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.
Only a week left of my spring sale: A 10% discount (forever!) on the already low $55 price of an annual subscription, available through May 31. I rarely paywall anything here; paid subscriptions help me to pay contributors, and myself for the work of putting this magazine together. Thank you for your support! 🙏
- ’s New York Times Magazine profile of veteran actress and Hacks star Jean Smart—who, in her early 70s, is having a huge, inspiring moment. (Gift link.)
And I know I’ve already gushed over Hacks here more than once, but as Season 3 unfolds, I can’t help but be even more effusive. I dig the intergenerational friendship/working relationship between Jean Smart’s character, Deborah Vance, and Ava Daniels, the 20something joke writer she’s hired to help revive her career, played with a perfect balance of sass and heart by Hannah Einbinder.
There’s a particularly moving scene mid-season in which Ava encourages Deborah to stop being coy about what she wants—specifically the late-night-TV-host job she’d lost out on decades before—to just stake her claim to it publicly. It might just be emboldening me to ask directly for opportunities I’d like a shot at…
“I knew a lot when I was seventeen. But since then, it’s been a constant process of attrition.” - at Esquire, 76-year-old Stephen King talks to Adrienne Westenfeld.
“When a famous writer dies at ninety, his son investigates the defining friendship of his life.” - Esquire also has an excerpt of King’s latest book, You Like it Darker, just out from Scribner.
“I’m the happiest I’ve been. I’m more comfortable now than I was in my skin when I was younger…” - in The Hollywood Reporter, Lily Ford writes “Gary Oldman Talks Aging and How It ‘Nourished’ Performances in Paolo Sorrentino’s ‘Parthenope’”
“Talking with women my age, sex – specifically, a lack thereof – comes up frequently. One friend referred to her ‘tanking libido’; another sent a text that read ‘sex drive’ followed by two thumbs-down emojis.” - author Angela Garbes in her Guardian column.
“What the Creator of the 401(k) Thinks of the Retirement Plan Now” - at NextAvenue, Richard Eisenberg interviews Ted Benna.
- had one of my idols, author Anne Lamott on her podcast, .
Meet 100-year-old Michelle Cohen, aka “Zelda the Welder,”—who worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard during WWII and fought for equal pay in her field. - via Kveller’s Instagram.
In case you missed it, I was a guest on
about the pressure to age well.Around this time last year:
contributed an essay about the “masks” he wore as a kid to fit it, and Elaine Soloway took The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire.
That’s all, folks. Thanks, as always, for reading, and commenting, and for all your support!
Always love your round-up! Hacks--Zelda the Welder--and the rest, thank you for your intrepid gathering for your Oldster Encyclopedia of Aging! Enjoy the weekend.
I LOOOOOVE Hacks!!!