In this episode, Nancy Griffin welcomes author and SuperAgerSusan Salinger to discuss the hidden barriers women face regarding health and aging. Sue shares her journey of research, personal stories, and practical advice for women to prioritize their well-being, dismantle stigma, and embrace later life with purpose and connection.

About Susan

Susan Salenger is a non-fiction writer, an avid reader, and a passionate foodie with a particular love for dark chocolate. For more than 25 years, she and her husband owned Salenger Films, a company that produced and distributed corporate training films worldwide.

Her book, Sidelined: How Women Can Navigate a Broken Healthcare System, was published by She Writes Press on April 12, 2022. The book explores the barriers women face inobtaining the best possible medical care. Salenger examines the persistent gender bias within the healthcare system and the ways in which women are often treated differently from men. Even in recent years, inequities remain.

Sue also addresses the internal barriers many women face.Women frequently put their own health behind the needs of their families, and some experience guilt when they become ill, which can influence critical medical decisions and lead to regret. Through extensive research and in-depth interviews, she uncovers the emotional conflicts many women experience when navigating complex healthcare choices.

Sidelined includes a comprehensive resource directory offering services and support to help women determine the best path forward for their healthcare needs.

Key Takeaways:

• Self-blame and shame impact women’s health decisions. Women often withhold illness due to stigma and cultural expectations. They are ashamed to go to the doctor and embarrassed to ask questions.
• For many diseases, women have different symptomsfrom men. Autoimmune diseases and Illnesses like heart attacks and chronic pain often have had trouble getting diagnosed. The doctor says “It's all in your head” because there is no data to support women’s symptoms, which reinforces women’s proclivity to blame themselves. This creates a vicious circle.
• Many times, Illnesses are random, but we tend to give disease a meaning. There are alcoholics that don't have a liver problem and people with lung cancer that have never smoked.
• De-stigmatization is the first step on the road to transparency and health. Self-advocacy and soliciting second opinions in critical to navigate a broken healthcare system. Do your research. Understand your diagnosis. Get a second opinion.
• Social connections, purpose, and community are paramount for mental and physical health. Find something that gives you self-satisfaction and makes you feel good about yourself. Prioritize meaningful connection.

Join us in this episode as we explore the transformative role of technology, especially AI, in aging well. Our guest, Jon Warner, a seasoned expert in healthcare and innovation for older adults, shares his journey, latest trends, and a hopeful vision for the future of personalized, preventative care that empowers individuals to thrive at any age.

About Jon

Jon Warner is an aging expert and sought-after advisor for digital health, health, healthcare and wellness organizations. Five-time company CEO, Jon is a widely respected entrepreneur having founded and led 3 startups (with 2 successful exits).

His career started in the corporate world with Air Products and Chemicals, working in the US and across Europe before joining Exxon-Mobil. Following his 15 years in the corporate world, Warner founded and grew The Worldwide Centerfor Organizational Development, a management consulting business with global clients including Ford Motor Company, L’Oreal, British Airways, HSBC, Microsoft, Glaxo, Foster Wheeler, Toyota, Johnson and Johnson, Coca-Cola, PWC, The UK NHS, Roche and MasterCard.

Key Takeaways

• In the past two decades, macro demographic changes have led to increased innovation and more focus on aging populations.
• Aging is plastic, not predetermined: Aging is a flexible process, influenced by lifestyle and epigenetic factors.
• Innovation in AI allows us to customize solutions and tailor them in ways that will help us to thrive and to prevail for longer in better health. AI is capable of pulling together data and creating new threads of insights.
• AI brings the opportunity to case-assess more richly and not only understand the care that's being rendered, but in what context the person lives. Using AI in affordable housing allows analysis of social determinants of health data—answering questions like: Does beingsocial and having a wide friend set prevent heart disease and dementia
• AI needs contextual thinking provided by humans The risk of AI is misinformation from scaping the internet, which is not always reliable. We need “guidelines and guide rails.” To reduce risk, be specific with prompts and rely on credible reports and studies.
• Precision medicine eliminates a one-size-fits-all approach. Genomic data and social determinant data allows us to render solutions that are individualized in ways we couldn't imagine a decade ago.

In this episode of the Glowing Older podcast, host Nancy Griffin interviews Dr. Kerry Burnight, a gerontologist and author of JoySpan: The Art and Science of Thriving in Life's Second Half. They discuss the concept of "JoySpan," which emphasizes the importance of quality of life over mere longevity. Dr. Burnight introduces her four-pronged matrix for thriving in later life: Grow, Connect, Adapt, and Give. The conversation also touches on overcoming internalized ageism and the significance of maintaining a growth mindset as we age.

About Kerry

Dr. Kerry Burnight is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author and nationally recognized gerontologist whose life’s work celebrates the gift of growing older. For eighteen years, Professor Burnight taught Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at the University of California, Irvine, and co-founded the nation’s first Elder Abuse Forensic Center.

Known as America’s Gerontologist, she blends science with soul by translating cutting-edge longevity research into practical, heart-centered ways to live with vitality, connection, and purpose. Building upon the lifespan and healthspan literature, she coined the term joyspan - the quality of a long life. The joysan framework is a proven approach to deepening love, curiosity, vitality, and meaning.

Kerry Burnight’s work has been featured in The New York Times, CBS Mornings, Oprah Daily, NBC News, Time Magazine, BBC, and CNN. Growing older is not the end of your story, it is the fullest expression of it.

Key Takeaways

• Focusing too much on longevity can neglect quality of life. Many older adults live long and stay healthy yet still feel unhappy.
• The American Psychological Association defines joy as “a feeling of extreme gladness, delight, or exaltation of the spirit arising from a sense of well-being or satisfaction”. Joy is not about being happy all the time—it's a deeper sense of contentment. Unlike happiness, which often depends on external circumstances, joy is rooted in well-being and internal satisfaction.
• The four-pronged matrix for JoySpan is Grow, Connect, Adapt, and Give. Curiosity is the catalyst of growth.
• Research shows that genetics will predict less than 25 % of how we age.
• As you get older, you care less about others' opinions and gain stronger emotional regulation, with fewer intense ups and downs. There’s more appreciation for beauty, relationships, ordinary pleasures, humility, andspirituality. Aging also boosts integration between brain hemispheres, offering improved problem solving and deeper self-acceptance.
• The multi-billion dollar anti-aging industry profits from the “aging is bad” narrative telling us to fear getting older and to use their products to stop aging.