Maria Shriver's Next Chapter Bets Big On Brain Health

Forbes

After seeing her father suffer from Alzheimer’s—and realizing too few women were included in narratives about brain disease—Maria Shriver founded the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement in 2010, toward the end of her term as First Lady of California. Twelve years later, it became a part of the Cleveland Clinic. Its Las Vegas research and treatment center recently received $8 million in funding to advance research on Alzheimer’s prevention, which is vital since there is no cure. It’s never too early to start, even folks in their 20s can “Exercise, prioritize your sleep and eat in a way that nourishes your brain,” Shriver says.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/50over50/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  0:00 Introducing Maria Shriver 3:37 Becoming a Publisher: How I Started My Own Imprint 7:38 What Is The Women's Alzheimer's Movement? 11:46 The Crisis In Women's Health Research And The Path Forward 14:57 On The Menopause Conversation: 'I'm Thrilled' 17:18 Cofounding MOSH With Son Patrick Schwarzenegger 21:35 'Life is Not What I Planned... And That's the Beauty of It' 25:00 Shriver's Advice To Young Women & How To Protect Your Brain 26:53 Why Age Is An Advantage & The Power Of 'Never Too Late'  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Maria Shriver, you are an award-winning journalist, a producer, a best-selling author, and an

00:13entrepreneur. Thank you so much for sitting down for the Forbes 50 over 50.

00:16My pleasure.

00:18I just described you using a bevy of titles, but your latest best-selling book is called

00:23I Am Maria, a simple sentence that you talk about learning to embrace.

00:27And I want to read from a passage that really struck me.

00:31You write,

00:31That surprised me because I think of you as such a changemaker, someone who's made such a positive

00:57impact in the world. Do you think it will surprise your other readers to learn that you've had these

01:02feelings?

01:03Well, I think people can have a big impact, a positive impact in the world. I think people

01:08can be great leaders and have these feelings. I actually think it's what we want in a leader.

01:14I think it's what we want in someone who goes out into the world. We want someone who has

01:18thought about these issues. Am I being a good enough mother? Have I paid enough attention?

01:25How do I want to make my way in the world separate from perhaps the family I was born into? Do I measure

01:30up? Is that my motivator or something else my motivator? I think these are very human questions

01:37to ask oneself no matter what. And I think oftentimes we see someone out making an impact, out running for

01:45office, out in the world. And we think they don't have any human questions about themselves, that

01:51they've never had an ounce of insecurity, never had a doubt in their life. And I think that's unfair

01:57actually. I think it's really, it denies them their humanity in a way. And I think it's a common thing,

02:04a normal thing to go through these questions. Am I in the right place? What motivates me? Am I on a path

02:12of my own? Or is this a path my family laid out for me? Is this the marriage I want to be in? Am I

02:18too afraid to leave it? Am I a good daughter? I mean, this is a universal conversation. People maybe

02:24don't put it in a book, or people who are maybe well known don't talk about it. But practically every

02:30conversation I've had with a woman of any age is talking like this. I've certainly asked myself these

02:37questions. Good. That's a good sign. Is it? Because sometimes I find it paralyzing. So if someone does

02:43find those doubts or questions paralyzing, or if you have, how do you overcome them? Well, for me,

02:49I wrote through them. I find that really helpful. I think people can go to therapy. I think they can

02:55ask themselves these questions, wonder, keep going, and see if they keep coming back. Listen to the whisper.

03:02They can meditate. They can talk to other people. I think there's all different kinds of ways

03:08to answer these questions. I think it's a good sign to be asking yourself these questions. Am I in the

03:14right place? Am I in the right relationship? Do I have faith that I'm doing what I was meant to do,

03:21that I'm here to do? I think people that don't ask these questions, that are just kind of blindly

03:27walking through life, aren't alive kind of in their lives. And I think if you're alive in your life,

03:34you're asking these questions. Now, this book was published through Penguin Random House,

03:40but also through the Open Field imprint, which is your imprint. Correct. As a longtime journalist,

03:45did you ever imagine becoming a publisher? Yes. After I wrote my first book, which was a children's

03:51book called What's Heaven? And I only came to write it because the network didn't want to do a special

03:57on heaven, which is what I had proposed to them. I said, we should do an hour on heaven and grief and

04:03death. And they're like, no, that's, you know, that's not going to be popular. Nobody wants to talk about

04:09death. And sure, nobody wants to talk about heaven. So I ended up writing a children's book that did

04:13incredibly well. And then I wrote other children's books about different issues that I was dealing with.

04:19I wrote one about Alzheimer's. I wrote one about disabilities. And I thought to myself as I

04:25continued to write books and as I continued to be a reporter at the network, I thought to myself,

04:31wow, you know, it's really hard to get a book published. And there are so many people who have

04:35books in them. Maybe one day I could have my own imprint and I could publish people whose voices I

04:42admired, voices that I think rise above, voices that I think are important, inspiring, and that can ignite

04:49change in the world. And so it took a long time to get to the place of having my own imprint. I didn't get it until

04:56I was in my 60s. And I think I had to prove that I could produce and publish seven bestsellers. And then they

05:02were like, okay, maybe you know what you're doing. And the imprint has been incredibly successful. It's published

05:09many New York Times bestsellers. And I'm really proud of it. I'm proud of the people that we publish. I'm proud of the voices that we

05:17put out into the world. They tell me it's one of the few really successful personal imprints at a

05:23publishing house. And we're speaking, of course, a day after Open Field's most recent book hit the New

05:30York Times bestseller. How involved are you in picking the books that you ultimately publish? How

05:35often are you reading? Totally. I'm totally involved. And I hunt like I reached out to Shannon Watts,

05:40the book you're talking about, and said, you know, I think you have a book in you. She said,

05:44well, I wrote a book a while ago, but it didn't turn out. I said, no, you have a book now.

05:49You have a book about how to be an activist, how to be an advocate, how to teach particularly other

05:54women who want to get involved in changing an issue, how to do that. And you can write about

05:59what you learned in the field and what you have gleaned. What are the principles? What are the

06:05lessons? And you can write a book that can help other people be like a playbook for how they can do

06:11that? And she was like, well, let me think about it. And then she came back and said,

06:15okay, I have a proposal. I said, well, let me read the proposal. And I love the proposal. And so I

06:19said, you know, can we make you an offer? And then all along the way, you know, who are you interviewing?

06:24Who are you talking to? She actually interviewed me also for the book, but and then trying to support

06:29her. We at the Sunday paper, which is our digital publication, we excerpt her book. I do interviews with

06:36her. We bring her into the fall trying to introduce the community to her. So they know her as a voice.

06:41They know her as someone to whose book they want to support. So I try to support the authors in every

06:47way, shape and form that I can and try to help them navigate this ever-changing media world that we're

06:55all living in. That's important. As attention is fractured, each of these authors have their own

07:00audiences. And by combining forces, I think it probably helps each individual author. Right,

07:04it does. But even their audience, it's interesting. I think what we're learning is that you can have an

07:09email audience, you can have an Instagram audience, you can have a Facebook audience,

07:12you can have a LinkedIn audience. They don't necessarily buy books, right? They don't necessarily

07:18they'll read and then they go, oh, like, okay, but I read an article on it. Maybe do I have to buy a book?

07:22So you have to kind of hit different markets in different ways with different messages. And for example,

07:29she went out on a tour. And I think that is also something that we're finding is really

07:34helpful to authors to go out and bring their message. Now, Shriver Media and Open Field are

07:40not the only initiatives and companies you have founded. In 2010, you partnered with the Alzheimer's

07:46Association to publish a report on women and Alzheimer's. Right. And your father, of course,

07:51had been diagnosed in 2003. The women's Alzheimer's movement ended up the first organization devoted

07:59exclusively to women and Alzheimer's disease. There are a lot of facts and figures that we could

08:05use to frame this conversation. But I'm curious, is there one that rises to the top of your mind to

08:10talk about why it's so important to have an organization devoted to women and Alzheimer's?

08:15Well, because there wasn't one that existed. I think that's really important. I think it was super

08:21important to rectify the narrative around Alzheimer's, which didn't have women in the narrative.

08:29When I first approached Alzheimer's, when my dad got Alzheimer's, I did a children's book,

08:34I did a big five-part special on HBO. And women weren't in the conversation at all. And I kept seeing

08:41more and more women with Alzheimer's. And everybody that I talked to kept saying to me, that's

08:46only because women live longer. And I'm like, I don't think that's right. I don't think that's

08:50right. And so I went to the Alzheimer's Association. I said, will you partner with me? I'm a journalist.

08:56I'll spend the time in the field. Let's do a poll. Let's do the reporting that's required to change

09:01this narrative because I think it should be changed. And lo and behold, we discovered, we reported out

09:08that in fact, two thirds of those who got Alzheimer's were in fact women. And lo and behold,

09:14no one knew why that is because there was no research on women. And that's a much larger

09:20conversation. But there was no research into the brains of women, women's health spans. So right

09:26then and there, I said, we're going to start an organization that is going to fund research into

09:31women's brains, into women's health spans. And maybe we'll find a cure. Maybe we won't, but maybe we'll

09:37learn about what is going on in women's lives that will help women, that will help

09:43women perhaps prevent Alzheimer's, learn more about their own health spans. Changing the narrative

09:49was critical because women weren't in the narrative, even though the first woman, Aloise Alzheimer's,

09:56studied a woman with Alzheimer's, but women weren't in the storyline. So I think changing the storyline

10:03about Alzheimer's to say this disproportionately impacts women. And why is that? And then to kind

10:11of launch an institution and an organization that funds research into women. There are many organizations

10:18that fund research into men, but this one was exclusively devoted to that. There also was no discussion

10:25at the time into the word prevention, into the word lifestyle when it came to Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's was

10:31kind of in the dark ages as something that just happened to you as you got older and that there

10:37was nothing anybody could do. And we now know that's wrong. And I think whenever you think you have

10:43a hunch that something isn't what it seems, it's good to go after it, whether it's a disease, whether it's

10:50your own body, actually, whether it's a story, whether it's in your own home, whatever it is,

10:56I have learned that when you have a whisper, something's not right, go after that. Because

11:02I had an idea like this isn't right. The story isn't right. It doesn't add up. And I'm really glad

11:09that we did. I'm really glad that now every organization, when they talk about Alzheimer's,

11:14they mentioned that it disproportionately impacts women. We still don't have the answer. But we started

11:20the very first women's Alzheimer's prevention center at the Cleveland Clinic in Las Vegas. And

11:26now we've started through our relationship with the Cleveland Clinic, a large comprehensive women's

11:32health and research center, because women's health and research lags decades behind not just in

11:38Alzheimer's, but in all areas of a woman's life. And I became aware of that in my work in Alzheimer's.

11:46I spoke to a founder in the brain health space who said that neurology and cognitive health is where

11:53oncology was 30 years ago. There's so much ground to make up. Yeah. And if you compound that with the

11:58underfunding of women's health research in general, we really are starting at a disadvantage. Correct.

12:05And we're speaking at a moment where we are seeing cuts to CDC, NIH. What are you doing to maybe help

12:13prevent a backslide in research on women's brain health? So I'm using my voice the best I can.

12:20I'm continuing to talk about women's health and research. I'm continuing to be in contact with

12:26those at NIH who oversee the women's health and research office there, which is under the director

12:33of NIH, whom I've spoken to, continuing to support the Women's Health Initiative. I've spoken to him about

12:41that and I'm doing all I can on the political advocacy front, but I'm also asking other institutions

12:46to also engage in women's health and research. The federal government can do it on a big scale.

12:52And I was really proud of the work that we did under the Biden administration, which launched the first

12:58White House initiative on women's health and research. And this was a huge change in the zeitgeist

13:04for women's health and research. You know, this was the first time the federal government did that.

13:09And it changed how people saw women's health and research, how they talked about it, how other

13:14institutions thought about it themselves, how so many institutions have now started their own,

13:21some on a small scale, the Cleveland Clinic on a big scale, a women's health center where women can go

13:28go and talk about their symptoms and they can be dealt with, oh, you're perimenopausal, you're

13:34menopausal, you have autoimmune, you have MS, it's a neurological thing, it's a depression thing.

13:39And you can be also a part of research. And that's where we need to get every hospital should have a

13:44women's health and research center. Every hospital should be able to look at a woman from her teen years

13:52all the way to her eighties and nineties, because that's what it means. That's what women's health

13:57means. Women's health changes by the decade. And for most people, when they think about women's

14:03health, they think about a woman's reproductive years, or they think about breast cancer, or maybe

14:08a pap smear. And actually, most women, when they say, well, I get my mammogram on my pap smear, I'm like,

14:14whoa, there's a whole other world out there. Do you know what your A1C number is? Have you ever

14:20checked your hormones? Are you perimenopausal? Are you menopausal? Do you take hormones? Has anybody

14:25spoken to you about that? Do you know that perimenopause and menopause starts in the brain,

14:30right? Not in the vagina, which is what most people are like, what? So the education that needs to be

14:38done when it comes to women's health and research is in medical schools, is with women themselves,

14:44is with doctors, is with hospital administrators, and doctors are only giving you what they know

14:53right now, which is very little, actually. You mentioned menopause and perimenopause,

14:58and we're sitting in a moment where these words are part of the cultural zeitgeist in a way that

15:03they were not when you started the women's Alzheimer's movement. Are you a little bit

15:09resentful that it took so many years for people to talk about this openly? Not at all. I'm thrilled.

15:14You know, I wrote the foreword to Lisa Mosconi's XX Brain, I don't know how many years ago,

15:20because I started funding her research into the menopausal brain, and then I wrote the foreword to

15:25her menopause brain and funded the research that she could actually photograph a menopausal brain.

15:32So I think I'm not resentful at all. I'm thrilled that there's so much conversation around menopause

15:39and perimenopause. I'm thrilled that there's interest in the conversation around hormones. I'm thrilled

15:45that women are thinking about their health in different ways, asking their providers questions

15:50that my generation couldn't ask, didn't ask, didn't know to ask. And by the way, had we asked,

15:56we'd get like, I don't know. And my whole goal was, I went to the doctor and was told, I don't know,

16:02I don't know. And I'm like, I'm going to change that for my daughter's generation. It can't be that

16:07way. My daughters are in their 30s. I don't want their generation or girls in their 40s, women in their

16:1340s or 50s to get, I don't know. That's wrong. And I see this as a human rights issue. Actually,

16:20I think it's a disgrace that we're so far behind. I think we need to catch up. And I think that's good

16:27for the whole country. That's good for anybody who has a sister, has a mother, has a daughter,

16:33has loved a woman. You want parody in this way. And you want people to go to the doctor and be able to

16:39get, you know, good data. And you want them to be able to make informed decisions about their health.

16:44So while women may live longer, they live in worse health longer, and worse financial health,

16:52emotional health, physical health, mental health. And that's not right. And so I spend,

16:58I'm a full time volunteer mission person in this space, whether it's Alzheimer's, MS,

17:04neurological health, all of it. And women, you know, need to vote on it too. It's not going to just

17:11happen. It, we can all be advocates for our health and for people who respect our health.

17:18You are a full time volunteer, but you're also an entrepreneur in this space. Yeah.

17:22Forbes had a feature earlier this spring about Mosh, the company you co-founded with your son.

17:28And I heard you say in an interview that you'd been trying to do it for years and people would say to you

17:33at the time, there's no market for this. People don't want to eat for their brains. Can you give

17:38a quick 30 second explainer of what Mosh is and what you're doing with it?

17:41I can do it, but not in 30 seconds. But Mosh is a very successful, delicious, nutritious protein bar

17:47made for the brain. We fund research into women's brain health, into Alzheimer's, into the women's

17:53Alzheimer's movement. And it is a bar that, as I said, has this mission that has everything in it

18:01to support a healthy brain. And it's a company that I co-founded with my son, Patrick.

18:07And he helped me get it off the ground and he made it happen because I went around to every

18:13protein bar maker because I'm a protein bar fanatic. And nobody was interested in eating for brain health.

18:20When I would talk about cognitive health, they were like, say what? When I would talk about drinks for

18:26cognitive health, supplements for cognitive health. And this was pre-COVID, everybody would be like,

18:31I don't know about that. I don't think people understand the word cognitive health. I don't

18:36think people understand eating for their brain. They can't see their brain. They're scared of their

18:40brain. And so I was telling this to my son and he's like, well, why don't you do it yourself? And I'm like,

18:46I don't know how to do that. I don't, I need a big company. He goes, no, you don't. He goes, bet on yourself,

18:52mommy. He goes, stop talking and do it. And I'm like, well, I'm in my sixties. You know,

18:58I can't start another thing. He goes, yeah, you can. I'll help you. And I'm like, okay, let's go.

19:05And so I put the money down. He brought his expertise to the table and it's a huge success.

19:12And we're actually in the midst of a big fundraising round. As we speak, we just launched our plant

19:17line and people are eating for cognitive health. They totally get it. And women come up to me now

19:23all the time. You know, I'm, I give this to my kids. I'm eating it myself. I give it to my parents.

19:29It's a generational issue, brain health. And people are eating for their brain health,

19:35not just mosh bars, but they're very aware now of, I think COVID did that. They're aware of brain fog.

19:41They're aware of what's going into their food, what's not in their food.

19:45And I think Mosh is riding that wave really well. It's much more a part of the cultural

19:50conversation to talk about what's in our food. And it goes along with menopause being in,

19:53in the zeitgeist. Yeah. So has that changed the funding conversation? Are investors more?

19:58Oh yeah. I mean, it's a whole different ball game. I mean, if you look at, you know,

20:02I went to Expo West and part of the, what was interesting is the fastest growing trend was

20:07women's health and cognitive health. And both weren't even on the slides five years ago, you know?

20:14So this just shows you how fast things change. And once again, it shows you that if you have a hunch

20:21and you believe in your idea, you should just go for it because everybody's going to tell you you're

20:26crazy. Everybody's going to tell you you're wrong. Everybody's going to tell you that, you know,

20:31it's impossible, but somebody will come along and say like, I'll help you. And you really in life need

20:37one person. I remember my younger son saying to me something that always stuck with me.

20:44He said, you know, Jesus wasn't Jesus until he got a follower. He needed one person to come along and go,

20:52I hear your message. I'll go with you. And then there's two or three. So I say that to anybody who's

20:58got an idea, you just need one person to come along and go, I hear you. I get you. I see you.

21:06Let me go with you. And then all of a sudden you have the beginnings of a movement. There's that great

21:12Margaret Mead quote that said, never doubt that a small group of people can change the world.

21:17In fact, it's the only thing that ever has. And I think that that's really great. You may feel alone,

21:24just get one person and then you have a movement. Now we have a set of questions that we ask everyone

21:30on the 50 over 50, but I'm going to ask them with a slightly I am Maria theme. There's a poem in this

21:36book called Dear Life and it begins, I've been wanting to talk to you lately to tell you, you are

21:42not what I planned. So when you were in your twenties and thirties, did you ever imagine your career in

21:49your fifties? What had you planned? I definitely didn't plan a protein bar company. I definitely

21:55didn't plan a successful newsletter. I definitely didn't plan a publishing imprint. I don't think

22:02I planned anything that I'm doing. I, you know, when I was a teenager, I didn't even think like that,

22:09but I saw my mother working to her eighties. My mother was on fire until her dying day. So I expected

22:19that I would be working until my dying day. I didn't know, uh, in what way I assumed I'd be a

22:27journalist my whole life. You know, I became a journalist at 21, but I think I was a journalist

22:33even before I went to work in a television station because I was always asking people questions and

22:40interviewing them. Uh, what are you doing in my house? Who are you? Why are you working on this

22:47campaign? Do you really believe in what my dad is saying? Are you trustworthy? Who are you? You know,

22:52so I was always doing that. Um, but I didn't plan to be doing what I'm doing now. And I think that's

23:00the beauty of life. What's your advice to women in their twenties and thirties who feel like they

23:07have to have it all planned or that they have to rush to fit in every last accomplishment before

23:12they turn 40? Yeah. Well, I have this conversation around my dinner table all the time, uh, to young

23:19women who are 30, who feel old, uh, young women who are in their mid thirties, who aren't married,

23:25who think life is over. I talked to women who are 40 and think life is over. I talked to a woman,

23:32as I said yesterday in the, she's in her late forties and she thinks it's over. And I'm like,

23:38Hey, my sixties were my greatest decade ever, ever. And I think, you know, there's so much to look

23:45forward to the fact that you're alive, that you can breathe, that you can walk, that you can think

23:50is a triumph and it's a blessing, you know? And if you keep thinking and creating and in,

23:58and are alive in your own life, there's nothing you can't do. I really believe that. And I think,

24:04you know, people are like, my God, you reinvented yourself so many times. I was like, I didn't even

24:07think about that. I just was asking questions, looking for white space, thinking about what hadn't

24:12been done, keeping my eyes open. And I landed here, you know, it wasn't planned, but it was like,

24:21I'm awake and I'm looking around and I'm like, okay, my dad is the smartest human at the most finely

24:29tuned brain on the planet. Doesn't know who I am. What's that? Where's that start? How's that start?

24:38Who gets that? I don't buy into the idea that there's nothing you can do about that.

24:43Oh, no help for women. Huh? I'm going to look at that, you know? So I think these things,

24:51you know, if you ask questions, things open up for you in a way, perhaps if you just didn't and sat back

25:00to that point about, I don't buy that there's nothing you can do about that version of that

25:03same question, but for brain health, what is one thing women in their 20s and 30s should be doing

25:09right now to protect their brains? Exercise, prioritize their sleep, eat in a way that nourishes

25:16and is nutrition for your brain. And those women should be having conversations and men, by the way,

25:22everybody in their 20s and 30s, not just women, but should be having conversations with their parents

25:28because they are caregivers on deck, those in their 20s and 30s. All of us are caregivers on deck or

25:35we've been caregivers or we're going to need caregivers. And if you want your parents to be

25:41independent and cognitively healthy as long as possible, you should be talking to them about

25:48what they're eating, whether they're prioritizing sleep, whether they're socially connected,

25:53whether they're exercising, you should look as my kids do. What's in my pantry? What's in my fridge?

26:00What am I doing? Am I engaged? My kids are actually telling me to slow down, but they do come into my

26:08house and throw things out that I have spent a lifetime living with like my ketchup or something

26:14because it's high in sugar or my cleaning products that aren't healthy. So I think, you know, it's a really

26:21good generational conversation to be having for young people because your life when somebody gets

26:29Alzheimer's in your family, it's going to affect everybody in the family and someone's going to

26:35have to care for the person with Alzheimer's. And it's not going to be just the girl. It's going to be

26:42everybody. And so the longer, as I say to my kids, the longer I'm working, the longer I'm engaged,

26:49the longer I'm healthy, the better for you. Is being over the age of 50 an advantage or a disadvantage

26:55in your line of work? For me, it's been, you know, a great advantage because it's giving me wisdom.

27:01It gives me perspective. I'm able to say I've been through things and I'm still standing and you will

27:08get through things and you will still stand. I'm by far the oldest person at MOSH. And so, you know,

27:15I mean, like, so when people are freaking out, I'm like, it's going to be okay. I've been through

27:19worse. You've been through worse. It's going to be okay. We're going to be okay. And I think,

27:23you know, I think that's why also, I think businesses benefit from an age demographic as

27:29well as diversity in terms of lived experiences. You know, that somebody who has been through ups and

27:36downs, who has been through a volatile financial market can bring perspective to the boardroom.

27:43And I think, you know, people don't really ask me about my age. And I'm always the first person

27:51in my office. I'm usually the last person to leave my office. And I go to the office and I like going to

27:59the office because all of my friends came from my work. And I think I'm a big believer in that too.

28:06So my age has been, I think is an asset. Not exactly when I wake up in the morning,

28:12my age is in an asset, but then, you know, it takes like a little bit longer to just,

28:17you know, get up and get moving, get moving and feel good. Actually, you know, I think that that's,

28:23you know, a realistic thing. But I think if you're, you know, I think the advantages so outweigh,

28:30and I'm so grateful to be this age, because I'm very aware that not everybody gets to this age.

28:37And I would have been really bummed had I missed my 60s.

28:40You have a poem in I Am Maria called Never Too Late. And I doubt you were thinking of the 50 over

28:4550 when you wrote it. But I want to read a stanza because I literally wrote in the margin 50 over 50.

28:50It's never too late to live the life you imagined. And it's never too late to live a life you never

28:56imagined. So live the life that's exactly meant for you. Do you remember where you were and what

29:03you were thinking when you wrote that? I'm kind of thinking that all the time.

29:07I'm kind of thinking that every day, like, get going, Maria, live this life. You know,

29:12you come around one time, you get it one time. Is this, you know, am I where I'm supposed to be today?

29:18You know, the life you kind of are living in one decade might not be the life you're living in

29:25the next decade. And I think so many women have really challenging, I would say 30s, 40s,

29:32and perhaps 50s. They may be raising kids, working in really demanding careers, sometimes one or two

29:38jobs, and are often caring for aging parents. And they're slammed at every turn, right? At every turn.

29:46And for me, you know, after, you know, taking care of both of my parents, and being with them both

29:54on their deathbeds, I was like, check, good daughter, you know. And after surviving my divorce,

30:02I'm like, check, good wife, good ex-wife. And my kids are up and moving. I'm like, good mother, that

30:08never ends. But I'm not in the carpool line. I'm not at parent teacher conferences. I'm not,

30:15you know, the den mother anymore. And that was a lot. You know, I had four kids, and it was a lot to

30:20manage and to deal with. But once these things are behind you, actually, there's a big runway in front

30:30of you that I think people don't talk enough about. I think people think like, oh, Empty

30:37Nest, it's kind of a drag of a name. I'm going to like, you know, it's going to be a disaster.

30:42It's all over. It's just beginning in many ways. It's just beginning. And I loved being a mother.

30:50I loved being married. I loved my life. But I really, really love my life now.

30:55Maria Schreiber, thank you so much for sitting down with Forbes. So appreciate your time.

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