For his 50th birthday, my brother-in-law made something quietly brilliant. A playlist with one song for every year he’s been alive. But it wasn’t just a greatest hits list. He arranged it like a story. A life set to music. He and a few friends swapped their own “50 songs for 50 years” playlists, and I still find myself queuing his up on long drives or lazy Saturday mornings. It’s more than music. It’s a glimpse into who he is. That idea, the soundtrack of a life, got me thinking about mine. Not just the songs I liked, but the ones that helped shape me. That connected me to people and moments I still carry. So in this first episode of *Turning 50*, I go back to where it started. For me, that’s 1989. My sister’s Sinead O’Connor cassette. Conversations on a cottage beach about album tracks that never made it to the radio. Then came high school band rooms turned into impromptu Nirvana jam sessions, friendships rekindled by obscure band shirts, and cassette swaps at youth camps. And of course, the festivals. The sweat, the sun, the windows down drives, and the arguments about which band stole the show. […]