Forest Foe
The mighty oak tree can live up to 250 years. So what was ravaging the forests of California, killing trees from the inside out? Scientists call the phenomenon Sudden Oak Death and now they know what causes it.
Author: Sabrina Smith
Mars Attracts
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: travel 300 million miles searching for signs of life on a planet so extreme that you will succumb to its elements within 3 months. That’s the story of robotic explorers known as rovers, who probe the surface of Mars on a geology field trip like no other.
The Making of a Modern Elder: 5 Questions with Chip Conley
Rewind back to before Chip Conley received an Influencer in Aging award, before his TED talk and his book. Conley was a seasoned entrepreneur looking for new challenges. He got one in the form of a call from the head of Airbnb, a young startup that wanted to grow and wanted his help. There Conley found his footing working across generations as what he calls a “modern elder.”
Pencils Down
Americans hold approximately $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. The longer that you look at that statistic, the more you see: this isn’t “just” a problem for young adults starting out in the world. Borrowers of all ages- parents and grandparents alike- are sacrificing their own retirements in order to repay student debt.
The Otter Limits
Follow one parasite’s path from a household pet to the sea otters of the California coast.
Roots, Relics and Recovery: What Went Wrong With the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987
There is a prickly debate in the field of art law over who should own the past. Nevermind business. When the items for sale have totemic significance to a nation or culture, ownership is a privilege, not a top-dollar right… But an entire genre of artifact has been overlooked- underwater cultural property. There are some fifty thousand shipwrecks in the U.S., with 5-10% being of historic significance. As with art, so with shipwrecks and their related artifacts: who should own the past?
Retirement Planning
It’s no secret that one tough aspect of retirement planning is settling on the optimal strategy for drawing down a nest egg. Planning for a couple creates an extra level of complexity. Much depends on the lifestyle preferences of each spouse, their different approaches to stock market volatility and, of course, their willingness to compromise.
On the Frontline of Age Tech: 5 Questions with Keren Etkin
“In countries that are only now starting to think of older adults as possible consumers for tech, you’ll see startups developing digital health products for the aging- which is great- but older adults are not just patients… The population is extremely diverse, and a 65 year old baby boomer has different wants and needs than their parent who’s 85 years old, although they’re both considered ‘old.’”
Sabrina McLaughlin Smith 