This week, on 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Richard Leider, founder of Inventure – The Purpose Company, and one of America’s pre-eminent executive-life coaches. Ranked by Forbes as one of the “Top 5” most respected executive coaches, and by the Conference Board as a “legend in coaching”, he and Avivah explore a life devoted to helping others uncover meaning across the lifespan. Richard traces his journey back to his early days as a listener, when questions of “why” ignited hi...
Jun 25, 2025•39 min
In this week’s episode of 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with journalist and author Melinda Blau, about her latest book, The Wisdom Whisperers . Now in her own Q4, Melinda has written a very personal narrative about the nine much older friends who emboldened her to embrace ageing, instead of dreading it. Melinda Blau, is an award-winning journalist, a New York Times bestselling author, and a host/producer for the Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age podcast. She has spent a lifetime researc...
Jun 18, 2025•32 min
On 4-Quarter Lives this week Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Neeraj Sagar, founder and CEO of WisdomCircle.com, a platform connecting experienced professionals in Q3 with purposeful, flexible work across the globe. Targeting individuals typically over 50—termed the “Wisdom Generation” or “WisGen”—the platform facilitates engagements across sectors like IT, manufacturing, education, and social impact, allowing retirees to contribute as mentors, consultants, or part-time experts. WisdomCircle lev...
Jun 11, 2025•44 min
This week on 4-Quarter-Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Ignacio Moreno and Farah Baxter, the Co-Founders of a pioneering digital platform that reimagines legacy planning by enabling individuals to create and share personalized emotional and practical legacies. Soalma was born from their personal experiences with loss and the realization of the importance of preserving memories and wisdom for future generations. The platform offers a secure, user-friendly space where users can compile mult...
Jun 04, 2025•41 min
On this week’s 4-Quarter Lives Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Laurie Kilby and Katie Waldegrave, co-founders of Now Foster, a bold new initiative reimagining how we recruit and support foster carers. Laurie, a former social worker, and Katie, co-founder of Now Teach, have teamed up to tackle one of the most urgent and overlooked social issues of our time: the crisis in foster care. Building on the success of Now Teach, which helped hundreds transition into teaching in their 50s, Now Foster inv...
May 28, 2025•30 min
In this episode of 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Lisa Goldsobel, Head of Service Delivery for Two Generations , a UK-based social enterprise tackling two growing challenges: the loneliness of the older and the unaffordable housing for the younger. Founded in 2019, Two Generations scales the concept of Homesharing, where carefully matched housemates live together—typically an older homeowner and a younger sharer who provides companionship and light support in exchange for affo...
May 21, 2025•30 min
In this episode of 4-Quarter Lives , Avivah Wittenberg-Cox sits down with Jacynth Bassett, the founder of Ageism Is Never In Style , to discuss their collaborative campaign, Intentionally Intergenerational . Launched in conjunction with Global Intergenerational Week (April 24–30), this initiative challenges outdated age narratives and promotes age inclusivity across workplaces and society. Jacynth, recognized as the 'Anti-Ageist Activist of the Year 2023' and one of the Evening Standard's '22 Lo...
Apr 24, 2025•31 min
4-Quarter Lives explores the profound impact of longer lives and careers on… everything: countries, companies, couples, and careers. This week I’m doing a summary of Season 8 , a series in two acts and ten voices. The First Act looked at a how smart older women are working hard on understanding and strengthening the next generation, and also starting to explore the new roles that older women are taking on in Q3. The Second Act featured some of the change agents waking the world up to this new er...
Apr 09, 2025•9 min
In this week’s 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Dr Terri Apter, psychologist and author of the recently published Grandparenting: On Love and Relationships Across Generations. They discuss the evolving role of grandparents in modern family dynamics and how becoming a grandparent changes relationships with every family member, from adult children to in-laws. Terri categorizes grandmothers into three types: Feminists: Who provide childcare to support their daughters' careers; Radi...
Apr 02, 2025•48 min
In this week’s 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Dr. Debra Whitman, Executive Vice President and Chief Public Policy Officer for the AARP (the American Association of Retired Persons). They talk about ageing, longevity, and her new book The Second Fifty: Answers to the 7 Big Questions of Midlife and Beyond . Whitman discusses her role at AARP, an organization supporting people over 50 but open to all ages, focusing on advocacy, research, and benefits. She shares her motivation fo...
Mar 26, 2025•35 min
This week on 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Anuradha Das Mathur, the founder of an original Management and Leadership programme in INDIA, dedicated to young women with ambition. Vedica Scholars is a pioneering leadership program that helps young women in India build sustainable, ‘break-free’ careers by refusing the cultural choice between work and family. This year, it’s celebrating its 10th anniversary and fast-growing alumnae group. In this conversation, Anuradha and Avivah ...
Mar 19, 2025•29 min
In this week’s 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with James R. (Bob) Hagerty, longtime journalist and obituary writer for The Wall Street Journal. After a 40-year career covering business and markets across New York, London, Hong Kong, and Paris, James found an unexpected calling - writing obituaries that capture the richness of lives well-lived. Through more than a thousand obituaries, he’s uncovered what gets remembered, what gets lost, and why we should all take the time to write o...
Mar 12, 2025•30 min
In this week’s episode of 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Ruben Figueres, co-Producer of the new film ‘Longevity Hackers’. The film follows Emmy Nominated Filmmaker Michal Siewierski (Food Choices, Diet Fiction, Takeout) on a journey to discover the latest research and science breakthroughs in the field of longevity and healthy life extension. Ruben talks about how an increasing number of experts, scientists, researchers and startup CEO’s believe that we are on the brink of bei...
Mar 05, 2025•30 min
Trying to get a short, sharp, shot at why we need to focus on longevity? Try this little conversation opener. Send it to your boss. Or your mother. They probably both need it. Feel free to share, just please cite my name, and the link to elderberries.substack.com And, please. Let me know what you think, answer this 1-question poll: To raise awareness of longevity and its impacts on all of us, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Elderberries at elderberries.substack.co...
Feb 27, 2025•2 min
In this week’s 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Michael and Nancy Hodin. Michael is Chief Executive of the Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA), while Nancy produces events for the Silver Economy Forum as part of the GCOA, while also running her own business as President of H&H Media. Together they discuss the significance of aging, longevity and the silver economy. Michael founded the GCOA 14 years ago, after a 30 year career at Pfizer, He explains its origins, arising from res...
Feb 26, 2025•34 min
In this episode of 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Brian Clark, Founder of the midlife personal growth newsletter Further , of the marketing services business Longevity Gains , and serial digital entrepreneur. They discuss how, after selling his hugely successful digital business Copyblogger in 2018, Brian took time out from his serial entrepreneurship to travel and reflect on his future direction. He recognised how often men struggle silently with midlife transitions, and how ...
Feb 19, 2025•37 min
This week on 4-Quarter Lives Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Céline Abecassis-Moedas, Pro-Rector for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon, Portugal, and Co-Director of the Longevity Leadership Program at Catolica. As becomes clear during their conversation, her fellow director on this program is Avivah Wittenberg-Cox! Not surprisingly their conversation focuses on the need for and value of a Longevity Leadership programme of this kind. Launched in June 2...
Feb 14, 2025•32 min
In this episode of 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Dr Niobe Way, Professor of Developmental Psychology at NYU and author of Rebels with a Cause: Reimagining Boys, Ourselves and Our Culture . Her groundbreaking research has transformed how we understand boys, friendships, and the very human need for connection. In Rebels with a Cause she distils four decades of research to uncover the hidden emotional lives of boys and what their struggles teach us – not only about them, but als...
Feb 06, 2025•38 min
In this first episode of Season 8 of 4 Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Katja Meier, writer and founder of Zenka Films. Katja is on a mission to build a media world where not only female-driven content is the norm, but where female heroes above the age of 50 are no longer the exception. She and Avivah discuss the TV series Katja has developed about a 59-year-old woman who inherits a successful mining company and sets about challenging the less than ethical business practices she d...
Jan 29, 2025•33 min
This week on 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Alan MacIntosh, Founding Partner in AgeTech Capital, a purpose-driven private market investment firm focused on innovative & affordable technology solutions for healthier and fulfilling ageing. They discuss the dramatic rise of the longevity economy which, in the USA alone, is projected to triple from $8.3 trillion to $26.8 trillion by 2050. As part of this, age technology is seeing increasing innovation and investment, with area...
Nov 14, 2024•37 min
This week on 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Amanda Philpott, the co-founder and CEO of eargym. They discuss hearing health and how hearing loss is strongly correlated with cognitive decline and risk of dementia, yet is often overlooked in preventative healthcare. Amanda explains how early intervention can significantly improve quality of life as we age, and in particular reduce the social isolation (and consequent cognitive decline) that hearing loss can cause. She describes h...
Oct 30, 2024•34 min
This week on 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Deirdre Wafer, Global Co-Chair of the Wisdom Employee Resource Group at LinkedIn. They discuss how to navigate the many intricacies of careers, the pivotal nature of transitions, particularly later in careers, and the role that the Wisdom ERG plays at LinkedIn. Deirdre Wafer is Global Co-Chair of the Wisdom Employee Resource Group at LinkedIn, which brings employees 40+ and their allies together with the aim of making LinkedIn an inc...
Oct 23, 2024•31 min
In this episode of 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox speaks with Michael King, Managing Director of Senior Response, one of the UK’s first and only client contact management services dedicated to the over-50s market. Established in 2001 Senior Response manages client contact communication, by phone, SMS, email, post, and webchat on behalf of clients. Michael shares his professional journey, starting from his early career with Capital One to his eventual role at Senior Response, a company he...
Oct 17, 2024•32 min
This week on 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Tina Backhouse, the General Manager in the UK of Theramex, a global speciality pharmaceutical company focused on supporting the health needs of women at all stages of life. They discuss the particular health needs of women, particularly as they age, the need for women to monitor key health metrics post menopause, the specific risks of cardiovascular disease, dementia and osteoporosis and the need for research to take better account o...
Oct 09, 2024•37 min
This week on 4-Quarter Lives Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Nick Viner, co-Founder and Director of Circle Square — a membership community for individuals over 50 focused on positive ageing, personal growth, and purpose in the third quarter of life. Nick shares his insights into creating a vibrant community for people moving into new life chapters, offering a rich programme of curated events, trusted services and a career transition programme. He talks about what motivated him to create Circle ...
Oct 02, 2024•34 min
This week on 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Lindsey Beagley, Senior Director of Lifelong University Engagement at Arizona State University. They discuss the growing interest of universities to re-design themselves for the new age of longevity, engaging with people throughout their lives rather than just as the outset. Lindsey describes how Arizona State University is doing so in its various programmes, and in particular their ground-breaking Mirabella University Retirement Com...
Sep 25, 2024•42 min
In the latest episode of 4-Quarter Lives Podcast, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with former private equity partner Graham Heddle about the opportunities to use AI as a tool for personal reinvention. They discuss Graham's own journey of career transition and how he harnessed the power of AI, particularly ChatGPT, for personal growth and exploration. Graham shares his insights on using AI as a co-intelligence tool, facilitating deep self-reflection, and finding new purpose after leaving a long-term ...
Jun 26, 2024•38 min
In this episode of 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Anne Thevenet-Abitbol of French food giant, Danone. Anne shares her insights on ageing, digital communication and the necessity of generational collaboration in today's workplace. She talks about the philosophy behind ageing without becoming 'old' and how personal and professional growth doesn't stop at any age. They discuss how she navigates the challenges of constant digital interaction and maintains authenticity and relatabi...
Jun 19, 2024•30 min
In the latest episode of 4-Quarter Lives Podcast, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox delves into the fascinating world of longitudinal studies with George Ploubidis, Professor of Population Health and Statistics at University College London. George offers invaluable insights into how these studies shape our understanding of health, economic circumstances, employment, family life and wellbeing across the life course. They discuss how large-scale, population-based surveys like the 1958 and 1970 British birth c...
Jun 12, 2024•42 min
This week on 4-Quarter Lives, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Adrita Bhattacharya-Craven, the Director of Health and Demography at the Geneva Association. This association is a leading think-tank exploring the issues the insurance industry faces and researching how insurance can contribute to a better world. Not surprisingly the insurance sector is ever more aware of the implications of ageing societies and how insurance products must continually adapt to changing needs. Adrita Bhattacharya-Cra...
Jun 05, 2024•29 min
