Vital Presence

Vicki Robin has been breaking ground throughout her career—now she's challenging how we think about aging with her Coming of Aging writings. We talk about the possibilities and paradoxes of aging. She challenged the stories of our times in 1992 with her seminal book written with Joe Dominguez, Your Money or Your Life, a book that challenged our obsessions with acquiring things rather than creating the time we need to live a rich life. She challenged us again with her book about eating locally with her book Blessing the Hands that Feed Us; Lessons from a 10-mile diet. She's a true social innovator, and has been active supporting her community on Whidbey Island, Washington.  

Chris Miller (CJ) is an entrepreneur, artist, writer, and speaker. He’s a lifelong Spiritual learner who has spent the last 20 years examining the creative process and its relationship to spirituality. He’s the author of the book, The Spiritual Artist and produces a podcast by the same name in which he interviews artists and spiritual thought leaders. In addition, CJ holds yearly Spiritual Art Retreats where consciousness and art-making combine.

Dr. Michael Williams is a Canadian-born storyteller who spent three decades living in Scotland, where he honed his skills as an oral storyteller. We talk about our mutual love of storytelling as we trace Michael's history as a contemporary bard, in Europe and Canada and his recent work with elders and hospice patients.

Dr. Clarissa Castillo-Ramsey brings artfulness together with leadership and helping people grow. She is an organizational psychologist, artist, coach, and author of the book: Painting Your Path: 21 Interviews with Extraordinary Women.

Francesca Aniballi, PhD, uses fairy tales as a transformative tool for adults. She combines her knowledge of expressive arts, literature, myth, and Celtic culture, to offer us a path toward self-insight—tapping the healing power of the imagination. 

younger? Author Sally Jean Fox made it her quest to discover what could bring heart and meaning to the second half of her life. She chronicles her story in her new memoir Meeting the Muse After Midlife: A Journey to Meaning, Creativity, and Joy. In this episode, she is joined by Dana Lynne Andersen, her friend, colleague, and teacher to explore what it means to follow an artful, transformative path into one's last decades. Dana Lynne Andersen is the Director of the Awakening Arts Academy in Assisi, Italy, where she offers courses and also leads a Transformative Arts Certification program, which Sally has taken. Sally Jean Fox is an author, coach, performer, and artist who writes about the search for meaning in the post-midlife years. She writes the Engaging Presence blog and hosts (with exceptions like this) the Vital Presence podcast. 

Legacy educator Merle Saferstein teaches the power of legacy journaling—capturing thoughts and memories that might be only for the writer's eyes but from which lessons might be shared with others.  For 48 years, Merle Saferstein journaled, amassing a collection of 380 journals. From there she distilled key passages into two books Living and Leaving My Legacy Vols. 1 & 2 and interspersed her writings with tips on how to begin legacy journaling. Prior to writing her books, Merle spent twenty-six years as a Holocaust educator helping hundreds of Holocaust survivors to share their legacies.  After retiring, she created Leaving Your Legacy®. Through classes, workshops, and lectures, she has guided thousands of people in sacred legacy work, writing for wellness, and journaling.

  Mik Kuhlman is an actor, physical theatre comedian, performance artist, theatre-maker, and teacher who has worked and taught globally. Building on her twenty-five years experience with original ensemble and solo theatre, she recently created a stunning outdoor performance and celebration of our connection with nature called, "The Standing Nation."  Merging science and feminist inspiration, she performs a piece of art and activism that will forever change how you see trees.  

Gretchen Staebler is an award-winning author in the Pacific Northwest who wrote a moving memoir about returning to her childhood home to care for her mother. It's a candid, complex, and well-crafted story that will be useful to anyone faced with providing end-of-life care or support for a family member. Gretchen also provides advice and support for caregivers at her website GretchenStaebler.com.  In this interview, she offers some of her top tips for caregivers while talking about her own writing journey and how she produced her first book after sixty.

Priscilla Long, Seattle-based author or Dancing with the Muse in Old Age, Minding the Muse, and The Writer's Portable Mentor takes us behind the scenes of her fascination with late in life creators. 

  Dana Lynne Andersen is a multimedia artist, writer, playwright, and teacher who has taught and exhibited on three continents. She is the founder of the Awakening Arts Academy, with programs in Assisi, Italy, and online. In this conversation, we explore the nature of the Transformative Arts Certification Program she offers—why it is so needed in the world and what it represents.

When her beloved husband took his life, and with it her life as she knew it, Suzanne Anderson faced a choice: would she be broken down and defeated, or broken open and transformed? Join this conversation about walking an unexpected path to a powerful outcome.

Executive and entrepreneur turned community builder and advocate for women in the 3rd act of life, Diana Place shares wisdom from her journey and the inspiration for the online 333 Collective she created.

When Debbie Weiss lost her husband of 30 years before she was 50, she learned life lessons that she has shared through her recent memoir Available As Is: A Midlife Widow's Search for Love.    We talk about the challenges of love, loss, midlife dating, and what it was to begin her writing career. after fifty. Debbie Weiss

Lois Holzman is a “ performance activist” who uses her academic background and experience to organize people—as individuals and communities—to participate in creating new development, hope and possibilities. Trained as a development psychologist, she gives new meaning to what it is to develop. Practicing “Non-knowing growing, ” she helps people ask questions, have interactions, and question assumptions in order to create new ways of becoming. Her tools include play, improv, and performance, and great, provocative questions.

Isidra Mencos' debut memoir Promenade of Desire—A Barcelona Memoir (October 2022, She Writes Press) is a sensual coming of age story tracing her journey from repressed Catholic virgin to seductive Mata Hari, as Spain transitioned from dictatorship to democracy. 

Alex Doman is in the business of learning, brain enhancement, and healing through the science-based applications of music and sound. He is a third-generation pioneer in sound healing, and his businesses, Advanced Brain Technology and Vital Neuro, build on the history of innovation begun by his father and grandfather. We talk about how to support brain health and thrive in times marked by rapid change as well as the aftermath of the pandemic. 

Margo Weinstein is a traveler, intrepid adventurer, class-action lawyer, and single mom. Educated at Yale College and Northwestern University School of Law, she became a partner in a multinational law firm, but that did not stop her from traveling to over eighty countries, moving with her young son to Shanghai and Bali, and discovering how to combine wanderlust and motherhood. Now at midlife, she looks to the road ahead. 

Juliet Bruce, PhD uses myth, storytelling, and expressive arts to help those struggling with hardship, trauma, and the challenges of living in these times. We discuss her upcoming book and how she uses story to change lives. 

How can we bring a community focus and reinvent the conversation about dementia care and the process of caring for the dying. Mary is on the faculty of the Eastside Institute in NYC.