I think a lot about stories—old ones, modern ones, whatever—and what they can tell us about the choices and questions we face as we move into and through midlife. Lately I've been recording those thoughts for my YouTube channel and my podcast.
I use the phrase "the third quarter" for the middle stretch of life that comes after early adulthood but before old age. It's a time when some of the stories that once guided us — about success, identity, ambition, certainty — start to come apart, and the work becomes figuring out what comes next.
Chip Conley (founder of the Modern Elder Academy) and I are writing a book about the third quarter right now. It's called Q3: Mapping the Second Half of Life Through the World's Great Stories, and it's coming from Little, Brown in 2028.
To get a feel for the approach, the YouTube channel and the podcast are the best places to start. I talk about myths, novels, films, songs — any cultural material that helps us ask better questions about who we are, what we want, and where we're going. None of it’s about easy self-improvement or quick fixes. It's about slowing down, paying attention, and seeing how stories can help us think more clearly about the things that matter in the second half of life.
If any of that sounds useful, feel free to look around.