THRIVING IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE
What does it mean to flourish when the systems we depend on are under strain?
Flourish in Times of Struggle is a new podcast series for people who want to move beyond personal resilience and grapple with the deeper structures that shape our lives. In this opening episode, Michael C. Patterson introduces the series’ focus on systems, legitimacy, and collective action—and invites listeners to think together about how healthier, more democratic forms of governance might emerge.
Earlier Flourish As You Age podcasts focused more on personal change and development to promote brain health and mental management.
Episodes
211 episodes
#4 Beyond No: Building YES Coalitions for What Comes Next
In this episode of Flourish in Times of Struggle, Michael C. Patterson explores the difference between NO coalitions and YES coalitions—and why democratic renewal requires both. Drawing on contemporary activism and movement strategy, t...
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Season 7
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Episode 4
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12:32
#3 Lessons from MLK's LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL
Written from a jail cell in 1963, Letter from Birmingham Jail remains one of the most rigorous moral arguments in American history. This episode explores what King meant by just and unjust laws, why civil disobedience must be disciplin...
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Season 7
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Episode 3
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14:10
#2 - How Your Zip Code Influences Longevity and Well-Being
In this episode of Flourish As You Age, Michael C. Patterson explores the research of Jennifer Karas Montez, showing that life expectancy in the United States is increasingly determined by state-level public policie...
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Season 7
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Episode 2
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15:52
#1 - Year One: Building a Flourishing Democracy
In a time of political, social, and ecological upheaval, personal well-being cannot be separated from the systems that surround us. The Flourishing in Times of Struggle series is an inquiry into how power, governance, and collective acti...
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Season 7
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Episode 1
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8:02
Welcoming Wisdom #12 - The Pre-Motor Cortex and the Default Mode Network
Our accidental mind is a marvel of evolution—capable of breathtaking creativity, yet vulnerable to distraction, self-deception, and runaway ego. In this week’s Welcoming Wisdom podcast, we explore two unlikely partners in this drama: t...
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Season 6
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Episode 13
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15:21
Welcoming Wisdom #11 - The Obstetric Dilemma
The Obstetric Dilemma and the Birth of the Plastic BrainWhat happens when evolution backs itself into a corner? In this episode of Flourish As You Age, Michael C. Patterson explores one of the most profound evolutionary c...
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Season 6
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Episode 12
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10:25
Singing Our Way Into Flourishing: Encore Creativity + Pasadena Villages
This month’s podcast episode tells the story of how two remarkable organizations—Encore Creativity, the nation’s largest choral program for older adults, and Pasadena Villages, a thriving part of the Village Movement—came together...
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Season 6
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Episode 11
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21:38
Welcoming Wisdom #10 - Working Memory: The Whiteboard of Consciousness
In this episode of Flourish As You Age, Michael C. Patterson explores working memory, the fragile mental workspace where consciousness itself takes shape. Think of it as the virtual whiteboard of the mind—a place where perceptions and ...
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Season 6
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Episode 10
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16:31
Welcoming Wisdom #9 - The Kluge Within: Navigating the Accidental Mind
In this episode of Flourish As You Age, Michael C. Patterson explores the “accidental mind”—not a perfectly engineered machine, but a brilliant kluge (pronounced klooj): an evolutionary patchwork that works despite its ...
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Season 6
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Episode 9
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11:13
Welcoming Wisdom #8 - Mature Creativity
In this episode, Michael C. Patterson traces the creative landscape of later life — from Dr. Gene Cohen’s groundbreaking research on creative aging, to Twyla Tharp’s fierce manifesto for movement, to the wide horizons of Georgia O’Keeffe’s ...
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Season 6
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Episode 8
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15:51
Welcoming Wisdom #7 - Developmental Intelligence: The Super Power of the Mature Mind
In this episode, host Michael C. Patterson explores Dr. Gene Cohen’s groundbreaking concept of developmental intelligence—the idea that our minds can continue growing in complexity, depth, and wisdom throughout life. Drawing on Cohen’s...
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Season 6
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Episode 6
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18:16
Welcoming Wisdom #6 - Mature Minds and the Sky Above Clouds
In this episode of Flourish As You Age, host Michael C. Patterson explores the often-overlooked strengths of the mature mind. Drawing from his upcoming book Welcoming Wisdom, he challenges the myth of inevitable cogni...
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Season 6
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Episode 5
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10:28
Welcoming Wisdom #5 - The Time to Flourish
What happens when we finally get the free time we longed for—only to find it strangely unsettling? In this episode of Flourish As You Age, host Michael C. Patterson explores leisure as a vital (and often overlooked) condition of human ...
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Season 6
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Episode 7
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12:18
Welcoming Wisdom #4 - Awe, Ethics, and the Sacred Path to Flourishing
In this final episode of our opening series on Flourishing, we explore the deeper dimensions of what it means to live a meaningful and well-lived life. Drawing from awe research, contemplative neuroscience, and classical philosophy, we...
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Season 6
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Episode 4
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17:19
Welcoming Wisdom #3 - Flourishing with Virtue
What does it mean to live a virtuous life—and how does virtue relate to human flourishing? In this episode, we explore the moral dimensions of flourishing through both Western and developmental lenses. Drawing on classical ideas from ancient ph...
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Season 6
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Episode 3
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13:16
Welcoming Wisdom #2 - The Right To Flourish
What does it really mean to flourish as we age? In this second episode of Flourish As You Age, host Michael C. Patterson draws from his forthcoming book, Welcoming Wisdom: How Mature Minds Can Shape a Kinder, Wiser Future, to ...
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Season 6
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Episode 2
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10:21
Welcoming Wisdom #1 How Will You Know When You're Flourishing?
In this inaugural episode of Flourish As You Age, host Michael Patterson introduces a new podcast series drawn from his forthcoming book, Welcoming Wisdom: How Mature Minds Can Shape a Kinder, Wiser Future. The epi...
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Season 6
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Episode 1
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12:24
Aging: Experts Can't Agree on What it Is.
When do we start aging?What is aging? What causes aging?These were some of the questions posed to aging experts (professionals, professors, graduate students) who were attending a conference on aging called “Systems Ag...
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Season 4
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Episode 4
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15:58
A Miracle Cure For Aging? The Benefits & Risks of GLP-1 Drugs
GLP-1 Drugs, like Ozempic and Wegovy, originally developed to treat diabetes, have been found to lower risk-factors for a broad-range of conditions that accelerate the aging process. But there are also risk factors that need to be taken i...
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Season 5
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Episode 3
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7:50
America's Lousy Report Card on Health & Well-Being
In this episode I focus on how our socioeconomic ecosystems affect our ability to flourish - or, more to the point, how they makes it harder for us to flourish. Early this year, 2025, as the Trump administration took power, a group ...
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Season 5
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Episode 2
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29:40
WHAT IS "AGING" ANYWAY?
What is aging? What do we mean when we say we are aging? In this episode, I'll discuss our paradoxical attitude towards aging. On the one hand age implies physical and mental decline and debility. On the other han...
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Season 5
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Episode 1
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18:47
END-OF-LIFE #10 - RETHINKING DEATH & DYING
In the epilogue to his book, Achieving a Good Death, author Chris Palmer summarizes his thoughts on how we might reconceptualize our basic attitudes about the process of dying and death itself. Death tends to be a taboo subject, but dea...
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Season 4
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Episode 42
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13:59
END-OF-LIFE #9 - Simplify Your Life
Taking steps to simplify our lives as we age has benefits not only for ourselves but also for our loved ones. In my ninth conversation with Chris palmer, author of Achieving a Good Death, we talk about simplifying, decluttering and minimalizing...
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Season 4
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Episode 41
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11:08
END-OF-LIFE #8 -Important Documents
In this episode I talk with Chris Palmer, author of the new book Achieving a Good Death, about important documents you can prepare to make sure you have the kind of end-of-life experiences you want. Chris and I discuss two broad c...
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Season 4
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Episode 39
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16:54
END-OF-LIFE #7 - The Hard Conversations
This episode, number 7 in MINDRAMP's End-of-Life series, is about having “The Hard Conversations,” those difficult, but important, conversations with your family and loved ones about the kind of death you want to have. As usual I am talking wit...
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Season 4
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Episode 40
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14:35