For decades, Michael Clinton held a serious day job—until 2019, he was the president and publishing director of Hearst Magazines, where he oversaw the business operations of titles including Esquire, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar. When he stepped down from the corporate world, however, he was not thinking about retirement. Instead, he focused his considerable energies on writing and photographing books, traveling, philanthropic work, and his running practice. He has visited 124 countries—most recently, Poland, where he did humanitarian work—and competed in 20 marathons. This summer, he’ll be visiting Chianti with family and friends, while contemplating ways to build upon the success of his most recent book, Roar: Into the Second Half of Your Life (Before It’s Too Late). Herewith, he shares his key components to the good life. —Ashley Baker
Airline: Emirates.
Airport: It’s a tie between Dubai International Airport and Santa Fe Regional.
Alibi: “I was running a marathon in Mongolia.”
App: Google Translate. It helped on my recent trip to Poland.
Bag: Tumi.
Bedtime: No phones for eight hours.
Boyfriend/girlfriend: You can still have one over 50.
Breakfast, weekend: Scrambled eggs with tomatoes and goat cheese.
Car: A red 1989 Jeep Wrangler.
Child: Embrace your inner one.
Cocktail: Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina.
Couple: Any two who are truly in love.
Diet: No red meat.
Dinner, weekend: Swordfish and a skillet of vegetables.
Disguise: My New York Roadrunners cap.
Drive: The high road from Santa Fe to Taos.
Enemy: Negativity.
Escape: Any ski slope.
Excuse: None allowed. Do what you say you will do.
Family: Find your tribe. Biological or not.
First Lady/First Man: Franklin and Eleanor.
Flaw: Impatience.
Hideaway: My house in Santa Fe.
Hotel: Cavas Wine Lodge, in Mendoza, Argentina.
Indulgence:
Mexican food with margaritas.
Jacket: Ted Baker.
Kiss-off: “Stop saying 60 is the new 40—60 is the new 60.”
Movie: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.
Name: I always wanted to be named Finnegan.
Nonfiction book: Walden, by Henry David Thoreau.
Novel: Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne.
Pet: My amazing vizsla, Hannah.
Piece of advice: “Get rid of your self-imposed ageism.”
Podcast: Pivot.
Restaurant: Bistro Été, in Water Mill, New York.
Ride: With my high-school friends in my dad’s Bel Air.
Saying: “Let’s rock and roar.”
Singer: Sting.
Street: The one that I live on.
Television series: Reacher.
Theme song to your life: “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” by Marvin Gaye.
Time of day: Seven a.m. on the beach with Hannah.
Toast: “May all your pain be champagne.”
Vacation: Argentina.
Victim: Never be one.
View: Reaching Uhuru, on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Weekend bag: Orvis.
Work of art: Warhol’s endangered-species series.
Michael’s Essentials
