This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross. My guest, Steve Lopez, is someone I've known casually for many years, because when I was a political reporter in Philadelphia in the 80s and 90s, Lopez was the star columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirever.

He was known for crafting compelling human interest stories, shining a light on unfairness and inequality, and skewering politicians with clever nicknames that stuck to them for years.

In 2001, he took his talents to Los Angeles, where he became a local institution writing columns for the LA Times.

He's won a host of awards and written several books, including The Soloist about his relationship with a sometimes homeless,

Juilliard-trained musician afflicted with schizophrenia. It was made into a film with Robert Downey Jr. playing Lopez.

Lopez's latest book is about whether he should give all that up and just quit, retire.

It's a big decision and a tough one, so Lopez decided to make it a reporting project.

He interviewed a host of experts and lots of people who retired, some love it, some don't, as well as some who never will, because they love and are energized by their work,

and because it's Los Angeles, some of them are famous, such as Mel Brooks and Norman Lear.

Lopez takes us on the journey and shares his decision in the book titled Independence Day, what I learned about retirement from some who've done it and some who never will.

Steve Lopez, welcome back to Fresh Air.

Hey, so good to be with you.

You know, a lot of people have many jobs that are a real grind, and when they hit their 60s they can't wait to retire.

You know, you have a pretty good job of doing what you do, and in the book you say how much you love it, what made you think about retiring?

Yeah, I do have a dream job. I feel so lucky, especially working in an industry that has lost thousands of jobs.

I mean, you know, since I think just during the pandemic, 360 newspapers have closed in the United States.

And so I did not take lightly walking away from something that I've done for nearly half a century, but the fact that it's been nearly half a century is part of what motivated me to look into this, to think about whether it was time.

I mean, it's been a great run. It's been a privilege. It hasn't even felt all that much like work most of the time.

But you start to think about how much time you have left, and you start to think about the things that you know, you'd like to do, or you wanted to test out to see if that's something you want to spend your time on.

And I began worrying that I'd be one of those people, and you hear about this all the time, somebody retires, and a week later they drop dead, or you know, who knows what physical or cognitive ailments might come my way.

And I'd never get a chance to do those other things. So I wanted to, before I made any decision, talk to a lot of people and go to school on their experiences.

So that's how it all began. And I gave myself a one year deadline to talk to enough people that I could feel comfortable with the decision about what to do in my own situation.

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