Happy Boxing Day

I made you a Friday Link Roundup to celebrate. PLUS: A special year-end edition of "The Oldster Top 10," Cliff Chenfeld's monthly playlist of new songs for old ears.👂

Joanna MacKay/Getty Images. Happy Boxing Day!

I tend to read, watch, and listen to a lot of Oldster-adjacent content. Every other Friday I’ll pass some of it along to you in a Link Roundup like this one. If you like what you’re reading here, please hit the ❤️ button to give Oldster a boost in the algorithm.

Your paid subscriptions allow me to keep “Exploring what it means to travel through time in a human body, at every phase of life,” while paying essayists and interviewers. Thank you for all your support! 🙏 Through New Year’s Eve, save 20% off of annual subscriptions, for life.

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An experiment! Usually I take a maximalist approach to making my Oldster Friday Link Roundups, with lots of explanations and context and images. It’s almost as if I’m making a ‘zine, and I must admit, my slightly atypical brain enjoys doing it. (It might also be a hold-over from when I was an editor at Longreads, and each week had to aggregate a few essays from other publications and explain why I’d selected them.)

But this week—a hectic one with a major holiday in the middle of it, when I’ve had to pre-schedule all my posts—I thought I’d try going more minimalist. Like a normal person. Let’s see how this goes. Let me know which way you prefer it.

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• Rob Reiner: Scenes from a Life - CBS News on YouTube. (Like many of you, I’m still so distraught.)

• RIP: Betty Reid Soskin, Nation’s Oldest Park Ranger, Dies at 104

• I mentioned in yesterday’s letter that over Christmas I saw both Hell’s Kitchen and Marjorie Prime on Broadway. I recommend both, although Marjorie Prime—starring Danny Burstein, Christopher Lowell, Cynthia Nixon, and June Squibb—is definitely more Oldster-coded.

• Becoming a Centenarian - Calvin Tompkins on turning 100, in The New Yorker.

• 10 Great Vince Guaraldi Tracks NOT from Charlie Brown TV Shows - Ted Gioia.

• “We Had No Idea What Was Coming: Caring for My Aging Father” - Michelle Cottle in The New York Times/Opinion.

• this is what 80 looks like - Viv Chen in The Molehill.

• Older, wiser & over it – what women over 80 want you to know: 58 little nuggets you’re better off knowing - sam baker.

• Once a Rockette, Always a Rockette - in The New Yorker, Rachel Syme on a gathering of the Rockette Alumnae Association.

• Harmony Holiday pushes back against Gen X exceptionalism.

• Speaking of which, tune in when I interview Amanda Fortini about her recent T Magazine Article “Is Gen X Actually the Greatest Generation?” next Monday, 12/29 at 4pm ET over Substack Live.

• “I Cashed Out My 401(k) to Build a Women-Only Retirement Community.” - NYTimes/The Modern Love Podcast on Robyn Yerian’s The Bird’s Nest tiny house and RV community.

• Lovers. And the Inevitable Age Thing. - “Glorious Broad” Maryjane Fahey

• Cardiography: After Open Heart Surgery - Ben Lerner in The New York Review of Books.

• What my late mother-in-law still teaches me about holiday giving - Recent Oldster contributor Vincent O'Keefe in Motherwell.

• Girl To Country: A Memoir podcast - Amy Rigby reads from her new memoir. (We’ll publish an excerpt here in the new year!)

• Could you use a new pair of eyeglasses? A reminder that Eyebobs is offering Oldster subscribers 20% off their funky frames.

  

  Get 20% off…

How about you? Got any recs? Books? Shows? Movies? Music? Plays? Podcasts? Art shows? Places to travel to? Restaurants? Remedies? What’s good?

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🚨And now it’s time to put some new music into old ears. 👂 Only two or three of you suggested new songs for a crowd-sourced list this time, so we just went with Modern Sounds radio host Cliff Chenfeld’s favorite songs of 2025:

Check out Cliff Chenfeld’s show on WLIW/All Arts

2025 was challenging but fortunately there was plenty of wonderful music to inspire, entertain and touch us during this crazy year. Here is the year-end Oldster Top 10, songs specifically selected for the Oldster community that will hopefully lift your spirts and allow you to discover some terrific new and not so new artists. The list was compiled by music executive and Oldster contributor Cliff Chenfeld and you can find these songs and many many more from 2025 on the Modern Sounds playlist on Spotify. Enjoy!

1. Best song to tell Trump you’ve had enough: Margo Price — Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down

2. Wait, jam bands can also write catchy, memorable songs?: Goose – Give It Time

3. When you need some irresistible Nigerian-infused rock that will take your party to the next level: Obongjayer — Not in Surrender

4. Some collaborations seem disposable; here is one that’s essential: Hermanos Gutierrez + Leon Bridges — Elegantly Wasted

5. Proof that new songwriters can be original, pristine and wise: Madison Cunningham — My Full Name

6. Proof that established songwriters can be original, pristine and impulsive: Wolf Alice — The Sofa

7. With all the retro-soul coming out right now, here’s a new song that sounds fresh: Curtis Harding — There She Goes

8. Hey, we are Oldster and we like positive songs about time: My Morning Jacket —Time Waiting

9. When you want a little funk around the house in the AM: Coco and Breezy — Sunday Best

10. You decide whether the most hyped rock band of the year deserves all the love they are getting: Geese — Taxes

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Hopefully there’s enough Oldster-adjacent content here to keep you edu-tained through the weekend. If you like what you’re reading here, please hit the ❤️ button to give Oldster a boost in the algorithm.

Thanks as always for reading and commenting thoughtfully, and for all your support! I really couldn’t do this without you. 🙏 💝

-Sari

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Oldster Magazine explores what it means to travel through time in a human body, at every phase of life. It’s a reader-supported publication that pays contributors. To support this work, please become a paid subscriber. 🙏 Here’s a 20% discount on annual subscriptions for life, good through New Year’s Eve