316 Jeanette Leardi: Make Friends with Your Aging Process to Become Fully Empowered

316 Jeanette Leardi: Make Friends with Your Aging Process to Become Fully Empowered

Author: Gail Zelitzky and Catherine Marienau February 19, 2025 Duration: 35:40

Jeanette Leardi is a social gerontologist and aging wellness leader who invites us to “cock your head to the side and ask, Am I think about aging in the right way?” Jeanette’s blog, Ageful Living, inspired her recent book, Aging Sideways: Changing Our Perspectives on Getting Older. She challenges the message of ‘gendered ageism’ that “women are never the right age in our society.” She reframes limiting metaphors such as ‘over the hill’ to viewing women as “master climbers and changers.” Jeanette praises the plasticity of the aging brain for being able to take shortcuts and see different perspectives. She proposes a ninth stage to Erikson’s eight stages of personality development: “transcendence and unity—seeing ourselves as part of all that is.” 

Connect with Jeanette

Email: jeanette@jeanetteleardi.com

Website: https://www.jeanetteleardi.com

Book: Aging Sideways: Changing Our Perspectives on Getting Older. (2024)


Hosted by Gail Zelitzky and Catherine Marienau, Women Over 70: Aging Reimagined turns the page on a well-worn cultural script. This is not a series about decline, but a collection of dialogues focused squarely on expansion. You’ll hear from women who are starting businesses, deepening their creative practices, forging new relationships, and confronting societal expectations with a refreshing blend of honesty and humor. These conversations, rooted in personal journals and lived expertise, delve into the practical and the profound-from the science of longevity to the personal journeys of resilience that define this chapter. The podcast moves beyond inspiration to offer tangible insight, framing the later decades as a time of active reinvention. Tune in for stories that replace stereotypes with specificity, and discover a community redefining what it means to grow older with purpose and curiosity.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Women Over 70: Aging Reimagined
Podcast Episodes
383 Jill G Hall: Shaped by her Past: Creativity Unleashed [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:50
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382 Sandra Sokol: Championing social justice through social service [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:34
For more than six decades, Sandra Sokol has devoted her life to building stronger, more equitable communities. Although she once imagined a career teaching in schools serving children of color her path evolved into groun…
381 Joan Greene: A Lifelong Advocate for Aging and Mental Health [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:16
Joan Greene, 84, trained to be a teacher but found her true calling as a social worker and innovative advocate for older adults. In New York State, she helped create programs from the ground up—from nutrition services an…
380 Mindy Greiling: Schizophrenia: Three Moms in the Trenches [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:47
This episode, first released in 2021, is a reminder that Mental Health Awareness Month requires all of us to tell our stories. We checked back in with Mindy and learned that, even though she is now retired, she continues…
379 Ilene Dillon: Mental Health Awareness Month [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:11
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377 Elise Magers: From Interiors to Inner Life: A Creative Evolution [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:41
Elise’s career didn’t follow a straight line—and that’s exactly what makes it so compelling. She began as a contract interior designer in Minneapolis before moving to Chicago in 1981, where a friend’s suggestion led her…
374 Phyllis Mitzen: A Lifetime of Leadership in Aging [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:21
At 84, Phyllis Mitzen is still reshaping how communities care for older adults — with curiosity, courage and a fierce commitment to action.Phyllis spent 24 years at CJE Senior Life (formerly Council on Jewish Elderly) an…