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Up First from NPR

A New Chapter, Later in Life

Up First from NPR

NPR

Daily News, News

4.552.8K Ratings

🗓️ 28 December 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At the end of every year, many of us resolve to make small changes in our lives. But what would it take to make a radical change–and can it still be done if you’ve reached retirement age? Today on The Sunday Story, WBUR reporter Anthony Brooks shares stories about people he’s met who’ve done just that. 


To hear more of Anthony’s reporting on people who reinvented themselves late in life, check out his series "The Third Act."


This interview originally aired on January 19, 2025.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is the Sunday story from Up First, where we go beyond the news of the day to bring you one big story.

0:08.3

As we approach the new year, we often think about resolutions. You know, like wanting to exercise more,

0:17.0

maybe do some Pilates, some cardio, eating better, drinking more water, saving money, all of those things.

0:25.9

Today we're actually going to focus on life-altering changes, like the choice to go back to school,

0:34.4

to pursue a new calling, or pick up an old passion and specifically making those changes

0:41.0

late in life now you've probably heard of a three-act structure in movies or plays it's sort of like

0:50.7

the beginning middle and end of a story, where the beginning is the

0:54.9

setup, the middle is the big challenges and conflicts, and the end is the resolution.

1:02.5

In life, we've assumed that the first act is youth and adolescence.

1:08.8

The second is middle age, and the third act is usually retirement.

1:14.3

But what if you choose not to rest and retire, but to launch into a whole new era?

1:21.3

That's what today's episode is about. People who are rejecting the idea that a productive

1:27.1

life ends at a certain age and who see life in older age not as an ending, but a powerful and purposeful new beginning.

1:38.6

Anthony Brooks is a former NPR reporter and longtime correspondent at member station WBUR in Boston, he's spent the last few

1:47.6

years interviewing people about their decision to reimagine and reinvent themselves late in life.

1:54.5

His series is called Third Act, and he joins us now to talk about what he's learned.

1:59.9

Hi, Anthony.

2:01.2

Hey, Aisha. Nice to talk to what he's learned. Hi, Anthony. Hey, Aisha.

2:02.0

Nice to talk to you.

2:03.3

Yeah, welcome to the podcast.

2:05.0

Thank you.

2:06.0

So I'm intrigued by the origin story of this project.

...

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