If you’ve ever wondered, “Is it too late for me to...” the answer’s NO and The Uplifters are about to show you why. This space is for purpose-driven women who want to do big, brave things in the second half of their lives. I’m your host, Aransas Savas, and I’ve spent the last 20 years at the intersection of behavior change research and coaching.
This month, our theme is LOVE. We’re exploring:
💓 Mother love with Ruthie Ackerman (author of The Mother Code) on understanding the women who raised us, reconciling feminism and mothering, and reimagining this path in a way that feels right and true for ourselves. Listen HERE
💓 Friend love with Patina with Dina Aronson + Dina Alvarez on how later-life friendships and collaborations can unexpectedly change our creative paths. Listen HERE
💓 Self-love with Wendy Harrop, who said a giant yes to herself even though it meant courageously ending her marriage, moving across the country, and upending all the personal and professional structures she built in the first half of her life. Listen HERE
💓 Human love in the age of AI with Susan Ruth, host of the Hey Human podcast
💓 Romantic love with Alyssa Dineen, a midlife dating coach who helps us rethink the stories we’re telling ourselves about navigating the mysterious and messy world of modern dating
Today’s story has a most cinematic start and our guest lives in Hollywood, so let’s add some stage directions this week, shall we?
A woman draped over her steering wheel, sobs in a grocery store parking lot. She’s done with humanity, with cruelty, with mass shootings. She’s ready to give up even if she’s not sure what that means.
She enters the store to get something to eat. An elderly man passes her in the aisle and says, “Evening, sister.” A small girl beams at her from across the checkout line, wordless and radiant. As she returns to her car she weeps again, but for an entirely different reason. Because the light isn’t gone. It’s in the supermarket. It’s in two strangers who saw her.
That moment is how Susan Ruth’s Hey Human Podcast was born. And it’s the heart of the conversation we had for this very special episode — Episode 150 — of The Uplifters.
Susan Ruth
Susan Ruth is a lot of things: filmmaker, songwriter, painter, and host of the Hey Human Podcast.
She grew up navigating a complex relationship with her own trust in people (particularly women) after early experiences that left her wary of connection. And yet she chose, over and over again, to orient her entire creative life around the question: why are we the way we are? Why are we both so capable of cruelty and so capable of grace? She started Hey Human not because she had the answer, but because she couldn’t stop asking the question.
What Susan has built, through her art and her podcast is a life organized around human-to-human connection. Around the radical idea that if you can find one thing that connects you — a love of sweet potatoes, a shared grief, a smile across a checkout line — that’s enough to keep going.
Staying connected to humanity is not a passive act. So in this episode, we talk about what it actually takes to stay human in a moment when it’s never been easier to offload our loneliness to a machine, our attention to an algorithm, and our agency to a slow scroll through TikTok. We talk about how we choose presence in a world designed to sedate us, and what it means to turn toward each other — with all our warts and tender parts — instead of away.
What The Research Says
Research consistently shows that women over 40 are disproportionately impacted by loneliness, particularly during perimenopause when social networks often shift dramatically. At the same time, studies on midlife women and purpose suggest that the women who thrive in this season are those who anchor themselves to something larger than their own comfort, things like community, creative expression, and service. Susan has been living that research, one human conversation at a time.
Her Courage Practice
Susan’s courage practice is deceptively simple: she makes things. When the world feels too heavy, she writes a poem, composes a song, picks up a paintbrush. Not because it fixes anything. But because making something is an act of defiance against despair, and also a way of getting out of her own head long enough to remember that she’s part of something larger.
She also acts close to home. She’s on her building’s security team in a tough part of town. She shows up for her neighbors. She throws herself into live art events and movie theaters and music shows, not just as a creator but as an audience member because she understands that showing up for each other matters.
When we feel the most overwhelmed by what we can’t control — the news, the algorithm, the noise — Susan asks: what can I make? What can I do? Who is right in front of me that needs me to show up?
Joy is a form of rebellion.
Lift Her Up
Find Susan Ruth’s music on Apple Music and all streaming platforms by searching “Susan Ruth.” Follow her on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube @susanruthism — and if you want to support an independent artist who has spent decades championing human connection, the best thing you can do is go to live music, buy a small piece of art, get yourself to the movie theater, and tell someone about it loudly. Joy is contagious. Spread it.
If you loved this story...
Helen Arteaga Landaverde’s episode — on starting in your own backyard and using proximity as an antidote to despair
Susan McPherson’s episode — on the lost art of connecting and what it costs us when we stop
Mara Richards Bim’s episode — on using art to hold space for community through grief and division
Let’s Talk About This Episode
What do you do to stay connected to your community?
