Barb Desmarais
154 episodes listed below
Later-life questions, answered out loud.
What's Next? Conversations with Boomers treats aging as active terrain, not a closing chapter. Barb Desmarais leads warm, plainspoken conversations about strength training, dating after 70, nervous-system healing, AI, boundaries, and the comic oddities of modern life.
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What's Next? Conversations with Boomers treats aging as a series of live questions. The show is not nostalgic. Barb Desmarais centers the conversations on what people can still choose, adjust, try, protect, and learn. Some episodes are highly practical, especially when guests talk about walking, interval movement, strength training, and small exercises that can fit into an ordinary day. Others are more intimate. Dating after 70 becomes a candid look at independence, high standards, friendship, attraction, and the tradeoffs of living alone. Boundaries get handled in plain language, with attention to saying no, softening too much, and recognizing disrespect before it becomes a pattern. The wellness episodes lean into emotional repair. Somatic yin yoga, the vagus nerve, self-love, stored trauma, anxiety, and nervous-system resets are discussed with patience rather than quick-fix certainty. The show also keeps an eye on modern life. Its AI episode turns a generational topic into a practical conversation about editing, show notes, episode titles, audio levels, video, and social clips. Mella's presence gives many episodes a useful cross-generational rhythm, especially when her own experiences echo or challenge the boomer perspective. The result feels casual, but it is rarely lightweight. A funny aside about memory can sit beside a serious concern about health span. A conversation with Colleen Landry brings comedy into the season finale while still asking how creative ideas begin and grow. Recurring guests and returning themes make the show feel like an ongoing table conversation, not a lecture series. It is strongest when it turns a big topic into manageable details: one faster block of walking, one clearer boundary, one kinder way to talk to oneself. The pace is conversational and sometimes meandering. That looseness is part of the appeal for listeners who prefer lived experience over polished performance. What's Next? Conversations with Boomers is for people who want practical wisdom, emotional honesty, and a little humor around the work of staying engaged with life.
Made for: For boomers and adjacent generations who want candid talk about health, independence, relationships, emotional repair, and modern tools. It also suits younger listeners interested in cross-generational perspective.
What sets it apart: The show blends boomer life experience with Mella's younger perspective, making topics like dating, AI, boundaries, and fitness feel shared rather than age-segregated. Its best moments turn broad wellness ideas into ordinary, doable choices.
What’s Next? Conversations with Boomers is a candid, cross-generational dialogue exploring life after the milestones—career shifts, retirement, relationships, family, reinvention, and everything in between. Hosted by Barb Desmarais, a retired family & parenting coach and public speaker, each episode dives into honest stories and lived wisdom from Boomers navigating their “what’s next?” moments, offering insights that resonate across generations. Thoughtful, curious, and sometimes funny, the show bridges perspectives and sparks conversations about how we age, adapt, and continue to dream.
Barb makes room for the aging questions your group chat keeps politely changing the subject from.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical, low-friction guide to moving more, with walking treated as a starting point rather than the whole answer.
Barb Desmarais hosts Larry Wolf and David Kravitz in a conversation about exercise, with the guests doing most of the heavy lifting on the evidence. The episode keeps coming back to a plain point: walking helps, but it does not do the whole job.
A candid look at later-life dating and the cost of being fully on your own.
Dating after 70 is framed as a question of autonomy as much as romance, and Barb Desmarais, Jackie Adams, and Milla keep the discussion grounded in ordinary life.
A patient look at stored trauma, nervous-system safety, and the slow work of somatic healing.
Barb Desmarais frames somatic yin yoga through a late-career recognition that even after more than 30 years of yoga, stored trauma could still be present in the body.
South Bay culture, roasted in real time.
Friendly chaos, expertly overthought.
Big guests, odd turns, real stories.
Errand comedy with backseat momentum.
Comedy talk with live-wire pop-culture drift.
Barb Desmarais interviews mental health therapist Jackie Adams about summer seasonal affective disorder and the social pressures that accompany warmer weather.
What's Next?
Barb Desmarais (73, host and widow since 2017) and Jackie Adams (70, therapist and divorcée of 15 years) share candid accounts of dating in their 70s, including experiences with apps, scammers, and emotionally unavailable men.
Barb Desmarais interviews Annie Au about somatic yin yoga, the vagus nerve, trauma, and anxiety.
Host Barb Desmarais and guest Denise Torgerson discuss self-love and nervous system reset, with co-host Bella sharing her personal journey of healing from survival mode.
Host Barb Desmarais and guest Mella discuss how boomers use AI tools like ChatGPT for work, podcast editing, and social media.
Host Barb Desmarais and relationship coach Tim Wade discuss the importance of setting boundaries, especially for women, and share personal experiences with enforcing them.
This season finale episode features an interview with comedy influencer Colleen Landry, discussing her career, creative process, and appeal to audiences over 40.
Host Barb Desmarais discusses the importance of strength training for boomers with personal trainer Kaylee Alsner.
This episode features an interview with Dr.
A boomer host interviews a gay neighbor about the evolution of LGBTQ+ experiences and pride.
A boomer host and an interior designer discuss easy home decor updates for retirees looking to revitalize their living spaces.
Host Barb Desmarais and relationship coach Tim Wiggins discuss whether being never-married and childless is a deal breaker for boomers in relationships.