Who Speaks for You?

We know that staying connected to other people is good for us. But knowing that and actually making time for meaningful relationships are two very different things. What happens when we start treating social connection as something we need to actively build, rather than something that simply happens?Ken Stern, Founder and Chair of the Longevity Project, is putting that idea to the test. After writing about the importance of social connection and its impact on longevity, Ken realized he wasn't necessarily following his own advice. So, at 63, with his son heading off to college and friends entering new stages of life, he embarked on a Year of Living Socially: 12 months of intentionally reconnecting with old friends, meeting new people, talking to strangers, volunteering, and saying yes to opportunities he might otherwise have passed up.Anna and Andy talk with Ken about why friendship takes time and effort, the surprising rewards of reconnecting with people we've lost touch with, and how even small interactions with strangers can make a difference. They explore the distinction between loneliness and social isolation, why our social networks matter as we age, and what it takes to build a life filled with connection, purpose, and meaning.Because a longer life is one thing. A connected life is another.Follow Ken and explore his work:Healthy to 100 newsletter: https://www.longevity-project.com/ht100-newsletterUSA TODAY: https://www.aol.com/articles/hes-empty-nester-now-hes-120029000.htmlYear of Living Socially website: https://yolis.netInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/year.of.living.socially/reels/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@year.of.living.socially The Long Run is a NeverStop podcast. Guest views are their own.

Most of us have some sense of what we'd want if we ever couldn't speak for ourselves. Few of us have ever been given a good way to say it to the people who would be asked. Dr. Brian Carpenter studies what happens in that gap, and how families and doctors can close it.Brian is a clinical geropsychologist at Washington University in St. Louis and co-director of the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging. His research looks at how families talk about care decisions, how well the people closest to us actually understand our wishes, and how simple tools can help patients get more out of their time with a doctor. Anna and Andy talk with him about why these conversations are so hard to start, what makes them easier, and why having one is less about planning for the end than about being known.Resources mentioned by Brian:https://theconversationproject.org/https://prepareforyourcare.org/en/prepare/welcome https://www.aarp.org/The Long Run is a NeverStop podcast. Guest views are their own.

For a long time, lifting weights belonged to a small club: athletes, bodybuilders, people chasing a certain look. Everyone else was told to walk. Today, strength training is something doctors recommend at every age. Dr. Roger Fielding is one of the researchers who helped make that shift happen.Roger is a Senior Scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. He has spent his career studying how muscle changes as we age, and what keeps it working. Anna and Andy talk with him about why the science arrived long before the advice did, what sarcopenia is and why it's a word so few of us ever hear from a doctor, and how to sort what's real from what's noise in today's conversation about protein, creatine, wearables, and more.The Long Run is a NeverStop podcast. Guest views are their own.

What does it actually take to keep doing the things you love, for decades? The Long Run is a show about aging well, because what you do today shapes what's possible tomorrow.Each episode, Anna Annecca and Andy Freedman sit down with someone who knows one piece of that question up close. Some guests are researchers and clinicians who have spent careers studying how muscle responds to training, how families talk through the big decisions, or how friendship and purpose keep us healthy. Some are building the products, services, and places that shape how we age. And some are simply doing it well, and happy to tell you how. Anna brings the clinical lens as a doctor of occupational therapy. Andy makes sure every conversation lands in real life, drawing on years of work in the longevity economy to ask what it means for how we actually live.No scare tactics, no miracle fixes. Just honest conversations about what works, from people who've studied it, built it, or lived it, and what you can do with it.The Long Run is a NeverStop podcast. Guest views are their own.