What’s better than ‘talking shop’ with a serious and sensational sister traveler? That was the joy that TOB experienced when we interviewed Sari Botton, founder of the recently-launched substack magazine, Oldster. Oldster takes a fresh look at what it means to age at any stage of life, featuring writers of all genders and age groups. It fully reflects the brilliance and wizardry of Sari who, at 56 years old, bring decades of writing, editing and teaching experience including as former Essays Editor for Longreads; editor of the award-winning anthology Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving NY and its New York Times-Bestselling follow-up, Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for NY. We met Sari almost ten years ago when she co-directed the upstate New York story-telling initiative TMI Project. She is a storyteller extraordinaire, a musician, a time traveler joyously struggling – like all of us – to figure out what is ‘age appropriate’ and shoring up future plans by buying lottery tickets! We hope you’ll listen in, subscribe to Oldster, listen to the Oldster podcast, and stay tuned to TOB as we continue to explore storytelling in future episodes.  

There could be no greater gift to Screen Bitches than finding the HBO-Max series Hacks, starring Jean Smart. We brought together three of our most dedicated Old Bitch streamers – Malaga Baldi (literary agent), Aruna Rao (women’s rights thinker and consultant), and Debbie Zimmerman (head of Women Make Movies and world-recognized expert on women and media) – to explore what is so powerful and ground-breaking about 69-year old Jean Smart’s mesmerizing portrayal of an aging comedian (think Joan Rivers) whose Las Vegas career is stalling.  In pairing Smart with a young comedian – played by Hannah Einbender – who is sent to freshen up Smart’s material, we see the way women of different generations confront and embody the sexism and ageism of the entertainment world. As Megan Garber wrote in The Atlantic, this is a genre-defying series, part psychodrama, part satire, sometimes an intergenerational character study and other times a classic workplace comedy. We all agreed that Emmy-winning Smart offers a “Smart-a-licious” portrayal of aging. As Debbie noted, “for God's sake, how often do you see a woman in her sixties get laid on television?”

You can see Hacks on HBO-Max. It’s a subscription service, so you’ll have to pay. You can watch the first episode for free on YouTube. And, as you listen to the podcast, you’ll hear excerpts of Smart’s biting and self-effacing humor throughout.

Let us know if you’ve seen movies, streaming series, podcasts or other media that you think offer unique representations of gutsy, defiant older women. Write us at 2obpodcast@gmail.com and maybe you, too, can be a Screen Bitch!