As soon as we learned we landed an interview with Judy Gold, stellar comedian, actor and writer, Two Old Bitches started grinning and giggling. What a coup! Once we actually began talking with her, we laughed out loud, and often, at her insightful zingers. Judy, whose comedic heroes are Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller, makes you laugh, and think. Approaching 60, her many credits include: countless stand-up comedy performances; two Emmys for her work as a writer and producer on The Rosie O’Donnell Show; two off-Broadway shows, “The Judy Show: My Life as a Sitcom” and “25 Questions for a Jewish Mother;” two books, “Yes I Can Say That: When They Come for the Comedians We’re All in Trouble” and “25 Questions for a Jewish Mother;” a weekly podcast, “Kill Me Now;” and roles on television series from the more recent Better Things to Madame Secretary, 30 Rock, Law & Order, Ugly Betty” and “Sex and the City.” Why doesn’t Judy Gold have her own series? It’s past time, Hollywood! In the meantime, for a much needed dose of her edgy humor, listen to this funny episode. (Special thanks to literary agent and Screen Bitch Malaga Baldi for putting us in touch with Judy.)

Fifteen years ago, Ayesha Pande, a successful editor with top publishers (e.g. Farrar Straus and Giroux) struck out on her own to build a mission-driven literary agency with an antiracist focus based in Harlem. Aeysha Pande Literary has flourished and is known for launching an award-winning, bestselling and inclusive list of authors, scholars, and emerging writers. Its team of almost all BIPOC women agents represent acclaimed authors such as Ibram X. Kendi (How To Be An Antiracist), Danielle Evans (The Office of Historical Corrections), Jean Chen Ho (Fiona and Jane) and Lisa Ko (The Leavers). Aeysha is on the board of the AALA (Association of American Literary Agents) where she founded the Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and helped launch the non-profit Literary Agents of Change. Entering her 60s, she is a “woman who has not yet peaked.” We are delighted to introduce you to Aeysha and her charming Jack Russells, Milo and Lola, whose occasional barking enlivened our conversation.

What does it take to be a man whom we interview on Two Old Bitches? Stephen P. Williams, 64, only the second man on our show in five years, is an excellent example of just what it takes. A journalist, author, visual artist and the creator of Stephen’s People, a newsletter on aging, he is as fascinated by getting old as we are. (Full disclosure: his piece on Old Men sex dolls in his newsletter also captured our imagination!) Stephen has written that as a boy growing up in Kansas, he “leaned back under a cottonwood and felt wind, the sky and the leaves, all connected. That pure sensation guided everything that followed.” He has written a number of nonfiction books --Blockchain: The Next Everything is the latest-- and six as-of-yet unpublished novels. In the midst of the pandemic, he set off on a road trip captured in his video, art and word project, Postcards from Pandemic. With curiosity, thoughtfulness and wit, he brings a fresh and realistic take on aging to Stephen’s People --and did we mention he gives damn good dating advice? Listen to our conversation with Stephen and then subscribe to his weekly newsletter.

We have long marveled at Ellen Bravo’s ability to balance the demands of being a feminist activist and author. Her books are driven by the same social change values and objectives that have fueled her many decades of organizing for justice and equity for women and families. She is the former director of 9to5 –yes, the group that inspired the movie– and co-founder of Family Values @ Work, a successful network of state coalitions working for family-friendly policies that have secured locally mandated paid family and medical leave for over 55 million people across the country. While working more than full-time leading these groups, she also wrote five books! Her most recent novel is Standing Up: Tales of Struggle, co-authored with her husband Larry Miller. In it they share enlivening stories about “regular people” who work hard while “caring for kids, holding relationships together, and wrestling with multiple forms of oppression” and still manage to “stand up, slow down, form unions, leave an abusive relationship, or just stir up good trouble.” Ellen, 78, recently chose to dedicate herself to writing full-time and is at work on a new novel. Pick up her latest book –it’s a great read!– or one of her earlier ones, and listen to our equally great conversation with this warm, brilliant, funny and big-hearted gender and racial justice champion.

For more information about Ellen, including upcoming book tour appearances, check her website. Standing Up: Tales of Struggle is available on Amazon, as are her earlier novel, Again and Again and her most recent nonfiction book, Taking On the Big Boys: Or Why Feminism Is Good for Families, Business, and the Nation.

What a treat to talk with a fierce feminist who’s been a force of nature for more than half a century! At 71, Nadine embodies a lifelong commitment and ever-evolving talent to amplify her passion for social justice. Her volunteer work in 1964 on Shirley Chisholm’s campaign for New York State Assembly and at Women Strike for Peace with Bella Abzug immersed her in an understanding that sexism, racism, classism and militarism are inextricably linked. She’s been an intersectional organizer ever since. At 60, she left her lifetime home, New York City, and moved to a UNESCO Heritage city in Switzerland, becoming the first woman Executive-in-Residence at IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. Eleven years later, she’s still there. Nadine continues to be a “Master Bridge-Builder” as CEO of beCause Global Consulting, and senior advisor of Global Citizens Circle, as noted by her alma mater, Harvard and by Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu in the foreword to her upcoming book, The Power of Connectedness. We celebrate our sister-old-bitch, Nadine Hack, who is acutely aware of “her sacred obligation to carry the torch” as long as possible, and know our listeners will be inspired by her wisdom on voice, aging and the power of the collective.

Follow Nadine Hack at:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nadinehack

Twitter: @nadinehack

Instagram: @nadine.hack

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadinehack

Forbes Councils: https://bit.ly/35rRBOT

beCause Global Consulting: https://www.because.net

Global Citizens Circle https://globalcitizenscircle.org

Stories transport us across time and space, bring us together, help us make sense of our lives and the world, make us laugh and cry, and even change our minds. Stories fuel social change and personal change. Their power drives us, as Two Old Bitches, to collect edgy elder women’s stories to share with story-loving listeners of all genders and ages. And to discover and tell our own stories. In this episode, we each share a personal story crafted in a recent storytelling class. Yes crafted, because storytelling is an art, one that can be honed, and it’s a joy to hone it in the company of others as we did in our most recent workshop. Joanne shares “What Happens When Your Heart Really Does Belong to Daddy?” a story of gendered power dynamics in the workplace decades ago that still drives her passion for justice today. Idelisse shares “Girdles,” a childhood story of the physical and psychological constraints foisted on women and girls that shaped her, in more ways than the obvious.

You can listen to our stories on audio AND – for those who like the combined audio-visual effect – check out Idelisse and Joanne telling their stories to each other. And guess which one of us tried (with partial success) to tell her story and hula hoop at the same time?

We’d love to hear from you! We are going to host a Two Old Bitches storytelling salon/class in the spring. Please let us know if you’re interested and have ideas or questions. Write to us at 2obpodcast@gmail.com and share your brilliance!

What’s better than ‘talking shop’ with a serious and sensational sister traveler? That was the joy that TOB experienced when we interviewed Sari Botton, founder of the recently-launched substack magazine, Oldster. Oldster takes a fresh look at what it means to age at any stage of life, featuring writers of all genders and age groups. It fully reflects the brilliance and wizardry of Sari who, at 56 years old, bring decades of writing, editing and teaching experience including as former Essays Editor for Longreads; editor of the award-winning anthology Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving NY and its New York Times-Bestselling follow-up, Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for NY. We met Sari almost ten years ago when she co-directed the upstate New York story-telling initiative TMI Project. She is a storyteller extraordinaire, a musician, a time traveler joyously struggling – like all of us – to figure out what is ‘age appropriate’ and shoring up future plans by buying lottery tickets! We hope you’ll listen in, subscribe to Oldster, listen to the Oldster podcast, and stay tuned to TOB as we continue to explore storytelling in future episodes.

There could be no greater gift to Screen Bitches than finding the HBO-Max series Hacks, starring Jean Smart. We brought together three of our most dedicated Old Bitch streamers – Malaga Baldi (literary agent), Aruna Rao (women’s rights thinker and consultant), and Debbie Zimmerman (head of Women Make Movies and world-recognized expert on women and media) – to explore what is so powerful and ground-breaking about 69-year old Jean Smart’s mesmerizing portrayal of an aging comedian (think Joan Rivers) whose Las Vegas career is stalling. In pairing Smart with a young comedian – played by Hannah Einbender – who is sent to freshen up Smart’s material, we see the way women of different generations confront and embody the sexism and ageism of the entertainment world. As Megan Garber wrote in The Atlantic, this is a genre-defying series, part psychodrama, part satire, sometimes an intergenerational character study and other times a classic workplace comedy. We all agreed that Emmy-winning Smart offers a “Smart-a-licious” portrayal of aging. As Debbie noted, “for God's sake, how often do you see a woman in her sixties get laid on television?”

You can see Hacks on HBO-Max. It’s a subscription service, so you’ll have to pay. You can watch the first episode for free on YouTube. And, as you listen to the podcast, you’ll hear excerpts of Smart’s biting and self-effacing humor throughout.

Let us know if you’ve seen movies, streaming series, podcasts or other media that you think offer unique representations of gutsy, defiant older women. Write us at 2obpodcast@gmail.com and maybe you, too, can be a Screen Bitch!

Prepare to be utterly astounded as you listen to our conversation with Isa Infante! This self-described “life force,” follows her heart and her values, wherever they take her. That means challenging good ole boys in Tennessee by running for mayor of Knoxville and as the Green Party candidate for governor. It means passing by a bar, hearing bluegrass music, and deciding to start a women’s bluegrass band, even though she could only play three chords. It means deciding, at 63, to go to law school. At 79, she is considering her next move.

When do you turn to books? Sometimes for escape (mysteries, anyone), sometimes for the joys of fine literature (Matrix by Lauren Goff or Haiku Mind by Patricia Donegan), and yet at other times for knowledgeable counsel. In this episode, two badass women authors talk with us about the recent books that their life experience led them to write and share with others. In Why Are There Monkeys? radio personality, comedian and cancer survivor Brooke Jones, 70, captures her near death, laugh-out-loud “Question and Answer” session with God. Executive coach Bonnie Marcus, 72, draws on her 25-year corporate career to write Not Done Yet! a defiant guide to navigating gendered ageism in the workplace for women over 50. Curious about what they have to say about the divine and the workplace? We were. Listen in to what we heard.

Activists Jennifer Finley and Julie Cajune, members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribe in Montana, are willing to risk being called Bad Indians for the sake of this liberating vision. In fact, the two longtime friends and creative collaborators named their latest play, a series of conversations between two older women –not unlike them– Bad Indians, playfully preempting any backlash to the characters’ stories of tragedy, injustice, humor, “failed romances, violent harassment and the criticism of others” in their community. Their earlier collaborations include Heart of the Bitterroot, a collection of Salish and Pend d’Oreille women’s stories available on CD and the one-woman show, Belief that Julie performed in New York two years ago. Julie is also a celebrated educator who was pivotal in introducing indigenous history and stories to Montana schools’ curriculum. (See Season 5 Episode 5 for more about Julie.) Jennifer is a gifted poet (“My Hands Have Vertigo”) and just completed a novel, “He Was Beautiful.” Not only did we have a chance to talk with Julie and Jennifer, but they graced us with a performance of an excerpt of Bad Indians. Tune in, sit back and enjoy the show.

If you are committed to ‘choosing your own adventure’ you’ll want to tune in immediately to TOB’s conversation with Tammi Leader Fuller, the effervescent co-creator of Campowerment. After three decades as an award-winning television producer (at The TODAY Show, NBC News, CBS News, America’s Most Wanted, and EXTRA TV), Tammi left television in 2013 to partner with her college professor mom and her brand strategist daughter on designing a sleep-away-camp-like experience for women of all ages. Thousands of women campers have now experienced this four-day transformative retreat, powered by play, where women (like her) can re-ignite their lives. She’s the party guest who can always come up with the next interactive game, the author of Dish and Tell – stories about how women struggle to juggle all that life throws their way – and a firm believer in the power of sisterhood. Tammi told us how amazed she was to be reinventing herself again at age 62. Join our conversation to hear about her journey and the joys she has on offer as her in-person Campowerment experiences are starting up again in November 2021. And check-out their online community with its many expert-led monthly offerings where women learn together and connect.

Check out Campowerment and learn more about how to re-discover who you want to be as you grow up!

Tammi’s book, Dish and Tell: Six Real Women Discuss How They Put Themselves at the Top of Their To-Do List (2006) is available on Amazon