How To Be 60 with Kaye Adams

On this week's episode, we're joined by Bibi Lynch, who moved house 30 times in ten years, nineteen of them in a single stretch of 24 months, all while writing for the national press and turning up on live radio as if nothing were wrong. Bibi was hidden homeless for a decade after losing the flat she'd bought on her own, and she was carrying it alongside the death of her dad, the collapse of what freelance journalism paid, and the slow realisation that she wasn't going to have the children she'd always assumed would arrive. She calls that last one social infertility, and she is still angry about it, in the most articulate way you'll hear.

Bibi turned 60 three months ago, and rather than the end of things, she's found it buoyant, her word, not ours. She talks to Kaye and Karen about looking back at two brutal decades with something closer to compassion than regret, why she reckons the worst has already happened so there's not much left to fear, and the book, the screenplay and the frankly excellent name story she's taking into the next chapter. If you've ever measured your life by what you didn't get rather than what you did, this one stays with you. We're also live at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on the 7th, 8th and 9th of August, 2.45 at the museum, with Retirement Rebel Siobhan Daniels. Tickets are at the Gilded Balloon.
Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.
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Kaye's had a nightmare. Cancelled flight, a 6.20am rescue seat, and a live telly show to present on no sleep, softened by a lunchtime pisco sour and a nap she snorted herself awake from.
This week: Ian gets diagnosed by Dr Kaye and ChatGPT, then refuses the sedative for his endoscopy to save himself a phone call. Karen hunts for the perfect white tablecloth and earns a new nickname. And after a friend books Puglia entirely on the strength of Karen's holiday photos, a star is born.

Plus: Charly turns 24, and a preview of Friday's guest, the spectacularly upbeat Bibi Lynch.
Catch How to Be 60 at the Edinburgh Fringe, 7th–9th August, 2.45pm at the Museum. Tickets via the Gilded Balloon or the official Fringe website.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.