PEIR: A Lifelong Learning Program with Few Peers
August 12, 2024
Hosted by Ron Roel
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Guest Information
Episode Description
As older adults move into their traditional retirement years, a growing number of them do not want to retire their minds. In fact, many experts note that those who continue learning and engage in meaningful social interaction on average live longer and healthier lives. In today’s episode I talk with Murray Shapiro and Ron Susser, two active members of PEIR, which stands for Personal Enrichment in Retirement, a unique and highly successful lifelong learning organization affiliated with Hofstra University on Long Island. What makes PEIR so distinctive? The classes, discussion groups, and events are self-directed, planned, created and presented by PEIR members themselves. Murray and Ron will describe how the organization has evolved over more than four decades, how it survived through the pandemic, and how it’s run and thriving today. Every month, PEIR members offer a far-flung array of topics, whether you’re interested in literature, history, religion, philosophy, natural or social sciences, the performing or visual arts, economics or technology. PEIR is also a social organization, and Ron and Murray will tell us how its members build camaraderie, sharing their curiosity, opinions, knowledge and passions with others each semester.
45 Forward
Monday at 12 Noon Pacific Time on VoiceAmerica Variety Channel
Thanks to advances in medicine and health, most of us are just at half-life when we reach our mid-40s, with many potentially productive years ahead. But there’s no road map to prepare us for this period. That’s where 45 Forward comes in.
My show provides you with strategies to shift the traditional waiting-for-retirement model to a journey of compelling life chapters. Each show tackles an aspect of health, finance, family and friends, housing, work and personal pursuits 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.
The show instills confidence, and hopefully some comfort, amid the stresses permeating today’s society. Fear of the future is not knowing how to prepare for it. 45 Forward does not proffer prefabricated answers, but helps you shape your life amid the daily anxieties of our time.
Ron Roel
I’m a veteran journalist who spent a wide-ranging career covering business, politics and social issues, the last two decades focusing on the blend of diverse life skills I call successful aging.
I have written extensively on aging topics, spoken at conferences, radio and TV shows, and launched several entrepreneurial ventures, discovering along the way that the path to aging well also requires an unexpected entrepreneurial vision. I spent 20 years as a writer and editor at Long Island’s daily newspaper, Newsday, helping to found Act 2, a weekly section for 50-plus readers. I created Roelresources.com, a website offering practical advice and inspirational essays for people ages 40 and above. I have been a volunteer and consultant to AARP Long Island, writing articles, advocating for seniors, and developing action plans for the AARP Age-Friendly Communities initiative.
I am active in programs and organizations that support seniors, such as the National Aging In Place Council and the Senior Umbrella Network. I have developed a special expertise in family caregiving, as one of four brothers who took care of their mother for almost 25 years. I regularly collaborate with many professionals who provide services and support for older Americans, and I am completing a book for caregivers on Long Island, “The Caregiving Navigator/How to Plan, What to do, and Where to Turn When Caring for you Aging Loved Ones. And Yourself,” scheduled for publication in early 2021.
Episode Directory
September 2024
August 2024
- 8/26/2024: Exercising into Our Older Years—and Overcoming the Pains of Aging Listen Now
- 8/19/2024: Where Do We Come From? Finding Your Roots with Modern Genealogy Listen Now
- 8/12/2024: PEIR: A Lifelong Learning Program with Few Peers Listen Now
- 8/5/2024: How Retired Executives of SCORE Help Next-Gen Entrepreneurs Listen Now
July 2024
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