Young at Heart with Kojo Nnamdi
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Podcast Overview
<p> Young at Heart is a podcast that helps us wrestle with some of life’s inevitabilities. We all get older. And with age comes change. One of the big ones – retirement. After a life spent working either in or outside the home, there comes a day when it’s time to move on – but to what? </p>
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
1/29/2026
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Recent Episodes
February 3, 2026
Mary Kay: The Developmental Work of Older Age
Mary Kay Fleming thought she knew what retirement would look like. A developmental psychologist and humor writer, she assumed that when her husband Don retired, life would carry on much as before. He’d stay busy. Maybe even renovate the house. That’s not what happened. Instead, the scientist she’d known for decades surprised her by turning to poetry—an old, unspoken dream that finally had room to surface. With Don at home full time and Mary Kay still working, their marriage shifted in unexpected ways. Suddenly, they were together all the time. Don wanted to talk—about everything. “He could do twenty minutes on where the squirrel went after it left the tree,” Fleming says. What felt like a small adjustment became a deeper reckoning with how meaning changes when work falls away. In this episode of Young at Heart, Mary Kay reflects on what retirement asks of us—not just practically, but emotionally. She talks about the need for “a reason to get out of bed in the morning,” and the challenge of finding purpose once the novelty of free time wears off. Drawing on her background in developmental psychology, she explores how identity and contribution continue to evolve later in life. She also speaks candidly about loss, aging, and the power of humor to make those changes easier to bear. “If you cannot keep a sense of humor,” she says, “there are ways that getting older becomes much harder.” Young at Heart brings you stories of people navigating life’s transitions. For Mary Kay Fleming, retirement wasn’t about slowing down—it was about finding new ways to matter.
February 3, 2026
Kathie & Eric: Just Keep Swimming
Aging changes what the body can do. Kathie Hewko knows that firsthand. A 79-year-old real estate agent, she long marked time with an annual swim beneath the Golden Gate Bridge—until illness forced a reckoning with what it means to keep dreaming when the body no longer cooperates. After completing her swim beneath the bridge, "it was very spiritual to me," she says. "I just felt so free." She's shared the water with harbor porpoises, seals, and pelicans—"a good luck symbol for me"—finding not just endurance there, but meaning. Eric Greensmith faced a different reckoning. At 17, he was "King of the Beach," a lifeguard on the New Jersey Shore. After forty years as an anesthesiologist, retirement left him staring at a version of himself he barely recognized. Haunted by who he used to be, Eric set an audacious goal: reclaiming a seat on the lifeguard stand—competing against swimmers young enough to be his children. In this episode of Young at Heart, Kathie and Eric reflect on injury, illness, aging, and the discipline required to keep going anyway. Young at Heart brings you stories of people navigating life's transitions—stories that invite you to imagine what's next. For Kathie and Eric, aging didn't close the door—it taught them how to read the water differently.
February 3, 2026
Arlene: Of Banjos and Shakespeare
Arlene Okerlund has always trusted the detours. A Shakespeare scholar and professor of English, her life has been shaped by chance encounters, unexpected pairings, and a philosophy she sums up simply: “Serendipity rules.” Again and again, she followed curiosity—even when it didn’t fit neatly into a plan. One curiosity lingered for years. Every June during her childhood, when the carnival came to town, Arlene would hear live country-western music drifting from the stage. And every now and then, a banjo would cut through the noise. “When the banjo started playing, the music just sparkled,” she remembers. “I just loved it. I’d never heard anything like it—and I fell in love with it right then.” As a young mother, she bought a banjo on an impulse and hung it on her wall. And it stayed there for nearly four decades. In this episode of Young at Heart, Arlene reflects on what it meant to finally pick up the banjo later in life—and on the long, winding path that led her there. She talks about delayed passions, trusting instinct over ambition, and discovering that joy doesn’t disappear when you put it off—it waits. Young at Heart brings you stories of people navigating life’s transitions—stories that invite you to imagine what’s next. For Arlene, taking the long way wasn’t a delay. It was how she arrived.
6 total episodes available
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- What is Young at Heart with Kojo Nnamdi?
<p> Young at Heart is a podcast that helps us wrestle with some of life’s inevitabilities. We all get older. And with age comes change. One of the big ones – retirement. After a life spent working either in or outside the home, there comes a day when it’s time to move on – but to what? </p> - How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
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