Still Working at 80: When Retirement Isn’t an Option | Noah Sheidlower Artwork

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Still Working at 80: When Retirement Isn’t an Option | Noah Sheidlower

April 07, 2026 • Dart Lindsley / Noah Sheidlower • Season 1 • Episode 186

0:00 | 1:11:55

An 81-year-old woman shows up for work at Home Depot while managing serious health issues. She isn’t there because she loves retail. She’s there because stopping isn’t really an option. That story is one of many Noah Sheidlower encountered while reporting on Americans working into their 80s and 90s.

Together, they point to something that's changing about retirement: for many people, it doesn’t arrive as a clear finish line, but as something delayed, reshaped, or out of reach. In this episode, Dart and Noah discuss what these stories reveal about work, aging, responsibility, and how people navigate a retirement that doesn’t go as planned.

Noah Sheidlower is a senior economy reporter at Business Insider. He covers retirement, aging, and labor, and leads the 80 Over 80 series.

In this episode, Dart and Noah discuss:
- The real lives behind retirement statistics
- Working out of necessity, not choice
- What it actually looks like to work in your 80s
- An 81-year-old working through serious health issues
- How financial shocks reshape retirement
- Divorce and long-term financial consequences
- Aging without a partner or safety net
- The role of health in limiting choices later in life
- How systems and policies shape who can retire
- And other topics…

Noah Sheidlower is a senior economy reporter at Business Insider covering retirement, aging, and labor. He leads the 80 Over 80 series, which explores how Americans continue working into their 80s and 90s. His reporting focuses on individual stories to show how health, family, financial shocks, and broader economic forces shape people’s ability to stop working.

Connect with Noah:
Business Insider author page: https://www.businessinsider.com/author/noah-sheidlower
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-sheidlower-64a789190/
Twitter: https://x.com/NSheidlower

Work with Dart:
Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what’s most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.

Dart Lindsley

Host