How much time is left on your warranty? Cindy Sheahan, 64, left a 32-year marriage, packed a backpack, and turned a two-week hike into a whole new life in Sicily. She tells Kaye and Karen about travelling solo after 60, why her son cheered her out the door, and making friends with uncertainty.

Plus we're bringing How To Be 60 to the Edinburgh Fringe this August, with retirement rebel Siobhan Daniels joining us fresh from her camper van trek to Alaska. Tickets on sale now at the Gilded Balloon. Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

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Karen's back from her "sex retreat" in rural Italy (the most relaxing time, she swears, two trips to the beach and not a thing else), and she's convinced her feet have put on weight. Kaye's hosting an awards do in a jumpsuit so sheer it'll need industrial-strength knickers, which leads, naturally, to a deep dive on thongs versus hearing aids. There's the photo of Karen's backside disappearing through a first-floor window over a blocked water butt, Bonnie discovering cup-a-soup like it's a brand-new invention, and the great moral question of the week: your ice cream falls on the pavement, lands perfectly, only the underside touched down. Do you put it back on the cone?

How To Be 60 is at the Edinburgh Fringe, 7-9 August, Gilded Balloon at the Museum: https://tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk/event/14:7161/

And this Friday, meet Cindy Sheehan, who walked out of her marriage in her late fifties and has been travelling the world ever since.

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode, we're joined by Donna Lancaster — therapist, author, co-founder of The Bridge Retreat, and a self-described "elder in training" who turns 60 next March and genuinely cannot wait.

Donna grew up with violence, addiction and racism in 1970s Britain, became a social worker trying to save versions of herself, and was eventually "brought to her knees" by a breakdown at work. She talks about why she sees that collapse as a gift, the "turd-wrapped gift" buried inside our hardest experiences, and why getting older doesn't make you wiser unless you do the work.

There's also the line that stopped Kaye and Karen in their tracks — it's not an old face, it's a new one — plus elderhood as a purpose, why she runs a workshop called Preparing for Death, and what she's planning in the forest for her 60th.

How To Be 60 is at the Edinburgh Fringe, 7–9 August, Gilded Balloon at the Museum:

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.