Isabel Allende on The Quiet Happiness of Aging

September 23, 2026

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Episode Description

Isabel Allende joins Zibby Owens to discuss her new memoir Story Telling, a heartfelt love letter to life and writing that recounts the past forty-five years of her career, the philosophy and emotion behind craft, and the lessons she’s learned along the way. 


Inspired by the masterclass she did with the BBC, Isabel writes about the quiet happiness of aging, how the inner critic never goes away, the loss of her daughter, and the bad aspects of life that make great literature. 


She also shares the challenges of irony and humor in translation, her soul’s need to write, her belief that her stories exist in another dimension, how to overcome feeling stuck while writing, and the benefits of writing a bad novel. 


Learn more about Isabel here https://isabelallende.com/en/home.




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