Welcome to Untangle. I'm Patricia Carpus. What if everything you've been told about aging is wrong? What if you could reinvent midlife and turn the idea of a midlife crisis into midlife growth? In today's episode, I sit down with gerontologist and coach Barbara Waxman,

highly sought after longevity and leadership advocate, advisor, master coach, keynote speaker,

and author of the book Middlesense Manifesto, Igniting the Passion of Midlife.

She delightfully challenges our outdated ideas about growing older

and shares how we can actually thrive in midlife and beyond. The conversation ranges from

redefining retirement to understanding the science behind happiness, longevity, and purpose.

Barbara shares a powerful new framework for Middlesense,

a dynamic life stage filled with opportunity, growth, and reinvention. I love that definition.

She explains the cultural impact of ageism, the importance of mindset, and why your daily habit,

not your genetics, play the biggest role in how

well you age. If you're navigating midlife, planning your next chapter, or simply want to age

with more vitality and purpose, this conversation will completely shift your perspective.

Now, here's Barbara.

Barbara, it is such a pleasure to have you on Untangle today.

Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having me. I love this topic, like I was saying to you before we hit record, such a fantastic topic. And I can't wait for people to change the way they think about growing older.

But how did you start in this area? What inspired you to become so engaged in this topic?

Let me try to make this a short story because it goes way, way back. And actually, I like to share this story

because so many people, maybe some people listening to this, have threads from their childhood

that they've put down, that they've dropped because they think grownups don't do that,

or it won't provide enough money or all kinds of

stories that we tell ourselves. So when I was very young, maybe seven or eight years old,

my dad would take me. He was a physician and he would volunteer at the Minora Home and Hospital

...