Host Lauren Korn speaks with NPR Health & Science correspondent Allison Aubrey, author of Your Turn: How to Create a Midlife You Love (Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster).
About the book:
Not long ago, celebrated journalist Allison Aubrey was having breakfast with her youngest child, who suddenly turned to her and said: “Stop looking at me.” In that moment, as her daughter signaled a need for independence, Aubrey felt a sting, like she’d been fired. She reminded herself: teenager, individuation. It’s her job to separate. But...ouch! That moment was a microcosm of what felt like a crisis of both identity and purpose. Many women come upon such feelings of bewilderment at midlife: Beyond being a mother, beyond work, who am I? After years of striving, how do we broaden our horizons past parenting and a paycheck? What else is out there, now that the badges of achievement have started to feel less important?
Aubrey had watched colleagues retire, leaving behind the frenetic pace and excitement of work life, only to flail from a lack of purpose and connection. If the smartest people she knew were struggling, who was thriving? Who was getting it right? To find the answers, she took a sabbatical and set out on a curiosity tour. She tuned her searchlight for people oozing with energy and adventure. Deep within, she feared she wouldn’t find them, or that she would be disappointed. Maybe the best years are behind us? What she discovered “changed my life,” Aubrey says. The result is her first book, Your Turn: How to Create a Midlife You Love, which answers the question What’s next? with an electrifying message and a winning and deeply practical road map to reimagine your life.
Aubrey presents a captivating collection of women, ages 45 to 105, who cultivated creativity, connection, and joy, showing how it’s possible to find meaning and momentum in midlife. She takes what she’s learned, from scores of fascinating women she met both on this journey and in her decades of reporting as a journalist, to give readers a playbook for what could be next. She weaves together incredibly powerful insights and resources of rediscovery to help you reignite your passions and hit your stride in midlife and beyond. She cuts through the clutter of health and self-improvement advice and offers readers indispensable, evidence-backed strategies to thrive. A kind of What Color Is Your Parachute? for middle age, this book provides us surprisingly simple yet specific steps we can take now to make the most of our third turns.
Aubrey combines the rigor her audiences have come to expect with the attunement, inquisitiveness, and sense of service that have made so many of her health stories go viral. This book is the new blueprint for your midlife reawakening, with an empowering, essential message for women: The best time of your life starts now.
About Allison:
Allison Aubrey is an award-winning science and health correspondent for NPR News and a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning. Her stories can be heard on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. She is the creator of the How to Thrive as You Age project. Aubrey is the winner of two James Beard broadcast awards, a National Press Club award for consumer reporting, and a New York Press Club award for excellence in journalism. She is the mother of three children, including two sons who are entering their twenties and a daughter who is in high school.
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The Write Question team for this episode was Lauren Korn, host, producer, and editor.
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