Give Your Grandchild a Memorable Holiday Gift

During the holiday season, grandparents may be tempted to send their grandkids gift cards, write checks or ask the grandchildren’s parents to shop on their behalf. But this can be a missed opportunity to choose a gift or discover an experience that can… Continue reading

How to Handle Crisis Calls From Your College Kid

You can’t predict the day. You can’t predict the hour. But you can predict one thing: If your kid is away at college, there’s a mighty good chance that an urgent phone call, email or text from him or her is somewhere in the offing. Every parent in Amer… Continue reading

Should You Adopt an 80-Year-Old?

Everyone of a certain age remembers Sally Struthers’ Save the Children TV commercials, encouraging viewers to improve the life of an impoverished child in a developing nation by sponsoring him or her for the price of a cup of coffee a day. Many organiz… Continue reading

The Encore Career Movement Barrels Into Building Businesses

At the national Encore.org conference I just attended in Los Angeles, focused on ways people in the second half of life can make the world a better place, I was struck by what I heard at one particular session. “There has to be a demand in the marketpl… Continue reading

The Burgeoning Trend of Age-Friendly States

You’ve probably heard about age-friendly communities; maybe you even live in one of the 305 cities and towns with the AARP “Age-Friendly Community” designation. But what you might not know — and what I learned attending the Gerontological Society of Am… Continue reading

Here’s How to ‘Live Forever’

Marc Freedman, the president and CEO of Encore.org who coined the term “encore career” has just written a book, How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations (Public Affairs/Hachette). Here, Encore.org talks with him about why, … Continue reading

Intergenerational Places Help Young and Old Thrive

  Each day, PreK and kindergarteners arrive for school in Jenks, Okla.  in classrooms deeply embedded in a skilled nursing home, Grace Living Center. Their two public school classrooms, along with a sunlit atrium and bright playground, are the hub of t… Continue reading

6 Benefits of Learning a Skill Later in Life

It could have been raising chickens, or playing piano or doing double-entry bookkeeping. The point is, learning something completely new while in my 50s — and sticking with it — was a revelation. In my case, it was carpentry. As a lifelong school and c… Continue reading

How to Make U.S. Cities Blue Zones for Healthy Longevity

(Advances in science and public health are increasing longevity and enhancing the quality of life for people around the world. In this series of interviews with the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging, 14 visionaries are revealing exciting … Continue reading