The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

A career change is one of life's transitions - and it's a major one. Is career management a priority in the second half of your career? Our guest today, Jeff Gothelf, author of Forever Employable, argues that it's more important than ever to future proof your career. Taking a proactive approach can be beneficial if you want to strike out on your own someday, but also if you want to enhance your value to your current employer. As the world of work continues to evolve, he shows how you can stay ahead of the curve and future proof jobs.

We talk with Jeff about how mid-to-late professionals can take a  proactive approach to career management:

What inspired him to write his latest book Forever Employable

His story of why he left corporate life to become an entrepreneur

Why the first step in his 5-step process is so important

The benefits - and risks - of creating an independent path

What it takes to be successful on an independent career path

The strategies that help people differentiate themselves in their space

How he become a Recognized Expert – and how it helps his business

His advice on where to start to create a second career as a consultant or freelancer that's future proof

Jeff joins us from Barcelona.

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Wise Quotes

On His Career Pivot 

"And I was seeing some colleagues and friends of mine who were a few years older than me struggle to continue that upward mobility and that climb. And so I decided to get ahead of that. I decided that I wasn't going to find myself at 40 years old, at 45, at 50, or beyond in a position where I'd hit a ceiling and there was nowhere else to go. And so at the age of 35, I made an explicit decision to change my career trajectory. Instead of following this path where I'm chasing jobs and opportunities, I was going to create a situation where those jobs and opportunities were chasing me. But it's really 'what's the fear of not being able to stay employable and feed my family, pay the bills, pay the mortgage' that type of thing."

Why You Should Plant Your Flag

"So the ideas in Forever Employable are designed for folks who want to break out on their own and use their experience and their expertise to build a network and professional reputation and an audience around it. But it's also for those who want to stay employed in-house and increase their value to their current employer. And the way that you do that, in either case, is Step One of the process -  which is Planting Your Flag. And planting a flag is essentially deciding what you're going to be known for. It's deciding what you'd like to base that reputation on that you're going to build. Typically in most cases, that's going to come from your professional experience and expertise. Although there certainly have been folks who have kind of branched into a second career who have leaned on their personal passions."

On Building Career Insurance

"But it's really supporting your current practice so that you are future-proofing your career. So what you're doing is you're building a safety net. You're building career insurance really by building up this body of knowledge and this expertise that you're sharing back with your communities. You're creating content - whether that's speeches or articles, blog posts, videos, presentations, infographics - whatever works for you. And you're building up this reputation around yourself.  So that when change inevitably happens, you're extremely valuable to the organization.  And they say, 'Well, we're not going to let Jeff go because he's the guy who really knows this stuff and brings us great hires' or you're creating a situation where there's a steady stream of inbound opportunities because people have gotten to know you and they recognize you as an exp...

At the beginning of a new year, it's natural to think about what you can do to live a healthier lifestyle. Are there changes you can make to enhance your holistic well-being?

Our guest, John La Puma, MD is a leader in the practice of Culinary Medicine and EcoMedicine, preventative medicine approaches to create a healthier lifestyle through what we choose to eat and the health benefits of nature.

We discuss with Dr. La Puma:

How he came to combine medicine, cooking, and farming.

The state of the medical profession today in embracing of Culinary Medicine.

What he sees as the pillars of a healthy diet from the Culinary Medicine and EcoMedicine points of view as we age.

How some major diseases may be preventable with the right lifestyle modifications, in his opinion.

What he's found works in helping people make changes in their lifestyle.

The unique health challenges that men face – and what areas men should focus on.

What role Nature and EcoMedicine play in a healthy lifestyle.

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Bio

John La Puma MD is Clinical Director and Founder of Chef Clinic; he’s also a professionally trained chef, organic and regenerative avocado farmer and a New York Times best-selling author twice.

He has led clinical trials of nutritional interventions designed to improve burnout, obesity, hypertension, osteoarthritis, insomnia and diabetes, and pioneered culinary medicine. His mission is to help you get measurably healthier with what you eat and how you live.

Dr. La Puma guest taught the first medical lecture on Nature Therapy at Harvard University’s Lifestyle Medicine course, and taught the first Nutrition and Cooking course for medical students in the US, at SUNY-Upstate with Dr. Michael Roizen of the Cleveland Clinic, and the first Culinary Medicine clinical course for medical students in the US, at DMU.

He has authored over 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers and three medical books, including a CME book and the first peer-reviewed article about culinary medicine. His work has been published by the New England  Journal of Medicine, JAMA and the British Medical Journal.

Four of his books–Refuel, ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine, Cooking the RealAge Way and The RealAge Diet–have been bestsellers around the world, been translated into 8 languages and sold over a million copies.

Dr. La Puma is a renowned speaker and demonstration cook. He delivered the first lectures at Harvard and at TEDMED on Culinary Medicine, and at the University of Chicago on Comfort Food. He has also presented at the prestigious TEDx and Gel Health conferences and is consistently rated among the very best speakers by the audiences he addresses.  He has been a consultant and spokesperson for CIGNA, Caremark, GSK and Kraft, among other partners, and founded Alternative Medicine Alert, an evidence-based monthly newsletter for clinicians on dietary supplements and integrative medical approaches.

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Wise Quotes

On The Benefits of Lifestyle Modifications

"The CDC actually addressed that and they believe that 80% of heart disease, stroke and diabetes and 40% of cancer is preventable with lifestyle change. The CDC is about as conservative an institution in American medicine as exists. I think that almost all arthritis, particularly osteoarthritis is preventable. I think that loss of mobility as we age is inevitable, but it doesn't have to decline quickly. Having major diseases become and be thought of as preventable problems that can be mitigated is really a game-changer...So having more control than you think means that you can make better choices - and that they will matter. And after 50, almost all of aging is your choices before 50. Your genetics have a lot to say, but if you make a decision,

We're all aging, but what do we need to know about successful aging? I reached out to the person who wrote a comprehensive successful aging book, Daniel Levitin, a noted neuroscientist, musician, and author, to find out.

I discuss with Daniel Levitin:

What led him to write Successful Aging

How he defines successful aging

Common misconceptions about aging

How our brains change as we age

What older brains are better at than younger brains

The roles personality and mindset play in successful aging

What he learned from the Dalai Lama

Why you should consider working longer, and even never "retiring"

How music can be helpful in successful aging

What steps you can take to start to age successfully

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Bio

Daniel J. Levitin is an award-winning neuroscientist, musician, and best-selling author. His research encompasses music, the brain, health, productivity and creativity.

Levitin has published more than 300 articles, in journals including Science, Nature, PNAS, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal. His research has been featured over 1800 times in the popular press, including 17 articles in The New York Times, and in The London Times, Scientific American, and Rolling Stone.  He is a frequent guest on NPR and CBC Radio and has appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, and CNN. His TED talk is among the most popular of all time.

He is the author of four New York Times bestselling books: This Is Your Brain On Music, The World in Six Songs, The Organized Mind and Successful Aging, as well as the international bestseller A Field Guide to Lies. A popular public speaker, he has given presentations on the floor of Parliament in London, to the U.S. Congress, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. He has consulted for a number of companies including Apple, Booz-Allen, Microsoft, the United States Navy, Sonos, Philips, Sony, Fender, and AT&T.

Dr. Levitin earned his B.A. from Stanford in Cognitive Science, his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology with a Ph.D. minor in Music Technology from the University of Oregon, and completed post-doctoral training at Stanford University Medical School and UC Berkeley in Neuroimaging and Perception.

As a musician (tenor saxophone, guitar, vocals and bass), he has performed with Mel Tormé, David Byrne, Rosanne Cash, Sting, Bobby McFerrin, Victor Wooten and Tom Scott. Levitin has produced and consulted on albums by artists including Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell and on the films Good Will Hunting and Pulp Fiction, and has been awarded 17 gold and platinum records.

Levitin taught at Stanford in the Departments of Computer Science, Psychology, History of Science, and Music, and has been a Visiting Professor at Dartmouth, and UC Berkeley. He is currently the Founding Dean of Arts & Humanities at the Minerva Schools at the Keck Graduate Institute, San Francisco, California, and James McGill Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Neuroscience and Music at McGill University.

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Wise Quotes

On Personality Factors and Successful Aging

"One of the big ones is conscientiousness. It's the biggest single predictor, much more so than socioeconomic status, of how your life is going to turn out at any age. Conscientiousness is a cluster of different things having to do with reliability, dependability exercising due caution, and rule-following, to some degree. A kid who's conscientious isn't going to cross against the light, and so, is less likely to get hit by a bus. An adult who's conscientious is less likely to end up in prison - and an older adult who's conscientious is going to see the doctor when something's wrong. They're actually going to do what the doctor tells them t...

Are you living your core personal values? If you look carefully at how you're spending your time, how aligned is it with your core values? It's a great time to step back, take stock, and make some changes that can make a big difference in the year(s) ahead.

Our guest Harry Kraemer, author of Your 168: Finding Purpose and Satisfaction in a Values-Based Life, highlights how self-reflection can help create greater alignment and flexibility.

A Values Based Life

Our conversation covers a lot of ground:

Why 168 is his favorite number.

After the books he's written on leadership, what inspired him to write Your 168.

What a life based on values looks like versus one that’s less so.

Why self-reflection is so important – and how it's part of his day.

How planning and spontaneity can co-exist.

What the transition was like for him when he retired  – and what led him to teach in the MBA program at Kellogg.

What a friend and colleague learned from a wake-up call.

The role habits play in a values-based life.

Why genuine humility and making a difference are key parts of a values-based life.

His involvement in the One Acre Fund.

The best way to start if you want to make the most of your 168 starting in 2021.

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Bio

Harry M. Jansen Kraemer, Jr. is an executive partner with Madison Dearborn Partners, a private equity firm based in Chicago, Illinois and a Clinical Professor of Leadership at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He was named the 2008 Kellogg School Professor of the Year. Harry is the author of two bestselling leadership books: From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership and Becoming The Best: Build a World-Class Organization Through Values-Based Leadership.

He is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Baxter International Inc., a $12 billion global healthcare company. He became Baxter's chief executive officer in January 1999, and assumed the additional responsibility of chairman of Baxter's board of directors in January 2000.

Mr. Kraemer joined Baxter in 1982 as director of corporate development. His twenty-three year career at Baxter included senior positions in both domestic and international operations. In 1993, he was named senior vice president and chief financial officer, responsible for financial operations, business development, global communications, and European operations. Over the next several years, he assumed additional responsibility for Baxter's Renal and Medication Delivery businesses. He was elected to Baxter's board of directors in 1995, and was named president of Baxter International Inc. in 1997.

Before joining Baxter, Mr. Kraemer worked for Bank of America in corporate banking and for Northwest Industries in planning and business development.

Mr. Kraemer is active in business, education and civic affairs. He serves on the board of directors of Leidos Corporation, Dentsply Sirona, Option Care Health, Performance Health and Alcami, and on the board of trustees of Northwestern University, The Conference Board, NorthShore University Healthsystem and the Archdiocese of Chicago Finance Committee and School Board.

He is a member of the Dean's Global Advisory Board of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He is a member of the Council of CEOs, the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Economics Club of Chicago. He is a past member of the Business Roundtable, the Business Council, and the Healthcare Leadership Council.

Mr. Kraemer graduated summa cum laude from Lawrence University of Wisconsin in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics. He received an MBA degree in finance and accounting from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in 1979 a...

The benefits of gratitude are plentiful. Yet there's a tendency to take things for granted, even what matters most. How can gratefulness be cultivated without the painful experience of a wake-up call? Our guest, Kristi Nelson, author of the new book Wake Up Grateful, shares her wisdom on how to develop the mindset and practices to be grateful in our day to day lives.

Kristi and I discuss:

The mission of her organization A Network for Grateful Living

The distinction between gratitude and gratefulness - and why it matters

The role gratefulness has played in her life

Why gratefulness is especially important now

How being grateful can help relationships

Why Thanksgiving can be a springboard to gratefulness year-round

Her new book: Wake Up Grateful: The Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted

What one thing you can start to do if you want to be more grateful in your life

Kristi joins us from Massachusetts.

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Bio

Kristi Nelson is the Executive Director of A Network for Grateful Living (gratefulness.org).  She’s also the author of a new book Wake Up Grateful: The Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted.

Kristi has spent most of her adult life in non-profit leadership, fundraising, and organizational development. In a wide variety of roles, she has helped to lead, fund, and strengthen organizations committed to progressive social and spiritual change.

In 2001, Kristi founded a values-based fundraising consulting and training, and leadership coaching business, and in this capacity worked with organizations such as the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Spirit in Action, Wisdom 2.0, and The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. During this time, she was also founding Director of the Soul of Money Institute with Lynne Twist, Director of Development at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, and Director of Development and Community Relations for the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society.

Kristi received her BA from UMass/Amherst, a graduate certificate in Business and Sociology from Boston College, and her Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) with a concentration in Leadership Studies, from Harvard University.

Kristi is a stage IV cancer survivor who feels blessed to work with her beloved colleagues in sharing the gifts of gratefulness with people around the world. She lives in Western MA with her family, and gives thanks every day to be surrounded by the glories of the natural world and a vibrant, loving community.

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Wise Quotes

On Gratitude versus Gratefulness

"And I've done some pretty deep dives into the exploration because we love feeling gratitude. It's a fantastic feeling and we love inciting gratitude and other people helping other people feel grateful and yet gratitude tends to be conditional it's fleeting. It's transactional. Often we wait for somebody to do something for us or for something to happen. As we said from the outset it's something that is ephemeral and difficult for us to put our hands around. How do I get more gratitude inducing experiences? And it ends up being a little bit like the pursuit of happiness. I think in that way it's elusive. And it feels out there gratefulness, as I was saying before, is something that we can cultivate as a practice, very similar to mindfulness. And it's a beautiful way to weave together more moments of gratitude. And to learn how to find those experiences of gratitude and to uplift them and to deepen ourselves into them more often. So it's not about being grateful for everything, but gratefulness as the ability to be grateful in every moment. And that's something that we can learn."

 

Retirement is one of life's transitions - a big one. What's the ideal retirement lifestyle in today's Baby Boomer retirement? I've had the opportunity to read Shifting Gears, the new book by Richard Haiduck. Through interviews with Baby Boomers in retirement, he paints the picture of the diverse retirement life that different Baby Boomers are living today. Whether you're planning for retirement or you're in retirement, you'll benefit from the stories and life lessons he's captured and chronicled.

Why he wrote Shifting Gears:50 Baby Boomers Share Their Meaningful Journeys in Retirement.

The themes that emerged from his interviews  - and what surprised him

Insights people shared about deciding when to retire

Lessons learned from retirees on choosing where to live in retirement

One of the many compelling stories in the book - and what it taught him

How the stories he heard have influenced his own retirement

What's on his recommended reading list

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Bio

Richard Haiduck is the author of the new book  Richard is a former life sciences executive and mentor and now has an active retirement. He is becoming the Voice of Boomer Retirement Stories. He is immersed in challenging the boundaries of his own retirement while observing the experiences and areas of curiosity of his fellow retirees.

At age 7, he was sure he wanted to be an author.  Now, 66 years later, that dream has become a reality.  The inspiration for the book came from hearing about the meaningful journeys in retirement taken by friends and colleagues. They were doing fascinating activities at this stage of their life, and often completely new directions from their prior careers.  The idea that these stories could become a book became a driving force for Richard. His 75+ interviews and his frequent social media interactions have developed his perspectives and insights on the retirement activities of the boomer generation.  Richard’s prior roles as both a leader and a mentor have been based on his ability to listen and to get people to share their feelings.  He uses a style of interviewing with short, open questions to get people to open up about their retirement stories. The result is Shifting Gears; 50 Baby Boomers Share Their Meaningful Journeys in Retirement.

He graduated from Miami University and got his MBA from Xavier University.  He is happily married to his wife of 52 years and has 2 daughters and 4 grandsons.

His own retirement has been hyperactive.  He learns new things through weekly interactions at Stanford, formerly via attending lectures and via Zoom during the pandemic.  Each year he reads about 100 books and bikes more than 3000 miles.  He mentors organizations serving refugees and small farmers in Ghana.  He combines family time with domestic and international travel.

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Wise Quotes

On the Freedom to Retire - and Trial & Error

"While you're working, there are things that you don't have the time to do, but you want to do. And they may be things from when you were seven years old. This guy who was fishing, my guess is he may have been fishing when he was seven years old and always wanted to do more. And I think through some of the other stories as well, people decided to go back to an earlier passion, an earlier hobby, an earlier goal - and rejuvenated it in retirement. You get to do whatever you want in retirement if you can deal with the health and wealth challenges. If you're not broke, and you're not sick, then you get to do whatever you want. And that means if you've got a passion for something, then go do it. And that passion can be whatever is important to you, but you've got the freedom and you've got the freedom of trial and error too.  You can try something. One of the guys in the book said,

What second career ideas are you considering? The best second career jobs aren't often posted on job sites - you create them. One approach is to build a portfolio career, consisting of several activities that leverage your skills, experience, and interests. Our guest, Kate Schaefers, shares her story of how she created a portfolio career - and her observations on how Baby Boomers and organizations are evolving.

I discuss with Kate:

What led her to build a portfolio career.

How the Advanced Careers Initiative at the University of Minnesota was created – and how it works.

What attracts people to the program.

The benefits, and perhaps challenges, of multigenerational groups.

Her perspective on working in the second half of life.

The role of lifelong learning.

What innovative organizations are doing to tap into the skills and knowledge of older workers.

The mission of The Encore Network.

 Her advice on how to create a portfolio career/life.

Kate joins us from Minnesota.

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Bio

Kate Schaefers weaves a portfolio of work into a career with one unifying theme: to help individuals and organizations shine. She is Executive Director, University of Minnesota Advanced Careers (UMAC) Initiative, a gap year for experienced professionals as they transition from career jobs into meaningful post-career lives. She is a psychologist and leadership coach, partnering with leaders and organizations to strengthen leadership competencies and organizational effectiveness. She is an adjunct psychologist and coach with The Bailey Group.

Kate is a skilled educator, facilitator and trainer. She has taught graduate-level courses at both the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas and was part of a team of educators that designed a coaching certificate program.

Kate is actively involved in nonprofit and community work. She is Volunteer State President of AARP-MN, convening the AARP Executive Council and contributing to local and regional strategies for the organization, especially around the aging workforce, intergenerational teams and caregiving. Kate was appointed to the Citizens Commission on Minnesota’s Aging Workforce.

She is a member of the Encore Network, a founding board member of SHIFT, and a member of Pollen Midwest. She received the Jules Kerlan Outstanding Achievement Award in 2012 from the Minnesota Career Development Association for contributions to the field of career development.

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Wise Quotes

On Building a Portfolio Career

"It's hard to find a ready-made cookie-cutter job when what you're wanting to do is something new - and something that there's no job description for. So this is how I ended up coming to a portfolio career. I looked at my skills, I tried to distill down what am I good at? What stands out with me? How do I make sense of all of the things that I can do - and create this brand around what I want to do? And so, I struggled with that for a while. I ended up saying yes to a lot of things. Some of them were from paid work, just to broaden my horizons, some was unpaid work and some was volunteer work...So I just took all of these things and tried to look at what skills do I have? How do I redeploy them? And then how do I tell a story about the work I want to do next?"

 

On the Multigenerational Teams

"Our workforce is intergenerational. So we have four generations in the workplace today - some say five. We still have some of the silent generation in the workplace. Yet most college students learn in an age-segregated environment. And so if we talk about even preparing them for the workplace, they're not necessarily having those discussions and conversations in a way that reflects what t...

When you choose to retire, what happens to your To-Do list? Of course, it follows along - and now you're populating it with a whole new set of items that you finally have the freedom to do. But it doesn't take long to get the familiar feeling that many things are competing for your time and attention. I've used David Allen's Getting Things Done® method for years, and I’ve been thinking about how it can be very useful in transitioning to ‘retirement’ and in later life. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to discuss with David Allen:

His concept of getting things out of your head to create the calm state of a "Mind Like Water."

The key principles of his Getting Things Done ® method

How to activate your Someday/Maybe list when Someday arrives

How his Horizons of Focus can help you prioritize

Why renegotiating commitments can help you regain control of your time

What his day-t0-day life is like today after moving internationally

What he's learning in the pandemic - and what questions he's asking himself days

How to think about reconfiguring our living spaces in a COVID world

How to bring more Joy to your daily life

David Allen joins us from Amsterdam.

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Bio

David Allen is widely recognized as the world’s leading expert on personal and organizational productivity. His thirty-year pioneering research and coaching to corporate managers and CEOs of some of America’s most prestigious corporations and institutions has earned him Forbes’ recognition as one of the top five executive coaches in the U.S. and Business 2.0 magazine's inclusion in their 2006 list of the "50 Who Matter Now."

Time Magazine called his flagship book, Getting Things Done, “the definitive business self-help book of the decade.” Fast Company Magazine called David “one of the world’s most influential thinkers” in the arena of personal productivity, for his outstanding programs and writing on time and stress management, the power of aligned focus and vision, and his groundbreaking methodologies in management and executive peak performance.

David is the international best-selling author of Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress-Free Productivity; Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life; and Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and the Business of Life. He is the engineer of GTD®, the popular Getting Things Done® methodology that has shown millions how to transform a fast-paced, overwhelming, overcommitted life into one that is balanced, integrated, relaxed, and has more successful outcomes.

GTD’s broad appeal is based on the fact that it is applicable from the boardroom to the living room to the class room. It is hailed as “life changing” by students, busy parents, entrepreneurs and corporate executives. David is the Founder and Chairman of the David Allen Company, whose inspirational seminars, coaching, educational materials and practical products present individuals and organizations with a new model for “Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life.” He continues to write articles and essays that address today’s ever-changing issues about living and working in a fast-paced world while sustaining balance, control, and meaningful focus.

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Wise Quotes

 

On Your Vision for Retirement

"What's your vision of how you're going to be lifestyle career-wise or retirement-wise, three, four, or five years from now - if your life was as good as can be. And do you have that picture? And that's where you might have the same purpose as your next-door neighbor, but you've got very different pictures about what you're going to be doing. If you were fulfilling that purpose, you may be researching medical experiments, you may be writing a novel,

Have you ever wondered how to become a filmmaker? As your second-act career? Melissa Davey knows how - she's done it and she returns to our retirement podcast to share her lessons learned. Her story is about smart risk-taking and the value of a growth mindset. But it's also about the courage to walk away from a career to follow her dream when the opportunity presented itself. She took it and her story is one that's sure to inspire people.

Risk-taking Can Lead to New Avenues

When people think of a calling they think of people like Steve Javie and his compelling story. But many have other types of callings they carry inside. These are dreams deferred, often from passions developed early in life and interests put to the side during working lives. But later life can serve up opportunities to do what you really want to do.

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We discuss with Melissa:

The story of how she became a documentary filmmaker

The lessons she learned from the people in The Beyond Sixty Project film

What she learned from the experience of making it

The stories from the film that resonate with her even more today

How her life has changed since the release of The Beyond Sixty Project

The benefits – and the challenges - of working with an intergenerational creative team

What’s it been like to be a grandparent during COVID

Her advice for people who may want to pursue a Second Act career

And what's next for her

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Bio 

Melissa Davey is a documentary filmmaker who lives in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. She is a wife, a mother and a grandmother to three young boys. She is a world traveler and curious about everything unknown. She recently retired after more than two decades from GENEX Services Inc., the largest Managed Care case management organization in the U.S, where she was recruited to build and operate the company's Social Security representation division. Prior to GENEX, Melissa had almost twenty years of diversified experience in the field of disability. She held senior leadership and management positions throughout her career. Melissa's second act is fueled by a lifelong passion for film and story-telling.

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Wise Quotes

On Second Acts

"What I have found is that there are huge numbers of people in their sixties and seventies who are finishing careers, or maybe even already a second career and are saying, Okay, I'm done with that. I don't want to work at that pace. I don't want to work possibly for another individual or a big corporation or whatever it might be. I want to do something meaningful for me that will also benefit others. That's what I'm hearing all the time. What can I do to keep going, but improve upon myself? And one of the greatest things we can do is try something new and something that might impact others in a positive way."

On Dreams (and Deadlines)

"I think people need to not discount dreams. And I think a lot of times messaging when we were growing up was, Oh, that doesn't, that doesn't make sense. You go to college, you get a job, and you build a career. And that's what you do. People might have other artistic dreams or, any type of dream, that might be pooh-poohed by either family members or society in general. I think that we should not ignore that. And I think that we should - especially - not ignore that as we get older because of the calendar, because we only have so much time left."

On Taking Calculated Risks

"Taking risks is one of the most important ingredients in life. If we don't take risks to step out of the boxes that we construct for ourselves, we don't experience new things that may challenge us - and may change the way we view life, people, ourselves,

Advances in science and technology are creating healthier and longer lives.

Our guest today has referred to it as a Longevity Dividend. But increased longevity leads to many questions. How can you maintain health and fitness in this era of longevity? How does longevity affect your retirement planning, and how will you grow and protect your non-financial assets? How will you invest your extra years? And how can you experiment with new ways of living and working that are evolving?

 

Andrew Scott, is the co-author of the new book The New Long Life with Lynda Gratton. In their first book, The 100-Year Life, they laid out the sweeping changes that longer lives are introducing that will lead individuals governments, educational institutions, and corporations to adapt in innovative ways.

Their new book is a practical guide on how to navigate and thrive in an era of longer lives. They introduce a new framework for a multi-stage life, encompassing working longer (and differently), ageing well, cultivating good health and meaningful relationships.

We discuss with Andrew:

How we should be thinking about ageing in this era of longevity

How a multi-stage life unfolds

How people can create a new map of life - and get better at navigating transitions

With lifelong learning becoming more important, what makes for a supportive learning environment

The impact that technology and AI will have on longer lives

How governments, educational systems and corporations need to change with longer lives

How he sees intergenerational relationships evolving in the future

What are we learning from COVID-19 that relates to longer lives - and what he's doing differently in the pandemic

Andrew joins us from London.

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Bio

Andrew J Scott is Professor of Economics, former Deputy Dean at London Business School and Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

 His research focuses on longevity, an ageing society, and fiscal policy and debt management and has been published widely in leading journals. His book with Lynda Gratton, The 100-Year Life, has been published in 15 languages, is an Amazon bestseller and was runner up in the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2016 and Japanese Business Book of the Year Award 2017. His recent 2020 book, The New Long Life, considers how the challenges and opportunities of social and technological ingenuity might shape a new age of longer lives.

He was Managing Editor for the Royal Economic Society’s Economic Journal and Non-Executive Director for the UK’s Financial Services Authority 2009-2013. He has been an advisor on policy to a range of governments and government departments. He is currently on the advisory board of the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility, the Cabinet Office Honours Committee (Science and Technology), co-founder of The Longevity Forum, a member of the UK government’s Longevity Council and the WEF council on Japan and a consulting scholar at Stanford University’s Center on Longevity.

With a unique perspective as a global economist, professor, and government advisor, he draws upon a range of disciplines. His ground-breaking work on longevity, economics, and the value and effect technology and longevity combined, will have on the wider society, is shaped by his professional connections to academia, industry, social pioneers and policymakers around the world.

Andrew previously held positions at Oxford University, London School of Economics and Harvard University. His MA is from Oxford, his M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and his D.Phil from Oxford University.

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Wise Quotes

On the Longevity Dividend