First! Ever! Episode! Of my brand-new podcast, Finding the Throughline
...in which Sari Botton from Oldster Magazine shares why she's contemplating selling her beloved clog collection
This seed of the idea for Finding the Throughline: Conversations about the Creative Process, was first dropped by Sari Botton in her Substack publication Oldster Magazine—specifically, it was her Oldster Magazine Questionnaire, in which she asks creatives of all ages to answer the same dozen or so questions about what it means to grow older.
I’m telling you, each time a new Oldster questionnaire lands in my inbox I drop everything and read it immediately. I love that even though I rarely know of the person who is answering the question (although sometimes I do—she’s interviewed Elizabeth Gilbert and Neko Case, for instance), I am moved, enlightened, provoked, and delighted by their answers.
Sari had to be my first interview, she just had to be. And thankfully, she responded with an enthusiastic yes within just a few minutes of my asking her to come on.
Stuff we unpack includes:
The continuing ed class she took as a 20-something that lead to her personal writing career
The thing her uncle told her when she was 10 that sparked a lifelong fascination with growing older
Why she loves Substack—as both a writer and a reader
The thing about trusting your instincts that Shalom Auslander first told her in 2010 that it took her 10+ years to believe
The incredible power of writing annoying, non-work stuff down on your to-do list (even if you’re already done it)
What she does to cheer herself up and clear her head
Her morning routine (including what exactly goes in her mug)
Her favorite part of sharing her work with the world
How she navigates the ethics of including other people in her personal writing
How her inner critic loves to tell her she doesn’t haven’t permission to write about what she wants to write about—and how she gets past it
How getting older, and developing arthritis, is making her re-think some things, incluing her beloved wooden clog collection
Her personal role models
That thing that just won’t remove itself from Sari’s bucket list, even though she’s trying to move past it
What projects she’s dreaming about creating next
The two things she knows she needs to shift (including a great tip for folks with Sephardic Jewish heritage!)
Plus, Sari’s favorite show, the last book she devoured, her go-to karaoke song, and her ideal dinner (hint: it’s shellfish heavy)
Listen here:
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Sari’s books:
And You May Find Yourself: Confessions of a Late Blooming Gen X Weirdo
Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakeable Love for New York
Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York
Links:
Oldster’s biweekly Links Roundup
Adventures in Journalism (Sari’s other Substack)
Memoir Land (Sari’s other other Substack)
Sari’s official bio:
Sari Botton's memoir in essays, And You May Find Yourself...Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen-X Weirdo, was chosen by Poets & Writers magazine for the 2022 edition of its annual "5 Over 50" feature. An essay from it received notable mention in The Best American Essays 2023, edited by Vivian Gornick. For five years, Sari was the Essays Editor at Longreads. She edited the bestselling anthologies Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving NewYork and Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for New York. Sari publishes Oldster Magazine, Memoir Land, and Adventures in Journalism. And she was the Writer in Residence in the creative writing department at SUNY New Paltz for Spring, 2023.
Way to go kate. Nice to hear your conversation with Sari and about Oldster magazine - which was new to me. Can't wait to hear what's next!