Immerse yourself in a foreign community with an international volunteer program. Mary interviews Debbie Asuncion, Executive Director of Utopia Volunteers, a program of the Utopia Foundation. Debbie shares the details of how to choose a country and a specific project that will meet your specific and personal needs and for a fulfilling volunteer experience.

You will learn about their projects, mission, philosophy as well as the cost to volunteers and what you can expect in terms of your service, accommodations, meals and outcomes. Learn more at Utopia Volunteers or call Debbie at 1-855-785-2513 (toll-free). Please mention The Experience 50 when making contact. More information and photos at experience50.com

Looking for new friends and fun in midlife? Your community theater may hold a whole new life for you. Mary talks with her sister, Clover Roy, who recently joined volunteer ranks at her community theater after being away from the stage for almost 30 years. Also joining the conversation, Betsy Willis has been both a paid staff person and volunteer including on stage roles, directing and producing shows. If at midlife you are looking for a way to express yourself, be part of a team, and want to get more joy in your life… this may be the ticket! 

This episode of Experience 50 will be extremely helpful to those of you who find at 50 that you want to start giving back to your community, the world, and the institutions that you hold near and dear to your heart. Our guest is my friend Steve Wade and the topic is volunteering and philanthropy.

Steve Wade currently serves as Director of Donor Relations at the Grand Traverse Regional Foundation. His career has included service in leadership positions at the United Way of Northwestern Michigan, Grace Episcopal Church, Charleston Area Medical Center Health System and the West Virginia Health Care Association. He is 50, married with three children and generously contributes his time, talent and treasure to numerous organizations ranging from Little League to the Poverty Initiative

It occurred to me while we spoke, that he would be the perfect guest to talk you through the steps and strategies to having the most positive volunteer experience possible. Full show notes at experience50.com/podcasts

The Honorable Judge Thomas Gilbert would like to put his 15 minutes of fame as “the pot smoking judge” behind him. Once the punchline of late night comedians jokes, at 58, he now is clean, sober and changing people’s lives, one addict at a time.

The former district court judge was spotted smoking a joint at a November 2002 Rolling Stones concert, and was reported to court officials. He defied calls for his resignation, withstood the very public humiliation of a national and local media machine that loved dragging out the story of his hypocrisy in jailing people for doing exactly the same thing he did when the robe came off.

The Tom Gilbert that you will meet in this conversation, is a very different man. The incident brought his addiction to alcohol and marijuana front and center in his picture perfect life. An extended stay at a residential rehabilitation center not only cleaned him up but set his life on a new and far more fulfilling course. At 58, Tom Gilbert is spreading the word that recovery is possible. His story gives hope to anyone with a loved one suffering from addiction.

For full show notes, visit The Experience 50 Podcast website.

Ruth Curran drew on her experience successfully overcoming a traumatic brain injury suffered in an automobile accident at 44 to become an expert on maximizing brain health and function through lifestyle modification and "turning up the noise on life." Curran is passionate about the connection between the brain and daily functioning and believes everyone—regardless of age or stage of life—has the ability to use neuroplasticity to live a richer, deeper, more fully engaged life. She has created a series of photo-based thinking puzzles, games, and apps that help players work on cognitive abilities such as attention, memory, and executive functioning. Curran has a master's degree in cognitive psychology as well as more than 28 years of experience as a strategist, business development executive, and organizational behaviorist. She shares her insights and proven techniques for amplifying everyday experiences in Being Brain Healthy and at www.craniumcrunches.com/blog

Play some free brain games: Cranium Crunches

Ruth’s Book: Being Brain Healthy

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Learn how to adapt your experience at work into becoming a consultant. Our guest, Joe Sanock, successfully converted his skills at running his business to teaching others within his industry how to do the same thing. He was able to quit his full-time job and now is self-employed, making more money than he ever did as an employee.

To receive Joe’s Checklist of How To Become a Consultant visit: Experience50.com/joe

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Mary Rogers and her guest Michael O'Neal, the Solopreneur Hour Podcast and Sololab, share how the 50+ crowd can cash in on the enviable wisdom and knowledge acquired over their careers and convert it into an online business, saying "goodbye" to the paycheck, "hello" to financial control, time freedom and fun. 

Vist the website for the resources mentioned in this episode.

This episode supported by lynda.com 

New Skills. Improved skills. Now.

Lost your keys again? Screaming at nice people? Is it menopause? Maybe. Mary Rogers talks with midlife expert Diann Wingert, LCSW about how menopause may be the culprit behind rage, tears, confusion and yes, lost keys.

Thanks to Michael O'Neal of the Solopreneur Hour Podcast for introducing this episode of The Experience 50 Podcast.

This episode of The Experience 50 Podcast is brought to you by Audible.com

E006 Happily Ever After

An intimate conversation with a couple married for 33 years. Mary Rogers visits the home of Jim & Ann, chatting with them about their intimate experiences with jealousy, aging and dying parents, boomerang kids, arguments, mortality, having separate hobbies and shared interests, and their road to a “forever marriage”.

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Meet Rob Newman at midlife. The commercial producer has worked with Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin and Rihanna, just to name a few artists whose music videos he has produced. His first jobs included working as an extra on the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and spending summers in high school working for Howard Hughes cataloguing his newspaper clippings. In this episode, Mary and Rob talk about the ever-changing entertainment industry, Rob’s travels, his bucket list and regrets.

Visit experience50.com to comment on this podcast

Recommended books:

2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America, by Albert Brooks

A Curious Mind, by Brian Grazer

Sick in the Head: Conversations about Life and Comedy, by Judd Apatow