168: The Good Listening To Show with Chris Grimes - Episode 168

168: The Good Listening To Show with Chris Grimes - Episode 168

What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? Here, the focus widens to ageing, legacy and what it means to keep “snap in the celery” of life well into later years. The Good Listening To Show with host Chris Grimes welcomes Harry Mount, editor of The Oldie magazine, for a funny, reflective and surprisingly tender conversation about work, family, anxiety, creativity and getting older with style.

The chat is shaped by Chris’s playful storytelling framework – a personal “clearing”, a metaphorical tree, and the 5-4-3-2-1 exercise – which keeps things light while gently drawing out deeper memories. Listeners hear how Harry’s life has been shaped by early family tragedy, intense childhood worry about exams, and a career detour through banking and the law before he dared to enjoy work as a journalist.

He talks candidly about finding joy in writing, editing The Oldie and meeting heroes like Barry Humphries, who “was still incredibly funny and so quick”, and Tony Adams, who has been open about giving up drink for 30 years.

There’s plenty of humour as Harry describes The Oldie as “the magazine that dares to be interesting”, its Oldie of the Year awards for people still doing remarkable things over 80 – “the crucial thing is they’ve still got snap in their celery” – and his love of bicycles, cold-water swimming and old buildings.

Yet the tone turns quietly moving when he quotes Latin from Virgil: “one day, it will help to remember even these things”, a line that sums up how painful experiences can later bring meaning. For anyone curious about how to look back on life with honesty, wit and kindness – and maybe record their own story for posterity – this conversation offers plenty of food for thought. How might your story sound if you stepped into Chris’s clearing?