Twisting the Plot

Mystic Yearnings

On this week’s podcast we discuss Cecilia’s plot twisting interest in the mystics.

Oct 17, 2023•43 min

Stories Shared

We’re back. And still twisting our plots. Listen to our new podcast where we discuss Hannah’s latest creative project.

Oct 03, 2023•37 min

Pain. Do we ever really talk about it? Nobody wants to have it. Everybody wants it to go away. But what do we do when pain visits? And visit it will, to each of us. Listen to our new podcast where we consider Hannah’s recent pain and its reverberation on her life.

May 30, 2023•31 min

Aging Queer/Queering Age, conversations with Ryan Backer, part 2

Join us for part two of our conversation with Ryan Backer. Ryan Backer is an age activist striving to undo ageism within an intersectional context. They identify as a white, non-binary ‘old person in training’ and they have an undergraduate degree in Gerontology. They are a co-founder of OldSchool.info , a clearinghouse of anti-ageism resources and an international hub for age activism.

May 09, 2023•29 min

Aging Queer/Queering Age, conversations with Ryan Backer

Ryan Backer is an age activist striving to undo ageism within an intersectional context. They identify as a white, non-binary ‘old person in training’ and they have an undergraduate degree in Gerontology. They are a co-founder of OldSchool.info , a clearinghouse of anti-ageism resources and an international hub for age activism. Join us for a two-part conversation with Ryan. We talk about aging and the problem with binaries. We imagine how queering age could open possibilities for us all. Togeth...

Apr 25, 2023•48 min

Writing as a Tool for Transformation, with Laura Davis

This week we bring back one of our most popular podcast guests, Laura Davis, to talk about the power of writing our stories. Laura, who wrote the award-winning memoir The Burning Light of Two Stars , tells us how she writes to gain perspective and make sense of her evolving life. To our delight, she shares her process in teaching students who take her classes and join her writing retreats. We love this conversation. We, like Laura Davis, believe in writing as a tool for self-awareness and transf...

Apr 04, 2023•48 min

What About Money is Important to You? A Conversation with Laura Rotter

We did not go into this conversation easily. Talking about money isn’t something we’re comfortable with. The question, what about money is important to you, is a hard one for us to answer. We don’t want to think about it. In fact, the culture of consumption, accumulation, marketing and money-making turns us off, provokes waves of nausea. And even brings up shame. But this conversation was different. Laura Rotter brought a plot twist. It was pleasant, open, hopeful and even spiritual. Take a list...

Mar 07, 2023•56 min

What Matters?

Hannah and Cecilia sat down to chat recently, and found the conversation moving in an unexpected direction. We started asking, what matters now at this stage in our lives? Up until recently, our lives have been driven by external markers, jobs, degrees, partners and successes. But now there seems to be some buried impulse, more internal, emerging and wanting to take the lead. Listen to this week’s podcast as we try to figure out how to listen to ourselves in different ways and forage new paths t...

Jan 24, 2023•24 min

Rest and Digest

Sleep is not a dead space, but a doorway to a different kind of consciousness – one that is reflective and restorative, full of tangential thought and unexpected insights. In winter, we are invited into a particular mode of sleep: not a regimented eight hours, but a slow, ambulatory process in which waking thoughts merge with dreams, and space is made in the blackest hours to repair the fragmented narratives of our days. - Katherine May from Wintering It’s here, the pull for the long winter’s na...

Dec 13, 2022•29 min

Life Story Work with Dr. Shoshi Keisari

We all tell stories about our lives, some we make up, and some we inherit. Through stories, we figure out who we are, where we’ve been, and where we’re headed. Stories grow as we grow. Our stories about ourselves as individuals and as a collective, are not static things that once set, never evolve. In fact, most of us encounter crossroads or thresholds of change where the past, present and the future become unclear. It is during these transitional times that our past stories must be retold, role...

Nov 15, 2022•50 min

Intergenerational Living

This week Twisting the Plot Podcast offers Part II of our conversation with the GenZer, Fran Dintino. In many ways, this conversation is just getting started. There is so much to explore, so many diverse lenses through which to look at one’s life experience. Intergenerational conversations lead to intergenerational living that is rich and expanding. We stand on the backs of each other, one generation to the next, forever connected, always in flux. Our shared narratives twist over and over so tha...

Nov 01, 2022•38 min

OK BOOMER/OMG GEN Z

We are years and years apart. There are decades between us, the Boomers and the Gen Zer’s. Our world views are different. Our narratives do not line up. Can we get along? Are we able to listen to each other? We use different language, we have varied values, we embody diverse identities. We look different, think different and feel different. Is it possible to understand each other? We’re not sure. But we’ll try. On this weeks’ podcast we talk with 21-year-old Fran Dintino about generational stere...

Oct 18, 2022•43 min

As the Spirit Twists

We often talk about how our minds and bodies are changing as we age. But what about our spirit? Does that evolve too? And what do we mean when we speak about the spirit? To us, spirit means that which is felt but not seen. Perspective, inner voice, energetic connection with others, gratitude, love and a mindful appreciation for the complexity of life, is what we call – spirit. To us, this experience of spirit seems to be growing as we age. We are not alone. Erik Erikson and his wife Joan Erikson...

Oct 04, 2022•22 min

Evolving… Again

Well, here we are. Another Fall. Another starting over. Whether it’s school, work, or perspective, we (Hannah and Cecilia) find that as the seasons change, so do we. It’s supposed to be that way, right? Nothing stays the same. Yet, as we change, we also preserve the multitudes of who we’ve been in the past. It’s quite the collection. So many years, so many selves. Writer Anne Lamotte says, “We contain all the ages we have ever been.” We are like living nesting dolls. Each doll holding a piece of...

Sep 20, 2022•31 min

Summer Replay - Elderhood, Part II with Tracey Gendron, PhD

We couldn’t get enough. We wanted to learn more about elderhood from our podcast guest Dr. Tracey Gendron, so we asked her back for part II. Dr. Gendron, author of Ageism Unmasked and Chair of the Gerontology Department at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond is back this week to take a deep dive into two relevant social constructs: caregiving and retirement. We talk about the history of caregiving, giving and getting it, and discuss how to give care more value and importance. We tackle ...

Sep 06, 2022•27 min

Summer Replay - Ageism Unmasked, a conversation with Tracey Gendron, PhD

Here’s a twist for you. We are getting tired of promoting “successful aging” and no longer want to buy into the social construct that defines aging and being old as a problem to avoid. We don’t know about you, but we are getting old… and loving it . But not because we are staying young, or not facing losses. We love it not despite of the challenges, but because of them. We love it because we are growing and changing. We love it because there is an opportunity to create yet another purposeful sta...

Aug 23, 2022•57 min

Sumer Replay - Time Twisting

It often feels like time is a conveyer belt, ushering us forward year after year. It moves faster and faster, sometimes at a pace that makes it hard to glance back and savor what’s been. Sometimes a lifetime moves too quickly for us to be intentional about where we are going. We just keep moving. On this week’s Twisting the Plot Podcast, Hannah and Cecilia take a pause and consider time from a different direction, vertically instead of horizontally. In this way, time becomes more than a runaway ...

Aug 09, 2022•25 min

Summer Replay - What Do You Spin About? Advice from the Anxiety Sisters

Abbe Greenberg and Maggie Sarachek have been friends since college. Throughout this time, they shared many things, even anxiety. For years they supported each other, through phobias, panic attacks and catastrophizing mindsets. As time went on, it became clear that they weren’t alone. In fact, they found that many women wanted to talk about anxiety, its perils, nuances, and the many ways to cope. So they decided to start a sisterhood, an anxiety sisterhood. In 2017 they launched their online comm...

Jul 26, 2022•57 min

Summer Replay - The Courage to Tell One’s Story, Laura Davis

In 1988 Laura Davis coauthored The Courage to Heal , a global phenomenon. It is the go-to, permission giving, truth telling, and healing guide for victims of sexual abuse. Her most recent book, The Burning Light of Two stars: A Mother Daughter Story is a prequel and a sequel to The Courage to Heal . It chronicles the estrangement, reconciliation and care-giving relationship between Laura and her mother. And it is about so much more. The Burning Light of Two Stars is plot twist after plot twist, ...

Jul 12, 2022•52 min

Consider the Hag, with Marianne Franzese

Consider the Hag. Will You? Most of us cringe at the mention of her. We would just as soon keep her banished to the deep woods. Who can blame us? She is rot, she is ugly, she does not follow our rules. She has one foot on the other side; death. The Hag embodies suffering, a weathering by life; she stands for oldness. She is not who we want to become. But…Marianne Franzese sees things differently. She challenges us to re-consider. Marianne suggests that we could go deep into the woods of our own ...

Jun 28, 2022•53 min

Elderhood, Part II with Tracey Gendron, PhD

We couldn’t get enough. We wanted to learn more about elderhood from our podcast guest Dr. Tracey Gendron, so we asked her back for part II. Dr. Gendron, author of Ageism Unmasked and Chair of the Gerontology Department at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond is back this week to take a deep dive into two relevant social constructs: caregiving and retirement. We talk about the history of caregiving, giving and getting it, and discuss how to give care more value and importance. We tackle ...

Jun 14, 2022•27 min

Ageism Unmasked, a conversation with Tracey Gendron, PhD

Here’s a twist for you. We are getting tired of promoting “successful aging” and no longer want to buy into the social construct that defines aging and being old as a problem to avoid. We don’t know about you, but we are getting old… and loving it . But not because we are staying young, or not facing losses. We love it not despite of the challenges, but because of them. We love it because we are growing and changing. We love it because there is an opportunity to create yet another purposeful sta...

May 31, 2022•57 min

The Nourishing Path, with Nadya Trytan

Do you move through life on a nourishing path, or do you find yourself fighting your way along a thorny harsh path? After years of thorns, Nadya Trytan now chooses a nourishing path. She’d love to help you find yours. Nadya uses a technique called guided visualization to help you relax, imagine, listen to yourself and make discoveries that connect you with your own innate wisdom. Her online program, Nourishing Path Project, offers imaginary paths for us to learn and grow by. On this Twisting the...

May 17, 2022•53 min

Me and Margaret Fuller, a conversation with Maria Dintino

Sitting myself down and writing Margaret from the heart became a story about me too. Why me? Leave me out of this, I thought. But no, it was not to be. I was not allowed to write her story without writing my own because I had unburied two women. - From The Light Above by Maria Dintino Even though she discovered a dog-eared, post-it-filled copy of Women in the Nineteenth Century on her bookshelf, Maria Dintino hadn’t remembered much about Margaret Fuller from graduate school. She was certainly ca...

Apr 26, 2022•58 min

What Do You Spin About? Advice from the Anxiety Sisters

Abbe Greenberg and Maggie Sarachek have been friends since college. Throughout this time, they shared many things, even anxiety. For years they supported each other, through phobias, panic attacks and catastrophizing mindsets. As time went on, it became clear that they weren’t alone. In fact, they found that many women wanted to talk about anxiety, its perils, nuances, and the many ways to cope. So they decided to start a sisterhood, an anxiety sisterhood. In 2017 they launched their online comm...

Apr 11, 2022•57 min

Artful Contemplation, with Dr. Maureen Carey

In her early twenties, Maureen Carey was called to the religious life. Her interest in the anti-war movement and civil disobedience led her to the sisterhood and years of service to others. During this time she also got her Ph.D. in social work, taught at Molloy College, and co-authored books. Twenty-five years later, Dr. Carey twisted her plot and left the religious life. More recently, she retired from teaching. She’s had a new calling, art as a means for spiritual contemplation. Maureen has d...

Mar 29, 2022•1 hr 2 min

For All You Heartbroken Artists, a Conversation with Nina Hart

A little improv… What is creativity? Go. (frozen pause) Ummm. It’s green? Yes, and…It crawls. Yes, and… it morphs like a caterpillar into a butterfly. Yes, and… it can be venomous, like a snake. On this week’s podcast, guest Nina Hart challenges our notions about what is art and who gets to do it. She tells us about her journey to heal what she calls her “heartbroken artist.” Nina shares how she finally freed herself from criticism, judgment and creative blocks that silenced and shamed her. She ...

Mar 15, 2022•54 min

Time Twisting

It often feels like time is a conveyer belt, ushering us forward year after year. It moves faster and faster, sometimes at a pace that makes it hard to glance back and savor what’s been. Sometimes a lifetime moves too quickly for us to be intentional about where we are going. We just keep moving. On this week’s Twisting the Plot Podcast, Hannah and Cecilia take a pause and consider time from a different direction, vertically instead of horizontally. In this way, time becomes more than a runaway ...

Mar 01, 2022•25 min

The Courage to Tell One’s Story, Laura Davis

In 1988 Laura Davis coauthored The Courage to Heal , a global phenomenon. It is the go-to, permission giving, truth telling, and healing guide for victims of sexual abuse. Her most recent book, The Burning Light of Two stars: A Mother Daughter Story is a prequel and a sequel to The Courage to Heal . It chronicles the estrangement, reconciliation and care-giving relationship between Laura and her mother. And it is about so much more. The Burning Light of Two Stars is plot twist after plot twist, ...

Feb 15, 2022•52 min

Keep Blooming, with Una Betti

All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today. - Chinese Proverb Una Betti has worked as a nurse and project manager for many years. At the same time, she’s nurtured a passion for gardening, and grew a deep appreciation for the value of intentional spaces. Now, at 62, Una has decided it’s time to twist the hobby into aprofession. Her new business, Mindful Garden Designs, was created for all of us who want to embrace our spaces. Una Betti wants to show us how to design gardens th...

Feb 01, 2022•29 min

Twisting the Plot

Episodes