What to Read, Watch, and Listen to on a Winter Sunday...

...assuming it's winter in the hemisphere where you are reading this.

From left, Peter Bogdanovich photographed by Mark Sullivan/Getty; Sidney Poitier photographed by Tori Anne Barson/Getty; Betty White photographed by Amanda Edwards/Getty

I tend to read, watch, and listen to an awful lot of Oldsterish content. Now and then I’ll pass some of it along to you in a link roundup like this one.

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• “He was more than just the first African American to win an Academy Award for best actor, for his performance in the 1963 film “Lilies of the Field”; he and his lifelong best friend, Harry Belafonte, were also the exemplars of the artist-as-activist model, both risking not only their careers but their lives, at the height of their celebrity, for the cause of civil rights.” New York Times columnist Charles Blow pays homage to actor and activist Sidney Poitier, who passed away last week.

• This fun clip of Joan Rivers and Betty White roasting each other on The Tonight Show surfaced this week, after White’s passing. (Dammit, I didn’t get to post that People magazine piece about Betty White’s secrets to a long life at 100, because the grim reaper is cruel and took her before I had a chance—just before her 100th birthday.)

• At The Ringer, Adam Nayman has a guide to the films of (Kingston, NY’s own!) Peter Bogdanovich, another great who passed away last week.

• I recommend checking out the “Overlooked” series—obituaries of notable people previously ignored in the pages of the New York Times.

• “One person is young, and one is old, and each needs something from the other…” At The New Yorker, Rachel Syme writes about Max Linsky’s wonderful “70 Over 70” podcast, on which he interviews septuagenarians, both famous and not, about their perspectives on life.

• Happy second birthday to another excellent podcast, “Everything is Fine,” co-hosted by Kim France and Jennifer Romolini. All the episodes are great—like hanging with a couple of cool, smart friends—but I especially loved this recent one featuring Grace Bonney, whose latest book is Collective Wisdom: Lessons, Inspiration, and Advice from Women Over 50.

• Speaking of women 50 and over, novelist Jami Attenberg’s much anticipated memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home, comes out Tuesday. In the Guardian, she recently reflected back on a college professor who tried to discourage her from becoming a writer, which only galvanized her ambitions.

• “‘Everybody ages at different rates, and it’s possible in 2021 and 2022 to accurately measure that biological age as opposed to your chronological age,’ Vaughan said. ‘Most people are relatively close to where they’re supposed to be, but we do see people who are way off the curve in one direction or another, and we want to try to understand it.’” At the Chicago Tribune, Lisa Schencker reports on an institute at North Western University researching the factors that make some people seem younger, and older, than their age.

• “We have a duty to protect old-growth forest, for both its beauty and its importance to the planet.” At Smithsonian magazine, Jonny Diamond profiles octogenarian “old growth evangelist” Bob Leverett.