Encore: Love, sex and the secret life of retirees

Nov 14, 2025

Samantha Strauss, a celebrated screenwriter known for her work on "Dance Academy" and "The End," shares insights drawn from her grandmother's vibrant life in a retirement community. She reveals how love, sex, and candid discussions about death filled the residents' days. Strikingly, conversations around assisted dying and attempts to procure Nembutal reflect a unique perspective on aging. Samantha also emphasizes the joy and reinvention found in later life, painting a vivid portrayal of seniors as dynamic, engaging individuals.

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INSIGHT

Persistence And Serendipity In Creation

Strauss persisted for years writing Dance Academy, sending a long bible and rewriting until the right collaborators appeared.
She credits serendipity and persistence—meeting a producer who described the same idea—as pivotal to getting the show made.

INSIGHT

Creative Cost Of Chasing Hollywood

LA can change your professional identity quickly, making writers focus on selling over writing.
Strauss felt her personality shift and preferred the creative balance she found back in Australia.

ADVICE

Use Short Gaps To Write

Write on small gaps between jobs and use brief free periods to develop personal projects.
Treat constant 'homework' as the writer's reality and avoid expecting full holidays from creative work.

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Screenwriter Samantha Strauss on her grandmother's vibrant last years in a Gold Coast retirement home where love, sex and startlingly pragmatic conversations about dying were all part of daily life. (CW: not suitable for children) (R)

Samantha Strauss started dancing from the age of 2, and as she grew up, she became increasingly serious about it.

Sam was 18 when her budding ballet career was cut short by a shocking injury.

After a year on the couch recovering, she reinvented herself.

A few years later, inspired by the story of her own life in ballet, she co-created a TV series called Dance Academy.

Dance Academy went on to screen in 160 countries, with Sam as the head writer across the 65 episodes.

Sam's next show, The End, was set partly in a Gold Coast retirement village.

Samantha got the idea as she watched how her own Grandmother's life changed after moving into a similar place at the end of her life.

She expected to hate it, but eventually she found a circle of friends who partied hard and talked freely about love, sex, and death, including experimenting with making their own Nembutal.

Further information

Originally broadcast April 2021.

Samantha has since won a Logie for her work on the Netflix program Apple Cider Vinegar, based on Belle Gibson’s life.

This episode was produced by Nicola Harrison. The Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores Belle Gibson, wellness, scam, scammers, Philip Nitschke, exit international, VAD, voluntary assisted dying, nursing home, aged care, grandparent grandchild relationship, sick parent, writing, being a writer, dance career, LA, Los Angeles, film industry, connections, Australians in LA, actors, nudists and naturalists.

To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.