Maybe the only person I know who loves movies more than me is Dave Karger, the host of Turner Classic Movies. His knowledge of film first surfaced as film savant for Entertainment Weekly and is now featured in his most recent book 50 Oscar Nights (Running Press, 2024). If you love movies, whether you watch them on the big screen in the dark (where you should be) or on the small screen from your couch (where probably are) you will relish Karger’s enthusiasm, insight and wit for movies both past and present. If you can recall, and have watched, such gems like Some Like it Hot, Gilda, Laura, and All About Eve, you are in for a treat. If you can’t, Karger will make you want to watch them after you hear him.
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Ruth Reichl Knows How to Make Life Delicious
I’ve always thought that eating is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. Well, it’s not so bad with your clothes off either. But for as much as I’ve enjoyed and I’m grateful for a career writing about both food and fashion, food does something that fashion doesn’t. It engages all of your senses. I’ve never understood anyone who just eats to live. I mean, like, what’s wrong with you? For me, having a passion for what sustains and soothes us is just one of life’s great delights.And there is no one, absolutely no one, who writes about this big love with more relish, passion, warmth, insight, and more consistent and healing joy than Ruth Reichl. Though Ruth is probably best known to many as the former legendary and mysteriously dressed restaurant critic for the New York Times, and later as the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. You have to read Ruth when she is writing just feet from her kitchen or strolling through a green market to be swept away by her unabashed delight being inspired by the sight of a ruby red rhubarb or chopping up her own steak to make hamburger meat.It’s not just that her writing makes you hungry. She reminds you of the wonder of nature, of the incredible alchemy of cooking, of the immediate satisfaction of creating something delicious and then the magic that happens when you share it with others. Reading Comfort Me With Apples, Garlic and Sapphires, and Tender at the Bone. Damn, I even love the book titles. You can’t help but be seduced by her into believing that food is an endless and uplifting adventure. And if it results in any longing, it’s only because you are not sitting at her table when she serves you her carbonara. I am just tickled that she is here with me this week.
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Linda Ellerbee
Linda Ellerbee is possibly the smartest, slyest, news journalist television has ever produced. Speaking with a strong Texas twang abetted by a wry, salty edge and just enough rasp you can imagine her singing Jazz in a cocktail lounge, Ellerbee’s superior storytelling, forthright delivery and wicked smarts made for riveting television on such landmark shows as Overnight and Nick News. Her fearless honesty and knowing insight into how to navigate daily life with logic and just enough humor to pull you though insured that her books, like the can‘t-put-down And So It Goes, would be best sellers. In no time, you realize you can trust her about everything, plus you wish you could meet her for coffeeEllerbee is retired now and that’s the media’s loss. However, we’ve been great friends for 40 years, and that’s my gain, so I want to share my good fortune with you Just listen to Linda’s illuminating attitudes concerning retirement, health, news, family, fun, joy, giving back, and best of all, why she doesn’t believing in wasting time because none of us know how much more of it we’ve got left. Prepare to be fascinated. Linda Ellerbee is this week’s guest on The Happy Grownup podcast.
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Encore: Beth Ann Hardison shows us why independence is always in season
Today I opened Instagram to see Beth Ann Hardison, one of the first black models, agency owners, and prominent advocate for diversity looking spectacular and beaming magnificently at age 82 in her Gucci gown at the Gucci show in Milan, the label for which she is a brand ambassador.Beth Ann was one of our first Happy Grownup interviews, and listening again to her insight, wit. unapologetic arrogance and matter-of-fact-damn-she’s-smart attitude got me so excited, that those of you have not yet heard her need to stop whatever you are doing and get inspired by the most independent person I have ever met. Beth Ann no longer walks a runway, but baby, she still deserves a spotlight as maybe the Happiest Grownup I knowListen. Enjoy. Learn.
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Suzanne Lerner's Got it Togther
You may not know this week’s guest, but after our podcast you’ll probably wish Susanne Lerner lived across the street. She’s a is smart, a savvy entrepreneur, and, even better, she is street smart – in Yiddish you would say she has “seichel." A savvy entrepreneur, who began her clothing company Michael Stars with her husband, and after her his passing has continued to run the 40 year old label on her own with clever ingenuity, energy and clarity that defy the date on her birth certificate. She is logical, she is pragmatic, fearless in a “why-don’t-I-just-do-that” kind of relatable way and has the gift that all New Agers should aspire to when venturing anywhere alone, she enjoys her own company. But what I admire most about her is that she has used her success to create platforms that mentor and inspire youth and organizations which empower women, expand voting rights and even elevate men. Maybe it’s the upcoming Jewish holidays that have me thinking this way, but she’s what I’d call a real “mensch”. She’s one of the good ones. I can’t wait for you to meet her.
A podcast in celebration of New Aging. Award winning journalist Hal Rubenstein talks with men and woman embracing the opportunities, obstacles, elation and relevance to be discovered in life after 50.
Ireland