Laura Lippmann is having a second coming at 60

The Shift with Sam Baker

Sam Baker Ltd

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.8 • 525 Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A few weeks ago, I was pootling around on substack where The Shift newsletter lives - https://theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com/ - and I noticed I had a DM from a new subscriber. It turned out to be from one of my favourite crime writers - the award winning Laura Lippmann, who some of you might know from the recent apple TV+ series of her novel, The Lady In The Lake. Laura had been brought to The Shift by a piece I wrote a year or so ago about how all of my friends were getting divorced. “I feel like such a schmuck,” she wrote “because I stuck it out like the Good Girl I was raised to be, only to be dumped 9 days after my 61st birthday (and one month before the Covid lockdowns). I didn’t even have the triumphant narrative of: “Reader, I left him.” But, five years out, I think I’m happier than I’ve ever been.” That happiness is evident in her immensely enjoyable new book, her 20th, I think!, Murder Takes A Vacation, about a woman in her 60s slowly realising that life is full of possibility. (And dead bodies, of course!) Laura joined me from Baltimore to talk about her second coming, why not everyone is good at marriage, the dissonance of divorce, making bad choices, the death of the good girl and how she finally gave up diets. Laura is living her best old lady life and I’m here for it. * You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Shift bookshop on Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, including Murder Takes A Vacation by Laura Lippmann as well as the book that inspired this podcast, The Shift: how I lost and found myself after 40 - and you can too, by me. * If you enjoyed this episode and you fancy buying me a coffee, pop over to my page on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠buymeacoffee.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. • And if you'd like to support the work that goes into making this podcast and get a weekly newsletter plus loads more content including exclusive transcripts of the podcast, why not join The Shift community, come and have a look around at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • The Shift (on life after 40) with Sam Baker is created and hosted by Sam Baker and edited by Juliette Nicholls at Pineapple Production. If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate/ review/ follow as it really does help other people find us. And let me know what you think on Bluesky @theothersambaker.bsky.social or instagram @theothersambaker or message me on substack The Shift with Sam Baker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Hannah from the Standard Issue podcast. Join us every Wednesday for rated or dated.
0:05.3	Well, we watch a famous or sometimes infamous film to see whether or not it has stood the test of time.
0:11.7	This week, we watched The Birds, Pretty Woman, Flash Dance, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, Casablanca, Rosary's Baby.
0:20.5	It's the 18s in a film, isn't it? None of thieves. Casablanca. Rosemary's baby. It's the 18s in a film, isn't it?
0:23.1	None of this makes any sense.
0:26.8	It's like putting on the comfiest pair of pajamas.
0:30.7	She's like, oh, what could that be?
0:32.7	Oh, what do you think it is?
0:33.8	It's loads of birds.
0:35.1	And they naturally live happily ever after.
0:38.0	Do they?
0:39.3	It's quite a feminist parable.
0:41.0	Terribly, terribly dated, but I did have a nice time watching it.
0:43.8	Absolutely 100% dated.
0:46.1	A triumvirate of rated.
0:47.9	A lot of results.
0:49.1	You can listen to standard issues rated or dated wherever it is you listen to your podcast.
0:54.1	And make sure you follow us to find out what we do on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
0:59.7	Spoiler alert, it's a lot.
1:07.4	Hello and welcome to The Shift, the podcast that aims to tell the no-holds about truth about being a woman post-40, created and hosted by me, writer and broadcaster Sam Baker.
1:19.1	So a few weeks ago, I was bootling around on Substack where the Shift newsletter lives.
1:24.7	That's The Shift with Sambaker.com, if you're interested,
	...

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