A podcast created by people over 90 is a hit in Argentina

The Thursday ritual takes place every two weeks. In a building’s meeting room, a group of people meet up to share their thoughts. Sometimes, there’s a theme. Other days, the conversation is free-flowing. “We talk about important things that have changed our lives. They can be ordinary things, or ones we never talk about,” ventures 97-year-old Alberto Chab on a sunny afternoon in the Belgrano neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

The two-hour meeting, which is attended by a dozen people, will be captured by Noventa y Contando (Ninety and Counting), a podcast and digital community created by nonagenarians. The project was inspired by Chab’s video of a simple dinner attended by others from his age group that was designed for them to have a place to chat and make friends. He posted it to TikTok. What happened next was unexpected.

In just a few days, Chab received some 2,000 emails about the post. The experience led him to take an interest in media, and eventually, the gatherings became a podcast. “I wasn’t just surprised about what happened. I’d say I was shocked. It seemed like a tsunami of messages. More than a tsunami, it was like Iguazu Falls. I couldn’t keep up with all of them, so we set up a Zoom group so more people could join. I think I touched on the very important issue of longevity in a way that hadn’t been done before. We talk about our stuff, what happened to us, what we eat, about rest and how we relate to everyone else,” says Chab, who is a psychoanalyst and continues to see patients.

The podcast’s first season — which is available on YouTube and Spotify in audio and video formats — consists of 11 episodes with subjects like tango, healthy habits, the role of women, children’s games, love and sex, and motivation, among others. Now, they are recording the second season’s episodes. Along with Chab, Guadalupe Camurati, who is 26, is a co-creator and host of the podcast. “We began to record with the themes that they were suggesting. The group format was impossible for a podcast, so my proposal was to record Albert with one of the group’s members. I show up not so much as an interviewer, but as a moderator. It transmits being active in your 90s and the idea of changing the concept that many have of aging.”

Today’s meeting of Noventa y Contando focuses on important things that changed the participants’ lives. Someone talks about a boat trip down the Tigre Delta canals, others of getting a short class on how to use their cell phone and another person shares the exercise routine that starts their day. Perhaps because of his profession, and having originated the project, Chab leads the talk. A few times, he intervenes. “I can’t complain about aging because while it has its drawbacks, it also has its benefits,” he tells the group, who listens attentively.

“Let’s talk about important things. For example, how do you get along with your family? How do you rest? How do you feed yourself? Is there anything you didn’t get around to doing and that you can still do? What each person says has an impact on the others and there really is a great deal of cohesion between us. At our age, the worst thing that can happen to you is loneliness. Being alone, which can be creative, is not the same as loneliness, which really becomes an illness. The people around us die and we are left very alone. This group combats that loneliness,” says Chab, who was invited to the Festival of Ideas in Puebla, Mexico as a result of the project.

Mabel Roncoroni is an English professor and is about to turn 93. She’s been a member of the group that makes Noventa y Contando since its first meeting, which took place in a co-working space. “The communication with the group members and getting to know about their lives seemed interesting. What each member says makes me reflect on my own life. Each one brings their individuality to the group,” she says.

The podcast’s Instagram account has nearly 290,000 followers. “The generation that lived it all tells you about it” is its slogan. Roncoroni says that younger people follow her and in a certain way, the podcast has had an impact on her work. “I have been an English professor my whole life. Since we got together and started making the podcast, I’ve gotten seven new students,” she says.

After less than a year, the project is taking on its own life. It seems to be becoming a massive platform for older people, their family members and young people who are interested in intergenerational exchange. Chab is happy to see this outcome, but also perceives it as a responsibility.

“I want to respond to the demand that arose after my video on TikTok went viral. I feel that I don’t have the right to keep these exchanges and what is happening to myself. Last year, I was a nobody and now, I have been interviewed more than 50 times,” he says, in awe.

A question hangs in the air during the conversation with the Noventa y Contando crew, one they are asked repeatedly by those searching for a recipe, a closely guarded secret. It is, quite simply; how do they manage to be doing so well in their 90s? Answers vary. Some meditate. Others are vegetarians. All talk about the importance of staying active. Some say that advice is useless, that everyone has to walk their own path and stumble over their own bumps in the road.

Roncoroni ventures a response that works for her: “One might thing that at 92 years old, which is my age, we just sit around watching television. I don’t do that, because I consider it tacky and boring. You have to create new things and keep evolving. That’s the idea, and I feel like that’s what I do every day.”

As dusk falls in Buenos Aires, Chab recalls an axiom of his Arabic parents. They’d say we shouldn’t worry about challenges, that everything could be worse. He ends on a lesson that he himself applies to life. “Read a book that you read 70 or 80 years ago and that you liked at the time. Do something that you always wanted to do and couldn’t for some reason. Write that story that you came up with. When you read it, you will have the satisfaction of having created something. Always have a little project, like the one we’re doing right now.”

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