Solo Ageing and Inclusion

Please note that this reading contains a piece called The Babies Next Door and references maternal instinct. Join us as we welcome our friend and author, Robert Nurden, to an enriching conversation that covers his personal and professional journey, from his journalism days to teaching, and the life-altering significance of a cup of Americano. Listen to Robert's fascinating story of shifting gears from mainstream journalism to teaching English in various parts of the world like Sweden, India, and Sydney. Discover the emotional journey of a childless man, as Robert opens up about the complex feelings and experiences he went through, realising the unlikely chance of having children. Tune in as he narrates how he found The Childless Men's Community, and how it inspired him to write a play about childlessness for men, which evolved into a book. Learn about the creative process behind his book, ‘I Always Wanted To Be A Dad’ and what next including his play ‘Empty’, hear about his collaboration with Berenice, who designed the book, and his mixed feelings towards sharing his personal story publicly. Listen to our engaging conversation as we discuss the power of relationships and community, and how Robert’s personal experiences have influenced his perspective on childlessness. Hear two reading from the book by and the reactions of his long-time friends. This conversation is a heartfelt exploration of a sensitive topic and an invitation to understand and empathize with the struggles of those who are childless not by choice. How to contact Robert Robert can be found via his website and Instagram. He will be at Storyhouse Live launching I Always Wanted To Be A Dad on 23rd September in person with Berenice and Rosalyn. You can buy a copy there or online at Amazon.

This month meet Gail Miller. She is a coach, and medical doctor working in healthcare in the USA. She’s made it her mission to challenge insensitivity and bias in the healthcare profession to help those who are childless as patients and non-parents who work in medicine to enable people to have a better, less triggering experience and create a place in which to learn. This podcast episode mentions miscarriage, IVF, cancer and infertility. We were delighted to welcome members of our online Full Stop online community, some of whom work in medical organisations including the NHS and had some valuable contributions to make. We’re following up with them to see what we can to provide support and signposted to World Childless Week’s resources. The Full Stop podcast is free to listen on our many listening channels and published monthly. To be a guest, please check our ‘Be A Guest’ page. The Full Stop Community supports our podcast and provides in-depth access to the content, to us, our future plans and recordings in real time. It’s a warm, safe online space full of conversation and cheerleading and open to all genders. We are committed to creating a diverse environment without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, or age.

Our July 2023 guests are Janine Ford and Cecilia Rebild who talk to us about community and friendship. They met in Copenhagen in Denmark and generously shared their story about friendships that can be forged from childlessness experiences and the meaning of friendship as we come to terms with not being parents. They are co-creators of a support network in Denmark, a vision they shared and acted on during the height of the pandemic. You can read more details about their work on our website.

This June 2023 episode is with Karin Enfield De Vries who many of you know a supportive moderator and counsellor. She is the founder of Pure Tranformations, a grief and loss counsellor with a focus on childlessness, a wellbeing coach and a change management consultant. Karin volunteers as a guest speaker for various cancer trusts in the Netherlands to help raise awareness of the long term consequences of being childless after cancer. Listen for an empowering discussion about self-compassion, finding a support network, how to find help and Karin's Circle of Transformation, and so much more. We had some outstanding questions, too, which you'll hear us answer in the recording.

In this episode, the three of us invite you into our space as we share three pieces of exciting news that will inspire and empower you.  They may concern some of you, and you almost certainly will have questions. You're welcome to ask us questions - all queries are welcome, and none are silly - and to be part of this journey with us. Please do get in touch with any of us. What began as an idea on a post-it note after Michael and then Sarah mentioned to Berenice that they loved podcasts has far exceeded what we predicted.  To be honest, when we got to 8 episodes, we were amazed. When people wanted to be on our podcast, that was incredible, then we saw others having a go too and thanking us and inviting us to speak with them - wow! Now we're listened to in every continent apart from Antarctica, and we're award-winning! That's some going for a podcast that relies entirely on organic growth, love, and virtual coffee donations. If you've shared a post of ours, then the chances are you've helped someone in need, and that's all we've ever asked for. Not fame nor awards, and your donations have helped us along, so thank you so much for the Kofi too.  That said, almost everything we do is our time and expenditure. Growing what we do, sustainably securing our future, and giving you something extra matters. We realise that we have a thing' we may want to pass on one day and to keep our digital legacy secure. More information Read our blog post and access our press release What is a CIC?

We are delighted to bring you our next episode on solo ageing with Patricia Faulks and Denise Jackson (whom you may recall from our first year of broadcasting).   Patricia Faulks set up her blog, Lilley and Me, during Covid lockdowns to share the story of ageing alone with childlessness and the challenges that brings including learning how to use her computer and Zoom calls. Denise Jackson returns to the podcast to talk about bias around money saving having challenged UK money expert Martin Lewis to tackle solo households. You can find her on Twitter.  Patricia and Denise cover so much ground here that applies not just to childless people but to those who are creating online environments and apps as we discuss digital exclusion. They also discuss bias and exclusion around power of attorney, the cost of living crisis, human rights and make a call for more support and awareness.  Resources to help you: Age UK Carers Trust Centre for Better Ageing Ageing Well Without Children United Nations Ageing resources National Institute of Ageing (USA) Meaningful Ageing in Australia Dr Robin Hadley’s resources Full Stop guest, Ming Ho’s words on Dementia Carers Count. You can get involved too! Please email us with your news, events, and if you'd like to be a guest, you can do that here. You can also tag us on Twitter, and find us on LinkedIn and Facebook. We'd also like to say a huge thank you for the donations on Kofi. 

We’re joining by two guests who you’ve met before. Catch up with Ken and Lisa as we talk about step parenting when childless not by choice. We cover the difficulties of Mother’s Day and daily life. Ken and Lisa talk about society’s perception of being a step parent both within the childless community and outside it. We ask about the problems of language and how that affects the sense of place in a family. Here’s our guest details Lisa Kissane is the owner of Silvertongue Copy & Content Writing, a project born of many years experience in sales, marketing and writing for pleasure. She is particularly keen to work with members of the childless and LGBTQ+ communities and offers a free trial in the form of one piece of content (e.g. a blog post, newsletter, web landing page) to business owners who identify as such. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram  Ken Fenton is an founder member of The Childless Men’s Community and role model to his fellow members. He’s been a guest on our men’s episodes. We thank Lisa and Ken for their time and words.

We’d like to introduce you to Anastasia MacDonald who many of you may already know from her constant and reassuring presence online. We gather to talk about how the menopause affects us as the childless not by choice community. Is it a relief? A time of mourning and what’s it like on the other side? Like many of our episodes, we connect our community both as listeners but also as guests and we have a feeling that there will be some interesting collaborations to come. We do love seeing our guests meet and share stories! If you’d prefer to read, you’ll find a transcript below.. Here’s our guest details Anastasia can be found on Instagram here and the book she mentioned is What Fresh Hell is This? by Heather Corinna (please do buy from an independent book shop if you can) and the podcasts are The Menstruality, and the Hit Play Not Pause podcast.  

We’d like to introduce you to our guests who are rather marvellous company, as you’ll find out in our 47th episode. Mike Sparks restores vintage electrics (yes, we also through he has a great name!) and teaches water skiing, how this two areas of his life come about? Caroline Stafford sells gorgeous biscuits and she talks about how she came to create a baking business. Also joining us is Vicky House who founded Clem’s Garden which we’ve long loved, and she explains her vision and her boundaries. Here’s our guest details Caroline’s The Kitsch Hen bakes gorgeous biscuits which you can order from her website. Mike Sparks restores vintage electrical items and sells them online. Vicky can be found in Clem's Garden which is currently taking a rest but you’ll find lots of gorgeous images and their social media photography is a delight.

In this episode we were joined by your words. We were delighted to receive messages from our community which we’ve shared with you. And it was a chance for the three of us to reveal our themes for 2023, ask if you’d like be a guest and a little on how we’ve grown over 2022.