May 28, 2025 • 21 mins
Ever wonder how powerful storytelling can transform lives across generations? Join host Doug Drohan as he interviews Cynthia Affinito, founder of Historical Speakers for Seniors, who reveals the fascinating intersection of education, entertainment, and cognitive wellness for older adults.
After 32 years of teaching world history, Cynthia recognized a significant gap in educational programming for seniors. "These communities are filled with doctors, lawyers, people from every walk of life, and they're still learning," she explains. This realization sparked her mission to bring captivating historical narratives directly to senior living communities throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. Alongside her husband Damon, who specializes in U.S. history, they've created a service that challenges the misconception that older adults lose their desire to learn and engage.
What makes their approach uniquely effective is the science behind storytelling. Cynthia explains that good stories trigger the release of oxytocin in our brains, creating feelings of trust and connection. Her visual presentation style—using carefully curated images and videos without text-heavy slides—has proven remarkably successful not only with seniors but also in her high school classroom. The impact extends beyond entertainment to actual cognitive benefits, particularly for memory care residents who often "perk up" during presentations about Renaissance art or World War II, reconnecting with their own memories and experiences.
From the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia to the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, Cynthia's breadth of knowledge brings history to life through conversation rather than lecture. The podcast concludes with a fascinating impromptu discussion about why certain empires rose to prominence while others fell, leaving listeners curious about the historical forces that continue to shape our world today.
Ready to experience history in a whole new way? Connect with Historical Speakers for Seniors through their website or email to bring these captivating presentations to your community. Because as this enlightening conversation proves, learning truly is a lifelong journey.
Historical Speakers for Seniors
Cynthia Affinito
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Good
Neighbor Podcast brought to youby the Bergen Neighbors Media
Group.
I am your host, doug Drohan, ateacher and owner of a really
interesting company that I haveto admit.
We have not had a company likethis.
On my 100 and so episodes thatwe've produced so far, I'd like
(00:32):
to introduce Cynthia Affinito,the owner of Historical Speakers
for Seniors, to the show.
Welcome to the show, cynthia.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Thank you so much, Doug.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, so I mentioned you're a teacher.
You're down the street atNorthern Valley, old Japan, or
what we call NBOT, and just sohappens that Northern Valley
Living Magazine serves thosecommunities.
But it's great because I waslooking back in June of last
year we did a special issuewhere we featured teachers from
NBOT that were once students andalthough you were not a student
(01:03):
at NBOT, having grown up inOradell, we also had a story
about your business, where Iforget where the shot was taken,
but you were featured in thatmagazine as well.
So why don't we just go back?
So you are a history teacher.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, so I've been teaching history for 32 years,
mostly world history, but justall sorts of topics you know
along those or throughout thoseyears.
So it's like United Stateshistory and constitutional law,
I think.
At one point, anything theyasked me to do I did, but mostly
it was world history, for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So I was just in Florida over the weekend, just
went for a couple of days.
Florida over the weekend, justwent for a couple of days.
My mom turned 90.
And for my dad's 90th, whichwas in February, my wife, who
got into this Wondery app calledHistory.
What is it called?
Something historical?
Right, it's a podcast show thatdoes world history.
(01:59):
It does the story of theConstitution, the story of the
Civil War, war, the story ofwhatever, and we thought my dad
would really be into it becausehe loves history.
So they didn't know how todownload the apps.
When I was there, I went on theuh, just on the web, and just
typed in you know a wondery appand found it and then he was
listening to.
Actually, they did the story ofthe financial crisis in 2007,
(02:19):
because my dad worked in wallstreet.
Oh, wow and um it's.
It's narrated like a almostlike a ken burn.
So it's not just history likeoh, back in 2007 layman was over
leveraged, it was people, okay,you know.
Uh, hank paulson walks in theroom and it's this guy narrating
like a conversation that he'shaving.
So I've listened to.
(02:40):
They do one called businessmovers, where it's different
stories of like when walt disneywas trying to buy land in
Orlando to build.
Disney World.
So it's really interesting.
But the whole point of how doyou make history interesting?
It's through storytelling,right?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So that's the segue into your company called
Speakers for Seniors.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
That's right, yeah.
Called Speakers for Seniors?
That's right, yeah.
So after teaching for like 32years, I just basically took my
show on the road and I thought,yeah, I was touring a lot of
senior communities with my mombecause she's 84.
And so she was just lookinginto possible assisted
independent living and justspeaking to the people there and
(03:23):
them saying like, oh, you know,we have all of these activities
.
I thought you know, thesecommunities are filled with
doctors, lawyers, you know fromevery walk of life, and they're
still learning.
You know they still enjoy agood story about history
especially.
And so I thought you know what,why not kind of take the
stories to them?
(03:43):
And that's how it really allbegan.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Right.
So you know you.
If I look at your website, it'slike step back in time and you
embark on a captivating journeythrough history.
And you know, I think, what KenBurns did really well, which
was different for its time atthe time, and now it's been like
what?
30 years.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
When the Civil War came out and baseball, but it's
been like what, 30 years, yeah,when the civil war came out in
baseball.
But it's having those actorswho narrate characters, so it
brings it to life more.
And one of the things that Itry to, you know, I really um
espouse every single day aboutwhat I do is how storytelling, a
good story, actually releasesour body, our brain releases,
(04:23):
releases oxytocin, which is thetrust.
I don't know what oxytocin is.
It is a hormone.
Is it some kind of protein?
Whatever it is, it's whatmothers produce when they're
giving birth.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And it builds trust and it creates, like this,
warmth.
And when you're, advertising isconnected to stories.
When people have that warm andfuzzy feeling, even if they
don't consciously think aboutyour ad or your brand, you're
making that kind of subliminalconnection that builds over time
.
And certainly you know we couldsay seniors I think obviously,
(04:57):
as a as a history teacher inhigh school, you probably see
this as well.
The best way to reach people isto kind of take them through a
captivating journey.
So why, why did you zero in onseniors?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Just because I thought that they're an
underserved population in thisarea.
I think a lot of the times wethink of senior citizens as
people who, you know, at acertain point, don't want to
learn, stop learning, and it'sjust not true.
You know a lot of people when Igo in and just have these
lectures about all sorts ofthings, everything from Africa,
(05:34):
African history to the Mongols,Renaissance art.
My husband does all the UShistory, things like baseball
and World.
War II.
You know, sometimes like that,things like baseball and World
War II, sometimes like thatthey'll actually reminisce about
their own experiences withbaseball and World War II and
that otherwise we have people.
If we do something with WorldWar, I reminisce about how their
(05:57):
grandparents were involved andthey have their stories.
So I think it's just a way forthem to really exercise that
part of their mind that I thinka lot of us just don't, because
we're so busy or we just forgetto.
We just sit in front of the.
TV, maybe just watch whatever ison, but it really gets them
(06:18):
thinking.
And the way that I presentwithin that hour, um it, it's
all pictures and videos.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
I was going to say do you use visual?
Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, it's just Google slides and but it's like
the.
The videos and the picturesjust help to really bring to
life the stories that I tellthem.
I don't use notes or anything,it's just pretty much like get
up and have a nice conversationwith them.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And there's a lot of medical studies.
You know, with music and itprobably unlocks the mind and
the spirit, in the same way thatyou know people that are
suffering from dementia orpeople that have other cognitive
issues like you know, declinesin their lives, when they can
get into something like themusic that brings them back to
(07:02):
the 1940s or the 1950s, it justopens up this window that they
maybe had closed or didn'trealize was closed.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Well, we've actually done things in memory care,
believe it or not, and I'll dolike a 30 minute presentation as
opposed to an hour, andespecially the Renaissance art
minute presentation as opposedto an hour, and especially the
Renaissance art.
I had a lot of people who youknow.
You normally you would see themand they're not responding.
They kind of perk up and youknow whether they've been to
(07:31):
Italy or not.
They talk about their trip toItaly and you know Michelangelo,
and it is a really interestingchange.
You know and I think it's really, I think it's a very important
service to provide to all ofthem, you know, not just like an
assisted living, independentliving, but also memory care as
well.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, yeah.
Now do you use the, the?
Do you employ these use ofvisuals in your high school
classes as well?
Do you find, in a world ofInstagram and YouTube and TikTok
, that students might absorbmore if there's a visual to go
along with the story?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yeah, so it took me a while to realize you know how
to present things effectively, Ithink as a young teacher.
Sometimes I know for myself likeI had all sorts of bulleted
notes and I expect the studentsto write things down and I mean
there definitely is a skill tonote taking on that end of it.
But as I got kind of to theolder grades and I taught the AP
(08:33):
World History and I had juniorsthey would read all the things
first before they came into theclass.
Before the presentation theywould already have their notes.
And the idea was is that all Ihad to do was put images up
there and talk about it and havethem talk about it with me?
And then they highlighted theirnotes as they went.
So for me it's been like overthe last few years that I've
(08:55):
only used pictures.
I've only used images and itworks so much better.
The flow of the presentationjust works better that way, and
it works so much better.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
The flow of the presentation just works better
that way.
Yeah, that's great.
I think I work a lot in thesenior care population in terms
of businesses that advertise mymagazines, and one of the
reasons is the demographic ofwho receives the magazines every
month.
The average age is 45.
Magazines every month theaverage age is 45.
But you know that the I thinkthe misconception is that only
(09:24):
older people read magazines orprinted material these days,
which has actually been provento be incorrect, and there's
been some articles recently inin Forbes and Bloomberg and NPR
about the resurgence of printand how younger people and when
I say younger, younger I meanpeople in their 20s and 30s are
(09:45):
looking for something to getthem away from their devices.
You know, there's kind of thisdigital disruption.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, that's a good way to put it, for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
But having something in your hands, that tactile
experience, and then being ableto, you know, spend more time
with it, I think is reallyimportant.
And you know, the storytellingis, I think, in any type of
setting, whether it'seducational, entertaining or, as
we were talking about marketingand advertising, it's something
that's underutilized.
But to your point, I mean,obviously you guys have latched
(10:15):
on to this.
So now, who are your like?
Where do you go to do these,like you know, these speaking
engagements?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Yeah, so we've been all over New Jersey,
pennsylvania, new York goinginto sometimes they're like the
senior citizen communities, likethe community centers.
I've done the like seniorschools up at Clarkstown, a
couple of classes there like aseries, like almost like a
series, right Like five classesfor five weeks, and then you
(10:51):
know Brightview, delaney, youknow all the kind of the names
of the different, yeah, assistedliving and independent living.
My first place, though that kindof opened it all up for us was
Thrive up in Montvale.
They're fantastic, all of them.
Actually all the activitiesdirectors, I have to be honest,
are some of the hardest workingpeople I've ever met.
(11:12):
Yeah, they really do a greatjob in just trying to engage
their populations, and so westarted at Thrive and then it's
just kind of expanded from there.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, thrive, and then it's just kind of expanded
from there yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Thrive is a really nice place.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I guess you get a lot for your 15 grand a month, or
you've been through Allegro.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Yeah, we just did something in Allegro last week
where they do.
Sometimes they'll do like a daywhere it is just dedicated to a
country.
So last week it was Japan.
So I went in and did a historyof Japan presentation and it was
kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
All these topics, you know them by heart, for the
most part from all of your yearsof teaching.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah, yes, it's all up here in my brain.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, yeah, so you go back to 8000 BCE.
What is BCE?
What does the E stand for?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, BCE.
What does BCE?
What does the E stand for?
Yeah, so I tend to use just BCand AD in the senior communities
because a lot of the timesthose switchovers are a little
bit not well received.
But so BCE and CE was theattempt to take religion out of
the timeline but to keep thatzero point that we usually use.
So historians just came up withthe before common era and
(12:23):
common era and that's what wehave.
So I tend to stick with the ADand BC, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
So I'm going to pick a topic.
I'm going to put you on thespot here, let's see.
So one of my most.
I've traveled quite a bit,mostly Europe, and well, mostly
Europe, a little bit of SouthAmerica, but not really South
America.
It was a business trip, solet's just say Europe.
And my second time, in Rome, Ihad a Fedor's book which dates
(12:53):
me and it was like a walkingguide through the forum, and
what I found amazing was, firstof all, you could walk on the
stones in the paths that theRomans walked on.
And I was in Greece once where,back in the day, the Panthenon
you could actually walk on itand in it and sit in the I think
it was the theater of Dionysusor whatever, like before people
(13:13):
started chipping away rocks andruining everybody?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Were they close enough?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, so I was, you know, just to be walking the
forum and, you know, thinking ofwhat this was like, you know,
thousands of years ago.
So the history of Italy fromRome to resilience.
So when does the Roman Empirestart?
If you know, recorded historyof the Roman Empire that we
would know?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
that we would know Well, I mean, the whole collapse
of the empire happens aroundthe 500s.
So if you're talking about therepublic or you're talking about
what I'm, talking about goingback to when they conquered most
of europe and africa yeah, Imean you're dealing with, like
the 100s up to the 500s, youknow, reaching its height and
then eventually collapse.
(14:00):
No, no, ad ad ad.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Okay, yeah, even before that, like when we're
looking at the creation reachingits height and then eventually
collapse.
No, no, ad, ad, ad.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
okay yeah even before that, like when we're looking
at the creation of the RomanEmpire, um, you're looking at,
like, augustus and then theestablishment of that position
of the empire, and then fromthat point forward, then you
have, like, the differentemperors that will come and so
why?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
why were the romans so good at what they did?
I mean one of the other thingsI lived in england for a year
abroad and went to bath, bathengland yeah, I've been there.
It's nice yeah, and I'm likewow, the romans, like they built
these health clubs with the,you know, the hot room and the
cold room and the sauna, and itwas like yeah, how did we know
(14:40):
to do this, like when they builtaqueducts?
like I'm always shocked at likewho was the first person to
realize that you could turn thisthing that's growing wheat and
create flour, or this thing thatlooks like, uh, weed and it's
rice, like who was the first todo that?
I don't know if we can go backthat far.
Yeah, why were the romans sogood at what they did?
(15:00):
And and how were they able tobuild an empire that spanned,
you know, throughout europe andparts of north africa?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
and northern africa.
Well, actually a sidebar tothat, just so you know, the
Indus River Valley civilizationsof like many years prior to the
Romans, created bigger baths,bigger areas of bigger baths,
and so it's about, for theRomans, a lot of exchange of
ideas.
So there's a lot of exchange ofideas in the Silk Road that
happened from China all the wayto the Romans, which most people
(15:31):
don't really realize theconnections there.
But the Romans also ruledduring a time of great peace.
I mean, they hadstate-of-the-art equipment when
it came to their own militaryand they dominated, right.
So the people that they tookover, those people didn't have
weaponry, right?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
But why them?
And why didn't those otherpeople have weaponry?
That's what I'm trying to getat, Like why was it having to do
with the climate there, thenatural resources?
Like why Italy?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Locate.
I mean, it's also locationright, Location location, Like
they were the ones that were incharge of trade, and so if you
have dominance over trade, rightI'm going to sound like a
little kid, but why but?
Why yeah?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, why Italy?
Now?
Granted, they were positionedin the Mediterranean, but so was
Spain, so was Turkey, orwhatever Right.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
But they weren't centralized.
They just were not centralizedas well as the.
Romans were.
When the Romans had beencentralized into Rome, into that
city of Rome, they were kind ofsitting in the cells.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
We can go on and on and on.
I'll just keep saying why.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Yeah, I mean, you could why did they fall?
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Greece was such a powerhouse.
What happened to Greece?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Greece expanded too far, and then it lost its
leadership.
And when alexander, the greatyou know, died, I mean he was
macedonian, but when he died helost that, that leadership, and
then the eastern part of theempire fell, and then the
western part of the empire felland then spain had a great the
spanish empire.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
They conquered, they discovered, so to speak, the new
world.
What happened to them?
Was it?
Because I'll tell you exactlywhat?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
happened to them 1588 happened to them 1588, they
tried to invade England for anumber of different reasons and
they were beat.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
The Spanish Armada right.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
The Spanish Armada.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
They couldn't recover from that.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
They couldn't because King Philip had invested so
much money and they had lost somany ships during that I think
they lost like half their fleet.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
And shipping was the main source of power and income.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
In those days.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
It's really interesting.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I mean we could go on and you know, you can tell
We'll have to do an episode ofone of these.
And do you know ancientcivilization or whatever?
But I'm always like I ask youknow?
Say to my son, like you know,when you see these things, uh,
you know who decided, you knowwho figured out you could turn
this into wheat or or that thisthing growing, there was corn
(18:02):
and you could take corn andcreate, you know, corn meal and
corn bread.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
you know you would like this book.
You would like this great bookcalled history of the world in
six glasses.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Starts off with the history of beer and then it goes
wine and say beer, wine.
It has spirits, talks aboutlet's see the spirits the tea,
coffee, and then ends with withwater, not in that particular
order It'll.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
I think answer your why question as to like yeah,
yeah, I know wine and beer camefrom, yeah, yeah, mesopotamia or
wherever, but uh, it'sinteresting.
Yeah, well, that's my, that'smy knowledge of it.
Um, yeah, yeah yeah, no, it's,it's great and I I appreciate
you indulging me.
But, um, yeah, I, you know my II prefer history of the world
(18:53):
from Mel Brooks, you know,that's my favorite movie A lot
of people do for sure.
It's a great, great movie.
So let's just talk a littlebusiness.
So how would you know who?
How would people reach out toyou If?
If someone's listening to thispodcast and you know they work
at a senior uh community, yeah,how would they contact you?
(19:14):
What's the best way to reachyou?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
um.
I mean they can reach me at myemail address historical
speakers for seniors at gmailcom.
Um.
You can also go onto ourwebsite historical speakers for
seniorscom.
Um and uh, just contact usthrough there.
There's like a little button topress for that.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Now I'm sorry when you say we, I know there's a
Cynthia Afanito and there's aDamon Afanito.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
So you guys related.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
He's my husband.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Okay, no, and he's also a history teacher.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yeah, he, he um.
He is a history teacher.
He's actually a U S historyteacher, he's actually a US
history teacher.
So he fills in all the holesfor me because although I've
taught US history, my love isreally world history, so for him
he likes all the US historystuff.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Is he teaching about the equal but separate, but
equal government that we'resupposed to have?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Right now.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Well, historically, I think, they got rid of that.
Yeah, they started thatconstitution yeah yeah yeah, we
joke about it, but I don't know.
Um, well, this is great,cynthia.
You know I I maybe we can comeback and and speak about um a
specific topic, or, you know, Ihave a lot of connections in the
(20:33):
industry and we probably knowyou know a lot of the same
people, so yeah, let's stay intouch and just bear with me
while we just have Chuck saygoodbye and you and I'll be
right back.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Thank you for listening to the good neighbor
podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to gnpbergen.
com.
That's gnpbergen.
com, or call 201-298-8325.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Good
Neighbor Podcast brought to youby the Bergen Neighbors Media
Group.
I am your host, doug Drohan, ateacher and owner of a really
interesting company that I haveto admit.
We have not had a company likethis.
On my 100 and so episodes thatwe've produced so far, I'd like
(00:32):
to introduce Cynthia Affinito,the owner of Historical Speakers
for Seniors, to the show.
Welcome to the show, cynthia.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Thank you so much, Doug.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, so I mentioned you're a teacher.
You're down the street atNorthern Valley, old Japan, or
what we call NBOT, and just sohappens that Northern Valley
Living Magazine serves thosecommunities.
But it's great because I waslooking back in June of last
year we did a special issuewhere we featured teachers from
NBOT that were once students andalthough you were not a student
(01:03):
at NBOT, having grown up inOradell, we also had a story
about your business, where Iforget where the shot was taken,
but you were featured in thatmagazine as well.
So why don't we just go back?
So you are a history teacher.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, so I've been teaching history for 32 years,
mostly world history, but justall sorts of topics you know
along those or throughout thoseyears.
So it's like United Stateshistory and constitutional law,
I think.
At one point, anything theyasked me to do I did, but mostly
it was world history, for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So I was just in Florida over the weekend, just
went for a couple of days.
Florida over the weekend, justwent for a couple of days.
My mom turned 90.
And for my dad's 90th, whichwas in February, my wife, who
got into this Wondery app calledHistory.
What is it called?
Something historical?
Right, it's a podcast show thatdoes world history.
(01:59):
It does the story of theConstitution, the story of the
Civil War, war, the story ofwhatever, and we thought my dad
would really be into it becausehe loves history.
So they didn't know how todownload the apps.
When I was there, I went on theuh, just on the web, and just
typed in you know a wondery appand found it and then he was
listening to.
Actually, they did the story ofthe financial crisis in 2007,
(02:19):
because my dad worked in wallstreet.
Oh, wow and um it's.
It's narrated like a almostlike a ken burn.
So it's not just history likeoh, back in 2007 layman was over
leveraged, it was people, okay,you know.
Uh, hank paulson walks in theroom and it's this guy narrating
like a conversation that he'shaving.
So I've listened to.
(02:40):
They do one called businessmovers, where it's different
stories of like when walt disneywas trying to buy land in
Orlando to build.
Disney World.
So it's really interesting.
But the whole point of how doyou make history interesting?
It's through storytelling,right?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So that's the segue into your company called
Speakers for Seniors.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
That's right, yeah.
Called Speakers for Seniors?
That's right, yeah.
So after teaching for like 32years, I just basically took my
show on the road and I thought,yeah, I was touring a lot of
senior communities with my mombecause she's 84.
And so she was just lookinginto possible assisted
independent living and justspeaking to the people there and
(03:23):
them saying like, oh, you know,we have all of these activities
.
I thought you know, thesecommunities are filled with
doctors, lawyers, you know fromevery walk of life, and they're
still learning.
You know they still enjoy agood story about history
especially.
And so I thought you know what,why not kind of take the
stories to them?
(03:43):
And that's how it really allbegan.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Right.
So you know you.
If I look at your website, it'slike step back in time and you
embark on a captivating journeythrough history.
And you know, I think, what KenBurns did really well, which
was different for its time atthe time, and now it's been like
what?
30 years.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
When the Civil War came out and baseball, but it's
been like what, 30 years, yeah,when the civil war came out in
baseball.
But it's having those actorswho narrate characters, so it
brings it to life more.
And one of the things that Itry to, you know, I really um
espouse every single day aboutwhat I do is how storytelling, a
good story, actually releasesour body, our brain releases,
(04:23):
releases oxytocin, which is thetrust.
I don't know what oxytocin is.
It is a hormone.
Is it some kind of protein?
Whatever it is, it's whatmothers produce when they're
giving birth.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And it builds trust and it creates, like this,
warmth.
And when you're, advertising isconnected to stories.
When people have that warm andfuzzy feeling, even if they
don't consciously think aboutyour ad or your brand, you're
making that kind of subliminalconnection that builds over time
.
And certainly you know we couldsay seniors I think obviously,
(04:57):
as a as a history teacher inhigh school, you probably see
this as well.
The best way to reach people isto kind of take them through a
captivating journey.
So why, why did you zero in onseniors?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Just because I thought that they're an
underserved population in thisarea.
I think a lot of the times wethink of senior citizens as
people who, you know, at acertain point, don't want to
learn, stop learning, and it'sjust not true.
You know a lot of people when Igo in and just have these
lectures about all sorts ofthings, everything from Africa,
(05:34):
African history to the Mongols,Renaissance art.
My husband does all the UShistory, things like baseball
and World.
War II.
You know, sometimes like that,things like baseball and World
War II, sometimes like thatthey'll actually reminisce about
their own experiences withbaseball and World War II and
that otherwise we have people.
If we do something with WorldWar, I reminisce about how their
(05:57):
grandparents were involved andthey have their stories.
So I think it's just a way forthem to really exercise that
part of their mind that I thinka lot of us just don't, because
we're so busy or we just forgetto.
We just sit in front of the.
TV, maybe just watch whatever ison, but it really gets them
(06:18):
thinking.
And the way that I presentwithin that hour, um it, it's
all pictures and videos.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
I was going to say do you use visual?
Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, it's just Google slides and but it's like
the.
The videos and the picturesjust help to really bring to
life the stories that I tellthem.
I don't use notes or anything,it's just pretty much like get
up and have a nice conversationwith them.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And there's a lot of medical studies.
You know, with music and itprobably unlocks the mind and
the spirit, in the same way thatyou know people that are
suffering from dementia orpeople that have other cognitive
issues like you know, declinesin their lives, when they can
get into something like themusic that brings them back to
(07:02):
the 1940s or the 1950s, it justopens up this window that they
maybe had closed or didn'trealize was closed.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Well, we've actually done things in memory care,
believe it or not, and I'll dolike a 30 minute presentation as
opposed to an hour, andespecially the Renaissance art
minute presentation as opposedto an hour, and especially the
Renaissance art.
I had a lot of people who youknow.
You normally you would see themand they're not responding.
They kind of perk up and youknow whether they've been to
(07:31):
Italy or not.
They talk about their trip toItaly and you know Michelangelo,
and it is a really interestingchange.
You know and I think it's really, I think it's a very important
service to provide to all ofthem, you know, not just like an
assisted living, independentliving, but also memory care as
well.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, yeah.
Now do you use the, the?
Do you employ these use ofvisuals in your high school
classes as well?
Do you find, in a world ofInstagram and YouTube and TikTok
, that students might absorbmore if there's a visual to go
along with the story?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yeah, so it took me a while to realize you know how
to present things effectively, Ithink as a young teacher.
Sometimes I know for myself likeI had all sorts of bulleted
notes and I expect the studentsto write things down and I mean
there definitely is a skill tonote taking on that end of it.
But as I got kind of to theolder grades and I taught the AP
(08:33):
World History and I had juniorsthey would read all the things
first before they came into theclass.
Before the presentation theywould already have their notes.
And the idea was is that all Ihad to do was put images up
there and talk about it and havethem talk about it with me?
And then they highlighted theirnotes as they went.
So for me it's been like overthe last few years that I've
(08:55):
only used pictures.
I've only used images and itworks so much better.
The flow of the presentationjust works better that way, and
it works so much better.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
The flow of the presentation just works better
that way.
Yeah, that's great.
I think I work a lot in thesenior care population in terms
of businesses that advertise mymagazines, and one of the
reasons is the demographic ofwho receives the magazines every
month.
The average age is 45.
Magazines every month theaverage age is 45.
But you know that the I thinkthe misconception is that only
(09:24):
older people read magazines orprinted material these days,
which has actually been provento be incorrect, and there's
been some articles recently inin Forbes and Bloomberg and NPR
about the resurgence of printand how younger people and when
I say younger, younger I meanpeople in their 20s and 30s are
(09:45):
looking for something to getthem away from their devices.
You know, there's kind of thisdigital disruption.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, that's a good way to put it, for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
But having something in your hands, that tactile
experience, and then being ableto, you know, spend more time
with it, I think is reallyimportant.
And you know, the storytellingis, I think, in any type of
setting, whether it'seducational, entertaining or, as
we were talking about marketingand advertising, it's something
that's underutilized.
But to your point, I mean,obviously you guys have latched
(10:15):
on to this.
So now, who are your like?
Where do you go to do these,like you know, these speaking
engagements?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Yeah, so we've been all over New Jersey,
pennsylvania, new York goinginto sometimes they're like the
senior citizen communities, likethe community centers.
I've done the like seniorschools up at Clarkstown, a
couple of classes there like aseries, like almost like a
series, right Like five classesfor five weeks, and then you
(10:51):
know Brightview, delaney, youknow all the kind of the names
of the different, yeah, assistedliving and independent living.
My first place, though that kindof opened it all up for us was
Thrive up in Montvale.
They're fantastic, all of them.
Actually all the activitiesdirectors, I have to be honest,
are some of the hardest workingpeople I've ever met.
(11:12):
Yeah, they really do a greatjob in just trying to engage
their populations, and so westarted at Thrive and then it's
just kind of expanded from there.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, thrive, and then it's just kind of expanded
from there yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Thrive is a really nice place.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I guess you get a lot for your 15 grand a month, or
you've been through Allegro.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Yeah, we just did something in Allegro last week
where they do.
Sometimes they'll do like a daywhere it is just dedicated to a
country.
So last week it was Japan.
So I went in and did a historyof Japan presentation and it was
kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
All these topics, you know them by heart, for the
most part from all of your yearsof teaching.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah, yes, it's all up here in my brain.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, yeah, so you go back to 8000 BCE.
What is BCE?
What does the E stand for?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, BCE.
What does BCE?
What does the E stand for?
Yeah, so I tend to use just BCand AD in the senior communities
because a lot of the timesthose switchovers are a little
bit not well received.
But so BCE and CE was theattempt to take religion out of
the timeline but to keep thatzero point that we usually use.
So historians just came up withthe before common era and
(12:23):
common era and that's what wehave.
So I tend to stick with the ADand BC, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
So I'm going to pick a topic.
I'm going to put you on thespot here, let's see.
So one of my most.
I've traveled quite a bit,mostly Europe, and well, mostly
Europe, a little bit of SouthAmerica, but not really South
America.
It was a business trip, solet's just say Europe.
And my second time, in Rome, Ihad a Fedor's book which dates
(12:53):
me and it was like a walkingguide through the forum, and
what I found amazing was, firstof all, you could walk on the
stones in the paths that theRomans walked on.
And I was in Greece once where,back in the day, the Panthenon
you could actually walk on itand in it and sit in the I think
it was the theater of Dionysusor whatever, like before people
(13:13):
started chipping away rocks andruining everybody?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Were they close enough?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, so I was, you know, just to be walking the
forum and, you know, thinking ofwhat this was like, you know,
thousands of years ago.
So the history of Italy fromRome to resilience.
So when does the Roman Empirestart?
If you know, recorded historyof the Roman Empire that we
would know?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
that we would know Well, I mean, the whole collapse
of the empire happens aroundthe 500s.
So if you're talking about therepublic or you're talking about
what I'm, talking about goingback to when they conquered most
of europe and africa yeah, Imean you're dealing with, like
the 100s up to the 500s, youknow, reaching its height and
then eventually collapse.
(14:00):
No, no, ad ad ad.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Okay, yeah, even before that, like when we're
looking at the creation reachingits height and then eventually
collapse.
No, no, ad, ad, ad.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
okay yeah even before that, like when we're looking
at the creation of the RomanEmpire, um, you're looking at,
like, augustus and then theestablishment of that position
of the empire, and then fromthat point forward, then you
have, like, the differentemperors that will come and so
why?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
why were the romans so good at what they did?
I mean one of the other thingsI lived in england for a year
abroad and went to bath, bathengland yeah, I've been there.
It's nice yeah, and I'm likewow, the romans, like they built
these health clubs with the,you know, the hot room and the
cold room and the sauna, and itwas like yeah, how did we know
(14:40):
to do this, like when they builtaqueducts?
like I'm always shocked at likewho was the first person to
realize that you could turn thisthing that's growing wheat and
create flour, or this thing thatlooks like, uh, weed and it's
rice, like who was the first todo that?
I don't know if we can go backthat far.
Yeah, why were the romans sogood at what they did?
(15:00):
And and how were they able tobuild an empire that spanned,
you know, throughout europe andparts of north africa?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
and northern africa.
Well, actually a sidebar tothat, just so you know, the
Indus River Valley civilizationsof like many years prior to the
Romans, created bigger baths,bigger areas of bigger baths,
and so it's about, for theRomans, a lot of exchange of
ideas.
So there's a lot of exchange ofideas in the Silk Road that
happened from China all the wayto the Romans, which most people
(15:31):
don't really realize theconnections there.
But the Romans also ruledduring a time of great peace.
I mean, they hadstate-of-the-art equipment when
it came to their own militaryand they dominated, right.
So the people that they tookover, those people didn't have
weaponry, right?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
But why them?
And why didn't those otherpeople have weaponry?
That's what I'm trying to getat, Like why was it having to do
with the climate there, thenatural resources?
Like why Italy?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Locate.
I mean, it's also locationright, Location location, Like
they were the ones that were incharge of trade, and so if you
have dominance over trade, rightI'm going to sound like a
little kid, but why but?
Why yeah?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, why Italy?
Now?
Granted, they were positionedin the Mediterranean, but so was
Spain, so was Turkey, orwhatever Right.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
But they weren't centralized.
They just were not centralizedas well as the.
Romans were.
When the Romans had beencentralized into Rome, into that
city of Rome, they were kind ofsitting in the cells.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
We can go on and on and on.
I'll just keep saying why.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Yeah, I mean, you could why did they fall?
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Greece was such a powerhouse.
What happened to Greece?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Greece expanded too far, and then it lost its
leadership.
And when alexander, the greatyou know, died, I mean he was
macedonian, but when he died helost that, that leadership, and
then the eastern part of theempire fell, and then the
western part of the empire felland then spain had a great the
spanish empire.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
They conquered, they discovered, so to speak, the new
world.
What happened to them?
Was it?
Because I'll tell you exactlywhat?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
happened to them 1588 happened to them 1588, they
tried to invade England for anumber of different reasons and
they were beat.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
The Spanish Armada right.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
The Spanish Armada.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
They couldn't recover from that.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
They couldn't because King Philip had invested so
much money and they had lost somany ships during that I think
they lost like half their fleet.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
And shipping was the main source of power and income.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
In those days.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
It's really interesting.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I mean we could go on and you know, you can tell
We'll have to do an episode ofone of these.
And do you know ancientcivilization or whatever?
But I'm always like I ask youknow?
Say to my son, like you know,when you see these things, uh,
you know who decided, you knowwho figured out you could turn
this into wheat or or that thisthing growing, there was corn
(18:02):
and you could take corn andcreate, you know, corn meal and
corn bread.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
you know you would like this book.
You would like this great bookcalled history of the world in
six glasses.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Starts off with the history of beer and then it goes
wine and say beer, wine.
It has spirits, talks aboutlet's see the spirits the tea,
coffee, and then ends with withwater, not in that particular
order It'll.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
I think answer your why question as to like yeah,
yeah, I know wine and beer camefrom, yeah, yeah, mesopotamia or
wherever, but uh, it'sinteresting.
Yeah, well, that's my, that'smy knowledge of it.
Um, yeah, yeah yeah, no, it's,it's great and I I appreciate
you indulging me.
But, um, yeah, I, you know my II prefer history of the world
(18:53):
from Mel Brooks, you know,that's my favorite movie A lot
of people do for sure.
It's a great, great movie.
So let's just talk a littlebusiness.
So how would you know who?
How would people reach out toyou If?
If someone's listening to thispodcast and you know they work
at a senior uh community, yeah,how would they contact you?
(19:14):
What's the best way to reachyou?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
um.
I mean they can reach me at myemail address historical
speakers for seniors at gmailcom.
Um.
You can also go onto ourwebsite historical speakers for
seniorscom.
Um and uh, just contact usthrough there.
There's like a little button topress for that.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Now I'm sorry when you say we, I know there's a
Cynthia Afanito and there's aDamon Afanito.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
So you guys related.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
He's my husband.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Okay, no, and he's also a history teacher.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yeah, he, he um.
He is a history teacher.
He's actually a U S historyteacher, he's actually a US
history teacher.
So he fills in all the holesfor me because although I've
taught US history, my love isreally world history, so for him
he likes all the US historystuff.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Is he teaching about the equal but separate, but
equal government that we'resupposed to have?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Right now.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Well, historically, I think, they got rid of that.
Yeah, they started thatconstitution yeah yeah yeah, we
joke about it, but I don't know.
Um, well, this is great,cynthia.
You know I I maybe we can comeback and and speak about um a
specific topic, or, you know, Ihave a lot of connections in the
(20:33):
industry and we probably knowyou know a lot of the same
people, so yeah, let's stay intouch and just bear with me
while we just have Chuck saygoodbye and you and I'll be
right back.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Thank you for listening to the good neighbor
podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to gnpbergen.
com.
That's gnpbergen.
com, or call 201-298-8325.
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