Retirement, Inequality, and Social Connection with Daniel Horowitz

Harry talks with historian Daniel Horowitz, author of “On Retirement: How Aging Is Transforming American Lives.” He discusses his wide-ranging prior work and his move with his historian wife to a continuing care retirement community near their daughter. He describes major changes in aging and retirement since midcentury: longer lifespan and healthspan, key policy supports (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid), and a shift from defined-benefit to defined-contribution retirement risk. He outlines expanding housing and care arrangements (NORCs, supplemented NORCs, 55+ communities) alongside problems like nursing-home conditions and under-studied elderly homelessness, emphasizing how race, class, gender, and geography shape wealth, access, and even a nine-year longevity gap by income. He explains “successful aging” and critiques its optimism amid inequality, pandemics, and climate threats, stressing luck and fall risks. His personal advice centers on sustaining social connections, not comparing oneself to the past, protecting public programs, and skepticism toward costly longevity clinics and promises of living to 120.   Get Daniel’s book: https://a.co/d/07sy46s8   Topics 00:00 Meet Dan Horowitz 01:02 Books and Background 02:08 Moving to a CCRC 03:32 Retirement Then and Now 05:50 Housing Options and Risks 06:50 Inequality in Aging 10:18 Successful Aging Debate 13:36 Renewal Retirement 16:07 Isolation and Community Design 18:38 Personal Keys to Aging Well 22:02 Policy Advice for Boomers 23:19 Longevity Hype and 120 26:18 Public Health Over Biohacks