Americans are living longer than ever. For some, these extra years offer a chance at reinvention and the possibility of a third act in life. Today on the show, WBUR reporter Anthony Brooks talks about the people he's met who've made big life-altering changes later in life often with the hope of doing some good before it's too late. To hear more of Anthony's reporting on people who reinvented themselves late in life check out his series The Third Act.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Full Episode
I'm Aisha 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. Many of us decide to make changes in our life all the time. Sometimes they're small, like New Year's resolutions, to read more or eat less sugary sweets. But sometimes we make big changes, ones that are life-altering, like a career change.
Today we're going to focus on those life-altering changes, specifically the ones we make late in life. One of the most notable people to make a big change in recent years is President Donald Trump, who will tomorrow be inaugurated as president for the second time. He famously turned from mogul to politician when he was 69. An age often considered retirement age.
But growing numbers of people are rejecting this idea that a productive life ends at a certain age. Instead, many are now seeing the part of life that comes after middle age not as an end, but as a beginning. The start of what some call the third act of life. 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.
Hey, Aisha. Nice to talk to you.
Yeah. Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you.
So I'm intrigued by the origin story of this project. Did you decide to do this because you were feeling stuck or you wanted a change in your life?
I think there's always a bit of that going on with me. But I think where this really started for me was about 16 years ago. I had a bit of a health scare, which thankfully I recovered from. I was also mourning the loss of my dad. And I guess you could say that I was coming to terms with this idea that there's a lot more of my life behind me
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