‘I think of each year of my life now, as a level… in a game.’ Carl Honoré is a bestselling author, broadcaster and two-time TED speaker. He is also the voice of the Slow Movement. After working with street children in Brazil, Carl covered Europe and South America for the Economist, Observer, Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle, National Post (Canada), Time and other publications. His first book, In Praise of Slow, chronicles the global trend toward putting on the brakes in everything from work to food to parenting. The Financial Times said it is “to the Slow Movement what Das Kapital is to communism”. Carl’s second book, Under Pressure explores how to raise and educate children in a fast world and was hailed by Time as a “gospel of the Slow Parenting movement”. Carl’s third book, The Slow Fix, explores how to tackle complex problems in every walk of life, from health and relationships to business and politics, without falling for superficial, short-term quick fixes. His fourth book, Bolder: How To Age Better And Feel Better About Ageing, is a spirited manifesto against ageism. Carl recently published his first children’s book, It’s The Journey Not the Destination Published in 35 languages, Carl has landed on bestseller lists in many countries. In Praise of Slow was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and the inaugural choice for the Huffington Post Book Club. It also featured in a British TV sitcom, Argentina’s version of Big Brother and a TV commercial for the Motorola tablet. Under Pressure was shortlisted for the Writers’ Trust Award, the top prize for non-fiction in Canada. Bolder was also a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week as well as a Reader’s Digest (UK) Book of the Month. Carl featured in a series for BBC Radio 4 called The Slow Coach in which he helped frazzled, over-scheduled people slow down. He also presented a television show called Frantic Family Rescue on Australia’s ABC 1. Carl lives in London. While researching his first book on slowness he was slapped with a speeding ticket. The Podcast was recorded live at The Kings Place London on the 27th February, 2023. Timeline 00.00 - 00.44 Theme & Intro 00.45 - 03.28 Introducing Carl Honore 03.30 - 07.55 How Carl came to write a book on ageing: The London Jets 07.56 - 10.09 Myth-busting Ageing: The Story of Jacko 10.10 - 13.14 The Effects of Ageism 13.15 - 14.00 The ‘Still' Syndrome 14.00 - 15.44 Inter-Generational Activities 15.45 - 18.00 The ‘Village’ School 18.00 - 23.52 David Pearl - ‘Tanzlied des Pierrots’ by Erich Korngold’s from Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) 23.54 - 32.34 Ageing and Singing: How the voice evolves with age 32.36 - 35.25 How does Carl now feel about age? 35.26 - 37.40 Drawing the line of your life: where do you put the ‘x’? 37.41 - 38.36 David Pearl - ‘Ideale’ by Paolo Tosti (excerpt) 38.38 - 40.15 Epilogue 40.16 - 40.37 End Titles Quotes “All of my books start with an existential crisis.” (Carl) “The thing about ageism is that it falls more heavily on us who are in the later years of life, because it has got tangled up in the cult of youth, the idea that younger is better. Ageing is seen, especially in our western cultures, it is seen as something to be ashamed of, to feel guilty of, to be disgusted by… to deny.” (Carl) “One of my bugbears is the phrase… showing my age. We should be showing off our age” (Carl) ‘When you don’t know people of different ages, into that space rush all the grim toxic stereotypes about ageing. What they do find is that as soon as you start breaking down the silos and mixing people up that the stereotypes start to fall away.” (Carl) “Before writing ‘Bolder’ I was a full card carrying member of the cult of youth. I never would have given my age. I would have low-balled it. I just felt awful about the whole idea of growing older and would have pushed it away. Now I feel genuinely at ease with it.” (Carl) “My metaphor for ageing is a gaming analogy. I think of each year as a level in a game. Right now I’m at level 55