Young at Heart with Kojo Nnamdi

WAMU 88.5

Young at Heart is a podcast that helps us wrestle with some of life’s inevitabilities. We all get older. And with age comes change. One of the big ones – retirement. After a life spent working either in or outside the home, there comes a day when it’s time to move on – but to what?

1hr 43min

Thumbnail for "Arlene: Of Banjos and Shakespeare".

Arlene Okerlund has always trusted the detours. A Shakespeare scholar and professor of English, her life has been shaped by chance encounters, unexpected pairings, and a philosophy she sums up simply: “Serendipity rules.” Again and again, she followed curiosity—even when it didn’t fit neatly into a plan. One curiosity lingered for years. Every June during her childhood, when the carnival came to town, Arlene would hear live country-western music drifting from the stage. And every now and then, a banjo would cut through the noise. “When the banjo started playing, the music just sparkled,” she remembers. “I just loved it. I’d never heard anything like it—and I fell in love with it right then.” As a young mother, she bought a banjo on an impulse and hung it on her wall. And it stayed there for nearly four decades. In this episode of Young at Heart, Arlene reflects on what it meant to finally pick up the banjo later in life—and on the long, winding path that led her there. She talks about delayed passions, trusting instinct over ambition, and discovering that joy doesn’t disappear when you put it off—it waits. Young at Heart brings you stories of people navigating life’s transitions—stories that invite you to imagine what’s next. For Arlene, taking the long way wasn’t a delay. It was how she arrived.

February 3, 202615min 29sec22.4 MB

Thumbnail for "Mary Kay: The Developmental Work of Older Age".

Mary Kay Fleming thought she knew what retirement would look like. A developmental psychologist and humor writer, she assumed that when her husband Don retired, life would carry on much as before. He’d stay busy. Maybe even renovate the house. That’s not what happened. Instead, the scientist she’d known for decades surprised her by turning to poetry—an old, unspoken dream that finally had room to surface. With Don at home full time and Mary Kay still working, their marriage shifted in unexpected ways. Suddenly, they were together all the time. Don wanted to talk—about everything. “He could do twenty minutes on where the squirrel went after it left the tree,” Fleming says. What felt like a small adjustment became a deeper reckoning with how meaning changes when work falls away. In this episode of Young at Heart, Mary Kay reflects on what retirement asks of us—not just practically, but emotionally. She talks about the need for “a reason to get out of bed in the morning,” and the challenge of finding purpose once the novelty of free time wears off. Drawing on her background in developmental psychology, she explores how identity and contribution continue to evolve later in life. She also speaks candidly about loss, aging, and the power of humor to make those changes easier to bear. “If you cannot keep a sense of humor,” she says, “there are ways that getting older becomes much harder.” Young at Heart brings you stories of people navigating life’s transitions. For Mary Kay Fleming, retirement wasn’t about slowing down—it was about finding new ways to matter.

February 3, 202616min 15sec23.41 MB

Thumbnail for "Kathie & Eric: Just Keep Swimming".

Aging changes what the body can do—but not the spirit. In this episode of Young at Heart, 79-year-old Kathie Hewko and retired anesthesiologist Eric Greensmith share how illness, injury, and retirement led them to set bold new goals. They show that growing older doesn’t close doors—it teaches us to keep going and read life’s waters differently.

February 3, 202617min 27sec16.76 MB

Thumbnail for "Chris: Telephone Repairman to Shoe Designer".

Sometimes the life you’ve built isn’t the one you’re meant to live. In this episode of Young at Heart, Chris Donovan shares how a health scare pushed him to stop postponing his true passion and finally pursue his dream of becoming a shoe designer. His story shows that it’s never too late to embrace your calling, take risks, and follow the life you’ve been sketching out all along.

February 3, 202623min 14sec22.34 MB

Thumbnail for "Mike & Lori: From the Control Tower to Madison Square Garden".

After retiring from decades as air traffic controllers, Lori and Mike struggled to let go of an identity built on high-stakes decisions. In this episode of Young at Heart, they share how an unexpected second act as ushers at Madison Square Garden helped them rediscover joy, connection, and purpose. Their story is a reminder that retirement doesn’t end who you are—it can reveal something new.

February 3, 202615min 56sec15.27 MB

Thumbnail for "Marian: Earning a PhD at 70".

January 29, 202614min 43sec14.1 MB

Arlene: Of Banjos and Shakespeare

February 3, 202615min 29sec

Arlene Okerlund has always trusted the detours.

A Shakespeare scholar and professor of English, her life has been shaped by chance encounters, unexpected pairings, and a philosophy she sums up simply: “Serendipity rules.”

Again and again, she followed curiosity—even when it didn’t fit neatly into a plan.

One curiosity lingered for years. Every June during her childhood, when the carnival came to town, Arlene would hear live country-western music drifting from the stage. And every now and then, a banjo would cut through the noise. “When the banjo started playing, the music just sparkled,” she remembers. “I just loved it. I’d never heard anything like it—and I fell in love with it right then.”

As a young mother, she bought a banjo on an impulse and hung it on her wall. And it stayed there for nearly four decades.

In this episode of Young at Heart, Arlene reflects on what it meant to finally pick up the banjo later in life—and on the long, winding path that led her there. She talks about delayed passions, trusting instinct over ambition, and discovering that joy doesn’t disappear when you put it off—it waits.

Young at Heart brings you stories of people navigating life’s transitions—stories that invite you to imagine what’s next.

For Arlene, taking the long way wasn’t a delay. It was how she arrived.