Spring 2025 | The Assets of Aging Series

SPRING 2025 SEMINAR SERIES | The Assets of Aging: A Series on the Capabilities that Accrue with Longer Lives

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2025, 11:30AM-1:00PM ET
Social Capital and the Societal Benefits of Healthy Aging
Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH
Director, Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center
Dean and DeLamar Professor
Columbia Mailman School of Public Health

Dawn C. Carr, PhD, MGS, FGSA
Director, Claude Pepper Center
Professor, Department of Sociology
Co-Director, Aging Research on Contexts, Health and Inequalities
Faculty Fellow, Office of the Vice President for Research
Florida State University
Recording here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XEAl9N79uCQm4rWSsgEOYz_4fL0fcfq0/view?usp=drive_link

Abstract: The Columbia Aging Center Spring 2025 series focuses on the assets of aging featuring capabilities that accrue with longer lives. In this seminar,  we will offer evidence about how and why making healthy aging a public health priority could provide a significant benefit for society. This session will also describe factors that shape healthy aging, our changing needs and abilities as we age, and ways that social benefits can accrue if we rethink the potential capacity of older adults. Featuring Dr. Carr’s social capital framework for gerontology and the example of volunteering, we will examine how opportunities to ensure healthy aging lie in the expansion of purposeful roles in retirement and in the awareness of mutual benefit for society and its older adults who are able to remain engaged and to contribute in meaningful ways.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY  19, 2025, 11:00AM-12:00PM ET
Disconnected: The Growing Class Divide in American Civic Life 
Sam Pressler, MBA
Practitioner Fellow
University of Virginia, Karsh Institute of Democracy
Research Affiliate Harvard University Human Flourishing Program
Recording here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mOW2ytfoakJTmQUVq1DWnU6MEVgMzAL2/view?usp=sharing

Abstract: Civic life in America has grown increasingly sorted by class since the mid-20th century. Today, your level of educational attainment is the greatest predictor of whether you'll have access to civic opportunities in your neighborhood, whether you'll be a member of a community or religious group, and whether you'll have close friends and social support in your adult life. In this talk, we'll dive deeper into these trends, explore theories on what caused these dynamics, and discuss their myriad consequences. 
Please also see: https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/disconnected-places-and-spaces/

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY  26, 2025, 12:00PM-1:00PM ET
The Silver Lining: The Prosocial Potential of an Aging Population
Enna Chen
PhD Candidate
Department of Psychology
Stanford University 
Recording here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15HrE-jpNxk7jKiHrA6vkZTTyp-f9YAqt/view?usp=sharing

Abstract:  As global life expectancy rises and fertility rates fall, the population aged 65 and older is projected to double by 2050. While these demographic shifts pose potential challenges, they may also present opportunities for families, workplaces, and communities, particularly if older adults remain healthy and socially engaged. Research on age-related changes in prosocial tendencies—behaviors that benefit others, such as helping and charitable giving—points to encouraging possibilities of an aging population. In this talk, I review recent findings on the association between age and prosociality, including helping behaviors, volunteering, and charitable giving. I also discuss my ongoing work on older and younger adults’ daily helping behavior and its links to emotions and meaning in life, as well as strategies to promote prosocial engagement across the adult life span. Together, these findings highlight the potential of older adulthood as a period of enriched social contribution.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY  27, 2025, 12:00PM-1:00PM ET
Contributions of Wisdom to Healthy Aging: Exciting Frontiers of Future Research
Dilip V. Jeste, MD
Director, Global Research Network on Social Determinants of Mental Health and Exposomics
President-Elect, World Federation for Psychotherapy
Editor-in-Chief, International Psychogeriatrics
Recording here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ipannKgPwuBKgAZ_LNcV-GDUhHZE9G8M/view?usp=sharing

Abstract: Discussed in religions and philosophies for millennia, wisdom has been a topic of growing empirical research in recent decades. Wisdom is a complex personality trait comprised of empathy/compassion, emotional regulation, self-reflection, acceptance of diverse perspectives, and spirituality. Putative neurobiological underpinnings of wisdom involve prefrontal cortex and limbic striatum, and they provide a biological basis for enhancement of wisdom components with healthy aging. A number of randomized controlled trials have shown an increase in emotional regulation, empathy/compassion, and spirituality with behavioral interventions with moderate to large effect sizes. Our studies show a strong inverse association between wisdom and loneliness, and suggest that wisdom, especially its compassion component, can potentially be an antidote for the modern behavioral pandemic of loneliness, suicides, and opioid-related deaths of despair. I will discuss some exciting frontiers for future research on wisdom including global psycho-bio-social approaches as well as technological advances to help move artificial intelligence (AI) to artificial wisdom (AW).

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2025, 12:00AM-1:00PM ET
Structural social capital and healthy aging
Ichiro Kawachi, MBChB, PhD
John L. Loeb & Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Social Epidemiology 
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Harvard School of Public Health
Recording here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LdBNeVthCNAAOyjtHBnMVJcdLc5sJI_s/view?usp=sharing

Abstract: Social connections promote the process of healthy aging through the exchange of tangible support and by encouraging people to remain active as they age via informal socializing, volunteering and participation in organizations. Collectively, we refer to the resources derived from social connections as “social capital”.   Social capital is linked to the prevention of functional disability as well as cognitive decline. In 2024, the U.S. Surgeon General called for the development of a national strategy to advance social connection. My talk focuses on two questions prompted by the Surgeon General’s call: (1) how can interventions enhance structural social capital to promote healthy aging? and (2) how do we ensure equity in access to social capital? With regard to strengthening social capital, I distinguish between two types of intervention strategies. In the first type, the manipulation consists of activities that directly build or strengthen social capital. An example is community service programs, such as the Experience Corps. Other interventions in this category include CBPR projects involving community health workers, the provision of social spaces (community centers, Men’s Shed, community gardens), social prescribing and related interventions that mobilize the health workforce to connect individuals to community resources. In the second category of interventions, social capital acts as an intervening factor to channel the effects of an intervention to improve outcomes. That is, the strengthening of social capital is not the target of the intervention per se, but it is a by-product or collateral benefit. Examples of these types of interventions include place-based interventions (participatory neighborhood development planning), neighborhood regeneration, and social infrastructure interventions in the built environment (e.g., parks, playgrounds, libraries). Policies also need to address existing inequities in access to social capital by socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, racially minoritized groups and people living with disabilities.

THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2025, 12:00PM-1:00PM ET
Grandmothers at the Helm: The Unique Leadership of Older Women in Times of Change
Lynsey Farrell, PhD
Executive Director
The Grandmother Collective
Recording here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/106KsJ4uOpCf6OxLv1s3k6k5Bj13X2QWV/view?usp=sharing

Abstract: Across cultures and generations, older women have played a pivotal role in strengthening communities, guiding younger generations, and sustaining social well-being. Their lived experience, accumulated wisdom, and deep community ties position them as uniquely capable leaders—especially in times of crisis and transition. Through concrete evidence from global initiatives like the Grandmother Project and Friendship Bench, as well as broader research on resilience and intergenerational leadership, this session will highlight how older women foster stability, collective problem-solving, and long-term well-being in their communities. By challenging prevailing narratives of aging, we will demonstrate the broader societal benefits of recognizing and investing in older women’s contributions. Their leadership in education, mental health, and social development offers powerful insights into how societies can harness the strengths of older generations for lasting social impact.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2025, 12:00PM-1:00PM ET
Life well reflected: to understand wisdom holistically
Eeva K. Kallio, PsyD
Associate Adjunct Professor
Wisdom and Learning Research Team
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Wisdom in practice Research Group Member, Academy of Finland
Virtual Seminar
Location: Zoom
Register to attend via Zoom at: https://columbiacuimc.zoom.us/meeting/register/ZdYpL45BQvqsHpC5x69Oyg

Abstract: Based on our recent work, we suggest that adult development and wisdom are closely related phenomenon. Wisdom is an axiological term, tied to values and conception of the human being as “an ideal”, a best expression of humanity. We analyzed 19 wisdom models and metamodels and created a new “Holistic wisdom metamodel” (HWM) which sets for the factors that are essential to describe wisdom. It is a bidirectional model and includes both subjective factors and external actions in different contexts.  In the HWM, complex integrative though is in the core of wisdom, indicating ability for multidimensional reflection on cognitive, emotional and ethical realms, manifesting in practice. Among wisdom scholars, it is commonly agreed that the main source of wisdom is a deep reflection upon one’s experiences and lifespan.  The relationship between age and wisdom is unclear and complicated, but wisdom seems to be protective of well-being in older adults. Complex integrative thinking as part of wisdom in older adults hasn't been studied exhaustively so far. As wisdom is multidimensional, it has been assumed that many different factors have impact on growth of it (situation, resources, specific type of wisdom dimensions, good education, personality factors, cognitive load of tasks). Longitudinal research is needed in this matter, as cognitive dimension of wisdom may be vulnerable to age-related changes. However, some emotional wisdom features seem to be stable, or even grow, with age. It seems that different domains of wisdom develop differently, and some domains are stronger than others in old age.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2025, 12:30PM-1:30PM ET
Experience Corps as a model for structural social capital for an aging society
Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH
Director
Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center
Dean & DeLamar Professor
Columbia Mailman School of Public Health
Virtual Seminar
Location: Zoom
Register to attend via Zoom at: https://columbiacuimc.zoom.us/meeting/register/F5RAs9AJTueV27a88CMJdA