S6-EP5: Bestselling Author Mary Pipher on Forgiveness, Happiness, and Old Age

This is Season 6 of my [B]OLD AGE podcast. Thank you for listening! I interview authors, experts, and exceptional individuals to reveal the truths about [b]oldly moving from midlife to old age. You can find over 100 previous episodes on Apple podcasts or on my website. - Debbie

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Debbie talks to Mary Pipher, a psychologist and bestselling author of 11 books including the ground-breaking Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls.  She was the first psychologist to recognize and articulate why life was difficult for adolescent girls and why so many of them felt bad about themselves.

More recently, she has written Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing As We Age, about women navigating the transition from middle age to old age (the topic of this podcast!).

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Don’t miss the accompanying Behind The Scenes article for this episode

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In 2022, she published a memoir, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence. In her new book, just out in paperback, Mary, now 76, talks about her difficult childhood and her relationship with her parents, the importance of family and community, living in a small town in Nebraska, and what the particular challenges of getting old are. She also talks about forgiveness, about adopting Buddhism and her definition of happiness. Per the title, she’s obsessed with light, through trees, on walks, at certain times of day, in certain rooms, and in memories — and how the light makes her feel happy and complete.

She says her knowledge about happiness comes from being someone who has struggled with sadness and anxiety much of her life, something that resonates strongly with Debbie.

This is a great episode. Mary articulates so well what it’s really like to get old and yet still feel so alive.

Mary Pipher’s memoir, A Life in Light, is just out in paperback.

Mentioned in this episode or useful:

• MaryPipher.com

• A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence by Mary Pipher (Bloomsbury Publishing paperback edition, Dec. 12, 2023)

• Reviving Ophelia 25th Anniversary Edition: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher PhD & Sara Gilliam (‎Riverhead Books 2019)

• Women Rowing North: Navigating Life's Currents and Flourishing As We Age by Mary Pipher (Bloomsbury Publishing paperback  2020)

• Finding Light in Winter by Mary Pipher (Guest Essay for The New York Times, Dec. 11, 2023)

• This is 74: Mary Pipher Responds to The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire

• Jane Jarvis, Player of Jazz and Mets Music, Dies at 94 (New York Times, Jan. 30, 2010)

About the fabulous new artwork for my Substack and podcast

It was created by the very talented

Judith P.Raynault

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