How to Start a New Chapter When You Think It’s Too Late | Sari Botton
episode
The One You Feed | Personal Growth, Emotional Resilience & Purpose
54 min
1 speaker
6 chapters
transcribed
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What does the “two wolves” parable mean for starting a new chapter in life?
You can change the script. You're not necessarily stuck in the life you started as a young adult for the rest of your life. And that's really hopeful to me.
Welcome to the One You Feed. Throughout time, great thinkers have recognized the importance of the thoughts we have. Quotes like garbage in, garbage out, or you are what you think ring true. And yet, for many of us, our thoughts don't strengthen or empower us. We tend toward negativity, self pity, jealousy, or fear. We see what we don't have instead of what we do. We think things that hold Hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it's not just about thinking. Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort to make a life worth living. This podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction, how they feed their good wolf. Sari Botton had a writing mentor who made her students do one thing before pitching an essay anywhere.
Take an index card and write the word no on it 19 times. The 20th word is yes. At every rejection you cross off a no. The obvious point is we get a lot of no's in life. Sari is 60. At 54, she could barely get a first interview for a job she was qualified for and thought her career was over. Today she runs Oldster, a magazine about getting older at every age, and she says she's in the best stretch of her working life. We also talk about the age you feel inside, versus the number on your license, what to accept about getting older, and what to push back on. and the harsh voice she still uses to get herself to work. I'm Eric Zimmer, and this is the one you feed.
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Hi Sari, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to have you on. You run a really fascinating substat called Oldster, and we'll be getting into all of that in a moment, but we'll start like we always do with the parable. And in the parable there's a grandparent who's talking with her grandchild and they say, In life, there are two wolves inside of us that are always at battle. One is a good wolf, which represents things like kindness and bravery and love, and the other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed and hatred and fear. And the grandchild stops, they think about it for a second, they look up at their grandparent, and they say, Well, which one wins? And the grandparent says, the one you feed.
So I'd like to start off by asking you what that parable means to you in your life and in the work that you do. Hi, Sari, welcome to the show.
That's so interesting. Well, I agree with that. What you put your attention on is what grows in your world. And I I'm very focused on being kind and just. I've joked in the past that like kindness is my kink. I like Till try and give people the benefit of the doubt and to do work that matters. If I find myself feeling jealous or envious or greedy, it's not a place I wanna be. It's not a place I feel comfortable. So I try to shift things and When I do yoga at the end when there's like a meditative moment I try to send loving kindness to the people who I am struggling with in life because I think that's a good thing. More loving kindness is a good thing and maybe it can shift things and I've found that it does.
I'm laughing because setting loving kindness is kind of a Buddhist practice. There's another Buddhist practice along the same lines where you say, just like me, this person wants to experience pleasure and avoid suffering. Or just like me, this person wants to be happy. And I was doing that with somebody recently, doesn't matter who. My brain went like this, just like me, this person wants to experience pleasure. Just like me, this person wants to avoid suffering.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What does the “two wolves” parable mean for starting a new chapter in life?
0:00–5:12
2
How did Sari Botton’s career feel stuck at 54 and what changed at 60?
5:12–14:42
3
What is Oldster and how does it explore aging at every stage of life?
14:42–24:21
4
How can we decide what aspects of aging to accept and what to push back against?
24:21–35:10
5
Why is adaptability the key skill for navigating mid‑life transitions?
35:10–45:14
6
What strategies does Sari use to handle rejection and stay motivated in creative work?
45:14–54:08
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The One You Feed | Personal Growth, Emotional Resilience & Purpose
How to Find Joy Even When Life Is Hard | Diane Shiffer
Why We Fight the Changes We Know We Need | Jonah Berger
Why Feeling Insecure Doesn’t Mean You’re Back at the Beginning | Dr. Marisa G. Franco
Midlife Reinvention: How to Create Your Own Script for What Comes Next | Allison Aubrey
You Become What You Practice: How to Train Your Mind for the Life You Want | Jim Kwik
How to Accept What You Can’t Change Without Giving Up | Jane Ratcliffe