On occasion, I have a politically incorrect sense of humor. And, I guess I have a fascination with illegitimate love children. When we were concepting the identity for one of our San Francisco boutique hotels, I suggested the personality of the hotel should be Harrison Ford and Gwyneth Paltrow’s love child. It was my shorthand way of juxtaposing two things that were opposites.

When the leading candidate for the U.S. Democratic Presidential nomination creates a “No-Malarkey” tour through Iowa, you know that’s a bus of the “old school” variety. “Look, folks, here’s the deal…” maybe we’ve entered an era when retro wisdom might be our friend? World War III seems to be a virus.

The genesis of the Modern Elder Academy comes from my close friends Ben and Vanessa, who spent the holidays with us in my new Baja home three years ago. They stayed longer than the rest of us and then wrote to see if they could stay an extra week.

I was recently introduced to the word “Smeeze,” as in Subject Matter Experts (SME’s). I was talking to a doctor friend of mine in Seattle, who now works for Amazon (she said with a chuckle, “Someday, we’ll all work for Amazon”).

Not too long ago, I sat in the hot seat with famed podcaster and social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk, a guy who doesn’t hold back his F-bombs. I was a little nervous going into this interview but immediately realized that Gary looooves the concept of the “Modern Elder” and MEA.

“The virus needs people to spread.” This sentence came from San Francisco’s Director of Health, as he recommended “social distancing,” especially for those over the age of 60. The irony is that two years ago, the U.K. government created a Minister of Loneliness to address the growing sense of social isolation often felt by those who are older.

I’m a bit contrarian when it comes to naming a business. When I started my boutique hotel company at age 26, I gave it the name Joie de Vivre, which is basically unpronounceable, unspellable, and unknown in the U.S.

In the era of Coronavirus, this post may seem ill-timed, but I wrote it a couple months ago and I do deeply believe that travel is the secret to a long life. It also takes courage to travel. One of my favorite travel writers Paul Theroux agrees as he outlines in this BBC piece about his sojourn through Mexico.

I was deep in the desert this morning riding bikes with friends; I have been mountain biking poorly for about 30 years now. My head was filled with lessons learned while balanced over two wheels, above rocks and cactus, at the edge of cliffs, out in nature.

I recently had a hilarious lunch with a new friend in Austin, Tuck Kamin, who wrote the book, “DYA: Design Your Age.” In a chapter called “Laughing Your Age Off,” he cites a variety of comedians who lived to ripe old ages: