4-Quarter Lives

Bernard Franklin is Avivah Wittenberg-Cox’s guest this week on 4-Quarter Lives. He is a great example of how programmes such as Harvard’s Advance Leadership Initiative give the opportunity to review where we are in life, reconsider how our skills and experience can best be used, and recharge batteries after an intense and at times bruising career and life.Fatherlessness & Its ImpactsBernard grew up poor and African American in Alabama. His community’s struggles with stable fatherhood – as well as his own - led him from the Carter White House to the National Center for Fathering and then on to senior roles for student support in higher education. Then life threw him one of those curveballs which made fatherhood a very personal pillar of his Third Quarter, when the death of his wife made him a single parent. He came to Harvard frustrated with higher education’s continuing failure to be the great equalizer in society, particularly for young men of colour.Finding Renewed PurposeBernard and Avivah’s conversation was recorded in May this year, when Bernard was still searching for his route forward. Since then an intense ALI module on society’s mental health challenges, and other research and conversations, led him to focus on alienation in the young black community as an issue of mental wellbeing. He has now become MD of the Boston-based non-profit Uncornered, which uses innovative ways to help young men engaged in gang-related street violence to find ways out. The programme puts a particular focus on their mental health and other support needs, and on the role of core influencers to support individuals on their journey from incarceration to contributing citizens, from disengaged to engaged, from surviving on the street to thriving in the community. Bernard’s challenge: to take a model proven in one city and scale it elsewhere.Some useful Links:* Bernard’s website & blogs: https://www.bfranklinphd.org* National Center for Fathering: https://fathers.com* Uncornered: https://uncornered.org Get full access to Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe

Dr. Paula Rochon – Founding Director of the World’s First Women’s Age Lab.In this week’s edition of 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Dr. Paula Rochon, Founding Director of the world’s first Women’s Age Lab, based in Toronto, Canada. If there is one thing most people intrinsically know about older people, it is that there are more women than men in the mix and that they tend to live longer. And yet beyond that simple fact, there has been astonishingly little attention paid to either the causes or the consequences of this reality. A Mission for UnderstandingPaula Rochon’s mission, and that of the Women’s Age Lab, is to address that lack, and to address not only the medical implications, but also the social, in terms of long-term care, community connectedness and gendered ageism.  Paula brings deep experience to the topic as a geriatrician, a senior scientist and researcher at Women’s College Hospital, a professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto and inaugural Chair in Geriatric Medicine there. She and Avivah discuss the four work pillars of the Age Lab and the gaps in our understanding that it is starting to fill. As she points out, with women being the majority of the one billion people over the age of 60 in the world, it’s time to understand and respond to their needs and priorities.Some useful links:* Women’s Age Lab: https://www.womensresearch.ca/womens-age-lab/* FORBES article: Why We Need A Women’s Age Lab* Paula Rochon’s bio: Click here* What Gets Counted Counts: Paying Attention to Sex and Age in Health Data: Click here* Gendered Ageism Toolkit: Click here* A book mentioned by Paula is Louise Aronson’s Elderhood* womensagelab.ca Get full access to Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe

Joining Avivah Wittenberg-Cox for this episode of 4-Quarter Lives is Eduardo Chadwick. From Chile, Eduardo is President of his family’s vineyard which stretches back five generations. He took the vineyard from the brink of bankruptcy to world renowned winery and is now looking at how he will pass on the legacy he has created.A Family AffairBorn in Santiago, Chile in 1959, Eduardo shares how his unusual education shaped his view on standing alone. And how his youth ultimately moulded his fighting spirit. By 25, he had taken charge of his family’s faltering vineyard and was traveling the world learning how to bring his product to the global market. Eduardo married at 28 and he and his wife had two sons and four daughters. Just as life seemed to be moving upward, tragedy struck, and Eduardo lost both his sons.A Global SeductionEduardo’s Q2 was tumultuous. Many challenges shook both his family and his work. Two decades spent building the business and product up - and then, from the year 2000 onwards - spreading the word. He became a tireless global promoter of Chile and its wines. In 2004 came the ultimate professional accolade, when his wine took first and second places in a famous blind test competition in Berlin. This was a defining moment for Eduardo and his company, which has remained internationally successful ever since. Giving Forward - the Next GenerationNow 63, Eduardo is tasting new challenges, and has a year out as a Fellow of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI). It exactly answers his desire to make a transition, refocus his energies and scale them - this time for social impact. As he looks forward, Eduardo is focusing on improving the lives of children in Chile and more widely. Eduardo has made a life out of dreaming big, pursuing dreams and bringing them to life. Next?For Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative: https://www.advancedleadership.harvard.eduFind out more about Eduardo’s vineyards: https://errazuriz.com/en/ Get full access to Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe

Carole Carlson joins Avivah Wittenberg-Cox for this episode of 4-Quarter Lives. Carole has been a coach with Harvard Business School for some 20 years, and has been accompanying participants in its Advanced Leadership Initiative since its founding. She is also the Director of the Heller MBA Program at Brandeis University – and a Senior Lecturer there. A busy portfolio of roles and impact.Unleashing Impact in Q3Author of a new book titled Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, her lifelong passion for purposeful impact is the red thread through Carlson’s coaching and teaching career. She is focused on unleashing it – which is very aligned with the purpose of ALI. There aren’t many people who have been observing and supporting midlife transitions at senior leadership levels as closely as Carole. In this episode of 4-Quarter Lives she shares takeaways and lessons from her decades of experience. She and Avivah discuss social impact, Harvard’s ALI program, how people experience it, the challenge of transitions in the 3rd Quarter and how people can better prepare for them - and navigate them mindfully.Useful Links: * Carole’s book here.  * Carole’s Brandeis University page here. Get full access to Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe

‘Look Like a Lady, Sound Like a Truck Driver’Surgeon Dr Pat Roberts joins Avivah Wittenberg-Cox for this episode of 4-Quarter Lives. Pat had such an impressive first career, that deciding what to do afterwards was always going to be a challenge. She knew she wanted to be a surgeon from the age of five – and was one of the rare women of her generation to make it – not just through but all the way to the top of her profession. She credits competition with her three brothers, and sheer determination, and the ability to ‘look like a lady but sound like a truck driver.’ In all the ills of the macho workplace, she learned to give as good as she got. And managed to have three kids in three years in her late 30s to round it out. An Illustrious CareerAcross her 35-year career as a surgeon, she rose to be the first female Chair of the Department of Surgery at the Lahey Hospital at Tufts University, where her husband also worked. She always knew she wanted a second act but was always too busy with her first to think what it could be. She went to Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute programme to start exploring, and discovered a completely new side to herself. She admits she is still exploring, but along the way, through teaching and mentoring, she is already making a transition that gives both value and personal satisfaction.For Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute: https://dci.stanford.edu/  Get full access to Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe

David Sinclair is Chief Executive of the UK’s International Longevity Centre. He has worked in policy, advocacy and research on ageing and demographic change for over 20 years. In this wide-ranging conversation, we explore different countries’ approach to seismic demographic shifts, the pandemic’s mass retirement and how companies are responding, shifting attitudes to dying with dignity legislation, inclusive marketing towards older consumers, and gender differences in life, work and longevity. He shares a uniquely global overview of ageing society issues. A Global PerspectiveThe overview is nourished by the ILC’s Global Alliance and its 16 representatives from countries and contexts around the globe. ‘Longevity’ is a uniquely broad tent, and David Sinclair opens a view of its vast and potentially huge opportunities, with an impassioned invitation to the world – and to each of us - to wake up to ageing’s reality and multiple impacts.He also provides us with a range of key reports (see below) and a Save the Date for the ILC’s Future of Ageing Conference coming soon, Nov 24th.Useful Links:* International Longevity Centre: https://ilcuk.org.uk/* ILC Conference Nov 24th, 2022: https://ilcuk.org.uk/future-of-ageing-2022/* ILC Report: Health equals wealth: The global longevity dividend* ILC Report: A window of opportunity: Delivering prevention in an ageing world* David Sinclair’s bio: David Sinclair* Twitter: @sinclairda * ILC Twitter: @ilcuk  Get full access to Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe

In Conversation with Kevin Robinson, Harvard ALI Fellow ‘22Joining Avivah Wittenberg-Cox for this episode of 4-Quarter Lives is Kevin Robinson. Born into modest beginnings in a black American family in Detroit, Kevin was the first of his family to go to college. Through what he describes as ‘luck’ and ‘a few smarts’ he rose through the world of law, as a public prosecutor at local, regional and national levels, before joining the corporate world as General Counsel for asset managers Guggenheim Investments. Together with his wife, he also looked to what he could contribute through a range of voluntary activities at local level. Transitioning and Giving Forward in Q3At 60, however, Kevin decided more was still possible, and he came to Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative in 2022 with a clear goal – to make a transition in this third quarter of life, give back and ensure that other members of the community he came from would have both more stability and more opportunity through better financial education.   For Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative: https://www.advancedleadership.harvard.edu Get full access to Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe

Joining Avivah Wittenberg-Cox for this episode of 4-Quarter Lives is Yvonne Sonsino. Yvonne is one of the pioneers in the longevity space, with a 40-year career focused on the financial, actuarial and corporate sides of the ageing equation. She is global co-Leader of consulting firm Mercer’s Next Stage consulting division, and works with companies across the global to develop longevity strategies around the future of work and seize the opportunities of the longevity economy. She’s also the author of The New Rules of Living Longer: How to Survive Your Longer Life. And she partners with the World Economic Forum on a working group on Retiring Retirement. She’s not shy of sharing some uncomfortable – but urgently necessary – truths about money, pensions and ageing, and in particular the gender disparities for women. Want a good idea of the current state of play on where companies stand? Yvonne is the person to give it.* For Yvonne’s book & website: https://www.newrulesoflivinglonger.com* For Mercer’s diagnostic tool to help companies think about the issue of longevity and employment: https://www.mercer.com/our-thinking/career/redesigning-later-life.html* For Mercer’s analysis of how to fix the gender pension gap: https://www.mercer.com/our-thinking/how-to-fix-the-gender-pension-gap.html Get full access to Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox’s guest this week is Isabel Saint Malo. After two decades working as a Panamanian diplomat at the UN, on Latin American and Caribbean issues, she ran for office and became Panama’s first female Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Rejecting calls to run for the top job as President, she focused instead on the issues she cared most about – notably youth employment and advancement of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. She also became known for the courageous – and sometimes unpopular - positions she took on issues such as LGBTQ rights. Most recently, however, during 2022 she has stepped back from this full-on trajectory to take part in Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative, which aims to help leaders like her refocus their energies and empower them for even greater social impact. Isabel describes this as an opportunity to transition from her second quarter ‘Mad House’ to a third quarter of inner peace and prioritization. She says that ‘you need to learn to go on living’. While you don’t necessarily need to go back to school or a classroom, a program like ALI is a wonderful opportunity to stop and take stock.For Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative: https://www.advancedleadership.harvard.edu Get full access to Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe

In this first episode of 4-Quarter Lives, host Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Paul Irving. Paul is the archetype of the stories this podcast would like to share. First, he’s a role model of Third Quarter re-inventions. He went back to school in his late 50s, after a successful 30 plus-year career in the law. He moved from Los Angeles to Cambridge to go through Harvard’s Advanced Leadership (ALI) program in 2010, soon after it started. This program, which Avivah herself is taking part in, provides people in their third quarter of life opportunities to explore new directions, with a particular emphasis on social impact. Post-ALI, Paul returned to L.A. to serve as president of a prominent think tank, the Milken Institute, and founded its Center for the Future of Aging – where he has now spent more than a decade engaging with an entirely new world. An advocate for the power of lifelong learning, Paul shares the impact his late education had on his life. Then we explore how the longevity topic has exploded in the time he has been at Milken – from knocking on doors that wouldn’t answer to being awarded red carpets (and awards) around the globe. He gives us today’s state of play, for individuals making transitions in midlife and for organisations. And he looks forward to what’s next – and what you may want to do about it.Key Reports* Age Forward Cities for 2030* Silver to Gold: The Business of AgeingRelated Roles & Organisations* https://milkeninstitute.org/centers/center-for-the-future-of-aging* https://gero.usc.edu/* https://encore.org/* https://nam.edu/initiatives/grand-challenge-healthy-longevity/global-roadmap-for-healthy-longevity/* https://dci.stanford.edu/ Get full access to Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe