We first heard from a listener we’re calling Tom in an episode about life transitions. He told us he had recently gotten his driving license revoked because of a health condition, and felt stranded at home and abandoned by friends. In this episode, we called Tom back to learn more about his life and circumstances, and also to put him in conversation with Anna Zivarts, author of the new book, When Driving is Not An Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency. Together they talk about how not being able to drive impacts your routine, relationships, and self-worth. 
Podcast production by Zoe Azulay
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'Tom' Felt So Alone Not Being Able To Drive. We Made An Introduction.

Anna Sale explores the big questions and hard choices that are often left out of polite conversation.

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Health & Fitness

Vivian’s eating disorder started in college. She meticulously tracked calories and the number on the scale. Once she graduated she became less rigid with food, but her fixation with numbers took a new form: budgeting and saving money. In this episode, Anna talks to Vivian about her long and complicated relationship to mental math, how tracking calories and paychecks has helped distract her from painful loss, and how she’s managing with her money anxieties now as she plans a wedding and prenup.
Want to hear more about relationships and money? Check out an episode we made all about wedding costs last summer. And if you heard last week’s episode about a mobile health care clinic in rural Virginia, we have an important update from local reporting on the high levels of executive pay at the Health Wagon, which just prompted the Virginia legislature to cancel $800,000 of line item funding for the nonprofit. It's a developing story we'll be following.
Podcast production by Zoe Azulay 
Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus.
And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com.
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My Eating Disorder Turned Into an Obsession With Money

Nurse practitioners Teresa Owens Tyson and Paula Hill-Collins have saved countless lives in rural Appalachia. They operate a mobile clinic called The Health Wagon that brings much-needed care to people who wouldn’t otherwise get it. Teresa and Paula have also been friends since they were 14 years old. They finish each other's sentences, crack jokes, and support each other through difficult times. 
This week, Teresa and Paula join DSM to talk about their important work, their rock-solid friendship, and their exciting new side gig where they administer beauty treatments like botox and fillers. 
We also hear from filmmaker Ramin Bahrani, an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker who made a documentary about healthcare in the rural south called If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis.  
Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus.
And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com.
Podcast production by Cameron Drews.
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Filling the Health Care Gap (and Filling Lips!) in Appalachia

To make this episode we asked you, our listeners, if you had any questions about a big life transition you were preparing for where you needed some advice. 
We received a collection of questions that really trace the full life cycle of adulthood. We heard from those of you just starting out, wondering about new careers and family structures. We heard from those of you in midlife encountering destabilizing shake-ups in your routine, like a divorce, or a sudden disability. And we heard from you at the end of your working lives, wondering when to retire, and also about how to find purpose when life is no longer organized around a 9-5. 
To offer advice, we convened a panel of Slate writers and thinkers, Slate writer Mark Joseph Stern, What Next TBD host Lizzie O'Leary, and Working co-host Ronald Young Jr.
Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus.
And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com.
Podcast production by Zoe Azulay
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You’re at a Crossroads. We’re Here to Help.

Earlier this year, when the future of Death, Sex & Money was up in the air, Anna Sale consulted Rebecca Auman, a tarot reader and self-described witch based in North Carolina. Anna felt lost, but Rebecca encouraged her to relax and to pay close attention to what her body and mind were telling her about that moment. 
Afterwards, Anna wondered how Rebecca became so good at reading people–and at helping them to navigate tough situations. When the two of them spoke a second time, Rebecca revealed that her ability to help other people doesn’t always translate to an ability to help herself. In this episode, the two of them talk about how hard it is to trust our own intuition…and to even recognize it in the first place. 
Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus.
And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com.
Podcast production by Cameron Drews.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

'Tom' Felt So Alone Not Being Able To Drive. We Made An Introduction.

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