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My Better Half With career changes and second or even third acts becoming more common, My Better Half shines a light on midlife or late-life reinventions and how people are thriving in the second half of their lives. Tune in as we explore the creative potential of our later years.
My Better Half

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My Better Half

My Better Half

From Jefferson Public Radio

With career changes and second or even third acts becoming more common, My Better Half shines a light on midlife or late-life reinventions and how people are thriving in the second half of their lives. Tune in as we explore the creative potential of our later years.

Most Recent Episodes

Doctor, doctor, give me the grapes

Doctor, doctor, give me the grapes

Dr. Peter Adesman was well along in his medical career when he decided to do something else. Not instead of doctoring, but in addition to it. So he planted grapevines on his property, and thus was born Peter William Vineyard. The operation produces several different kinds of wine, all the while Adesman and his wife, Dr. Robin Miller, continue their medical careers. Vanessa Finney talks to Adesman about making the late-in-life dedication to an avocation, in a new edition of My Better Half.

My Better Half: Founder of the Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation

For decades, Humboldt County humanitarian Betty Kwan Chinn has helped community members suffering from homelessness, and mental health and substance abuse issues. She's the founder and director of The Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation, which feeds hundreds of homeless Californians a day, helps them secure jobs, and trains them to help others. She's also the subject of the biography, The Gray Bird Sings: The Extraordinary Life of Betty Kwan Chinn, by author Karen Price. Chinn joins My Better Half with host Vanessa Finney to discuss her work, her journey from homeless youth in China to a life dedicated to philanthropy, and the cycle of kindness that transforms people's lives.

How a fashion-conscious woman landed a modeling contract in her 60s

She wasn't a model, but she looked like one. Ten years ago, Lyn Slater was mistaken for a famous model. She was already into fashion, and the incident led to a persona as The Accidental Icon, Lyn's blog and Instagram presence, and now to a book, How to Be Old: Lessons in Living Boldly from the Accidental Icon. That's a lot of activity for the latter half of life, and Lyn Slater is Vanessa Finney's guest in a new edition of My Better Half. Oh, and Lyn DID become a model, but has since traded high fashion for overalls. In this interview, we get further details of Lyn's senior adventures and her favorite hashtag, #AgeIsNotAVariable.

Wellness for the member of the family that can't say the term (woof!)

If you don't like artificial ingredients in your food, why would your pet? That's the basic thinking behind Wellness Pet Supplies in Ashland, which goes well beyond food, to toys and supplies and anything else used by the family pet, all designed to be environmentally friendly. Billie Jo Vinson co-founded the store later in life, getting the attention of our My Better Half podcast, which visits with people who've made significant gains and changes in life's second act. Host Vanessa Finney talks to Billie Jo Vinson about health for people, health for animals, and how things came together in a store for pets and their people.

It's okay to be gray: deep thoughts on deep-seated ageism in society

Think about the last social gathering you attended: how broad was the age range of the people in attendance? The question goes to how often we cluster with people around our own age... and conversely, how little we mingle with people much younger or older. This is a focus for Ashton Applewhite, who spends much of her time and energy calling out ageism in society, everything from our social-group choices to our aversion to wrinkles and gray hair. Vanessa Finney hosts Applewhite in a new edition of our podcast My Better Half, exploring her book This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism.

What makes a person open a cooking school late in life, and what makes a muffin cosmic

It's not the years in your life, it's the life in your years. Somebody said that, and our guests on My Better Half continually prove it. Deborah Costella is the latest example, a former dancer who decided to attend cooking school in her 40s, and proceeded to cook and educate people about cooking. But it was in her mid-60s that Deborah opened Cosmic Muffin School of Cookery in downtown Ashland. MBH host Vanessa Finney returns to get the details from Deborah about her wrinkles on cooking--including cooking with cannabis.

What makes a person open a cooking school late in life, and what makes a muffin cosmic

Listen · 14:38

My Better Half profiles a provider of sight and sound for film projects

One nice thing about being on Earth for a while is having the time to develop your skills. Not just in one line of work, either. Take Antonio Melendez as an example... he's familiar with photography and cameras and has worked as director, director of photography, and camera operator on TV and film projects. Antonio Melendez. Courtesy of ModernKlassical.com But he's also got a degree in music, and composes music for TV and film as well. Vanessa Finney introduces us to Antonio Melendez in the latest edition of My Better Half, showcasing the things people do in the second half of life, including reflection on life's joys and accomplishments--while creating more.

Expert on healthy aging visits the latest installment of My Better Half

We may have a "golden years" mindset about retirement, but our bodies can have other ideas. Wishful thinking still has to live in the real world, and aging presents some challenges. Dr. Rosanne Leipzig has long been a proponent of healthy aging, and lays out the course anew, in her book Honest Aging: An Insider's Guide to the Second Half of Life. Vanessa Finney interviews Leipzig in the latest installment of My Better Half, catching up with advice on balancing dreams with reality.

Activating the inner activist later in life

There's more to the second half of life than golf and fishing and traveling, even for the people so inclined to those activities. The world has a problem or two that needs solving, and just reaching "the golden years" does not exempt people from helping solve them. The organization Third Act helps mobilize people over 60 to focus on some key issues. And why not? There are so many Americans now in that age bracket. They include Deborah Moore, a retired environmental scientist in California. Her later-in-life work is the focus of the latest edition of My Better Half, with JPR's Vanessa Finney. Listen for stories of working for environmental and governmental change.

Switching up nutrition later in life

Remember as a kid when people urged you not to drink/eat/smoke something, because it'd stunt your growth? They might not have been wrong. Diet can make a big difference in overall health, something nutritional health coach Yaakov Levine discovered after he'd been on the Earth for a while. In a new edition of My Better Half, JPR's Vanessa Finney talks to Levine about taking up nutrition therapy later in life, and how he's still doing it at age 70. One thing he's happy to point out: it's never too late to start eating better.

My Better Half

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