The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

Catch up to your money. It’s often ready for retirement before you are.

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What helps wellbeing endure as our lives change?

Matt Bloom has spent much of his career studying human flourishing. In this conversation, he brings his insights into retirement and combines it with lessons from his own transition from professor to writer, volunteer and what he calls a “wise elder.”

We discuss why wellbeing is built through small daily practices, how adopting a new identity can change your behavior, why many need to become more intentional about friendship after leaving work, and how volunteering and shared-interest communities can create both connection and meaning.

Matt also explains how older adults can become “guardians and shepherds” of relationships and shares Map Your Days, a simple practice that takes five minutes a night and that, in 27 years of teaching MBAs and executives, he says has never failed to teach someone something they didn’t know about their own life.

Matt Bloom joins us from Colorado.

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Bio

Matt Bloom is the author of Lasting Wellbeing: Science-Based Practices for Tranquility, Authenticity, Meaning, and Joy. He is a writer, speaker, entrepreneur, and emeritus professor of management at the University of Notre Dame. Bloom holds advanced degrees in psychology from Cornell University (PhD) and the University of Kansas (MA), and is an award-winning teacher who earned top honors for courses he taught to undergraduates, MBA students, and corporate executives. At Notre Dame, Matt taught classes on innovation and design thinking, organizational change and leadership.

As a professor in the Mendoza College of Business, Matt studied well-being for nearly three decades where he led the WorkWell research project. Initially, he and his team of ten researchers  focused on the well-being of people in the helping and healing professions: international aid workers, global health professionals, educators, clergy and ministry workers, physicians, and other healthcare professionals, among others. He later broadened his focus to include both well-being at work and in life more generally.  The team also launched a first-of-its-kind mobile application to capture daily experiences from several hundred research subjects.

Prior to becoming a professor, Matt was a financial advisor at Shearson Lehman Hutton, a consultant at Arthur Young, a psychiatric orderly at The Kansas Institute, and a paramedic for the Douglas County (KS) Emergency Medical Service.

Some of Matt’s favorite wise well-being practices:

Extended backcountry hiking (5+ days). And, yes, there are no showers or bathrooms

Baking hearth bread using natural leavens, mild sourdough starters

Scuba diving on coral reefs and wrecks in the Caribbean

Catch-and-release fly fishing on small mountain streams

Poetry reading using a process he adapted from lectio divina

Reading novels. Among his favorite authors are Marilynne Robinson, Richard Ford, Richard Rosso and Abraham Verghese

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For More on Matt Bloom

Lasting Wellbeing: Science-Based Practices for Tranquility, Authenticity, Meaning, and Joy

Website

Ritual app: Download for iOS or Android, or start at ritual.io.

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More Retirement Podcast Conversations You’ll Love

How to Flourish…in Retirement – Daniel Coyle

Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile

The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD

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Wise Quotes

On the Value of Small Steps

“Our wellbeing rises and falls mostly as a result of little things that we do day by day…We live our values mostly in the little things that we do.”

On Relationships

“Quality matters more than quantity.”

On Elderhood

“We can really be the guardians and shepherds of family relationships.”

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About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.

About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University.

In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 2 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

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A lot of the conversation on retirement runs one way: stay busy, stay productive. Dr. Denise Taylor thinks that could quietly cost some people their best years.

Denise is a Chartered Psychologist and later-life researcher in the UK. She spent 25 years coaching people through career transitions, then, at 61, went back to school herself, completing a professional doctorate on how people reconstruct meaning after full-time work. Her research subjects were all at least two years past retirement, deliberately, because the first two years tell you very little. What she found in them became the backbone of her new book, ThriveSpan: Walking Gently Into What Matters Now.

The extra years we have gained, she argues, arrive roughly between 60 and 80, while health usually still holds. Spending them duplicating the shape of your working life is a decision, and it’s not right for everyone. Her alternative is not reinvention, which she calls exhausting, but recalibration: a reset in which you subtract before you add.

She is also candid about her own path. Leaving a twenty-year marriage. Four days and four nights alone in nature with no food and no tent. A doctorate that started the October before COVID. Four acres of woodland that taught her, at last, how to stop moving fast.

We discuss why purpose does not have to be a cathedral, why she stopped dyeing her hair on principle, what her research says about curiosity and being of service, why you should imagine the future you do not want, and why saying no is the most underrated skill in later life.

Retirement is different for everyone and we have choices. Denise argues against a continue to work narrative, and she argues strongly. If you’re a listener who loves their work, or who needs the income, shear her as offering choice rather than a verdict.

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Bio

Dr. Denise Taylor is a Chartered Psychologist, later-life researcher, and widely published author whose work explores how we can live well as we age.

With more than 25 years’ experience supporting career and life transitions, she has written extensively on work, identity, ageing, and meaning in later life. Her work has been featured by the BBC, ITV, and national newspapers.

Her previous books include Career Coaching for Midlife and Beyond, Rethinking Retirement for Positive Ageing , and Find Work at 50+. Her doctoral research into meaning after full-time work won the Research by a Career Development Professional award in 2024.

ThriveSpan: Walking Gently Into What Matters Now offers a reflective, psychologically grounded approach to later life, integrating research, lived experience, and the restorative influence of nature.

Denise writes the Substack newsletter Ageing Reimagined and is a regular contributor to the i Paper.

She lives in Gloucestershire, where time spent in her woodland continues to inspire both her writing and her approach to later life.

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For More on Denise Taylor

Substack – https://ageingreimagined.substack.com/

ThriveSpan – https://denisetaylor.co.uk/thrivespan/

Website – https://denisetaylor.co.uk/

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Other Retirement Podcast Conversations You’ll Also Love

Inspired Retirement – Nathalie Martin

Re-Visioning Retirement – Susan Reid, PhD

Joyspan – Kerry Burnight, PhD

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Wise Quotes

On Recalibrating

“You don’t have to reinvent yourself. You can just slow down a bit…now time is more my own.”

On Purpose

“When I’m talking to people about purpose, they want this massive thing, like building a cathedral. You can have purpose just by smiling at somebody walking down the street.”

On Being

“If all you are is a human doing, then you’re not really thinking about who am I as a human being?”

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About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.

About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University.

In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 2 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

Your money is ready for retirement. Are you?

Get started on Future You.

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What might happen if retirement gives you permission to become a beginner again?

After more than four decades in journalism, including a long career at The Wall Street Journal, Neil Lipschutz began an entirely different chapter—as a mystery novelist.

In this conversation, Neil discusses career identity, creative work and the importance of giving retirement some structure without locking yourself into a rigid plan. He also shares a powerful lesson from his own second act: enjoy the process of pursuing something meaningful without making your satisfaction dependent on how other people measure the outcome.

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Bio

Neal Lipschutz, a long-time journalist, was formerly a deputy editor-in-chief at The Wall Street Journal. He also previously served as WSJ’s ethics and standards editor. He also at one time was the top editor at Dow Jones Newswires. His short fiction has appeared in a number of publications. “Long Arm of the Past” is his second novel in the Scott Morgan series following his debut novel  “No Write Way to Die” in 2025.

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For More on Neal Lipschutz

Author Website

Long Arm of the Past (A Scott Morgan Mystery)

No Write Way to Die

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Other Retirement Podcast Conversations You’ll Love

How to Flourish…in Retirement – Daniel Coyle

Change Your Questions, Change Your Life…in Retirement – Marilee Adams, PhD

Mattering…in Retirement – Jennifer Breheny Wallace

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Wise Quotes

On Retiring External Validation

“Enjoy the process… and try to separate that from whether it was ultimately a success in some other person’s eyes.”

On Finding a New Center

“It’s such an opportunity to try something new, to find some new purpose, to find some new center around which to organize your life.”

On Idenity

“I felt like a human being before I had a career…I’m not sure I need a career to justify my identity now.”

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About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.

About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University.

In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 2 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

 

 

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We spend a great deal of time thinking about how much we exercise. Esther Gokhale asks another question: How are we using our bodies during all the hours when we aren’t exercising?

Esther Gokhale, creator of the Gokhale Method, became interested in posture after experiencing a severe L5-S1 disc herniation while pregnant with her first child. Surgery was followed by another herniation, and she began searching more broadly for ways to change how she moved in everyday life.

In this conversation, Esther explains why she considers posture a missing pillar of wellness and why she believes ordinary activities (walking, sitting, standing, bending and even lying down) can become what she calls “life exercises.”

We explore why sitting itself may not (completely) deserve its terrible reputation, what she means by a “J-spine,” how walking mechanics affect the entire body, and what modern adults can learn from young children and populations whose traditional movement patterns have been preserved.

Most encouragingly for people in the second half of life, Esther argues that we should distinguish between what becomes common with age and what is necessarily natural. Her message is clear that our capacity for improvement often lasts much longer than we assume.

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Bio

Esther Gokhale (GO-clay) has been involved in integrative therapies all her life. As a young girl growing up in India, she helped her mother, a nurse, treat abandoned babies waiting to be adopted. This early interest in healing led her to study biochemistry at Harvard and Princeton and, later, acupuncture at the San Francisco School of Oriental Medicine.

After experiencing crippling back pain during her first pregnancy and unsuccessful back surgery, Esther Gokhale began her lifelong crusade to vanquish back pain. Her studies at the Aplomb® Institute in Paris and years of research in Brazil, India, Portugal and elsewhere led her to develop the Gokhale Method, a unique, systematic approach to help people find their bodies’ way back to pain-free living. Gokhale’s book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, has been translated into ten languages.

Esther Gokhale has taught at corporations such as Google & IDEO, presented at conferences including TEDx(Stanford), consulted for the trainers of the SF 49ers and several Stanford sports teams, and conducted workshops for physician groups at Stanford, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, UCSF. The New York Times gave Esther the title “The Posture Guru of Silicon Valley. A Stanford clinical trial is currently studying the Gokhale Method.

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For More on Esther Gokhale

Website – Gokhale Method

2-minute Video Overview of the Gokhale Method 

8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back by Esther Gokhale

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Other Retirement Podcasts You May Like

The Joy of Movement – Kelly McGonigal

Eat Your Ice Cream – Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD

Make Your Next Years Your Best Years – Harry Agress, MD

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About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.

About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University.

In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 2 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

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Wise Quotes

On Posture

“Posture is very underrated as a pillar of wellness…Change the way you are living in your body….It’s sort of indispensable that we do life more skillfully because that’s where the big opportunities are.”

On Misconceptions on Aging

“Don’t…lower our standards and call things that are common natural.”

On Why Now?

“It’s never too late.”

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The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we may invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters.

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What would persuade a successful professional to trade seniority and compensation for beginner status, and six months of Police Academy training at 70? For John Fisher, the answer was not reinvention for its own sake. It was the chance to keep growing, serving, solving problems, and feeling fully engaged.

Before becoming a Ranger, John spent more than 20 years at Sony Pictures Television, including as supervising producer of The Young and the Restless, where he won six Emmy Awards. His earlier career included work with HBO and key roles in launching MTV, VH-1, MTV Europe, and The Comedy Channel.

His next chapter didn’t pop up overnight. It grew from volunteering. One opportunity led to another: EMT certification, a seasonal Ranger-Assistant role, ranger training, and eventually the Río Hondo Basic Police Academy. There, surrounded by much younger recruits, John became California’s oldest graduate of a basic Police Academy, class president and was voted Most Inspirational.

In this conversation, John explains how he handled the demands of the academy, why age brought advantages as well as limitations, and how three simple criteria (learning something new, helping people, and having fun) guided his choices. His story is dramatic, but his approach is accessible. Becoming a Ranger may not be your thing, but what small experiment might open your own unexpected next chapter?

John Fisher joins us from California.

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Bio

John Fisher is a Ranger with the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, a local park agency with extensive property in the Santa Monica Mountains. He joined the MRCA as a volunteer in 2024. After attending the Rio Hondo Basic Police Academy in 2025, Fisher completed field training and became a generalist ranger in 2026.

Prior to the MRCA, Fisher worked for Sony Pictures Television for over 20 years as a supervising producer for “The Young and the Restless,” where he won six Emmy Awards. Earlier, Fisher worked on the NBC Enterprises syndicated daytime program, “The John Walsh Show.” He spent 11 years with HBO as a production executive, where he supervised a wide range of programming, including “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher,” “The Chris Rock Show,” “Reverb,” and “Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist.”

His experience encompasses key roles in launching MTV, VH-1, MTV Europe, and The Comedy Channel, as well as numerous producing and consulting credits for broadcast, pay cable, syndication, corporate, and home video projects.

A longtime member of the Television Academy, Fisher has served on the Daytime Peer Group Executive Committee and the Daytime Awards Committee. He has been involved with community and educational endeavors and has volunteered with his homeowners’ association, Syracuse University’s alumni advisory network, and Boston University’s Los Angeles program. An avid cyclist, he has been a member of several advocacy groups and a volunteer trail maintainer.

Additionally, he continues to volunteer with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue team based in Santa Clarita and as a civilian volunteer for the Los Angeles Police Department through his membership in the California Emergency Mobile Patrol (CEMP). Fisher also belongs to the Mountain Bike Unit in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and is a volunteer for the National Park Service and California State Parks.

A native of Baltimore, Fisher holds a master’s degree from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School and an undergraduate degree from Towson University.

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Other Retirement Podcast Conversations You’ll Love

The Third Act – Josh Sapan

Mattering…in Retirement – Jennifer Breheny Wallace

What If You Pivot Instead of Retiring? – Scott Siff

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About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.

About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University.

In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 2 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

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Wise Quotes

On Trade Offs

“I am earning a fraction of what I earned before. I am way down in the food chain, and I love it.”

On Age Bias

“If somebody’s telling you you’re too old, find new friends. They’re just jealous.”

On Future You

“You have to figure out what kind of story you want to tell about this next phase of your life.”