My Better Half

Menopause The Musical 2 is touring the nation with a scheduled performance at the Craterian Theater in Medford on Saturday, Oct 11 at 3pm.

Two of the stars on the show, Teri Adams and Mary-Louise Lee, discuss the performance with Vanessa Finney, host of My Better Half.

ABOUT THE SHOW
The hysterical sequel to the smash-hit Menopause The Musical® is finally here! Five years after their chance encounter in a department store, we set sail with our beloved ladies for more high jinks on the high seas. Menopause The Musical 2: Cruising Through ‘The Change’® is a hilarious and heartfelt look at the joys of menopause and friendship — plus hot flashes, mood swings, and memory lapses!

Join us on a trip of self-discovery, backed by a new soundtrack of toe-tapping parodied hits from the 70s, 80s and 90s. For these four ladies, menopause was not the end, but the beginning of a beautiful friendship where love conquers all, and friendships never fail.

More information and tickets.

My Better Half host Vanessa Finney visits with Kate Grant, who was in her 40s when she joined a movement to end obstetric fistula - a devastating childbirth complication that often adds insult to injury. At 66, she's published an award-winning memoir about it: "No Woman Left Behind: A Journey of Hope to Heal Every Woman Injured in Childbirth."

As a high schooler in Japan in 1994, Miwa Aoki Russell ditched class one day and took a two-hour bus ride to meet the first female pilot in Japan. She was hoping for guidance in her chosen career path in aviation, but was met only with discouragement. Instead of quitting, the 16-year-old asked herself, "Ok, Miwa, what's the next step?"

Miwa explains to My Better Half host Vanessa Finney how she left her native Japan to study in the U.S. and pursue her dream of becoming an airplane pilot. After a long career in flying, she started her own baking business; now her breads can be found in Rogue Valley stores and at southernoregonsourdough.store.

In honor of Oregon Humanities magazine publishing Vanessa Finney's essay on Oregon's thriving older residents, we replay this episode of My Better Half with host Vanessa Finney talking with anti-ageism activist Ashton Applewhite. (Applewhite is included in Finney's essay in the Oregon Humanities magazine).

To see the article, visit oregonhumanities.org and search "My Better Half" or click here.

Retirement Transition Expert Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons talks about her new book, “Encore: A High Achiever’s Guide to Thriving in Retirement" with My Better Half host Vanessa Finney.

When Deb Whitman and her husband Glenn exchanged vows in 1999, they promised to love each other until they were 103. To some, the optimism sounded like a joke. But as an expert on aging, Deb knew the odds were in their favor to live that long: They were fit, well educated, and financially secure—all factors that boost life expectancy. So they conducted their lives and retirement planning with that age as a target. Her husband's heart attack on a hike at age 46, though, started her mission to determine why some of us live much longer and healthier lives than others. She shares her findings and recommendations in her new book, “The Second Fifty: Answers to the Seven Big Questions of Midlife and Beyond.”

Renee Montagne began freelancing for NPR in the 1980s, eventually co-hosting All Things Considered and Morning Edition. During her 44 years at the network, her storytelling style won listeners' hearts and major journalism awards - many of them during her second half of life.

At 59, Julie Anderson Bailey has survived midlife's tough transitions: divorce, the death of a partner and parents, and an empty nest. Art has been there through it all.

Learn More: SOPBS The Work of Art Profile / Julie Anderson Bailey

My Better Half host Vanessa Finney explores the intricacies of relationships among the population of seasoned citizens with Francine Russo, author of Love After 50: How to find it, enjoy it, keep it.

Russo offers a comprehensive and intimate guide to finding, keeping, and enjoying love after fifty ... the best kind of love there is.

Studies show that love after fifty is more satisfying than at any other stage in life, and it makes sense: at this stage, you are more emotionally stable and more focused on the present; you know what you absolutely have to have, but also what you can live without; partnering is no longer about building family and fortune—it’s about sharing intimacy as grounded individuals.

In Love After 50, journalist Francine Russo interviewed experts in the field and dozens of couples to help show the way.

ABOUT
Francine Russo is the author of They’re Your Parents, Too! How Siblings Can Survive Their Parents’ Aging Without Driving Each Other Crazy. A widely recognized journalist, she covered the Boomer beat for Time for over a decade. She has also written for Scientific American, The Atlantic, and other major publications. Russo has two grown children, three adult stepchildren, and eight amazing grandkids. She has experienced first-hand the tremendous potential we all have to grow and transform ourselves with the people we love. A PhD in English literature, she lives in New York with her partner.

Longtime listeners of Jefferson Public Radio might be familiar with the voice of Diana Coogle. Starting in the 1980s, she aired commentaries about life living off the grid in the Siskiyou Mountains, raising a son in a home she built herself.

The 21st century has been fruitful for her, too. In her 60s, she earned her PhD at the University of Oregon. And when she turned 79, she decided to walk 800 miles in the year leading up to her 80th birthday.