Encore: After Usefulness: Desire, Identity & the Quiet Panic of Freedom
Podcast: Skin and Soul™: Beyond the Pale with Gwenm A. CarsleyPublished On: Fri Apr 03 2026
Description: What happens when usefulness ends and life finally slows down. In this episode, I sit with Dawn Marcotte, a Certified Professional Retirement Coach who works at the inner edge of retirement. Not the financial planning. Not the bucket lists. The moment when roles fall away and time opens up, leaving many people face to face with freedom, grief, desire, and a quiet panic they did not expect. We talk about identity after productivity, what surfaces when no one is waiting for you to perform, and how retirement can become a threshold rather than a retreat. This is a conversation about aliveness, unlived longings, and the courage it takes to meet yourself when the scaffolding disappears.
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