After the Rush Podcast

Catherine | After the Rush
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Designing what comes next — the relationships, the work, the money, and the life you still have time to build. For people who are capable, experienced, and ready for what comes next. aftertherushletter.substack.com

  1. 6d ago

    Boundaries With Adult Children Without Losing the Relationship

    Everyone tells you to set boundaries with your adult children. Almost nobody tells you what to do with the guilt that shows up right after, or what to do when the boundary lands badly and you’re sure you’ve broken something. This episode is the framework I actually use at my own kitchen table, with my own two sons. Say it once without the essay attached. Let the guilt be yours to hold, not theirs to manage. And let the relationship survive being tested, because it can. Subscribe for free to get every episode and the written pieces that go with them. Workbooks and other material for designing the next chapter: aftertherush.store This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftertherushletter.substack.com/subscribe

  2. Oct 1

    Where to Live Next: The Framework Nobody Gives You

    Everyone hands you a calculator when the question turns to where you’ll live next. Cost of living, property tax, walkability, average January temperature. All useful. None of it the actual question sitting underneath. This episode is a framework I built at my own kitchen table, three questions to run before any of the spreadsheets: what can’t move without real cost, who can’t move without cost, and what you actually do with your days once the boxes are unpacked. Subscribe for free to get every episode and the written pieces that go with them. Workbooks and other material for designing the next chapter: aftertherush.store This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftertherushletter.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Sep 24

    What "Enough" Actually Feels Like

    I was standing in the kitchen on a Thursday, holding a mug I have owned for eleven years, and I realized I was not waiting for anything. No next thing on the horizon. For most of my life there had always been a next thing, and on that Thursday there was not one, and I almost did not know what to do with the quiet. This episode is about the gap nobody quite explains. We build toward enough for decades, assuming that when we reach it there will be a feeling. A click. And then we get there, or close, and the feeling does not arrive on schedule. The number is in the account. The bracing is still in the body. I talk about why having enough and feeling it are two separate skills, why the second one almost never comes free with the first, and the one plain exercise that changed how I stand in relation to my own number. Not a mindset cure. Just attention, pointed somewhere most of us never aim it. Related listening and reading: Visit AftertheRush.store for the workbook and the rest of the material. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftertherushletter.substack.com/subscribe

  4. Sep 10

    How I Choose Where My Money Actually Goes

    I had fourteen charity appeal letters spread across my kitchen table last December and I didn’t write a single check for eleven days. Not because I didn’t want to give. Because I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually decided where the money went instead of just responding to whoever asked most recently, or most movingly, or right before the tax deadline. I spent a decade writing those letters myself, for a nonprofit I founded. So this episode is the conversation I wish someone had handed me back when a photograph on an envelope was all it took. Not a lecture on efficient giving. Just the questions I actually ask now. How do you actually vet a charity before you give? A former nonprofit founder breaks down why the overhead ratio myth misled donors for decades, what questions to ask instead, and how to build a values-based giving practice in this chapter of life. Thanks for listening to After the Rush! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and episodes This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftertherushletter.substack.com/subscribe

  5. Season 1, Episode 12 Trailer

    The Three Numbers That Actually Matter Now

    My doctor handed me a summary sheet at my last physical and I put it in my bag face-down. I told myself I was busy. I kept it that way for two days. If you're sharing this with someone who might be sitting with a piece of paper face-down, please do. This episode is about what that avoidance was costing me, and about three specific numbers, fasting blood glucose, grip strength, and VO2 max, that I’ve come to think of as design tools rather than report cards. Not because they’re the only numbers that matter. But because they’re all responsive. They move with input. They open conversations that vague intentions to “take better care of yourself” simply don’t. If this is the kind of conversation you want more of, you can find related tools and guides at aftertherush.store This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftertherushletter.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Aug 31

    The Saver's Trap

    There are good beans going stale in a jar above my coffee maker. I have been saving them for a special morning that has not arrived in four months, and this week I finally admitted to myself why. This episode is about the saver’s trap. Not about being cheap, which is a simpler problem, but about what happens to the genuinely careful people, the ones who did everything right, when the math finally turns and the whole point of all that saving arrives, and they discover they cannot spend it. Not because the number frightens them, but because the only muscle they ever trained was the one that says not yet. I came up as a teenage mother with nothing, and saving is the discipline that built everything I have. I am not here to tell you it was a mistake. I am here to say that a discipline that saves your life in one chapter can quietly run your life in the next, and that the way out is not what the brochures tell you. The cure is not learning to spend. It is something else. Thanks for listening to After the Rush! Subscribe for free to receive free posts twice a week. Related reading and listening: How to Think About Risk When Retirement Is Close and/or Learning to Receive The workbooks and guides I have built for this exact chapter, including the financial guide to the next chapter, are at AftertheRush.Store This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftertherushletter.substack.com/subscribe

  7. Aug 27

    I Didn't Plan On Getting Old With You

    My sister was eight and I was six, in a house with five children, two parents, three dogs, chickens, a duck and rabbits, on an ordinary residential street. It was not a farm. It was a zoo with a mortgage. She went through that house looking for anywhere quiet and found a storage space at the back of our brother’s closet. She climbed in and stacked boxes into a wall so nobody could see her. Nobody in that house ever found it. Except me. And did I leave her alone? I stole food out of the kitchen and moved in. She had filled it with books. That is where she taught me to read. Sixty years later she has built herself another quiet place, and this week’s episode is about what it takes to stay on the right side of the wall. Did you have a hiding place growing up, and did anybody ever find it? If this is the kind of conversation you want more of, you can find related tools and guides at aftertherush.store The episode on retirement math and the one on financial identity both pick up some of what we cover here. Thanks for listening to After the Rush! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftertherushletter.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Aug 13

    The Technology You Actually Need to Learn

    Someone told me recently that people in this chapter need to “get comfortable with technology.” I understood what they meant. I also thought they had the framing slightly wrong. The people I know who are most effective with technology are not the ones who learned every new platform immediately. They are the ones who know what they are trying to accomplish and choose the tools that actually help. That is not the same skill as being an early adopter, and it does not require any apology. This episode covers the technology that actually matters in this chapter of life, starting with the financial infrastructure most people have left half-assembled, moving through the communication tools that keep you genuinely present with people you love, into the health information landscape that rewards engagement, and finishing with an honest take on AI that does not require you to be impressed by it. After the Rush is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. If this is the kind of conversation you want more of, you can find related tools and guides at aftertherush.store The episode on retirement math and the one on financial identity both pick up some of what we cover here. Thanks for listening to After the Rush! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftertherushletter.substack.com/subscribe

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Designing what comes next — the relationships, the work, the money, and the life you still have time to build. For people who are capable, experienced, and ready for what comes next. aftertherushletter.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Catherine | After the Rush
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Catherine McDowell
  • Show Website
    After the Rush Podcast