Once I was an activist in the areas of labor, housing, civil rights, and education. Then I ran a theater and engaged in national and international discussions of cultural democracy. Then, I evolved a method of practice, digital storytelling.
On Eric Topol, inflammation, and the stories we tell ourselves about showing up Most mornings I walk into a gym that could pass for a senior center with better equipment. The median age in the cardio section hovers somewhere around 68. There are people on the ellipticals who have been
Elderware | Monday, April 7, 2026 Georgia Gilmore lost her job on a Tuesday. By the following weekend she was cooking out of her kitchen on Dericote Street in Montgomery, Alabama, feeding the people who were walking to work rather than riding buses that humiliated them. The crowds waiting for plates
Dispatches from the Longevity Innovations in Higher Education Summit I'm sitting in the Lifelong Learning Auditorium at Mirabella at ASU — one of the more remarkable spaces I've been in lately, if you think about what it represents. This is a continuing care retirement community built on
Veterans, Aging, and the Wars We Keep Fighting As I write this, the United States and Israel have launched what the administration is calling "major combat operations" against Iran. The Minab girls' school is rubble. Somewhere between 80 and 148 children — the numbers are still coming in,
Enshittification, Elders, and the Social Media We Deserve There is a word I keep coming back to. It is not a polite word, but it is an accurate one, and sometimes accuracy matters more than politeness. The word is enshitification, coined by Canadian writer and tech critic Cory Doctorow in
I keep seeing them when I close my eyes—the elders in sunhats and sensible shoes, flood of silver hair in the high desert light, filling the Plaza and the steps of the Roundhouse, trading sunscreen and lozenges and hard-won wisdom between chants. Santa Fe is a petite city,
Last Wednesday, also known as Christmas Eve, I was part of the Commons annual Tamalada, or community holiday tamale making and lunch, as one of the cooks. Having spent my first year’s in San Antonio, Texas, I love tamales. I mean, really love them. My mother told of keeping
Companion Living as an Emerging Social Technology of Aging I’ve been thinking lately about a space that doesn’t have a good name yet. It’s the space between being fine and needing care. Between living alone and moving into assisted living. Between independence and isolation. Most of us
“Intellectual intimacy is the space where two minds meet—where curiosity sparks, ideas deepen, and understanding grows beyond the surface.” — Lindsey Mackereth What if the most important infrastructure for aging well isn’t a new device, but a renewed discipline of listening? Not more answers, but better questions. Not a
Mel Brooks used to crack that the secret to longevity is simple: “Keep breathing.” Then he’d take a beat, grin, and keep going. It’s an old vaudeville trick and a life practice in one: keep the air moving, especially when grief and change threaten to take your breath
“Why not talk about it when we’re in the flower of health? Life is finite, isn’t it? So, because it’s finite it would seem that each day is more precious than ever.” Studs Terkel, Will the Circle Be Unbroken I read many types of books. But probably,
Down the river from me is the Mary Esther Gonzales Senior Center on Alto Street (aka MEG). I’ve walked and rode by it a hundred times. But never journeyed in. But walking my dog today adjacent to the center got me thinking about Senior Centers. StoryCenter was once next