He’s one of Australia’s most influential chefs and his Rockpool restaurant certainly helped elevate Australia’s culinary reputation globally. Neil Perry has been described as the “ageing Lion King of Australian cuisine” (by Jill Dupleix) but thankfully, for the foodies amongst us, he’s showing no signs of slowing down. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dementia is the leading cause of death for Australian women. Unless we find a cure soon it's estimated that 812,500 people will be living with dementia by 2054. But dementia is not inevitable. Professor Ian Hickie from the Brain and Mind Research Institute has a few tips for preventing it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Journalist Lollie Barr made a critical decision when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease five years ago. Instead of shielding her mum from the world she decided to try and make her mother's life as enjoyable as possible, taking her on daily adventures, creating new memories, and truly live life in the moment. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She’s been at the helm of some of Australia’s glossiest mastheads (think Cleo, Mode, Elle, Women’s Weekly) and now steers the children’s cancer charity Camp Quality. Despite her remarkable skills Deborah Thomas has still felt the weight of the ‘age ceiling’. But age, she says, has gifted her with patience, empathy and a house full of friends and family. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Baby Boomers did a lot for the travel industry when they kickstarted the ‘backpacking’ movement back in the 60s and 70s. But does the travel industry still welcome Boomers? With higher travel insurance than other age groups, and some hotels actively preventing people over 60 booking rooms, it would seem not. Simon Darcy specialises in inclusive organisational approaches for marginalised groups and says ageism is rife in tourism. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Retreating to an exotic Caribbean island sounds like a dream retirement plan for many, but for Jaslyn Hall it's a homecoming. Originally born in Barbados, Jaslyn introduced Australians to global beats with her world music show on triple j in the 1990s. Now she wakes at 4.30 every morning to begin her exercise regime, and then gets started on writing scripts for puppets. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After turning sixty many of us start thinking about how to wind down a little in life and rid ourselves of some of the stresses of full-time work. But actor and director Rachel Ward decided her sixties was the perfect time to launch a new career. She pivoted to farming and is now immersed in the world of regeneration. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maggie Beer is a bloody champion! For years she’s been encouraging and teaching Australians how to source and prepare tasty, and healthy, fresh food. Now she’s on a mission – a Big Mission - to improve the food in aged care homes. Thanks Maggie!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

He’s only just turned 60 but he's already familiar with issues around aged-care facilities, because he’s been trying to keep young people out of them. Tim Ferguson is best known for his comedy work with The Doug Anthony Allstars but has many other accomplishments under his belt, not least his advocacy for disability rights. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sleep becomes such a valuable commodity in our older years but unfortunately, for many of us, it gets harder to fall asleep as we age. Dr Stan Rodski is a neuroscientist, a neuroplastician, and most importantly a sleep expert! He shares his tips for regular good quality sleep. You can read more in his book The Neuroscience of Excellent Sleep. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Youth is the currency of the music industry and ageism is rife within it, but Deborah Conway believes you can make age work for you if you put a bit of creative thinking into the mix.  During the 90s she was the 'it' girl of the Australian music scene. At the age of 64 she’s still as creative, passionate, and fired up as she ever was and has recently released a memoir titled Book of Life.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a founding member of the Warumpi Band Neil Murray inadvertently wrote Australia’s unofficial national song. He also helped record the first rock song sung in an indigenous language. After a life on the road touring and performing, these days he’s focussing on living a simple life and preserving energy which has become a precious resource. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Robert Tickner began his advocacy with Friends of the Earth and ended up becoming the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in the Hawke/Keating governments. He's still fighting for the underdog as Chair of the Justice Reform Initiative, as well as being Co-chair of the EveryAGE Counts initiative to combat ageism. He says ageism is rife in the employment sector and says it's just a matter of time until class actions are launched. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As we grow older we find ourselves grieving the loss of many things; our friends and family, our homes and neighbourhood, our bodies and minds, and more surprisingly many of us  grieve the loss of our own sense of self. Writer Carol Lefevre likens this grief to a type of ‘homesickness’, elusive and bone gnawing in nature.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bryan Brown's acting career started in the 70s with films like The Odd Angry Shot and Breaker Morant and he quickly became a fixture on our screens, and still is. But he’s also a producer and a writer of books, his most recent titled The Drowning. He doesn't think about death much, has no plans to retire, and keeps fits by surfing whenever he can. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Iva Davies followed an unconventional path to pop-star status. Initially immersed in the world of classical music (he even did a stint in the ABC Training Orchestra) he went on to pioneer Australia’s electronic music scene with his band Icehouse and has become one of the country’s most highly regarded composers and multi-instrumentalists. He’s currently on tour and if you want buy tix head to this website - https://icehouse-ivadavies.com/tour-dates/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...

Grahame Bond changed Australian TV forever with his mad-cap creation Aunty Jack, a fat and feisty persona who frequently threatened to ‘rip your bloody arms off’. This led to a portfolio career with digressions into advertising, lifestyle television, and blockbuster stage shows like Boys Own McBeth and 2JJs Nude Radio. Luckily this all took place before cancel culture emerged. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australian actor Heather Mitchell has been on our screens or stages every year since her career began in the 1980s. Now into her 60s she’s still got plenty of job offers rolling in. She says that’s because older women no longer buy into old norms around the ageing process and there’s demand for their stories to be told. Now she’s telling her story in a memoir called Everything and Nothing and she’s excited about the next stage of her life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

First he was Fat, Forty and Fired. Then he was Fit, Fifty and Fired Up. Now Nigel Marsh reckons he’s Smart, Stupid and Sixty. He must be doing something right because his TED speech on work/life balance has clocked up over four million hits. Oh, and he also hosts The Five of My Life podcast. Find Nigel's books and contact him here See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you’ve started waking suddenly in the night with an acute and anxious awareness of the inevitability of death, you’re not alone. After experiencing this herself, journalist and author Jane Hutcheon discovered that it’s a common phenomenon for people in their late 50s and 60s. That’s when she realised she’d become a juvenile geriatric. Find Suddenly Senior on FB here and on Instagram here Join the Juvenile Geriatric Substack here Find Jane's work here See omnystudio.com/listener for...

Not all 'influencers' are young and vacuous, posting thousands of images on Instagram which promote products that end up in landfill. Lex Marinos (Kingswood Country, Aunty Jack, Matlock Police) was recently crowned Senior Influencer of the Year for his role as co-host of the podcast Baby Boomers Guide to Life in the 21st Century.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If there was an aesthetic that defined Australia’s rock/pop culture in the 80s then Reg Mombassa was surely a master crafter of it. His band Mental As Anything was heard on radio around the country and it seemed everyone wore a Mambo t-shirt featuring his darkly-comic art. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the biggest worries we have as we age relates to brain function with dementia and Alzheimer’s at the top of the list. But should we just accept a general decline in brain function? Neuroscientist Dr Sarah McKay explains what happens to the ageing brain, the role that hormones play and why women often experience reverse adolescence in their post-menopausal years. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned making this podcast it’s that a lot of people prefer to avoid the topic of ageing. But Keryn Curtis has made a living out of it. She became fascinated with gerontology in her 40s and says it changed the way she views life. She also reveals the preferred word to describe people who've reached a certain age. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.