Prepare to be utterly astounded as you listen to our conversation with Isa Infante! This self-described “life force,” follows her heart and her values, wherever they take her. That means challenging good ole boys in Tennessee by running for mayor of Knoxville and as the Green Party candidate for governor. It means passing by a bar, hearing bluegrass music, and deciding to start a women’s bluegrass band, even though she could only play three chords. It means deciding, at 63, to go to law school. At 79, she is considering her next move. Three years ago, after decades in Tennessee, she decided that living in the mountains felt claustrophobic, googled “low-income senior housing on the beach” and re-located to the North Shore of Massachusetts, now waking up every morning to see a vast ocean that moves constantly. We can only imagine how the shifting sand and surf will inspire Isa’s next adventure.
Music credits:
Melody Walker/Front Country, Mixtapes
Rebecca Frazier, 40 Blues
Sierra Hull, Black River
When do you turn to books? Sometimes for escape (mysteries, anyone), sometimes for the joys of fine literature (Matrix by Lauren Goff or Haiku Mind by Patricia
Donegan), and yet at other times for knowledgeable counsel. In this episode, two badass women authors talk with us about the recent books that their life experience led them to write and share with others. In Why Are There Monkeys? radio personality, comedian and cancer survivor Brooke Jones, 70, captures her near death, laugh-out-loud “Question and Answer” session with God. Executive coach Bonnie Marcus, 72, draws on her 25-year corporate career to write Not Done Yet! a defiant guide to navigating gendered ageism in the workplace for women over 50. Curious about what they have to say about the divine and the workplace? We were. Listen in to what we heard.
“What I want all of my work to do is expand the definition of who Indians think they can be and how they think they can be in the world and their space for all of that -- all of the things that we can dream of.”
Activists Jennifer Finley and Julie Cajune, members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribe in Montana, are willing to risk being called Bad Indians for the sake of this liberating vision. In fact, the two longtime friends and creative collaborators named their latest play, a series of conversations between two older women –not unlike them– Bad Indians, playfully preempting any backlash to the characters’ stories of tragedy, injustice, humor, “failed romances, violent harassment and the criticism of others” in their community. Their earlier collaborations include Heart of the Bitterroot, a collection of Salish and Pend d’Oreille women’s stories available on CD and the one-woman show, Belief that Julie performed in New York two years ago. Julie is also a celebrated educator who was pivotal in introducing indigenous history and stories to Montana schools’ curriculum. (See Season 5 Episode 5 for more about Julie.) Jennifer is a gifted poet (“My Hands Have Vertigo”) and just completed a novel, “He Was Beautiful.” Not only did we have a chance to talk with Julie and Jennifer, but they graced us with a performance of an excerpt of Bad Indians. Tune in, sit back and enjoy the show.
Music for this episode is from Scottish flautist Gary Stroutsos “Night Chants”. Gary also performed the music for Julie’s 2019 production of “Belief.” We also offer a short clip from the Women Warriors Song, a protest song created and performed by Salish women in memory of the thousands of missing and murdered indigenous women in the U.S. Northwest and Canada.
If you are committed to ‘choosing your own adventure’ you’ll want to tune in immediately to TOB’s conversation with Tammi Leader Fuller, the effervescent co-creator of Campowerment. After three decades as an award-winning television producer (at The TODAY Show, NBC News, CBS News, America’s Most Wanted, and EXTRA TV), Tammi left television in 2013 to partner with her college professor mom and her brand strategist daughter on designing a sleep-away-camp-like experience for women of all ages. Thousands of women campers have now experienced this four-day transformative retreat, powered by play, where women (like her) can re-ignite their lives. She’s the party guest who can always come up with the next interactive game, the author of Dish and Tell – stories about how women struggle to juggle all that life throws their way – and a firm believer in the power of sisterhood. Tammi told us how amazed she was to be reinventing herself again at age 62. Join our conversation to hear about her journey and the joys she has on offer as her in-person Campowerment
Check out Campowerment and learn more about how to re-discover who you want to be as you grow up!
Tammi’s book, Dish and Tell: Six Real Women Discuss How They Put Themselves at the Top of Their To-Do List (2006) is available on Amazon
Just before the pandemic shut down live performances across the world, the American soprano Claron M. McFadden appeared with pianist Alexander Melnikov at London’s Wigmore Hall to rave reviews for “an exhilarating and unorthodox show” and her “breathtakingly beautiful” voice. Having listened to her recordings, we wish we could have been there. From Handel and Bach to modern and contemporary classical music and jazz, Claron is one of the most versatile singers of her generation. In music and in life, she is a fearless but not reckless risktaker who follows her curiosity and trusts her intuition to gamble with all sorts of possibilities. She studied voice at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York and traveled to Amsterdam with intentions of remaining for a year. She is still there 40 years later, noting that, in Europe, “people see her first as a human being and not as a black person.” At 60, Claron is one of a very few vocalists “singing at [her] level of intensity.” In a life of going “after all that called to her,” she harbors only three moments of regret and those are mostly about not having managed a situation better. Enviable. Claron is also a founding member of a cultural group Naked Bitches. Curious? Listen to our lively, laugh-filled conversation with Claron to learn more. And listen to her gorgeous recordings on Spotify, Amazon Music and other platforms. For more information about her, checkout her website.
Feminist thinkers, activists and authors Idelisse Malavé, 74, and Joanne Sandler, 70, created and host Two Old Bitches, a podcast featuring conversations with women in the second half of life whose perspectives and experiences disrupt what it means to be “old” and reclaim what it means to be a “bitch.” Over the past six seasons they have welcomed edgy progressive activists, a zen priest, performers, filmmakers, visual artists, scholars, a chef, journalists and writers, politicians, and more. These women make their own rules – whether it’s about politics, love, sex, art, work, family or fashion. They haven’t stopped rebelling, re-imagining and reinventing themselves. If anything, they are bolder with age. In this their seventh season, Joanne and Idelisse share more older women’s stories that explode myths about gender and aging and re-define what it means to be a woman at any age. Joanne, former Deputy Executive Director of the UN Development Fund for Women-UNIFEM), co-wrote Gender at Work: Theory and Practice for 21st Century Organizations. Idelisse, a public interest lawyer, manager and consultant, authored two books, Mother Daughter Revolution and Latino Stats, the latter with her daughter. And just for the record, by B.I.T.C.H., they mean: Being In Total Charge of Herself.
“The world tells women-of-a-certain-age to be invisible, be innocuous with quiet voices. We’ve got news for you, world…WE’RE DONE WITH YOUR BULLSHIT!” These are the words that appear when you pull up the Crones of Anarchy website (https://cronesofanarchy.com) and the spirit that infuses the 18,000+ members on the Facebook group of the same name. We – Two Old Bitches – were fortunate enough to connect directly with one of the founders, Heidi Woordhuis, and hear first-hand about the journey to create a space where older women can speak their minds and be as abrasive and vulnerable as they want. We loved every second of our conversation with Heidi and especially, her explanation that she and her partner, Ruby, chose the title Crones of Anarchy because “an older woman raising her voice is sheer anarchy!” Bask in the defiant joy of the Crones, check out their website and Facebook group, and don’t hold back!
Imagine your life as a perpetual learning journey where you grow braver and more transcendent as the years pass. That is how Trudy Berlin has lived. She is the 98-year-old host of “The Ladies Room with Trudy Berlin”, a weekly discussion group for women over 70. She started it twenty years ago and when the pandemic hit, the group went virtual. The Washington Post christened Trudy “the ‘Oprah’ of senior citizens” at the Adolph & Rose Levis Jewish Community Center in Boca Raton, Florida. In her nineties, she continues to live with undiminished excitement, appreciation, openness and yes, fun. Trudy has written all her life –she went back to school at 39 to study literature and poetry at Sarah Lawrence— and during the pandemic “went back to [her] books and studies,” realizing, “I have so much more I want to say.” Trudy reminded us of a Thoreau quote warning that most people die “with their song unsung.” We trust that Trudy’s determination to continually perfect and amplify her song, bringing a vibrant group of older women along with her, will inspire you to turn up your own volume!
And to read more about Trudy and The Ladies Room, check out: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/02/03/jewish-oprah-florida-lonely/
Jaune Evans was originally ordained as a priest in the White Plum Lineage by Bernie Glassman and Taizan Maezumi Roshi in 1983 at the Zen Community of New York. She is now a priest and senior teacher in the Bay Area Everyday Zen lineage of Zoketsu Norman Fischer, and leads the Heart of Compassion Zen Sangha in Point Reyes, California. She is reading from a guided meditation by the Buddhist teacher and author, Stephen Levine who was devoted to being with people who were ill, the dying and bereaved. We hope you will draw solace and some peace from it as we have, and thank Jaune for allowing us to share it with you.
Listen to Jaune’s full dharma talk at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1731807/8391704-hoc-april-23-2021-this-healing-time-by-jaune-evans
Surprise! Despite being at higher risk, older folks have weathered this past year in better spirits than younger people, according to recent studies. Well, maybe it’s not such a big surprise given our breadth of experience and, uh-hum, wisdom. For Two Old Bitches, it’s certainly been a crucial topic of conversation since the first lockdowns in March 2020. We’ve also explored how COVID affected what we eat (sourdough bread has been an essential for these Two Old Bitches!), streaming preferences, newfound hobbies, relationships and our notions of the future. We’ve gathered gems and inspiration from these conversations with wise older women. In this episode you’ll meet: Karin Kawamoto – a technology user experience designer -- who we connected with after reading about her in a Washington Post article on how a friend sent her weekly postcards over the many months when she could not leave her apartment; Maria Elena del Valle – our long-time friend and an extraordinary coach, trainer and performer – whose beauty salon in Queens, New York turned into a hub of information and solace for women in her community; and zen priest and teacher Jaune Evans, another long-time friend and former TOB guest, who offered reflections and comfort in dharma talks with the Heart of Compassion sangha that she took online early in the pandemic and that Idelisse joined. In addition to excerpts from one of Jaune’s recent talks in this episode, we’re also sharing a bonus episode of Jaune leading a guided meditation that invites calm presence in these still uncertain days. Listeners, we send you our best wishes for your health, your families and your communities.
At 69, Srilatha Batliwala is a feminist grandmother to her four grandchildren and also sees “grandmothering” as a metaphor for how she operates in the world of feminist and social justice movements. Building on decades of activism and prolific writing as a feminist scholar – from her work with tens of thousands of women in village and slum communities in India to holding prestigious positions and fellowships at foundations, universities and transnational women’s rights organizations – Sri is dedicated to mentoring younger feminists and movement builders. Her brilliance at weaving complex strands of thought together into her seminal writing on power, movements, patriarchy and leadership continue to shape feminist perspectives, politics and practice in India and across the world. We are so excited about her recent work on feminist mentoring and the feminist parables she is writing to share and honor the wisdom she gathered from countless women’s village collectives (and, as a bonus to TOB listeners, we will be posting Sri reading one of the parables with this episode). Sri advises and consults with CREA (Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action), an international organization working at the intersection of gender, sexuality and human rights, and Gender at Work, a global network of gender experts supporting organizations to build cultures of equality and inclusion. She also recently became an Honorary Professor of Practice at SOAS, University of London. Welcome to the world of Granny Sri (her Instagram handle) who reminds us that her joy of being “a feminist mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, wife” and her pride at having raised a feminist son (and daughter) are amongst her most formidable achievements.
“What have you been watching?” “See anything good lately?” are questions many of us routinely ask each other, especially during the pandemic. A trusted recommendation for a movie and, for some of us even better, a series with many seasons is cause to celebrate. How often, though, do you hear of a good movie or series about, for, or by older women? Not often. So when we heard about the film “Let Them All Talk” at the end of 2020, we asked book agent Malaga Baldi, Debbie Zimmerman who heads Women Make Movies and Emmy-nominated former TV producer and wellness and lifestyle coach Renata Joy to join us for a conversation about it and other films and series featuring older women. Two Old Bitches, Joanne and Idelisse, call them geriatric rom-coms. You know the ones we mean. “Something’s Gotta Give,”(Diane Keaton), “It’s Complicated” (Meryl Streep), “Book Club” (Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candace Bergen, Mary Steenburgen), “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (Judy Dench and Maggie Smith) and a number of others sprinkled over the past two decades. Too many of them are not very good. “Why is that?” the five of us wondered. We have some answers and laughs we’d like to share with you, as well as a list of films and series we recommend. And, we enjoyed doing this so much that we plan to do it again.
Exploring the idea of creating an intentional living community for creatives, and the Hudson Valley, led us (Idelisse and Joanne) to the small town of Catskill, NY where we were enchanted to find an "ArTchaeological Museum" in the window of the Open Studio on Main Street. Its owner Dina Bursztyn, 72, is a visual artist and writer. We were transfixed by her gallery filled with whimsical found art assemblages, sculptures, ceramics, art books, drawings and paintings. Dina's work was described in a New York Times review as “original work that defies reigning art world fashions.” Born in Argentina, Dina, a would-be writer, came to New York after college and was surprised to discover that she was a ceramicist who excavated strange creatures at the bottom of the mugs she was crafting. It was just the beginning of her inventive art practice. Listen to our conversation with her, and the beginning story of why these Two Old Bitches are delving into the possibilities of co-housing and intentional communities. To be continued....
Check out Dina's art books, sculptures, ceramics and exhibitions at https://www.dinabursztyn.com/bio-and-contact.html Her drawings and books make delightful presents!!
How do we respond to this political moment? Pessimism is tempting and optimism may feel foolhardy, yet a sense of possibility fueled by hope makes enduring sense to us. After the Biden/Harris victory, we turned to long-time activists, Lecia Brooks and Lisa Veneklasen to tap into their wisdom and clear-eyed assessment of what we’re facing and what’s possible in the struggle for overdue and drastically needed social and political change. For the past 16 years, Lecia has worked at the well-known Southern Poverty Law Center, a regional and national catalyst for racial justice, most recently as Chief of Staff. She plays a key role in their work to expose and dismantle white supremacy and nationalism. Almost 20 years ago, Lisa founded Just Associates (JASS) and recently stepped down from her role as Executive Director. JASS is a transnational feminist movement building organization that strengthens the voice, visibility and collective power of women to transform the world. Lisa and Lecia’s analysis and insights about these times -- including the power of older women to make change happen -- galvanize and provoke us to think differently about this political moment.
See www.splcenter.org for more information about the Center and Lecia. Meet Lisa at http://www.twohundredwomen.com/lisaveneklasen and check out JASS at www.justassociates.org/en/
And be sure to stay tuned to the end of the episode where Renata Joy (www.purejoywellness.com) shares her dream about how women's leadership will be central to the change we need.
With “thousands of grandmothers' voices and stories” in her head, Ilana Landsberg-Lewis, a Canadian labor and human rights lawyer and passionate women’s rights advocate, started the “Grandmothers on the Move” podcast over two years ago. Fifty-three engaging episodes later, she’s already succeeded in her goal to “kick old stereotypes to the curb” through conversations with astonishing older women. Ilana worked at the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) for many years before joining with her father in 2003 to co-found the groundbreaking Stephen Lewis Foundation to partner directly with community-based groups confronting the HIV-AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. She is an ardent mother who sees motherhood as “an emotional reality and a political identity.” (Yes!) And at 55, Ilana is “happily getting older.” Don’t you want to know why?
Check out Ilana's Grandmothers On The Move podcast at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grandmothers-on-the-move/id1356003135