The “Unretirement” Movement

You are listening to Boomers Today with your host Frank Samson. Welcome to Boomers Today. I’m Frank Samson. Of course, each week we bring you very useful information on issues facing baby boomers, their parents and other loved ones.

And as I do on every one of our shows, I thank all of you, and I think all of you because our listeners keep growing each and every day, and it’s because of you. So many of you are sending our entire show or individual pot you know, the podcast to friends and families. So many of you listen either on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Audible and other podcast other stations as well, or some of you just asked Alexra Siri to take you to Boomers Today, and of course you can go that way as well, or go to our website at Boomers Today Radio dot com. So again, thank you so much, and I know why you are sharing our shows with friends and families because we have just wonderful, wonderful guests and very educational and I’m not going to disappoint you today because we have with us David Kravitt and Larry Wolfe, who are the authors of the super Aging workbook, and co founders of the growing online community superagingnews dot com, which tracks super aging revolution.

So, David and Larry, thank you so much for joining us on Boomers today. I really appreciate it. Well, thank you for having us, Thank you for inviting us straight. Yeah, no, it’s a pleasure.

Great to have you. And I’m going to learn a lot here too, Okay, because I want to be a superager, all right, want to learn. But why don’t we just start out with that. Let’s explain if you can to our listeners what you mean by a super ager.

Okay, what is that? Let me start off, and then we identified from our past life s as marketers a style of aging, the dominant model of aging, which we call default aging. And you know in both of our books, which says that at the age of sixty five, you’re essentially playing defense. God willing you live a lot longer, but basically it’s over. You know, you haven’t enough time left to do anything new.

Certainly, the best you can hope for is a hopefully pain free, gentle glide path to the finish line. But it’s it’s kind of done. Super Aging says at sixty five, hey, wait a minute, I could easily make it to one hundred the large the fastest growing population percentage terms as centenarians. There’s one hundred and one thousand people in the United States over the age of one hundred, and within thirty years that number is going to go four fold to four hundred thousand.

So if I’m sixty five and I think I got thirty forty years to go, and we’re just getting started on that, I’m not defeated. I’m not in decline. I’m not playing defense. I could do a whole I could have a whole new life.

I could do all kinds of new exciting things, stay healthy, stay active, and look at those years not as a management of decline, but as a new phase that’s exciting and productive and fulfilling. So in some in the subhead of our book, getting older, because Frank, we’re all going to be thirty minutes older thirty minutes from now, So getting older but getting older without getting old. So that’s suprating in a nutshell. Yeah, yeah, so you know, and I know we want to get into some of your you know, seven a’s of super aging in a minute, But you know, there’s that argument that I’ve heard that using an analogy of a car.

The person I spoke with, who’s also a researcher in aging, says, hey, you know you could take you know, take it in for oil changes, do everything you’re supposed to do, but at some point in time that car is just is just not going to go. It’s not made to go forever. And I know there’s a lot of talk about people that you know, might are we going to be continuing to the averages are going to continue to grow? And I don’t know exactly what it is today. I’m sure you know those numbers, but what is your belief at some point just we’re just not built to go that long? What are your thoughts there? Well, well, I think our grandkids may live to one twenty year longer.

There’s some very very interesting medical research going on. There’s research by Sinclair at Harvard. There’s on cell reversal, so research that can stop the aging of cells. But our basic premises by found the seven days of super aging.

You know, all things being equal, you’re going to live a lot longer, You’re going to have a lot better quality of life. And what a lot of scientists have found in their research is the non medical variables are sometimes even more critical than the medical variables. But when you look at longevity today, you know, compared to a few years ago, I mean, it’s progress dramatically. Is David sent centenarians of the fastest growing category in percentage terms of adults, and that’s gonna deep increasing and increase radically because so many exciting things are going on with medical technology and with the advent of general AI, that’s going to accelerate radically.

I mean, just look at the amazing stuff that was done so quickly with the RNA vaccine developed to combat COVID. Well now they’re using that RNA technology to develop new cancer technology. And even the current ability of you know AI and particularly general AI to a simulate and you know, identify relevant data, it’s mind boggling. I mean, hell, what’s going on.

It’s going to enable you to livel a lot, longer, better and healthier life, right right, Great? Great, So you know you had provided me with some statistics. You know, there’s one hundred and fifty million people over the age of fifty at North America. In the United States, there’s a nearly seven million age eighty five and older, and the centenarians as you said, of the fastest growing age group in the United States and percentage terms. All right, and I know both.

You’ve identified seven critical pillars that collectively enable you to switch from the narrow default aging mindset to the wider, infinitely more exciting superaging lens what we’re going to talk about, and you call them the seven a’s of superaging. So let’s take it one at a time. Here. The first one that you talk about is attitudes, So who’d like to address.

Any Let me take I’m going to the first two, actually, attitude and awareness, and then literally will do the next five. We’ve divided up. So attitude is the foundation of everything. If you take that out, you’re knocking out the props of all the others.

It’s sort of the umbrella, if you will, and the others, you know, huddling underneath it. And it’s been proven scientifically that a positive attitude extends longevity and health spend. So it isn’t just a generic good thing. Yeah that’s great, have a positive attitude, sure it might as well.

Might as well be an optimist. They’ve actually studied this now and they’ve taken this down to the cellular level that a positive attitude reduces stress. Stress is the number one cause of inflammation, and inflammation at the cellular level is the number one cause of age related disease. So a positive attitude fights all that and promotes health and longetic And the question becomes when we address it in our work, well in our book, but particularly in our work book, where there’s certain exercises you can do.

Can you teach yourself to have a positive attitude? What if you’re what if you’re just naturally you know, I’m a glass half empty person, you know kind, No, you don’t have to do that. The same as you can determine to get on a fitness program or a diet program, you can get on a positive attitude program and change your attitude. So that’s the first one. The second one is awareness, and that’s simply a response right to the glut, the torrent of information about longevity.

Uh, there’s new scientific studies every day, there’s empty ump websites about diet and exercise and workouts and do this and don’t do There’s a there’s a torrent of information. And here comes Larry and me, And we are not doctors, we’re not clinicians, we’re not nutritionists. We’re not fitness strength. We are good, though, at synthesizing and finding the vital information, every word of which is backed by an expert.

Nothing appears on our website that is not sourced to an expert. Not Larry and David dreaming it up, but an expert, And we organize it for you, and we give you a program how to keep in touch with how to stay informed so that you know what’s going on. So if you have a positive attitude that says I am going to make it a lot longer than any than my parents and grandparents did, I’m going to spend those years dynamically. And in order to do that, I’ve got to be informed.

I’ve got to keep myself up to data on what’s available to help me. Those are the pillars of the foundations, attitude and awareness from which the X five flow logically. And for that I’ll handoff to Larry. Yeah.

Great. So after attitude and awareness comes activity, and activity involves a lot of things. It’s excuse me, essentially sorry, it’s uh, it’s essentially taking control of your own life. You know, eating well, which is very very simple, portion control, primarily vegetarian, avoiding sugar, processed foods, and above all, enjoying your meals and enjoying means you know the right companionship.

You know food that’s really good. You know, exercise very important, But you don’t need a fancy gym and a lot of equipment and a lot of you know, a trainer and a lot of fans see paraphernalia. You can do it all at home. You can do it in short exercise snacks.

Just there’s a lot of things you can do to keep yourself really physically fit. And as critical as physical exercise is mental exercise. You have to keep learning new things. You have to keep experiencing new things and challenging yourself really with new things that are out of your comfort zone, new things that expand your horizons.

For instance, being trained in Tai cheese swordsmanship. Now you’ve never seen anything more ridiculous than me learning Tai cheek. But I mean it’s expanding my yo yo, expanding my range very very well. So mental acuity, very critically.

So you need to take control of your life from an activity perspective. Next accomplishment. You need purpose, you need goals. You need to work at something that gives you fulfillment, whether it’s your old career, a new career, volunteer work, going back to school.

You need to do something that gives you purpose and a sense of accomplishment, so very very critical. Next attachment, nothing more important than your relationships. I mean, I’m lucky that I’ve been married to the same wonderful lady for about sixty years. We have great kids, grandkids.

I have a network of friends. The Internet enables me to keep in touch the activities I do, expand my friends by social circle. So there’s a lot of ways to, you know, keep in touch with people, develop new friendships, new relationships. But attachment, social interaction very very very critical.

Next, autonomously, if you’re going to live to one hungred SORR autonomy. If you’re going to live to a hungred, you’ve got to be able to finance it. So really you need financial autonomy in your later years. And this means to some degree, rethinking your financial management strategies, objectives.

And you also need physical autonomy if you want to age in place, Uh, you have to be physically able to do it. And luckily there’s all kinds of very exciting things happening with h tech. I mean, there’s all these wonderful new technologies they’re they’re doing just incredible things with robotics in Japan for instance, And we urge you all to keep up to date with all this stuff and superaging news, so autonomy, critical aging, well longevity. Lastly avoidance.

We seniors seem to be the target of scammers. We seem to be their prime target. And there’s so many sophisticated scams out there, and AI and particularly generally AI has really exacerbated the problem. You can imitate someone’s voice.

Soon you’ll babel and manipulate images. So really it’s very critical, you know, to be on the lookout for scammers. I mean, there’s so many horror stories about how older people were built out of the retirement savings. So never do anything financial with anything but a very very trusted source, with someone you have a very trusted long relationship.

And the other thing that drives me crazy being over eighty is agism, even well intentioned people. But you see it everywhere. As you see it in medicine. Well, this guy’s in his eighties.

You know he’s not going to live that long anyway, so I provide this expensive new treatment. You see it in the marketplace. You you see it in politics, So yo, ageism, fight back, avoid it, don’t let anyone get away with it. And that, in a nutshell is the seven a’s, but much more complex than this.

I heard it urge everyone to read our book, use our work book, YO, and they’ll learn a hell a lot and hopefully YO will help them live a much longer, more fulfilling life. Right. That’s great, great stuff. So, uh, we’re gonna take a quick break, I promise, just to recognize a sponsor and we come back if you guys the opportunity to share the wonderful things that you’re doing, how people can learn more.

And then I got I got a bunch of questions for you still as it relates to your seven a’s, I want to which we’ll we’ll we’ll address when we get back. Okay, So, so, do you know anyone who may be concerned about an older driver? Weill Senior Care Authorities. Beyond Driving with Dignity program is a facilitated self assessment program for older drivers. This program has been designed to serve as a vital tool to facilitate older drivers and their families as they make the appropriate decisions regarding the future of one safe driving career.

If the individual is a safe driver, an advisor will provide him or her with strategies and how to remain a safe driver as they progress through the aging process. If driving retirement is the appropriate decision, then the individual and their family are offered possible alternatives, resources and a specific plan to ensure a smooth and successful transition from the driver’s seat to the passenger seat. So to learn more, go to www dot Beyond Driving with dignity dot com to connect with a senior care authority advisor in your area. So we are back with David Kravitt and Larry Woolf, who are the authors of the Superaging Workbook and co founders of the growing online communities superagingnews dot com.

So before we get into some continued, you know, questions on some of the points you made earlier, go ahead share with people how they can learn more about the wonderful things you’re doing. Well, you said it, superagingnews dot com. That’s the website. On the website, i’ll also find a sign up to our free newsletter which comes out Monday, Wednesday Friday of every week, which highlights the latest stories.

So on the website there’s an archive by now, we’ve only been going less than eighteen months since we created it. Ready seven hundred stories, most of which are good anytime. You know. We don’t cover breaking news or last night’s hockey scores, you know, or foot post scores.

It’s all stuff you can use and it really doesn’t obsolete it. So it’s well organized around health, lifestyle, finance, and also profiles of exciting superagers and what they’re doing. So there’s a real feast there on superagingnews dot com. And then just send us your fill in the simple little form and we’ll put you on our newsletter list as well, so you get the latest updates.

Great, great, wonderful, wonderful. So listen to you went through your seven a’s. I one hundred percent agree with all of it, but just some follow up questions. So you know, one thing we do know on the things that I’ve had, but maybe you could correct me if that’s the case that people are working long they’re working longer in the workplace than they used to.

Then our grandparents did than our parents did. You know. It is a time that when somebody turned sixty five, they got the gold watch and you know, went on their way. So are people working longer today, and if so, why do you think that is? Well? I think it’s a lot of reasons.

I mean, just myself, I love working. I love the work I do. I think we have a great product, and me working is fulfilling. So I think a lot of people work longer, you know, because they have fulfilling things to do.

And I also think a lot of people work longer because they need the money. If you’re going to live longer, you’re going to have to financets, so you know. That is. Variable as well.

And also people generally are healthier, there’s a much longer health span, so they’re able to work longer. Just if I can add one little cost to that too. On our website we do cover the whole workplace and employment and we call it work and unretirement, So that’s the heading we give because you’re quite right, Frank, people are staying in the workforce longer. But what’s also changing is the rigidity of I’m working, bang I’m retired.

There was a rigidity to it. You’ve got your first job in your twenties, you retired at sixty five, and you were not working after that. I’m retired, I’m not working now. What we’re seeing is all of the above.

It’s an all of the above approach. Number one, I’m staying in the workplace longer. I’m not retiring. I’m staying with my employer.

I’m staying there till I’m seventy seventy five. We have a story on our website which the headline is the eighty plus worker is now a thing. So one is I stay in the game longer. Second is I retire from job A and I moved to job B, which might be fewer hours, different, very different, you know whatever.

Option three, I retire from job A, but I have a side hustle. Option four, I retire from job A, but I buy or start a whole new business. We have a story on our website that the statistics or research was showing them more Americans are interested in starting a new business, then retiring, and then, as Larry mentioned earlier, what about volunteering. So you got all these threads weaving their way into it.

So the biggest change isn’t isn’t only that people are working along. It’s that the whole rigidity of employed, click retired. That’s what’s gone for good. And now you’re going to see all these different variations all occurring in the society at the same time.

Yeah, And once you say that, I know, Larry, you mentioned this when you talked about activity that you know, maybe went went possibly if that work stops, you gotta remain active both physically and you know, spiritually, mentally everything, And if you don’t have that plan to do that, that’s not a good thing. So once you also say that if somebody continues to work, is to continue to make sure that mine remains sharp, would you say that’s part of the reasons as well. Oh yeah, I mean continuing to work really helps maintain mental acuity. I mean you need challenges, you need new things to think about, and work, you know, precipitates interaction with a lot of people, and you know, it maintains the things that challenge you.

Yeah. I mean, it’s the nice thing about the seven as. When you think about it, everything is synergistic. Each of the seven a’s reinforces the other semina’s attitude reinforces awareness, which reinforces accomplishment, you know, and you know one they they all work together and they all helped reinforce each other.

So that’s the beauty of the Seminees. I think, yeah, so do you have any studies thus far those people? I’m sure you have a lot of examples, but of people that what what there? I guess their their way of life has been. For those that have reached you know, let’s say eighty five and older, or or have become sutinarians, have you studied those to say, hey, what? What? What is it they have in common? Is that really what the seven a’s are? Yes, it’s a It’s a common story on our website, and in fact, we just published the story a couple of weeks about a news study I think it was United Health. Let me just look at it now about centenarians.

Because centenarians, there’s now enough of them that you can do statistically interesting research. It used to be even you know, when we were in our twenties. Every once in a while, the newspaper would run a story about so and so who lived to one hundred and what’s the secret of lungeria? Those were one off, So those were kind of exotic stories about an interesting person that happened to make it to one hundred. But this survey was literally on our website two weeks ago.

I just want to hear it is yeah, United Healthcare. And it was an in depth look at the lives of centenarians. And they meditate, they lived weights, they video chat with their grandchildren. Many of them are working.

They embrace change and quoting from the study, and they lean in to joy with the kind with the hard won perspective that not only a century of living, that only a century of living can provide. So they are really following the super aging manifesto. They’re optimistic, they’re active, they’re doing all of this stuff, and they are the centenarians. And it was very validating for us to see this in a statistically valid survey.

But I also would point out that sometimes one story, one person can exemplify stuff and we’re dramatized and we’re always looking for those kinds of stories. We had a story about a skydiving club skydivers all of whose members are over the age of seventy. We had a story about a track meet for centenarians. We had a story about a woman who graduated from a community college with a four year diploma in the same graduation ceremony as her great granddaughter, and she was one hundred and one, but was interesting to us there she signed up for the course at the age of ninety seven, So imagine already being ninety seventies and I’m going to undertake this four year course and she sees it through to the end against her diploma.

So those are the kinds of you know, wow examples that feed the whole thing. Frankly right, So, unfortunately we’re kind out of time, but I want to give you the opportunity just any words of wisdom you’d like to give to our listeners who and again most of our listeners are those adult children in their fifties, sixties, maybe even even in their seventies, but kind of that that group, Any words of wisdom you can give. I’ll start, and then Larry can round it up on. My words of wisdom are it’s never too late to decide you’re going to be a superager and you can find out what you need at superagingnews dot com.

How about it, Larry. And tamplified David’s point that it’s never too late, it’s never too early. So even for people in their fifties sixties, now is the time to start being a superager and preparing for a great, very fulfilling life. And again, as David said, it’s all in Superagingnews dot com.

Subscribe to our newsletter, read our books, and I think it can change your life very positively. Great. Well, thank you. Both David and Larry for joining us.

I really appreciate that, and thank you everybody for joining us once again. And please please be safe and we’ll talk to everybody next week. You’ve been listening to Boomers Today with Frank Sampson. To learn more about today’s show, visit Boomerstodayradio dot com and join us next time for another edition of Boomers Today.