Midlife Mixtape

“Be open to wonder”: Pixar storyteller Scott Morse talks with with Nancy about growing older without growing up, the Beastie Boys as role models, and why Pixar’s Cars 3 might just be the perfect movie for midlifers.

* Scott’s filmography courtesy of IMDB

* Scott’s cool Instagram feed

* TRICKSTER Gallery Berkeley

* Whoops, on the podcast I said it was from McSweeney’s – it’s actually Slackjaw’s “Yankee Candle’s New Anxiety Collection,” including my signature sent, Spiced Endless Scrolling

* And remember, Saturday August 12, from 9 pm – the wee hours, I’ll be guest-DJing my favorite ’80s dance hits at the Cat Club in San Francisco. We’re raising money for Bay Area food banks, so come on out and do good while you’re getting your ’80s dance vibes on!

In honor of Scott’s first concert:

Thanks as always to M. The Heir Apparent, who provides the music behind the podcast – check him out here!

“A series of cycles:” join Nancy and digital pioneer/BlogHer co-founder Jory Des Jardins as they discuss the benefits of midlife collaboration, realizing life may not be as linear as expected, and why Nancy needs to embrace Virtual Reality and get over her FOS (Fear of Snapchat.)

* Read more about Jory

* Virago – a strategic advisory for Women Entrepreneurs

“Oh yeah. I noticed you dancing.” Music by which to scrub your pans and/or embarrass yourself.

“Tear up the road map”: Tim Goodman, chief television critic for The Hollywood Reporter, talks with Nancy about the art of the midlife pivot, how music can be a bonding activity with the next generation, and his three-part Elvis Costello dream date.

* Tim’s TV Talk Machine podcast

* The Bastard Machine blog at The Hollywood Reporter

Tim’s 2017 summer jam – “Gwan,” by Rostam

Nancy’s eternal summer jam – “Summertime” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince (heeyyyyy, 1991)

Thanks as always to M. The Heir Apparent, who provides the music behind the podcast – check him out here!

“Jazz cigarettes now available in the Jazz Room”: join Nancy and her guest Yvonne Prinz, YA author and co-founder of Amoeba Music, the world’s largest independent music store. They talk personal and retail reinvention, finding time to take your foot off the gas at midlife, and what happens to you if you’re a Canadian who doesn’t like Rush.

* Yvonne’s website with links to Vinyl Princess and If You’re Lucky

* Amoeba Music

Michael Shannon shops Amoeba Music Hollywood and shows off “What’s In My Bag?”

And for good measure, here’s Teddy Thompson whom I learned about courtesy of Yvonne’s Vinyl Princess music blog. This video was my favorite RomCom of 2008 and it’s not even a movie.

Thanks as always to M. The Heir Apparent, who provides the music behind the podcast – check him out here!

Oakland comedian Karinda Dobbins joins Nancy to talk about why humor is so vital in helping audiences step into someone else’s shoes, her comedy inspiration Moms Mabley, and why Gen Xers are so good at rolling with it when it comes to work/creative balance.

* Karinda’s website

* Karinda’s upcoming appearances

Thanks as always to M. The Heir Apparent, who provides the music behind the podcast – check him out here!

Join Nancy and her guest, author and musician Michelle Cruz Gonzales, as they discuss Michelle’s life as a drummer in ‘90s punk band Spitboy, what it’s like to reunite with a band after a thirty-year break, and what Michelle’s learned about the benefit of just getting started with your creative goals at midlife (instead of waiting for perfection to strike.)

* Michelle’s website

* Michelle’s memoir, The Spitboy Rule

* Michelle reading “Does Your Mom Play Drums?” at Listen To Your Mother 2013

* Rob Sheffield’s new book, Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World

Thanks as always to M. The Heir Apparent, who provides the music behind the podcast – check him out here!

Welcome to the Midlife Mixtape podcast, where we’ll celebrate Gen X at midlife with humor, heart, and a really good beat. Join writer and host Nancy Davis Kho for an honest look at the ups and downs of midlife for the generation that came of age alongside MTV, and find out why “Whatever, nevermind” isn’t just the anthem of our youth, but a brilliant philosophy for midlife contentment.

* How Do I Feel About a Midlife Crisis? Whatever TueNight.com

* Thanks to M. The Heir Apparent, who provides the music behind the podcast – check him out here!

***This is a rough transcription of Episode 1 of the Midlife Mixtape Podcast. It originally aired on May 2, 2017. Transcripts are created using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and there may be errors in this transcription, but we hope that it provides helpful insight into the conversation. If you have any questions or need clarification, please email [email protected] ***

Nancy Davis Kho 0:00

If happiness can be measured as the gap between expectations and reality, then GenXers’ famously low expectations may lead us to some outrageously satisfied middle ages.

00:12

Welcome to Midlife Mixtape, The Podcast. I’m Nancy Davis Kho and we’re here to talk about the years between being hip and breaking one.

[THEME MUSIC – “Be Free” by M. The Heir Apparent].

Nancy 00:36

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the first ever Midlife Mixtape Podcast. My name is Nancy Davis Kho and I’ll be your host. I am also the booker, the producer, the music consultant, I clean around here, I provide snacks, so kind of a one-woman show.

I’m going to start today’s episode with a confession. I’m middle aged and I don’t feel bad about that.

Of course, compared to when I was 20, my memory is worse. I have more wrinkles because I’m scared of Botox. My hairdresser knows that from here on out it’s going to be bangs all the time. And my sleep cycle has gone from deep and heavy and predictable for years and years to more delicate than the Princess and the Pea. If everything isn’t exactly right in my bedroom, I wake up and I’m awake for hours and stare at the ceiling and try not to panic that I’m not going to sleep well enough or my under eye cream is not going to make the cut in the morning.

But all that being said, it’s offset by the fact that I have many friendships that are over the legal drinking age. I get a safe driver discount thanks to years of mostly going the speed limit. And I’m in a marriage that is seasoned enough to overlook most of the slights and indignities that would have caused big fights 20 years ago, where just like, all the rough edges are sanded down after 25 years together.

I mean, of course, I could dwell on the fact that I have a whole bunch of new age spots on my hands. That’s my latest aging thing. You know I’m talking about hands that still on occasion wear rings that I bought during the MTV era. You know I was big into the Madonna jewelry. I still held on to a lot of that stuff. So it looks a little weird for me to see the rings and the age spots at the same time.

But I have two weapons that I think help me cope and they are humor and hope. As for the humor, I’ve written a humor blog called Midlife Mixtape for the past six years. And it’s where I write about the mixtape of how life looks for me, anyway, at this stage of the game: a constantly recalibrating balance of motherhood, marriage, career, aging parents, and oh yeah, trying to keep some semblance of a side interest alive.

In my case,