Century Lives

The United States has been described as the “most age-segregated society that’s ever been." In the final episode of Century Lives: The Century Club, Ken travels around the globe to explore how other societies make intergenerational connections. He gets serenaded by the oldest and youngest Spaniards and witnesses the world’s most comprehensive effort to build an intergenerational society in Singapore. And as Ken wraps up his trip, he realizes that he found his ikigai.

It may not come as a surprise, but fixating on someone’s age can affect how you think about them—and even how they think about themselves. And the health implications are dramatic. People who have a negative view of aging live on average 7.5 fewer years than those who have a more positive view, even holding constant for other health and social factors.   In this episode, Ken travels to some of the longest-lived countries in the world to find societies that put real thought into the needs of older adults. We'll see a fashion show in Singapore, go to a beauty school in Japan, and meet a street photographer in South Korea to discover a kind of longevity advantage that stems from cultures that encourage a positive attitude towards aging.

It’s been said that you are what you eat, and Italians are aging like the fine wine that makes them famous. As older Italians retire and leave their careers behind, an astonishing number of them are beginning new chapters as volunteers. In this episode, Ken travels across Northern Italy to explore its vibrant new culture of volunteerism. Along his journey, he gets the best advice about aging he’s ever heard.

The national motto in South Korea is “hurry, hurry,” and that’s what the country did as it turned its metropolitan areas into “lifelong learning cities.” Across the nation, adults of all ages now have access to free classes that help them keep learning—and connecting to each other. In this episode, Ken goes back to school, where he learns about the traditional art of teamaking, and meets a recent college graduate who is older than he is. Then we return to the United States to hear from an American who attributes her long lifespan—99 years and counting!—to lifelong learning.

You can’t go anywhere in Japan without running into older workers. They might be driving your taxi, serving your food, or selling you tickets at a tourist attraction. Japan has the highest percentage of older workers in the world. You might think this has to do with economic necessity and changes in pension rules. But when you look closely, you’ll discover the widely accepted belief in Japan that work brings you “Ikigai," which translates to a purpose in life that is critical to healthy and successful aging.      In Episode 2 of Century Lives: The Century Club, host Ken Stern travels to Fukuoka, Tokyo, Ukiha, and Toyama to meet older workers who describe what they enjoy about working longer. And, he visits a company in Tokyo that is developing new adaptive technologies that will help people work into their 70s and 80s—that is, if they so choose.

Americans are obsessed with youth. But instead of keeping us younger, that focus is proving detrimental to our health. Join us as we explore how the U.S. can reframe our government policies and social perspectives to help extend our lives. In the first episode of Century Lives: The Century Club, “The Fountain of Youth,” Ken searches for centenarians in Italy, drags his Gen Z son to Florida’s Fountain of Youth tourist attraction, and learns an interesting truth from the chronicler of the world’s long-lived Blue Zones.

Though attitudes about retirement are shifting rapidly, traditional notions of retirement still hold currency. In Episode 6, we meet Maria and Brendan D’Souza. Maria is a senior nurse at Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, just a few years away from retirement. Her son Brendan is freshly minted from medical school, starting his career just a few floors away from his mother. They share a family bond, a career, and many of the same interests and passions, but for all that unites them, different perspectives and circumstances facing their generations are creating different ideas about retirement, caregiving and family commitments.

For some, work is a calling, and they can’t ever imagine giving it up.  In episode 5, we meet Michael Segal, and hear his incredible journey—beginning with being left for dead on the floor of a convenience store in Austin, TX and ending with his lifelong commitment to helping trauma victims survive and flourish in the trauma wards of Ben Taub Hospital.

For some, retirement is just the starting pistol for that next act. Whether it is a new business or an entirely new career, retirement is just an out-of-date term for starting something new. To this group, entrepreneurship is a big draw (older Americans are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs) but it’s really about the freedom to pursue an exciting new phase of life. In episode 4, we meet Tasha Mayweather, and are drawn into her vision for her next act: KBK Skating Palace. And that’s just the beginning.

Retire young: travel, spend time with family, perhaps tend to a nice piece of land in the country. It is the retirement that we all are supposed to want, but relatively few people get. In episode 3, we meet Carrie Nealis, a nurse in her late 30s who dreams of having the retirement her parents did. But she is challenged by the uncertainty of our times and the nagging belief that her generation will not share the same opportunities of their parents.

It’s a common story: approaching retirement with little or no savings, uncertain how far social security or savings will take you, dealing with climbing health care costs and the potential responsibility for providing financial support to adult children. Increasingly, retirement is a financial struggle for millions. In episode 2, we meet Genie and Burgess Etzel, both approaching the final year of their careers at Harris Health. Perhaps they have it made: two pensions, a house in a fashionable neighborhood, a loving family. All this is true, but as with so many Americans, it hides complex family dynamics and the challenging math of the new retirement.

If there is a new vision of what “The New Retirement” should be, it is the “all of the above” retiree: stay healthy, stay involved in something you are passionate about, and be a dedicated caregiver to your future grandchildren. In episode 1, we meet Esmaeil Porsa, the CEO of Harris Health, to hear about his arduous and shockingly improbable road to the top of Harris Health, and what it means for the retirement that may not come as soon as his family hopes.

In episode 6, we explore an insidious epidemic, equivalent to the health effects of smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It can cause inflammation, heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. And it can cut our lives short by as much as 30 percent. It’s not Covid - or a virus - or a bad diet. It’s loneliness. More than 60 percent of Americans report feeling lonely and disconnected. And that number keeps going up. Today we’ll explore the health effects of loneliness. And our host Ken Stern comes up with an ingenious way to overcome his own feelings of isolation - as he sets out to make six new friends in his neighborhood.

Obesity rates have exploded in the US over the past half-century, with negative consequences for healthy longevity. We travel to rural Arkansas, where we visit countless dollar stores and explore the impact of ultra-processed foods on the obesity epidemic. We also examine potential solutions – from anti-obesity medication to Food Is Medicine interventions – as we begin to tackle obesity as a disease and not a personal choice.

In Episode 4, we explore how the built environment—and trees—impact communities. Renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead designed Buffalo, New York, around its parks, and it was once considered the best-designed city in America. But in the mid-20th century, one of his parkways was torn out and replaced with a highway that connected downtown with the new suburbs, in the name of urban renewal. We explore the impact of the highway on the surrounding community and traffic safety for automobiles and pedestrians alike. The city plans to put a cap on the highway to restore the urban parkway—and Frederick Law Olmstead's vision. But is it too late?

In Episode 3 of Century Lives Season 4: A Lifetime of Inequality, we go to Phoenix, Arizona, to understand how it is that the built environment can have great consequences for lifelong health and longevity. We focus our story on trees, which are abundant in wealthy North Phoenix, and almost completely absent in South Phoenix—instead replaced by concrete, warehouses, railroads, highways, and the like. In Episode 3, we discuss how climate change is only exacerbating the situation, and how the consequences affect predominantly poverty-level Black and Latino people.

In Episode 1 of Century Lives Season 4: A Lifetime of Inequality, we visit Albuquerque, New Mexico, to explore the impact of early childhood education on lifelong health. The story looks at the impact of high quality early childhood education on health, and then follows the 12-year effort to pass Constitutional Amendment 1—an amendment to fully fund childhood education for all children in the state.

If there's one thing we know about life expectancy in the US, it's that wealthy communities have long life expectancies and poor communities have shorter life expectancies. But some poorer communities far exceed their peers in terms of health outcomes and length of life. Experts will tell you that “place matters"—but they can’t tell you exactly why. In Episode 1 of Century Lives: Place Matters, we visit Presidio County, Texas. It’s one of the poorest places in America and one of the top ten longest-lived counties in the nation. We explore the extraordinary story of Presidio—how the community flourishes despite its poverty and distance from health care, and what the rest of us can learn from its longevity.

People 55+ are reinventing life post-retirement, from its traditional image to a time for exploring second chapters and, especially, opportunities that bring meaning, purpose, and community. What does this new phase of the work experience look like and how can more of us find inspiration as we work longer? People 55+ are remaking what it means to "retire" without following the traditional roadmap. Instead of rest and relaxation, they are pursuing new channels to build on their skills, grow their experiences and contribute to their communities in a meaningful way. In this episode of Century Lives: The 60-Year Career, we examine how this generation - one that's living longer, staying active and determined to ignore the old roadmap - is redefining this phase of life. We talk with people who have thought about and are living post-retirement careers including an art gallery director who found a second calling as a letter writer for people at end of life and the founder of a nonprofit supporting “encore careers.” Guests are: Aaron Benanav, Postdoctoral Researcher at Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin; Frish Brandt, President and Partner at the Fraenkel Gallery; David Blustein, Professor of Counseling Psychology at Boston College; Marc Freedman, Founder and CEO of Encore.org; and Sandra Harris, President of AARP Massachusetts.

More than three-quarters of older workers experience ageism in the workplace, yet changing demographics and tight labor markets make this employee base increasingly critical to American businesses. We examine the obstacles faced by older workers and how some companies are trying to connect with them.     If longer careers truly are our future, then American business will need to overcome its aversion to older workers. Our demographic course is already set: Due to increased longevity and declines in birth rate, older workers will become essential to the economy in the coming years. Yet according to AARP, 78% of workers 50+ saw or experienced ageism in 2020 and countless more didn’t even get that first interview. In this episode of Century Lives: The 60-Year Career, we examine how this undervalued segment of the workforce will be a key building block of the economy of the future and highlight innovative company-based solutions to embrace them. Guests are: Ashton Applewhite, activist and author of This Chair Rocks, A Manifesto Against Ageism; Lena Barkley, Operations Manager of Workforce Initiatives at CVS Health; Ronald Lee, Professor of the Graduate School in Demography and Economics at University of California Berkeley; Barbara Spitzer, Managing Director at Accenture; and Elizabeth White, aging solutions advocate and author of 55, Underemployed, and Faking Normal.