Episode 8 - Changing Your Ways of Thinking in the Midlife (and yes, more talk about vampires...)

The big theme of this episode is reflecting on how we have changed our mindsets or ways of thinking throughout our adult lives. Before diving into that we spend the first 30 minutes catching up on our recent travels. Alvin tells some interesting stories about his trip to Peru, and in particular he reflects on how traveling to South America has changed since his journey there in his mid-twenties. I also give a quick update on my 55 mile hike in the Sierra Nevada mountains, including how I encountered a family with three young children hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Canada to Mexico. In our housekeeping segment we report on some of our listener feedback and discuss how we would like to do a new segment called Profiles in the Midlife, where we hope to do short interviews with listeners to hear their perspectives on navigating midlife crises or any of the issues we have discussed on the pod. From minutes 36-51 Alvin and I have a quick follow up discussion about vampires and the human fascination with the prospect of eternal life, and how it may not be as appealing as one might think, and we do a real or fake segment in which Alvin has to guess whether an article that discusses the possible health benefits of older people receiving blood transfusions from young people is from The Onion or a real journal article. Finally, starting at about minute 51 Alvin and I talk about a few of the books that have changed our mindsets or ways of thinking. We note in our housekeeping that we now have a Twitter (X) account for the podcast, and our handle is @midlifepod2023. If you have examples of books or other life events that have changed your mindset or ways of thinking we would love to hear them. You can share them with us on our Twitter feed, by sending us a direct message on Twitter, or by emailing us at [email protected]. We will also be sharing links to the articles and books that we discussed in this episode and we will be posting pictures from our recent travels, so please go follow us on Twitter.