Today, Debbie talks to Jane Brody, the renowned New York Times columnist who until last year wrote the popular weekly Personal Health column. 

In this episode, she reflects on her 57-year career at the Times. They talk about how she moved from biochemistry to journalism and how she got hired by the Times at age 24.

Instead of wilting under discouraging words from the editor who was interviewing her for a job, she responded, “Mr. Rosenthal, if I didn’t think I could do this job, I wouldn’t be here.” Abe Rosenthal was the managing editor and later the legendary executive editor of The New York Times. 

Jane applied her no-nonsense style to reporting, writing with a distinctive mix of personal anecdotes, interviews with experts and scientific fact.

 She started the Personal Health column in 1976 (right when Debbie was starting work as a reporter). She  invented the topic of personal health with the goal of teaching readers how to lead better, healthier lives. The column covered everything from common diseases to cancers to death and dying, as well as wellness, exercise, and nutrition.

Jane talks about what it was like to be a woman in an almost all-male newsroom and how squeamish editors wouldn’t let her use the words sexual intercourse or penis. She changed that. 

She also tells us why she decided to retire at age 80 and what her new retired life looks like. 

Debbie hopes you’ll enjoy listening to this episode as much as she did recording it. Jane Brody does not disappoint on the topic of making the most of growing older.

Mentioned in this episode or useful:

• Jane on Wikipedia
• Jane’s Website
• Jane’s NYT page
• Jane’s books on Amazon
• Jane Brody and Dr. Anthony Fauci on Staying Fit and Focused at 80 (Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times, May 20, 2021)

Articles by Jane Brody

• Personal Health; With more help available for impotence, few men seek it (The New York Times, Aug. 2, 1995)
• Surgical Implants Correct Impotence (The New York Times, June 12, 1979)
• Female Orgasmic Theory Challenged (The New York Times, September 21, 1972)
• Farewell column: Farewell, Readers, It’s Been a Remarkable Ride (The New York Times, Feb. 21, 2022)
• Column about her husband’s death: When the Only Hope Is a Peaceful Ending (The New York Times, March 15, 2010)
• Column about her 80th birthday: A Jane Brody Birthday Milestone: 80! (The New York Times, May 17, 2021)

Articles about Jane:

• Thanks, Jane Brody, for Nudging Us to Be Better (Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times, Feb. 24, 2022)
• After Decades as the Nation’s Leading Health Columnist, Jane Brody Retires (Cornell Alumni Magazine, 2022)

Mentioned writers and editors:

• Human Sexual Response by Masters and Johnson  (first published in 1966)
• Walter Sullivan
• Clifton Daniel, a Managing Editor Who Set a Writerly, Courtly Tone In Shaping The Times, Dies at 87 (The New York Times, Feb. 22, 2000)

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