Ayesha Roscoe

Our senior supervising editor is Shannon Rhodes.

Evie Stone is our executive producer, and Jim Kane is our deputy managing editor.

Tomorrow on the Sunday Story, worried about political unrest, liberals in the U.S.

are starting to buy guns.

We'll dive into the changing face of gun ownership.

I'm Ayesha 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.

As we approach the new year, we often think about resolutions.

You know, like wanting to exercise more, maybe do some Pilates, some cardio, eating better, drinking more water, saving money, all of those things.

Today, we're actually going to focus on life-altering changes, like the choice to go back to school, to pursue a new calling, or pick up an old passion.

And specifically, making those changes late in life.

Now, you've probably heard of a three-act structure in movies or plays.

It's sort of like the beginning, middle, and end of a story, where the beginning is the setup, the middle is the big challenges and conflicts, and the end is the resolution.

In life, we've assumed that the first act is youth and adolescence, the second is middle age, and the third act is usually retirement.

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

That's what today's episode is about.

People who are rejecting the idea that a productive life ends at a certain age and who see life in older age, not as an ending, but a powerful and purposeful new beginning.

Anthony Brooks is a former NPR reporter and longtime correspondent at member station WBUR in Boston.

He's spent the last few years interviewing people about their decision to reimagine and reinvent themselves late in life.

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

Hi, Anthony.