A Letter from the Editor
Upcoming stories and lessons learned.
The Aging Almanac
The Aging Almanac is an evidence-based guide to navigating later life, to help you and your loved ones age with agency, dignity and intention.
Live Last read · last published · next check
Latest episodes
Your Decisions, Made in Advance: What Every Family Should Do After a Dementia Diagnosis
The documents that help people direct their future care and keep families out of court, and how to guard against scammers who prey on the vulnerable.
Caring for the Caregiver in Dementia
An oncologist became a caregiver, then a counsellor. Dr. Edward Shaw's eight-need framework helps dementia caregivers travel the path not chosen.
Act Two: After the Diagnosis
Patients and families often feel lost after a dementia diagnosis. We explore the options to maintain function in the disease’s early stages, from the oldest habits to the newest drugs and therapies.
The Many Faces of Dementia
Dementia is not a single illness, but an umbrella term for more than a hundred conditions. How to tell its early signs from ordinary aging, and why a diagnosis is worth having early.
Eat Your Ice Cream, and Other Summer Reading
The Aging Almanac's first book review: A novelist delivers his last book, a geriatrician shares a memoir about caring for his father, and an oncologist debunks the wellness machine.
The Sun Comes Up Tomorrow
Faith, family, and what the science of aging tells us about purpose.
The Company We Keep: Social Connection Shapes How We Age
Loneliness ranks alongside smoking as a risk to health, and social connection alongside diet and exercise as a way to live longer. What forty years of research has found.
White House Proposal Would Give Political Appointees Final Say on Medical Research
For the science of growing older, from testing Alzheimer’s drugs to nursing home design and Medicare programs, the threat is immediate. The public has until July 13 to comment.
Longevity: The Best Things in Life are Free
What keeps you healthy into your eighties isn't for sale. It's exercise, diet, sleep and an active mind, and the first step matters more than the last.
The Long Game: Longevity Science and the Business of Wellness
How a $480bn industry is making the leap from the laboratory to the supplement aisle.
The ABCs of LTC: A Practical Guide to Senior Living
How to understand long-term care jargon, costs, and planning under pressure.
Under One Roof: The Return of Multigenerational Living
Once seen as a sacrifice, living across generations is starting to look like a strategic financial and caregiving decision.
Your Body, Your House: Aging in Place Means Taking Safety Seriously
Almost everyone wants to stay in their home as they age. The evidence on how to make your home safe, and the risks if you don't prepare, is clearer than most families realize.
No Place Like Home: The Housing Crisis Facing Older Americans
Most older Americans are living - and want to stay - in homes that were never built for old age, in communities that offer few alternatives.
Help Wanted: Medicaid Cuts Threaten Home-Based Care
The home care industry is short-staffed and chronically underfunded. Medicaid, the government program that holds it together for millions of families, just lost nearly a trillion dollars.
Patients in Waiting: The Emotional Truth About Family Caregiving
Clinical psychologist Allison Applebaum, PhD has spent 16 years advocating for family caregivers as people who need care too. Now, her vision is coming together.
Speaking Up: A Caregiver’s Guide to Medical Advocacy
When illness strikes, one family member often becomes the patient’s representative in a complicated healthcare system. They seldom receive guidance on how to do it well.
The One Caregiver Problem: How Families Can Divide the Work of Care
Family caregiving often operates as a one-person system. Families can avoid burnout by dividing the responsibilities more deliberately.
The Default Provider: America’s Reliance on Family Caregivers
How America outsources elder care to families, and who pays the price.