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Maybe the life you're looking for is waiting for a better question. The other day I sent the same paragraph to ChatGPT five times. Five. The first four times I looked at the screen and thought, "Nope." "Still not me." Too polished." "Can you make it sound like I'm sitting across from someone over coffee?" "And could you stop making it sound like I work in Human Resources?" (If you work in HR, I apologize. You know I love you.) By the fifth time, if dawned on me. The problem w

A few days ago, I learned about a woman named Kelsey Pfendler. She’s currently rowing from California to Hawaii. Alone. In a boat. Across the actual Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, I consider it a personal triumph when I find a parking spot that doesn’t require parallel parking. At 31, Kelsey is attempting to become the first American woman to row solo and unsupported from California to Hawaii — more than 2,400 miles of open ocean. For 70 to 90 days, her whole world will be water,

I have spent the better part of a month preparing to start a podcast. You’ll notice I said preparing, not doing. A month. Thirty-ish days. An embarrassing number of hours researching microphones and watching YouTube videos hosted by suspiciously enthusiastic twenty-seven-year-olds named Tyler who somehow have six-camera studio setups in their basements. I have Googled phrases no normal human should ever Google: “Best affordable wireless mic for beginners over 60 who are techn

I can still remember the first time it happened — a cocktail party, maybe six weeks after I retired. A perfectly pleasant stranger extended a hand, smiled like people do at these things, and casually lobbed the one question I’d always had a ready answer for — until that night. “So, what do you do?” And I hesitated. Not a graceful, pensive pause. Several long, awkward seconds that felt, in the moment, like a minor eternity. And then, apparently deciding that something — anythi