Aging Insights Podcast

April 16 is National Health Care Decisions Day? Have you determined your health care wishes? And have you shared them with those closest to you and your health care practitioners?

In this podcast, host Dr. Cathy Rowe is joined by Tracy Grafton, a geriatric social worker and a board member of New Jersey’s Goals of Care Coalition, to discuss how advanced care planning helps your loved ones understand what you want when you can’t speak for yourself.

Grafton also examines the various life stages of a typical older adult and explores the importance of advance care planning—and how to have the much-needed conversation with your loved ones.

How did The Garden State take care of the arts, one of its most prized sectors, during the COVID-19 shutdowns of 2020 and the gradual reopening efforts of 2021?

In this podcast, Lynne Toye, the inaugural executive director of the NJ Arts and Culture Renewal Fund, joins host Dr. Cathy Rowe to detail what her group experienced in caring for the arts during the COVID years.

Toye will also outline how listeners can get involved with the many kinds of art programs New Jersey offers. Plus, learn how the New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund, established in 2020, has supported and strengthened the state’s arts, cultural and historical sector during and after COVID.

Meditation can inject far-reaching and long-lasting physical and psychological benefits into our daily lives. Advantages include decreased stress, improved brainpower, sharper focus and a calming effect on our minds. It’s something anyone can do. But not everyone knows how.

In this short podcast, Mary Flett, anationally-acclaimed clinical psychologist and the executive director of the Center for Aging and Values in California, will teach you how to relax your mind and body into immersive awareness, gratitude and tranquility—in less than five minutes.

The painful reality is that older Americans, especially older women, are becoming “invisible” in today’s culture, says researcher Mary Flett, a clinical psychologist. “We can either feel bad about that or find ways to look at it, laugh at it and lighten up about it,” the author, blogger and one-time stand-up comic says.

She can’t wait to show you how.

In this podcast, Flett joins host Dr. Cathy Rowe to discuss the five pillars of aging, which will help you understand the tenets of aging with grace and finesse. Topics include how you can embrace change, access your strength, improve resilience, find more purpose and master emotional economics.

Flett, the executive director of the Center for Aging and Values in California, recently published a three-book series titled “Aging with Finesse.” In addition, she will soon launch an online seminar detailing the five pillars of aging.

Physical therapy can play a significant role in helping you hit your highest fitness goals by soothing aches and pains and preventing further injury by maximizing your strength, mobility and function. But the best results require a detailed, individualized plan of care based on goals, injuries and needs.

In this podcast, Jo Goldin, a physical therapist with the U.S. Tennis Association, will show you how you can get started, what physical therapy covers and how to choose the right physical therapist for you.

Goldin, who has practiced in the U.S. and U.K. for 38 years, will also detail how physical therapists, unlike other fitness specialty professionals, have the education and state certification to:   

• Diagnose injuries and develop a customized treatment plan to help you recover quicker.       
• Focus on preventive care, which is especially helpful for older adults with chronic pain or limitations in movement because of an injury or arthritis. A bonus: Medicare covers physical therapy!
• Develop an exercise routine or a fitness plan that meets your goals, needs and lifestyle.