In this episode of Revolutionize Your Retirement, host Dori Mintzer talks with Helen Hirsh Spence, founder of Top 60 Over 60, about reframing aging in the 21st century and confronting both external and internalized ageism. Helen shares her own story of becoming a social entrepreneur in her late 60s after a 35-year leadership career in education, and how subtle experiences of invisibility and lowered expectations led her to recognize ageism in herself and in the culture around her.

The conversation dives into what ageism looks and sounds like, everyday comments, workplace nudges to retire, birthday-card humor, and “senior moment” jokes, and why these messages quietly erode confidence, opportunity, and health. Helen introduces the idea of “longevity literacy” and a “longevity mindset,” noting that we now live 20–30 years longer than previous generations and need a new life map beyond the old “learn–earn–retire” model. She and Dori discuss how people in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond can pivot, re-skill, and design non-linear lives that include multiple purposes and periodic reinvention.

Helen also talks about her work with individuals and organizations: helping older adults surface purpose, strengths, and an “entrepreneurial mindset,” and helping employers become age-ready by recognizing the value of older workers’ experience and institutional knowledge. She emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, stepping out of one’s comfort zone, building multi-generational connections, and cultivating supportive networks that challenge limiting beliefs about aging.

About the Guest – Helen Hirsh Spence

Helen Hirsh Spence is a trailblazing advocate for longevity literacy and a leading voice in the fight against ageism. She is the founder of Top 60 Over 60, a niche consultancy and thought-leadership platform that challenges outdated stereotypes about aging and showcases the value of older adults in today’s workforce and society.

Before launching her social enterprise in her late 60s, Helen spent more than 35 years as a senior leader in public and private education, including roles as a language teacher, secondary school principal, founding executive of the Ontario Principals’ Council, and head of an all-girls school in Ottawa. A lifelong learner and traveler, she has done volunteer advisory work in Honduras, Bolivia, the Canadian Arctic, India, and Bhutan, and even climbed Kilimanjaro at 58.

Key Topics We Cover

• Longevity literacy and the new map of life: living 20–30 years longer and outgrowing the learn–earn–retire model.
• Longevity mindset: reframing expectations, health span, and the opportunities of extra decades.
• Purpose in later life: self-awareness, revisiting values, multiple evolving purposes, and getting out of your comfort zone.
• The entrepreneurial mindset (for business or life): creativity, spotting opportunity, re-skilling, and embracing change.

Connect with Helen Hirsh Spence

• Website & Resources: Top 60 Over 60 – articles, talks, media, and program information.
• LinkedIn: Age Sense - Fresh perspectives & insights on shifting demographics, longevity & age inclusivity, reflections

What to do next:

• Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition
• Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
• Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.

In this conversation, host Dori Mintzer welcomes Dr. Connie Zweig back to explore how “shadow work” can become a powerful inner practice in midlife and beyond. They discuss what the “shadow” actually is, how it forms in childhood, and the many ways it shows up in later life through self‑sabotage, repeating relationship patterns, addictions, moods, and projections onto partners, adult children, and political or religious “enemies.”

Connie explains her practical method of identifying “shadow characters” using thoughts, feelings, and body sensations as cues, then naming and dialoguing with these inner figures to discover their valid, often hidden needs. Through vivid examples, the “foodie,” the inner critic, and the controller, she shows how greater awareness can transform blame into responsibility, especially in long‑term relationships and marriage. She and Dori also explore “shadow marriage” vows, how couples and families can consciously honor each other’s shadow characters, and how elders can use shadow work for reconciliation, forgiveness, and a more peaceful final chapter of life.

The discussion widens to the collective shadow, including how projection fuels polarization, dehumanization, and war, and how leaders like Donald Trump have “weaponized” shadow projection on a mass scale. Connie offers a different vision: inner work as a spiritual and social responsibility, combined with daily contemplative practice, so that each of us contributes less to the darkness and more to the light in this “crazy moment” of history.

About the Guest – Connie Zweig, PhD

Connie Zweig, PhD, is a retired Jungian psychotherapist, author, and teacher known as a pioneering guide to the human shadow across the lifespan. She is co‑author of the classic anthology Meeting the Shadow (new expanded edition) and author of Romancing the Shadow, which presents her method of working with “shadow characters” in individuals, couples, families, and communities.

Her award‑winning book The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul extends shadow work into midlife and later life, reframing aging as a spiritual practice that includes life review, reconciliation, and releasing the victim narrative. In Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path: The Dance of Darkness and Light in Our Search for Awakening, she turns to religious and spiritual communities, illuminating how idealization, projection, and abuse of power create “spiritual shadow” and religious trauma, and how disillusioned seekers can reclaim their own light.

Key Topics We Cover

• What the “shadow” is and how it forms in childhood.
• How shadow material erupts as addiction, procrastination, criticism, and repetitive conflicts.
• Using shadow work in couples, including “shadow marriage” vows and reducing blame in long‑term relationships.
• Shadow in families, adult‑child relationships, and the life review process in later life.

Connect with Connie:

• Website with events, videos, and resources: ConnieZweig.com
• Podcast with her husband: Dr. Neil’s Spiritual Awakening to Non‑Duality (all major platforms).

What to do next:

• Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition
• Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
• Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.

Author and activist Ashton Applewhite joins Dori Mintzer to expose how ageism, more than aging itself, undermines health, purpose, and connection across the lifespan. Drawing on her book This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism and her decades of work at the forefront of the anti-ageism movement, Ashton explains how internalized, interpersonal, and structural ageism show up in everyday life and what it takes to challenge them. She also introduces YODA (Youngers and Olders Dismantling Ageism), a new initiative inviting people of different ages to come together, talk about power, and build alliances for a more just, age-inclusive world.

What We Talk About

• How Ashton first “woke up” to aging and discovered how wrong most of our assumptions about later life really are.
• What ageism is, where the term came from, and how it operates alongside racism, sexism, and ableism.
• Internalized ageism and the everyday language and beliefs that limit both “youngers” and “olders”.
• Chrono normativity and why life is not a linear timeline with fixed ages for work, family, and retirement.
• Why the U.S. is highly age-segregated and how mixed-age relationships reduce prejudice and enrich everyone’s lives.
• The origins of Old School: The Anti-Ageism Clearinghouse and its evolution into the Old School Hub.
• YODA: what Youngers and Olders Dismantling Ageism is, why it centers conversations about power, and how anyone can try it in their community, workplace, or family.
• Practical ways to respond to ageist comments, question generational stereotypes, and design more inter-age programs and communities.

About the Guest: Ashton Applewhite

Ashton Applewhite is an internationally recognized expert on ageism and the author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism. She is the co-founder of Old School, a global hub that curates free, anti-ageism resources and convenes people working to advance age equity around the world.​

Ashton speaks widely at venues including the United Nations and the TED main stage, and has been a leading voice in making age a recognized dimension of diversity. In 2022, the United Nations named her one of the “Healthy Aging 50,” honoring 50 leaders transforming the world to be a better place to grow older.

Connect with Ashton Applewhite

• Website: This Chair Rocks
• Book: This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism
• LinkedIn: Ashton Applewhite

What to do next:

• Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition
• Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
• Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.

Award-winning journalist and author Steven Petrow joins Dori Mintzer to explore how to “make” joy, even in some of life’s darkest seasons. Drawing on his new book, The Joy You Make: Find the Silver Lining Even on Your Darkest Days, Steven distinguishes joy from happiness, shares his personal journey through grief and loss, and offers research-informed, highly practical ways to cultivate joy from the inside out. From gratitude practices and community connections to play, reading, and embracing imperfection, this conversation invites listeners to see joy as an inner resource that can coexist with sorrow and uncertainty.

What We Talk About

• How joy differs from happiness, and why joy is more of an enduring inner state than a short-lived “high”
• Steven’s shift from a “Big Bang” fireworks idea of joy to quieter, everyday forms like serene, spiritual, and shared joy
• The core “recipe” for joy, including gratitude and connection/community as foundational ingredients
• Using practices like a 21‑day gratitude journal to retrain attention toward everyday blessings
• How joy and grief can coexist, and what Steven learned about this through the deaths of his parents and sister
• Vulnerability, shedding emotional “armor,” and how being more open deepens relationships and joy
• Creating space to “be” rather than “do,” including the joy of getting lost, the joy of the mundane, and silent retreats
• Joy in aging, being single, play, and intergenerational relationships in later life

About the Guest: Steven Petrow

Steven Petrow is an award-winning journalist and author best known for his essays in The Washington Post and The New York Times on aging, health, and civility, and he is also a regular contributor to NPR and other outlets. His TED Talk, “Three Ways to Practice Civility,” has drawn nearly 2 million views, and he is the former president of NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists.Steven-Petrow.txt​

He has received numerous awards and grants from organizations including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, the Ucross Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the National Press Foundation, and in 2017 he endowed the Steven Petrow LGBTQ Fellowship at VCCA. Steven is the author of several books, including the bestseller Stupid Things I Won’t Do When I Get Old and his latest, The Joy You Make: Find the Silver Lining Even on Your Darkest Days; he serves as North Carolina’s 2024 Piedmont Laureate and lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina.Steven-Petrow.txt​

Connect with Steven Petrow

• Website: stevenpetrow.com 
• Social: Active on LinkedIn

What to do next:

• Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition
• Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
• Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.

In this inspiring conversation, internationally best-selling author, coach, and keynote speaker Richard Leider explores why purpose is fundamental to health, healing, happiness, and longevity, especially in the second half of life. He explains why purpose is something to be unlocked from within rather than found “out there,” and how small, everyday “little p” acts of meaning can ultimately reveal a bigger life purpose. Drawing on decades of work with leaders, research in lifestyle medicine, and stories from clients and his own life, Richard offers simple practices and questions to help listeners grow, give, and make each day count.

What We Talk About

• Why purpose is not a luxury, but a basic human need tied to well-being and longevity
• The difference between “big P” purpose and “little p” purpose in everyday life
• The “napkin test”: gifts + passions + values = purpose/calling
• How to think about purpose in retirement and the added decades of life many of us now have
• Practices like the two-minute purpose practice and the “grow and give” daily question
• The importance of relationships, community, and service in combating isolation and loneliness
• How curiosity and a growth mindset support purposeful aging
• Richard’s “incomplete manifesto for purpose” and what he stands for in his work

About the Guest: Richard Leider

Richard Leider is an internationally best-selling author, coach, and keynote speaker widely regarded as a pioneer of the global purpose movement. He has written 12 books, including three bestsellers that have sold over a million copies and been translated into 20 languages, and his PBS special, The Power of Purpose, was viewed by millions across the U.S.

He is the founder of Inventure – The Purpose Company, a firm dedicated to helping individuals live, work, and lead on purpose, and has worked with over 100,000 leaders in more than 100 organizations, including AARP, Ameriprise, Blue Zones, and the U.S. Department of State. Richard is ranked by Forbes as one of the top five most respected coaches, serves as a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality and Healing, and is a global purpose ambassador for Blue Zones and Blue Spirit Costa Rica. He and his wife, Sally, live in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area, and for over 30 years he has led Inventure Expeditions walking safaris in East Africa, where he founded and serves on the board of the Dorobo Fund for Tanzania.

Connect with Richard Leider

• Website: The Purpose Company 
• Books
• The Napkin Test 

What to do next:

• Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition
• Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
• Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.

In this uplifting, research-rich conversation, Dr. Dori Mintzer talks with gerontologist Dr. Kerry Burnight, author of JoySpan: The Art and Science of Thriving in Life’s Second Half. Together they explore how to move beyond fear and decline-based views of aging and instead cultivate dignity, health, and joy throughout a longer life.

Dr. Kerry explains “JoySpan” as enduring well-being and contentment, an inside-out joy that can coexist with grief, illness, and real-life challenges, distinct from both lifespan and healthspan. She introduces the JoySpan Matrix of four internal strengths: Grow, Connect, Adapt, and Give, sharing practical, everyday ways listeners can keep learning, build nourishing relationships, enhance coping skills, and create meaning and legacy in later life.

Through stories from her decades of work in gerontology and powerful research findings on mindset and aging, Dr. Kerry shows how internalized ageism and a “decline aging mindset” can limit both length and quality of life, and what it looks like to replace fear with agency, curiosity, community, and conscious preparation for our future selves. Listeners come away with simple, doable practices, like gratitude, reaching out to others, and starting or joining circles and book groups, to expand their own JoySpan at any age.

About the guest

Dr. Kerry Burnight (“Dr. Kerry”) is a gerontologist on a mission to “make older better.” She taught geriatric medicine and gerontology for 18 years at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, co‑founded the nation’s first Elder Abuse Forensic Center, and founded TheGerontologist.com.

Recognized as “America’s gerontologist,” she has been an invited speaker at the White House Elder Justice Summit and the U.S. Department of Justice, and has appeared on CBS News, NBC News, The Doctors, Money Matters, and The Dr. Phil Show. She is a sought‑after keynote speaker and shares research-based strategies for optimizing dignity, health, and joy in longevity through her book JoySpan, her podcast, blog, and active presence online.

Connect with Kerry: 

LinkedIn

Website

JoySpan

What to do next:

• Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition
• Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
• Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.

Retirement is a time of new beginnings, but without joy, purpose, and fulfillment, it can feel empty and directionless. Yasmin Nguyen, author, Joy Ambassador, and co-founder of the Retirement Innovation Lab, shares how you, in your professional or personal life, can transform your approach and life satisfaction by activating joy in retirement planning.

Through the Game of Joy, Yasmin introduces “Joy Activators” — experiences that nurture well-being and vitality — and reveals how they help retirees thrive. He also highlights the role of “Joy Blockers” — emotional, psychological, and social barriers that prevent joy — and explains how you can support your clients and yourself in overcoming them.  

In addition, whether you're dealing with retirement or not, we'll also focus on how to develop "joy activators, " so you can bring joy into your life during these challenging times.

In this program, you'll discover:

• The 5 Principles of Joyful Living and how they provide a foundation for a meaningful retirement and life.
• “Joy Activators” — practices and experiences that unlock happiness, well-being, and fulfillment. 
• "Joy Blockers” and how addressing them helps you move past emotional and psychological obstacles.
• How the Retirement Innovation Lab provides financial advisors and coaches with tools, training, and insights to seamlessly integrate holistic planning into their practice.

Join this insightful conversation to learn how embracing joy as a guiding principle can elevate both retirement planning and life satisfaction.

About  Yasmin Nguyen:
Yasmin Nguyen is an author, Joy Ambassador, and the co-founder of the Retirement Innovation Lab. He believes that through the innovative tools, transformational experiences, and aligned partnerships, we can create significant impact.

His journey from the brink of burnout to becoming a beacon of joy is nothing short of remarkable. After hitting rock bottom, he embarked on an 18-month road trip that transformed his outlook on life, teaching him the invaluable lessons of creating joy in the simplest moments. His discoveries became the foundation of his book, The Game of Joy, a guide to cultivating fulfillment amidst life’s storms and transitions.

Witnessing his parents face the challenges of retirement, Yasmin, alongside his mentor Kathleen, dove deep into understanding the unique struggles of the retirement journey. Through heartfelt conversations with hundreds of retirees, they uncovered a widespread need for guidance and support during this transitional phase of life.

Now, Yasmin dedicates his life to inspiring joy, particularly among retirees and financial advisors, empowering them to embrace this new chapter with possibilities and purpose. 

Get in touch with Yasmin Nguyen:

Buy Yasmin’s book: https://revolutionizeretirement.com/yasmin

Visit Yasmin’s website: https://retirementinnovationlab.com/ 

Download Yasmin’s handout: https://retirementinnovationlab.com/revolutionize-retirement/ 

What to do next:

• Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition
• Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
• Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.

George Kinder's latest book, The Three Domains of Freedom, draws on the work of his lifetime, empowering readers to experience profound freedoms and aspires to change civilization. Drawing on his expertise in mindfulness and financial life planning, he offers a transformative guide to living authentically, discovering one's purpose, and contributing to creating a humane and just society. The book lays the foundation for a new social contract between consumers and institutions. 

Kinder says, "It's time we established civilization as a fiduciary culture. I'm pitching a particular fiduciary legislative proposal that takes the essence of ESG and expands to include the planet, humanity, democracy, and the truth, and argues that it should be written into law, not just voluntary." 

Kinder aims to bring trustworthiness to every large institution, whether a corporation, government, or nonprofit, by ensuring they prioritize the truth, democracy, the planet, and humanity over their self-interest. 

In this episode, you'll discover how to: 

• Experience the present moment through simple mindfulness practices and their connection to your freedom. 
• Design and deliver a clear vision of a profound and meaningful life using life planning techniques. 
• Appreciate and celebrate the gifts of civilization so that you are in a position to address its challenges best. 
• Get involved with the FIAT movement to advocate for fiduciary standards across all institutions. 

About George Kinder:  

Author and international thought leader, George Kinder is known in the financial industry as the Father of Life Planning. George authored three books on money as he revolutionized client-centered financial advice through experiential training courses for thousands of advisors from over 30 countries. 

A mindfulness teacher for 35 years, Kinder has led weekly meditation classes and residential retreats around the world. Kinder is a published poet and photographer. 

His recent books focus on civilization, understanding civilization as both human evolution and the evolution of environments of freedom. His passion is to foster the very best of humanity. 

Get in touch with George Kinder: 

Buy George’s book: https://revolutionizeretirement.com/domains    

Visit George’s website: https://www.georgekinder.com/  

Reflections on Spectacle Pond series: https://www.georgekinder.com/subscribe-reflections-on-spectacle-pond  

Subscribe to George’s Substack publication: https://georgekinder.substack.com/ 

What to do next:

• Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition
• Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
• Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.

Surprisingly, many older adults approaching retirement feel a sense of dread – even when they have sufficient financial security and are reasonably healthy. In a project sponsored by Harvard Business School, Teresa Amabile’s research team spent a decade researching retirement to understand people’s attitudes toward, decisions about, and experiences of retiring. 

She and her colleagues, Lotte Bailyn (MIT), Marcy Crary (Bentley University), Douglas T. Hall, and Kathy Kram (both of Boston University), interviewed 120 knowledge workers in successful companies, including some who were still working, some who had retired, and some who were about to enter the retirement transition. The 14 people approaching retirement in the near term became the “Stars” of this research because they agreed to be interviewed multiple times as they finished their careers, officially retired,

In this episode, you’ll discover: 

• The “work” of retiring and how to approach the necessary tasks in a way that increases the likelihood of a smooth transition into a satisfying retirement life. 
• The major identity challenges people face in retirement, and some creative ways you can meet those challenges. 
• The upheavals to personal and professional relationships that can occur during this life transition and how you can maintain and build a mutually supportive relationship network post-retirement. 

About Teresa M. Amabile:  

Teresa M. Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration, Emerita, at Harvard Business School. Her most recent book, Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You, presents insights from a decade of research on the psychological, social, and life restructuring challenges of retiring. Her colleagues Lotte Bailyn, Marcy Crary, Douglas T. Hall, and Kathy E. Kram collaborated on that work. Before turning her research interests into retirement transition, Teresa devoted over 40 years to researching creativity and innovation. Extending that work, she studied how everyday life inside organizations can influence people and their creativity by affecting inner work life - the confluence of motivation, emotions, and perceptions. The findings of that research appear in her coauthored book with Steven Kramer, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work. 

Teresa's work has appeared in over 100 scholarly journal articles and a variety of other outlets, including Harvard Business Review. She has presented her work to audiences in a variety of settings, including Pixar, Genentech, TEDx Atlanta, Apple, Pfizer, and the World Economic Forum in Davos. She consults with companies and nonprofits, and has served on several boards. She has received a variety of awards, including the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Management's Organizational Behavior Division, and election to the 2024 Thinkers50 Hall of Fame. 

Get in touch with Teresa Amabile: 

Buy Teresa’s book: https://revolutionizeretirement.com/amabilebook   

Connect with Teresa on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresa-amabile-8542727/  

What to do next:

• Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition
• Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
• Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.

This is a story about Renewment®, a word Helen Dennis and her co-founder, Bernice Bratter, made up.  The word is a combination of retirement and renewal.  So, what is it?  It is a small movement, process, and forum that inspires and supports career women from work to retirement…and beyond.  Over the past 25 years, 35 to 40 small in-person renewment forums spread virally across the country, concentrating in Southern California, where Bernice and Helen live.  Groups have lasted anywhere from 2 to 25 years, most often meeting in someone’s home. 

Since the pandemic, they formed virtual renewment roundtables talking about topics and issues related to transition and change, and relevant to our life stages, with roughly 100 women across the country participating.  Again, this has been viral growth. 

Renewment groups have addressed topics such as “Who am I without my business card?”  and “What does productivity mean at this life stage?” A common characteristic of all renewment women is that they are not satisfied with the status quo for themselves or their communities.   

In this program, you'll discover: 

• The most important issues facing later-life career women 
• The impact of renewment, and some intended and unintended consequences. 

Note: Much of the content is also relevant to men. Yet, since the work trajectories for the boomer and silent generations are somewhat different for men and women, we have focused on women. 

About Helen Dennis: 

Helen Dennis is a nationally recognized leader in aging and new retirement. She has received numerous awards for her university teaching at the University of Southern California Davis School of Gerontology and for her contributions to the field of aging, the community, and literary arts. As one of the nation's leading experts on preparing for the non-economic aspects of retirement, she has worked with over 25,000 employees at corporations and universities to do just that. Some of her other work engagements have focused on employment opportunities for older adults, expert witness work on large class action age discrimination cases, and more. 

Additionally, Helen is a syndicated columnist on Successful Aging for the Southern California News Group and has published over 1,000 columns reaching 1.2 million readers weekly. She is co-founder of Renewment® and co-author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller, Project Renewment®: The First Retirement Model for Career Women, and has been recognized by PBS Next Avenue as one of the 50 Influencers in Aging. 

Get in touch with Helen Dennis: 

Buy Helen’s book:  https://revolutionizeretirement.com/renewment  

Visit Helen’s websites:  https://www.renewment.org/ and https://www.helenmdennis.com/  

Download’s Helen’s Handout: https://revolutionizeretirement.com/dennis2024  

What to do next:

• Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition
• Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
• Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.