45 Forward
Welcome to “45 Forward” with Ron Roel, where the mission is to make your second half of life even better than the first! Thanks to advances in medicine and health, most of us are just approaching our half-life when we reach the mid-40s, with many productive years ahead. But there’s no road map to prepare us for this kind of longevity. That’s where 45 Forward comes in. Each episode tackles an aspect of health, finance, family and friends, housing, work and personal pursuits—all as part of an integrated plan. Experts discuss topics like revitalizing relationships, creating mini-retirements, managing the maze of technology, finding your next homestead and caring for aging parents. To contact Ron, please email him at: ron.roel@gmail.com To learn more about Ron and his work, visit his websites: www.roelresources.com & www.caregivingnav.com If you like what you hear, please help us to continue broadcasting: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/45-forward--6550893/support
Episodes
November 16, 2025 • 33 mins
What happens when a daughter launches a publishing company… and her 82-year-old mother becomes her indispensable right hand?
In this heartfelt and surprisingly funny episode, Ron sits down with Stephanie Larkin, founder of Red Penguin Books, and her mother Christine Rogeri, an 82-year-old tech-savvy powerhouse who helps run the business — publishing books, managing websites, wrangling social media, and breaking stereotypes every ste...
In this heartfelt and surprisingly funny episode, Ron sits down with Stephanie Larkin, founder of Red Penguin Books, and her mother Christine Rogeri, an 82-year-old tech-savvy powerhouse who helps run the business — publishing books, managing websites, wrangling social media, and breaking stereotypes every ste...
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November 8, 2025 • 32 mins
In this eye-opening conversation, Ron Roel sits down with Joe Battaglia, CEO of Senior Services of North America, to demystify one of the most confusing challenges facing Americans today; how to navigate Medicare, Social Security, and retirement planning together.
Joe reveals how a simple postcard led him to build a national organization devoted to helping seniors make smarter decisions about their healthcare and financial futures. ...
Joe reveals how a simple postcard led him to build a national organization devoted to helping seniors make smarter decisions about their healthcare and financial futures. ...
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October 30, 2025 • 61 mins
What if aging didn’t mean slowing down — but stepping into a richer, more connected phase of life?
In this episode, host Ron Roel sits down with Stu Almer, President & CEO of the Gurwin Healthcare System, to explore how Life Plan Communities like Fountaingate Gardens are redefining retirement living. Stu explains how Gurwin’s “continuum of care” model helps older adults live independently today while being fully supported for to...
In this episode, host Ron Roel sits down with Stu Almer, President & CEO of the Gurwin Healthcare System, to explore how Life Plan Communities like Fountaingate Gardens are redefining retirement living. Stu explains how Gurwin’s “continuum of care” model helps older adults live independently today while being fully supported for to...
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October 26, 2025 • 61 mins
Fighting Age Bias and Finding Purpose in the Second Half of Life
In this inspiring conversation, career strategist Mike Dwyer, founder of Implana Career, joins host Ron Roel to talk about how older professionals can fight back against job loss, overcome age bias, and rediscover meaning in their work. Mike shares how a single favor—helping a friend with a résumé—grew into a mission to help hundreds of seasoned professionals reinvent ...
In this inspiring conversation, career strategist Mike Dwyer, founder of Implana Career, joins host Ron Roel to talk about how older professionals can fight back against job loss, overcome age bias, and rediscover meaning in their work. Mike shares how a single favor—helping a friend with a résumé—grew into a mission to help hundreds of seasoned professionals reinvent ...
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October 20, 2025 • 52 mins
Aging at home is what most people want — but few families understand what it really takes.
In this powerful episode of 45 Forward, Ron talks with Zubin Kapadia, CEO of Right at Home North Shore on Long Island, about the realities of home care—from preparing the house and the family to choosing the right agency, understanding costs, caregiver expectations, and the critical role of dignity, safety, and long-term planning. Zubin also r...
In this powerful episode of 45 Forward, Ron talks with Zubin Kapadia, CEO of Right at Home North Shore on Long Island, about the realities of home care—from preparing the house and the family to choosing the right agency, understanding costs, caregiver expectations, and the critical role of dignity, safety, and long-term planning. Zubin also r...
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October 10, 2025 • 55 mins
Can love, companionship, and intimacy really begin again later in life?
This inspiring conversation proves the answer is YES. After losing their longtime spouses, two older adults found unexpected connection, courage, purpose, and joy in a new relationship. In this episode, we explore:
This inspiring conversation proves the answer is YES. After losing their longtime spouses, two older adults found unexpected connection, courage, purpose, and joy in a new relationship. In this episode, we explore:
- Rebuilding life after loss
- Overcoming guilt and fear when starting over
- Rediscovering intimacy and connection in later years
- Communication, mutual re...
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October 3, 2025 • 60 mins
In this uplifting episode of 45 Forward, host Ron Roel welcomes back Dr. Stephen Post, director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University, to discuss his new book Pure Unlimited Love. Stephen explores the seven paths to love—from giving with kindness, raising kind children, cherishing nature, to honoring the spirit of freedom. He shares practical ways we can apply these lesson...
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October 3, 2025 • 54 mins
Aging isn’t a slow fade—it’s a remix. New York Times reporter John Leland joins Ron Roel to explore what longer lives make possible: a 90-year-old’s first bar mitzvah, blind tennis in downtown Manhattan, why “act your age” is terrible advice, and how gratitude and purpose can outshine loss. We also dig into lifelong learning, bending (not breaking) career timelines, and the stakes of losing local journalism. If you’re rethinking wh...
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September 17, 2025 • 61 mins
Are we as polarized as we think? In this episode of 45 Forward, Ron sits down with Diane Hessen—innovator, long-time CEO, and author of Our Common Ground—who spent years listening weekly to 500 voters across every age, region, and political stripe. What she learned upends the usual narrative: on many major issues, Americans share more policy overlap than cable news suggests. The real problem? Stereotypes, incentives to amplify extr...
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September 13, 2025 • 55 mins
A breathtaking true love story that survived ghettos, Bergen-Belsen, seven years of wartime separation, and a near-impossible reunion. Ron talks with Jan—author of To Enduring Love—about her parents, Alexander and Ilona, who met in 1930s Budapest, were torn apart by World War II, and built a hopeful new life in America. (Contains WWII/Holocaust references.)
What you’ll hear
• Budapest meet-cute: an orchestra musician and a coat-check...
What you’ll hear
• Budapest meet-cute: an orchestra musician and a coat-check...
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August 27, 2025 • 61 mins
A near-death scare sparked BetterAge—Jim Firman reveals the #1 obstacle to aging well (and the fix). We cover the Aging Mastery Program, policy wins (HICAP, Medigap reforms, CLASS), and a new NIH-funded platform turning insights into action—especially for caregivers and homebound older adults.
In this conversation with host Ron Roel, Jim shares:
In this conversation with host Ron Roel, Jim shares:
- The quintuple-bypass story that reframed time as a gift
- Why 20% of older adults say th...
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August 24, 2025 • 58 mins
Aging is an extreme sport. In this episode, Ron sits down with Taylor Brennan of MIT AgeLab to explore how design, data, and intergenerational programs can help us thrive at 85+. We dive into AGNES (the age-empathy suit), surprising financial red flags that can precede dementia by 6–8 years, older adults hacking hearables (yes, AirPods), and the real costs of family caregiving. Plus: how to join AgeLab’s panels and where the field ...
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August 13, 2025 • 63 mins
What does a life of creative reinvention really look like #45Forward #BillWilliams In this episode of 45 Forward, host Ron Roel sits down with writer–producer–editor Bill Williams—a military brat turned TV/film consultant, presidential slide-maker, registered lobbyist, disaster-relief communicator, finance pro, and creator of the long-running email series “Thought for the Day.” Bill shares funny, startling, and deeply human stories...
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August 13, 2025 • 61 mins
What does it really mean to age well? In this episode, host Ron Roel speaks with Diana Yin, co-founder of BetterAge, a mission-driven public benefit corporation helping older adults take control of their health and well-being with a personalized "journey map" for aging. Diana shares her vision of empowering people through awareness, action, and achievement—three stages that help individuals build new habits, find purpose, and live ...
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August 13, 2025 • 47 mins
What if the biggest issues we call “senior problems” are really everyone’s problems?
In this powerful episode of 45 Forward, host Ron Roel speaks with two inspiring changemakers—Arielle Galinsky, a Harvard Kennedy School grad student and founder of The Legacy Project, and Cindy Morris, CEO of The Benson Agency and founder of Women Who Changed the World. Together, they challenge outdated thinking around ageism, caregiving, social sec...
In this powerful episode of 45 Forward, host Ron Roel speaks with two inspiring changemakers—Arielle Galinsky, a Harvard Kennedy School grad student and founder of The Legacy Project, and Cindy Morris, CEO of The Benson Agency and founder of Women Who Changed the World. Together, they challenge outdated thinking around ageism, caregiving, social sec...
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July 27, 2025 • 61 mins
We all love good storytellers, and the best storytellers are the ones with the most to tell—America’s seniors, who have already lived long lives. But our older generations often don’t get a chance to tell their stories. In fact, they’re not even asked. But in today’s episode, I’ll be talking with Jack York, whose mission is to change all that. Jack, who’s been immersed in the senior living world for more than 25 years, is the found...
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July 27, 2025 • 53 mins
There are over 11,000 senior centers in America. They serve over a million adults every day, offering a wide variety of programs and services, from meals and nutritional programs; to social and recreational activities; intergenerational programs; and fitness and wellness classes. Most of us probably know about our local senior center, but do you know much about them? How do they actually work? What does it take to provide all their...
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July 27, 2025 • 47 mins
There’s a lot of upheaval these days across Washington, as many federal agencies face significant cuts in staffing and programs, including the Social Security Administration. It’s not exactly clear what changes are going on inside the agency (the news seems to change by the week), but what IS clear is that many people are really anxious about the potential loss of their benefits and services—both near-term and in the coming years. ...
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June 18, 2025 • 56 mins
On today’s show we talk about a subject that’s carried a lot of stigma over the years: mental illness. But more recently, there seems to be a growing awareness and willingness to talk about mental health issues among both younger and older people, in part, spurred by the experiences of isolation, loneliness and disruption brought about by the COVID pandemic. We know, in fact, that one in five adults today experience a mental illnes...
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June 11, 2025 • 58 mins
Among the most stressful events in life, moving is often cited as a top stressor, ranking third, only after the death of a spouse and divorce. In today’s episode, we tackle the many challenges of moving—especially for older individuals and families—in our wide-ranging conversation with Robert Esposito, the entrepreneurial owner of Relocators, a multi-dimensional moving and transitioning company. The author of a new book, Nobody Mov...
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