“Be prepared to be amazed by the future of aging” was one of my favorite predictions from The New Map of Life, the Center’s report on the fast-approaching era when people will routinely live to 100. As you’ll see in this issue, the New Map of Life is taking shape. Advances in science, medicine, technology and culture that once seemed far off are already transforming the human experience at every age. 

Annie Coleman shares insights for building a “purpose portfolio” to enrich a stage of life that didn’t even exist a century ago, the decades that many people in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond are recrafting as a “second adulthood.” You’ll learn about the progress that pioneering stem cell biologist Helen Blau and her team are making to crack the biological code of sarcopenia, so that future centenarians will have a much lower risk of progressive muscle-weakening and frailty. And Ken Stern reports from the School of Future Life at Kyungnam University in Korea, where the right to lifelong learning is written into the constitution of the country on the leading edge of long life. 

We are introducing Alt/Shift, our take on the ways longevity is changing culture. See if you can pass the Gen X quiz by the hosts of the Pop Culture Preservation Society podcast. And if you are baffled by how Social Security really works, you might be surprised to find out that contrary to popular belief, there will in fact still be money left in the trust fund for you. But that doesn’t mean Congress is off the hook. MP Dunleavey reports on  options for Congress to shore up the 90-year-old system. 

A vital part of SCL’s mission is educating the public about what longevity means for all of us. We are delighted to share Stanford Report’s interview with SCL founder Laura Carstensen, as well as the recent encore of Laura’s interview on Hidden Brain, one of the hit podcast’s most popular episodes. 

We continue to welcome your feedback and story ideas at [email protected] and hope you enjoy our new issue!

Karen Breslau
Editor 

Read Issue 3