By Lori Sokol, Ph. D.

President of Sokol Media
The Huffington Post
August 24, 2010
“To celebrate my 50th birthday earlier this month, I invited the author of the book, “50 Is the New 50,” Suzanne Braun Levine, to be a guest on my weekly radio show, “Juggling Act.” While she discussed the many benefits associated with embarking on this new decade of female freedom and independence called Second Adulthood, what I recall most from this interview is her chapter entitled, “The F— U Fifties…”
“But …

By Ruth Wooden

President, Public Agenda & Chair of the Board, Civic Ventures
There’s a new chapter required in The Etiquette Handbook:  “What to say to someone who is retiring.”
I can’t get over some of the things people have said to me after a routine announcement that I plan to retire as President of a NYC-based nonprofit later this year.  By the time I retire, I will be 64 and will have served more than seven years in this position after a working career of more than …

Be sure to watch her YouTube Video!
An early Mother’s Day Gift!

Dear Suzanne,
I’m half-way through your terrific book, and couldn’t wait to write you; I’m underlining on every page, and have just ordered two more copies, gift-wrapped, for friends turning fifty.
A few months ago, my own book, The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother’s Memoir, was published by Grand Central. I didn’t know it till this morning, when I began reading yours, that what I’d actually written was missive from deep within The Fertile Void. There were many …

Civic Ventures and Encore.org in the News – Again!
Photo Credit: Angela Jimenez for The New York Times
Ever since the June, 2009 White House hosted an event salute to social innovators who are in their Encore Careers, Civic Ventures www.civicventures.org and Encore.org have been in the news.
On March 3, 2010 The New York Times (by Elizabeth Pope) reported on “Matching Life Experience With New Careers:”
“HEALTH navigator? Conflict coach? Pollution mitigation outreach worker? These emerging jobs aren’t household terms yet, but they are a natural fit for older people looking for …

We are ALL at the height of our Power!

“FIFTY IS THE NEW FIFTY” -
For Immediate Release from Plume Books
We are ALL at the height of our Power!
“Well the first thing I want to say about Fifty is the New Fifty, is that it’s not the whole title. The whole title is 50 is the New Fifty, 60 is the new Sixty and 70 is the New Seventy…and who cares about birthdays anyway. The best thing is that we are all at the height of our power, and we feel that …

“A Circle of Trust Reader’s Guide”

One of the fun things authors get to do for the paperback edition of their book is work with the publisher on a Reader’s Guide for Book Clubs. The publication date for “Fifty is the New Fifty: 10 Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood” is March 30th.
In advance of the publication, we’re posting the Plume Edition Reader’s Guide here. Many women have told me the book inspired numerous conversations with their sisters, mothers and friends. I hope the guide leads to even more …

ALSO, AN UPDATE ON BOOKS BY FRIENDS

Like all of you, I have a circle of friends that I try to connect with on a regular basis. For me, it’s often over lunch.  I look forward to those dates with a real hunger – for the intimacy, the chance to chronicle our lives to ourselves and each other, and the sheer delight of gazing at a well-loved face.
If too much time goes by, one or the other of us sends an e-mail titled “re: lunch?” Occasionally we need to schedule an …

Marcy Adelman: 2009 Purpose Prize Winner
BRINGING EXPERIENCE TO SOCIAL INNOVATION CHANGES EVERYTHING
In a culture that often seems to thrive more on “creating” villains than honoring heroes, it is especially rewarding to report on people who are changing the world. THE PURPOSE PRIZE – announced by Encore Careers and Civic Ventures – celebrates and honors people over 60 who are bringing experience to social innovation (read the press release).
I was proud to have been a judge for this Award, and I can tell you the candidates and winners are a …

Good Natured Hysteria – Shaken and Stirred with Hilarity and Honesty!
Some of the best laughs I have experienced in the last decade have been with my girlfriends about the absurd things that are happening to our bodies and our minds. We are laughing at the absurdity of it all, and we are laughing with each other. That is how we surmount the inevitable. But there is a genre of post-menopause support books that does just the opposite – the jokes are about self-contempt and the laughter is about humiliation. …

 
A STORY FROM THE ‘FERTILE VOID’

 
The hallmark of the beginning of Second Adulthood is a necessary but disturbing descent into what I call the Fertile Void. Like the onset of menopause, this profound upheaval has nothing to do with chronological age. It may coincide with the loss of biological fertility and it may take as long or longer than a pregnancy, the similarities end there. The Fertile Void is a place of confusion in which a midlife woman wanders without a map until she finds her new self.
The good …