Health or happiness – why do we assume married people are healthier and happier? Pro-marriage and haves and have nots – let’s get into this. Where is the raw data? What was the control group? The promise that marriage is a happy place – is that reality? Are marrieds healthier?
I needed to bring back and bring together two women, Jaclyn (Jackie) Geller, Ph. D. and Joan DelFattore, Ph. D. Jackie is an expert in the field of marriage research and marriage history. Joan is a retired professor and single by choice.
Ashton Applewhite is a pro-aging advocate and author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism. She began blogging about ageism in 2007, speaking about it in 2012 and hasn’t stopped. Aging is not a problem to be fixed or a disease to be cured. We live in a world that encourages us not to think about aging. It’s time for a radical aging movement against ageism. And we need to start by confronting our own bias. Let’s ask ourselves how do we feel about age and aging? It’s difficult to go a day without seeing an ad for an anti-aging product or a new lifestyle to keep us young. We can’t stop getting older, but we sure can embrace it. As Ashton says, we’re all ‘Old People In-Training’.
New York Times Bestselling author Lyz Lenz is ‘reframing’ divorce and getting rid of the stigma. Her latest book, This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage – and – Started My Life is a memoir/manifesto. Lyz debunks the myth of the ‘happily ever’ marriage scenario and gives us the straight talk about divorce. ‘The stigma exists because everybody is afraid of a liberated woman’.
Gillian Anderson is starting a mental health revolution. Abby was just 15 when she succumbed to suicide. Abby is Gillian’s daughter.
The rate of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 in the United States who have died by suicide, has sharply risen in the past couple of years. Suicide is thought to be the second leading cause of death for Americans between 10 and 34.
Gillian’s mission now is to get rid of the stigma and shame of depression and anxiety. How did Gillian stay strong enough to make sure that Abby’s friends understood that Abby suffered from an illness? She founded My Friend Abby whose mission is to empower youth and young adults to actively create peer to peer connections. And to make sure that the stigma and shame surrounding mental illness is eliminated.
Before founding My Friend Abby, Gillian worked as Development Director for WSHU Public Radio.
