Debbie brings Carl Honoré on the show for a conversation about the slow movement and about aging and ageism.

Carl has a book titled BOLDER: Making the Most of Our Longer Lives so Debbie’s first question is whether he minds if she uses the word as the new name for the podcast.

Carl says It’s absolutely fine to use [B]OLDER. (Book titles can’t be copyrighted.) As he puts it, the more fire power we can aim at the “ageist industrial complex,” the better. We’ll continue doing our part on this podcast.

Carl is a bestselling author and speaker and is considered the voice of the Slow Movement as well as a spokesman for anti-ageism. His two TED Talks, on the Power of Slow and the Power of Aging have racked up millions of views.

His first book, In Praise of Slowness, makes the point that slowing down is a better way to approach life. As he puts it: “to connect more, create more, focus more and achieve more.” He’s also written a book about slow parenting.

Bolder, his more recent book, was inspired by an incident on the ice hockey rink when he realized, after scoring the winning goal, that he was the oldest member of the team. That struck a chord with him (he was in his 40s at the time) and he realized he needed to reexamine his ageist assumptions about himself, as well as society’s assumptions about aging.

They talk about:

– How Carl moved from slowness to aging as a focus of his work. The connection is “drilling down to the stuff that really matters and focussing on that,” as he puts it.  

– Whether the Slow Movement has really caught on in the past two decades. Carl says it has; Debbie is a bit more skeptical.

– Why ageism is still difficult to root out. 

They discuss how changing our language around aging is hard (but we should keep trying!). And why we should consider the practice of contemplating death… lightly, as a way to remember to enjoy the here and now. 

This is a wonderful conversation with a highly articulate author and thinker on the topics of slowness and aging.

Mentioned in this episode or useful:

Note: The subtitle of the American edition of Carl Honoré’s book is: How to Age Better and Feel Better About Aging.

• CarlHonoré.com
• In Praise of Slow: Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honoré (HarperOne; 2005)
• Bolder: Making the Most of our Longer Lives by Carl Honoré (Simon & Schuster UK; 2019)
• 30 Days To Slow (2020 workbook that accompanies In Praise of Slowness)
• Carl Honoré: the Power of Slow | TED Talk
• Carl Honoré: the Power of Aging | TED Talk
• Carl Honoré on BBC Radio 4: Ending Ageism
• Can you think yourself young? by David Robson (The Guardian, Jan. 2, 2022)
• Bolder: making the most of our longer lives Carl’s workshop at MEA in Baja, MX (Jan. 31 – Feb. 5, 2022)

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