Why do some restaurants keep the lights so low that you need a flashlight to read the menu? And why do hotels insist on tiny labels on bottles of soap and shampoo, labels so small you need your glasses on to choose the right one?

These are just two examples of consumer ageism.

Our guest this week on The Art 2 Aging is John Bateson, a former private equity CEO and professor at both the London and Stanford Schools of Business where he acquired a doctorate in business management and Masters in Economics. John writes a Substack newsletter titled Consumer Ageism. And in our conversation, he lays out a number of theories about ageism and the older consumer.

Retirement coaching was a profession we’d never heard of before speaking with our guest this week, Marianne Oehser.

But retirement coaching didn’t suddenly pop into existence just like the Beatles didn’t suddenly leap onto the music scene with their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

The profession is the natural offshoot of an aging demographic in which tens of millions of us in our 60s and older are marching toward something called retirement, like it or not.

What Marianne Oehser does is help her clients see a path through a forest of uncertainty and to walk that path with confidence. She and her business partner run a company called Next Chapter LIfestyle Advisors. Check out their site.

A sport that was once played by just a few people rocketed out of the gate during the pandemic. Today, some say it’s the fastest growing sport in the world.

We’re talking about pickleball, the quirky game with an even quirkier name.

Our guest this week on The Art 2 Aging is Carl Landau, a pickleball afficionado and author of the book, Pickleball For Dummies.

So what makes this such a popular game? Well, let’s find out.