“I love being old.” That comment from a woman in her late 80s stuck with Mark D. Roberts. Today he helps people think about how to flourish in the “third third” of life. In this episode of The Echoes Podcast, we cover why relationships at 20–50 shape our health at 80, what the U.S. Surgeon General calls the loneliness epidemic, how churches can foster intergenerational community, when moving in your 60s+ helps—or hurts—your social fabric, and why “it’s all about you” is a terrible retirement story. Practical, hopeful, and unapologetically positive about how to age well. 

NOTES: 

•  “Third Third of Life” work from the De Pree Center Third Third Flourishing - De Pree Center 
• Can We Trust the Gospels? by Mark D. Roberts  
• Ephesians Commentary by Mark D. Roberts 
• Making It Work podcast (co-hosted by Roberts) 
• Harvard Second Generation Study 
• Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation U.S. Surgeon General Advisory on the “15 cigarettes a day” stat 
• Laity Lodge (Texas) 
• Christina Rossetti’s Up-Hill | The Poetry Foundation 
• Psalm 103 
• On Thinking Institutionally (On Politics) by Hugh Heclo 
• Echoes Magazine (free subscription) 
• H. E. Butt Foundation (mission/vision)