com/ageist.
LMNT Electrolytes: Try the all-new Lemonade Iced Tea! Our #1 electrolytes for optimal hydration. Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase by using our link here. Find your favorite LMNT flavor, or share with a friend.

Connect with Adam Smith
Canyon Ranch
Sign up for the LONGEVITY8 Retreat with Adam and David

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Tune in to hear more on this episode of  The AGEIST Podcast or check out the full interview transcript.
Say hi to the AGEIST team!

What happens when the body no longer responds to effort the way it used to? Neurosurgeon and founder of Royal Spine Surgery, Dr. Mohamed Abdulhamid joins David Stewart to explain how recovery depends on communication between the brain, nerves, muscles, and joints, especially after surgery, injury, or long periods of compensation. David shares his own experience after knee surgery, when EXOMIND and Emsculpt Neo helped him feel calmer, sleep better, and get dormant muscles firing again. The conversation reframes personal bests as something less tied to youth and more connected to signal quality, resilience, and restoring trust in the body.

Join us at the Super Age Games

Key Moments
“Interestingly, what we really did is what I call ‘bioelectrical medicine.’”
“I would rather call it a neuromuscular reactivation.”
“I look at mental health and mental wellness as something no different than physical wellness.”

Connect with Dr. A
Website: royalspinesurgery.com
About Dr. Abdulhamid: royalspinesurgery.com/about
Instagram: instagram.com/the.dr.a/

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Click Here for the full interview transcript.
Say hi to the AGEIST team!