Vital Presence - Shaping a new story: Recent Episodes
Sally Fox, PhD
Don't settle for someone else's story about your life! Your 3rd Act of life is the time to be fully you. In our 3rd Act series. you'll learn to thrive post-midlife; In our StoryPros series, you'll learn how stories can transform your life in our StoryPros series. Sally Fox, Ph.D., veteran coach, consultant and writer interviews thought leaders who are shaping the narratives that are shaping the world. Find out more at www.vitalpresence.com.
Author Christina Baldwin is a pioneer in the field of personal writing, a decades-long teacher of journal writing and story. In 2024, she released her debut novel, The Beekeeper's Question, Love and Honey, War and Reckoning, A Novel of WWII, a book I heartily recommend. We talk about a rich array of topics, including themes from the book, the relevance of a novel set during World War II to today, how Christina worked with a Native American advisor to make sure her story was appropriate and accurate, and the challenges and rewards of independent publishing.
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.
Dana Lynne Andersen turned the tables in the interview to ask Sally about her creative life.
Dr. Joye Hardiman is a cultural activist who is showing us how to build a stronger tomorrow by learning from the artifacts and stories of the past. She is the producer (and star!) of Ancestral Art Works on YouTube. Joye has been an actress, a theatre director, scholar, writer, university professor, community activist, world traveler, storyteller, and higher education architect. She was the Executive Director of The Tacoma campus of the Evergreen State College urban campus and a member of the faculty.
Multimedia and performance artist, and educator, Dana Lynne Anderson talk about her unique approach to unlocking our creative and consciousness through art.
PJean Storlie, author of Once Upon an Innovation talks about her new book and her own mid-life reinvention.
Massad and Fridley, both Eastside Institute faculty, are changing the narrative around dementia with their "Joy of Dementia" workshops. The workshops allow paritcipants impacted by dementia to play together, while challenging assumptions about how we work with people with dementia.
Conversation about how the author was able to let go of what was keeping her from finding enough and how she was able to find the joy of enoughness in community.
Sally Fox, head of this podcast, has the tables turned on her by Ellia Harris who interviews Sally about her book-in-progress Meeting the Muse after Midlife.They talk about creativity, moving beyond the myths of aging, and tapping the special Superpowers that can come win the 2nd half of life.
Tina Shattuck is a social entrepreneur who takes big ideas and then brings them down to earth in the community. She has founded two organizations focused on the empowerment of women and girls Working Mothers Revolution and Women Hold the Key. We talk about how she has developed her projects from a foundation, always, of community. She's currently working on an initiative to connect women of different ages, maid, mother, and matriarch, for the learning and betterment of all.
Dana Lynne Andersen, founder of Awakening Arts Academy of Art, Creativity, and Consciousness speaks on the importance of awakening our creative and artistic expression for our development and for the world.
Pat Samples is a author, coach, and teacher who has led clients and groups to rediscover the magic of the information living in their bodies.
Why are elders needed in these troubled times?
Michael Meade, internationally known author, storyteller and mythologists has addressed this question in his latest book: Awakening the Soul: A Deep Response to a Troubled World.
We talk about his insights in this conversation about keeping the soul alive when the world is struggling.
Dr. Stevens-Long is the author of Living Well, Dying All: A guide to choices, costs, and consequences. Judy is an expert in adult development and wrote the classic text on that subject, Adult Development, which is still in use today. Judy brings her research background, curiosity, and a wealth of personal experience to the study of how we can prepare for death. With the large baby boomer population moving into their later years, preparing our systems for their care is critical. As individuals, we can prepare ourselves with knowledge to have the best death possible.
Nan Narboe is an author, therapist, and trainer who has created a tantalizing and compassionate collective portrait of what aging creatively can look like.
What does the face of aging look like, especially among creatives?
What might sixty, seventy, eighty or beyond look like?
These were questions Nan Narboe asked as she began her compilation of stories from writers sharing their experiences in the second half of life: Aging.
Lynn Jericho has studied the work of Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, economist, and esotericist Rudolf Steiner as well as other spiritual teachers, and puts these to work in her approach to coaching and in her online programs.
Ann Hedreen is working on her second memoir, titled The Observant Doubter and talks about the writing path.
She is the author of the memoir Her Beautiful Brain (She Writes Press, 2014). Ann and her husband Rustin Thompson own White Noise Productions and together have made more than 100 documentary films, including Quick Brown Fox: an Alzheimer’s Story.
Kathyrn Carole Ellison is about to publish her ninth book of poetry–at age 80. She writes to send a message of hope to the world and distill lessons to share from the richness and challenges she encountered in a long life, well lived.
Jand Howard lives in Hawaii where she personally experienced the devastation of the Leilani Estates by the volcanic eruption in 2018. Jane is an artist, environmentalist, educator and eco-tour leader who could be a role model for resilience.
Dr. Carol Orsborn is the best-selling author of 30 books including the book she wrote with Dr. Robert Weber Consciously Aging: The Spirituality of Age: A Seeker’s Guide to Growing Older which won a 2015 Gold Nautilus Book Award winner in the category of Consciously Aging. She recently published a novel: Angelica's Last Breath.
Dr. Harry "Rick" Moddy has been a leader in the field of conscious aging, through his senior positions, books and articles, talks and wisdom. He explores some of the possibilities and challenges behind this exciting stage of life.
Ellia Harris shares ideas about how to declutter and organize in a mindful way that supports our thriving as we age.
Patricia Hunt-Perry has had a remarkable life. She's worked with many of the world's spiritual luminaries, hosted her own radio and PBS series introduced innovative courses in a university setting and been a Dharma teacher. Now in her eighth decade, she shares some of her wisdom.
Maria Genné is a dancer, choreographer, and educator who has created amazing programs that bring people together across generations to interact through dance, music and story. She helps older adults tap into their creativity and joy through the arts. Her organization, Kairos Alive, is a performing and participatory dance, music, and theatre arts organization, led by a core group of professional artists who work collaboratively, across arts disciplines and across generations.
Activist and author Kit Bakke didn't start writing seriously until after 50 when the events of 9-11 motivated her to start. She talks about her first book, Miss Alcott's E-mail, her recent book Protest on Trial and how dissent is so important to a democracy.
Painter, writer, and Sage-ing facilitator Anne Boynton talks about infusing more creativity into your life in your 3rd Act, or any age.
Author and Sage-ing facilitator Ina Albert talks about how we can counter ageism to choose a more empowering path to aging.
Rachael Freed is an author, workshop leader and expert in the area of writing your legacy. She shows us how we can find personal fulfillment as we age and bring joy to others by writing legacy letters and giving blessings.
John C. Robinson is a clinical psychologist with a second doctorate in ministry. He’s an ordained interfaith minister and the author of nine books and numerous articles on Aging, examining its psychology, spirituality and mystical dimensions. He speaks at Conscious Aging Conferences across the country.
Marilyn Paul, Author of An Oasis in Timedescribes the benefits of taking a rest day off a week.
Christine McHugh, videographer and director, shares a story of making a legacy documentary with a powerful twist at the end.
Juliet Bruce knows one of the big secrets of the universe. That we live inside of stories- and we can change those stories. She has used metaphoric forms such as the heroes journey to help her clients make transformative changes in their lives.
Bridging expressive arts with a background in literature and journalism, Juliet has worked with a variety of individuals and groups from trauma survivors to the most marginalized, showing time and time again that stories do help us heal.
Bob Weber shares a new narrative about the possibilities that come with growing older while developing a deeper sense of self.
If you think sensuality is for women under 50, Mary Campbell will prove you wrong. She's a sensuality and spirituality coach who runs workshops around the world for women and men, helping them to awaken their sense of beauty, intimacy, and sensuality.
Victoria Starr Marshall had a dream retirement only to find she still craved business. She and her husband bought a magazine, where they are thriving while still pursuing some of their retirement dreams.
Author and blogger Debra Eve discusses her work documenting how many famous men and women have bloomed in the 2nd half of life.
This launches the third season of Vital Presence with a special 3rd act series about working creatively and thriving in after midlife as well as our ongoing Story Pros series.
Jeffrey Davis is a writer, speaker, consultant, and author of four books. Through his firm and consultancy Tracking Wonder, he and his team work with creative innovators, entrepreneurs, and social psychologists to help people flourish in times of challenge and change.
David Hutchens, organizational story expert and author of Circle of the 9 Muses talks about how companies can create knowledge more effectively using stories.
Vanessa Chase Lockshin, author of The Storytelling NonProfitshares ideas that will help nonprofits with their fundraising and internal development.
In a world where so many get their start in business storytelling through branding and marketing, Cynthia Kurtz followed a different route in: through science and through work at IBM research. She has pioneered a field she calls Participative Narrative and written an amazingly useful guide to participatory story work, called Working with Stories in Your Community or Organization.
Nick Owen is passionate about leadership and storytelling.He is author of three best-selling books on story and metaphor and deeply engaged in promoting the concept of ‘the Third Act’: how we can more pro-actively engage with ourselves and our communities in the last third of our lives.
John Tarnoff is a reinvention career coach, speaker and author who helps his fellow baby boomers transition to meaningful and sustainable careers beyond traditional retirement.
Doug Lipman, master storytelling coach, shares insights and ideas about bringing your best story forward at work and in life.
Ashton Applewhite, author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism shares her perspective on creative a positive path to elderhood.
Dr. Bill Thomas is changing the story about moving from adulthood into elderhood. He's an author, entrepreneur, musician, teacher, farmer and physician whose wide-ranging work explores the terrain of human aging.
Kathy Klost-Guest is a marketing and communications consultant, a storyteller, an improviser, and an author who just published: Stop Boring Me! How to Create Kick-ass Content, Products and Ideas through the Power of improv. Through her firm Keeping It Human she helps companies create jargon-free convincing, kick-ass communications
Expert organizational storyteller Karen Dietz, Ph.D. reflects on what is new in the field of business storytelling, working with big data and transformational storytelling.
Learn how many buying decisions go awry when hidden assumptions and beliefs cloud our decisions.
Best selling author David Hutchens, author of The Circle of the 9 Muses talks about how storytelling in business supports learning and meaning-making.
Jeff Rock is skilled career coach, business storyteller, personal branding consultant and story activist who helps professionals re-invent the narratives they use to describe their careers.
Robert "Jake" Jacobs is known for his innovative, participatory approach to large scale chance "Real Time Strategic Change." He's developed new tools to help communities, such as Charleston, that want to come together to heal and to plan.
Lori Silverman, best-selling author and business storyteller, talks about using stories to improve your strategic planning, interviewing, futuring and business leadership.
Mary Alice is a Story Activist, creating spaces where people can find the stories that take them to their most flourishing future. She talk about her work, around the globe, helping people to grow their capacity to deeply listen and work with each other, as well as to see the story they are living in and the one they are living into.
Karen Dietz, Ph.D., Master business storyteller and curator talks about the competencies needed by today's professional business storyteller. Learn why you need to be a story listener and story-questioner before you become a storyteller. Learn how to take stories can build a strong work culture and an engaged workforce.
Noted organizational storyteller and author Geoff Mead talks about how storytelling can support new forms of leadership and bring more humanity to the workplace.
Sonia Thompson is an entrepreneur, author, podcaster, and head of Try Business School where she's teaching entrepreneurs how to make their businesses thrive.
Jean is a veteran organizational storyteller who uses story combined with facilitation to help her clients solve tough business problems.
Lynnaea Lumbard, Ph.D. is a transformational psychologist, interfaith minister, community weaver, social artist and strategic philanthropist. Her current work is curating the New Stories organization to name, amplify and disseminate new stories and practices for a life-affirming future.
Christine brings the latest research to the field of self-improvement to help people, young and old connect with their deeper purpose.
As the traditional workplace disappears, designing one’s work based on purpose becomes an intentional choice. It frees an individual to navigate a lifetime of transitions with objectivity, self-direction and internal motivation. Adopting an HEROIC career mindset fuels individuals to act on “what’s next”, regardless of the changes ahead.
As the traditional workplace disappears, designing one’s work based on purpose becomes an intentional choice. It frees an individual to navigate a lifetime of transitions with objectivity, self-direction and internal motivation. Adopting an HEROIC career mindset fuels individuals to act on “what’s next”, regardless of the changes ahead.
Actor, director, improvisor, trainer Christine McHugh shares about her recent projects include the viral video Older Ladiesand her new project to capture legacies on video.
Gloria Burgess shares about the power of leading from within and how you can create your own passionate story at any age. Gloria is also passionate about the role of the arts in developing today's leaders.
Through his blogs, podcasts, talks, and coaching Keith Carlson, R.N., is helping his audiences of thousands of listeners and readers to see the new face of nursing, both inside and outside the profession.
Author, international storyteller and storytelling coach Doug Lipman talks about how you can create more powerful stories.
Rebecca Crichton, Director of the Northwest Center for Creative Aging is shaping a new story about aging, and how to stay vibrant and generative mid-life and beyond.
Chris Farrell, author of Unretirement:How Baby Boomers are Changing the Way We Think About Work, Community, and the Good Life explores the positive impact baby boomers are having on the economy (as well as their individual health and happiness) by working just a little bit longer than predicted in the old retirement model.
Nancy Kline, author of More Time to Think,shares her perspectives on coaching and how coaches can create a positive thinking environment that brings out the best thinking from their clients.
Nancy Kline, author of More Time to Think talks about how to create a thinking environment and why it is vitally important. Part one of a two part series.
Doug Nathan, leadership trainer and an internal consultant within King County,Washington government is planning an exciting symposium for the County, inviting people to "expand the narrative" around government and learn to tell stories of positive change.
Jeff Vander Clute and Maria Bäck share about the transformational processes they use with clients to help them access insight, flow, and a deeper sense of purpose from which to build their businesses and plan their lives.
Marketing pro Kathy Klost-Guest talks about how she boosts clients' creativity and impact using improvisation and storytelling - and cuts through corporate jargon.
Ramaa Bharadvaj, renowed Indian classical dancer talks about design, leadership and Indian dance.
Jerod Morris, VP of Rainmaker Digital, shares his passion for Primility - the art of balancing pride with humility to help leaders make better decisions.
Master career coach Jeff Rock and I talk about how you can use the power in your past - your Origin Story - to build a new road map for your career.
Debra Ruh's life changed when her beautiful down syndrome daughter Sara was born. Debra went to to become a passionate advocate for people with disabilities and a successful entrepreneur who founded three companies to assist companies in tapping the potential of people with disabilities.
In this interview, we explore how creating an accessible and inclusive business workplace makes economic sense - and how enlarging our definition of "what is normal" creates more room and possibility for us all.
David Hutchens, Author of Circle of the 9 Muse talks the art of organizational storytelling, his book, and how organizational storytelling and organizational learning work together..
Arun Wakhlu, Chairman of Pragati Leadership, talks about how he introduces spiritual principles into the coaching and training he does with executives around the world.
Anil Sachdev, founder of the School of Inspired Leadership near Delhi, India, and a successful executive, talks about the relevance of insights from the Bhagavad Gita to today's leadership during a conference on the same in Pune, India.
Geoff Bellman offers insights from his highly successful 30 year career in organizational consulting. He shares his insights on changes he has seen in the world of organizations and leadership.
We're taking a break for the next several weeks to learn about an Indian approach to leadership that is very values-drive and highly innovative.
Ann Weiser Cornell, Ph.D., an international expert in the art of Focusing, a process first developed by Dr. Eugene Gendlin, discusses how leaders can use Focusing to improve their creativity, collaboration and decision-making.
Beth Buelow, coach and author of the Introvert Entrepreneur talks abouthow introverts can make their style work for them in building a business.
Exploring gumption, story healing, and the need for millenial feminists following my conversation with Kerri Lowe.
Kerri Lowe is a millennial feminist, spoken word poet, storyteller, and creative facilitator who writes and performs under the name KAYLO. She is committed to helping girls find their gumption and women of all ages to find their voices through stories.
Susan Partnow, consultant and trainer in the art of compassionate listening shares the steps in this powerful process. She also describes its usefulness as a tool for personal and global healing.
Lori Silverman, best-selling author and business storyteller, talks about using stories to improve your strategic planning, interviewing, futuring and business leadership.
Ben Bingham, author ofMaking Money Matter: Impact Investing to Change the World and investment advisor shares insights about making money while making a difference.
Karen Dietz, Ph.D., Master business storyteller and curator talks about the competencies needed by today's professional business storyteller. Learn why you need to be a story listener and story-questioner before you become a storyteller. Learn how to take stories can build a strong work culture and an engaged workforce.
Interview with Ann Randolph, actress, improviser, solo performer and writing coach about her career, her performances, and how she supports writers who want to explore and express their stories.
Conversation with actress Ann Randolph about her career, her performances, and how she supports others to share their stories.
Commentary on interview with Suzanne Anderson, author of The Way of the Mysterial Woman, and conversation about transformational women's leadership