When artists and athletes age, what happens to their work? Does it ripen or rot? As our bodies decay, how—and why—do we keep going? In this episode, John Burnham Schwartz sits down with the ever-original and wittily ironic Geoff Dyer to discuss the author’s own encounter with late middle age against the backdrop of the last days and last works of writers, painters, footballers, musicians, and tennis stars who’ve mattered to him throughout his life, with his latest book The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings.

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This episode is now available and can be played from the SVWC website on our Podcasts page or from other public podcast platforms, including Apple, Stitcher, and Spotify.Hosted by SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz, and in partnership with LitHub, the SVWC Beyond the Page podcast explores past conference talks and catches up with our writer alumni, weaving together writers’ ideas in a half-hour episode twice a month.

Photo credit: Guy Drayton