276 Why You Never Get Over Grief -and Why That's Good with Thomas Attig
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
Release Date: 07/13/2026
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
What happens when a medical tradition thousands of years old meets 21st-century wearable technology? In this solo episode of Growing Older Living Younger, Dr. Gillian Lockitch explores that question through her personal experience with the Watch2Care smartwatch, a wearable that tracks contemporary physiological data while presenting its findings through a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) framework. As a Western-trained physician and medical biochemist, Dr. Gillian was intrigued—but also skeptical—when her watch displayed unfamiliar scores associated with the TCM concepts of...
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Welcome to Season 5 of Growing Older Living Younger, and a new way of exploring what it means to grow older while continuing to live younger. In this solo episode, Dr. Gillian Lockitch introduces a new themed format designed to move beyond individual topics and create a clearer pathway from information to action. Season 5 will explore healthy aging through three interconnected themes: Ageless Brain, Ageless Body and Ageless Living. Each series will look more deeply at one major dimension of healthy aging, bringing together different experts, perspectives and areas of science while asking...
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oes an increase in forgetfulness or increasing "senior moments" imply developing dementia? One of the greatest fears associated with growing older is losing memory, cognitive ability and ultimately independence. But dementia is not a single disease, and not every change in memory or thinking represents irreversible neurodegeneration. In this episode of Growing Older Living Younger, Dr. Gillian Lockitch welcomes Dr. Brad Montagne, a functional medicine practitioner, educator, author and host of the podcast Your Health Reclaimed. Brad begins by describing a personal...
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Is it possible to eat nourishing whole foods without letting grocery costs overwhelm your budget? Grocery industry insider and author Carol Ann Kates joins Dr. Gillian Lockitch to share practical ways to plan meals, shop sales, select produce, understand labels, and store food so less goes to waste. Their conversation offers useful ideas for smaller households as well as families. Rising prices and confusing product claims can make a healthy grocery trip feel expensive and complicated. A thoughtful plan can help you bring home only food you will enjoy and use. For people who want to stay...
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What if ingredients that can enrich a healthy lifestyle are already growing in your garden, waiting at the farmers’ market, or sitting in your spice cupboard? Too often, eating for longevity is framed as a list of restrictions, a mindset that can drain pleasure from food and make healthy choices feel difficult to sustain. or healthy longevity, nourishment must be practical enough for daily life and enjoyable enough to continue. Fresh ingredients, seasonal variety, herbs, plants, and mindful attention to what works for your own body can help make the kitchen a place of creativity...
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Could difficulty hearing conversations today affect your brain health, independence and quality of life in the years ahead? Hearing loss is often treated as a minor inconvenience of growing older, yet it can affect communication, relationships, social connection, confidence and independence. In this episode, Dr. Gillian Lockitch speaks with hearing-health advocate and author Robert “Bob” Keefer, MD, about the association between hearing loss and cognitive decline, why so many people delay seeking help for hearing deficits and what questions to ask before choosing a hearing-care provider....
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Health care professionals emphasize optimizing cholesterol, blood sugar and hormone levels and from that assessing biological age. These measurements can provide useful information, but do they tell us whether the body is still resilient, adaptable and capable of recovering from illness, injury or stress? In this episode, Dr. Gillian Lockitch and Dr. Sean Fletch explore the difference between moving a laboratory number into the desired range, and addressing the upstream conditions that caused it to change. Dr. Fletch reframes healthspan as more than the number of years lived...
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What does a physician-scientist actually do each day to support her own healthy aging? This is a question Dr. Gillian Lockitch hears often. Her answer is not a prescription, a shopping list or a collection of fashionable biohacks. Healthy longevity is personal: our genetics, health histories, medications, priorities and goals differ, so the most useful routine is one designed for the individual. In this solo episode, Dr. Gillian organizes her approach around the seven pillars of healthy longevity described in her book, Growing Older, Living Younger. She explains how epigenetics offers a more...
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Could retirement actually become the beginning of your most meaningful work? In this personal solo episode, Dr. Gillian Lockitch shares how spinal surgery, ballroom dancing, entrepreneurship and podcasting transformed her understanding of healthy longevity. You’ll discover why curiosity, consistency and a renewed sense of purpose can help you remain mentally sharp, physically engaged and excited about the future at any age. For most of her professional life, Dr. Gillian Lockitch was a physician, medical biochemist, researcher, university professor and department head. She expected...
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What helps people stay active, strong, and independent as they age—luck, genetics, or habits built years earlier? In this episode of Growing Older Living Younger, Dr. Gillian Lockitch speaks with Carl Daikeler, co-founder and CEO of BODi, about why healthy longevity is rooted in consistency: regular movement, supportive nutrition, and the discipline to care for your body before a health crisis forces the issue. Carl shares his personal story of discovering a congenital heart block at age 59, receiving a pacemaker, and using that experience to deepen his commitment to healthspan...
info_outlineGrief is not a problem to be solved or something we simply “get over.” In this profound conversation, Dr. Gillian Lockitch speaks with philosopher and grief expert Thomas Attig about mourning as a lifelong process of relearning how to live in a world forever changed by loss. Drawing on decades of scholarship and personal insight, Thomas explains how grief can deepen our love, strengthen resilience, and help us find wisdom and meaning in life’s most difficult transitions. This episode offers compassionate guidance for anyone grieving a loved one or supporting someone through loss.
Thomas Attig is an internationally recognized philosopher, educator, and authority on grief, death, and bereavement. He earned his BA and PhD in philosophy from Northwestern University and Washington University in St. Louis. During his career at Bowling Green State University, he helped establish the world’s first PhD program in applied philosophy. He is a Fellow of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement. Dr. Attig is the author of several influential books, including How We Grieve and Seeking Wisdom in Death’s Shadows.
Episode Timeline
00:00 – Welcome and introduction
00:30 – Why grief is central to healthy aging and emotional well-being
04:06 – Tom Attig’s early experiences with death and family loss
08:45 – Teaching the first university course on death and dying
11:30 – Grief as relearning how to live in the world
13:11 – Dr. Gillian shares the loss of her husband
15:44 – Grief reaction versus grief response
18:00 – Learning to love in separation
22:00 – Moving from sorrow to gratitude
24:52 – The purpose and structure of Seeking Wisdom in Death’s Shadows
27:00 – Problems versus mysteries in life and grief
31:42 – One essential truth for anyone who is grieving
Connect with Thomas Attig PhD
Book: Seeking Wisdom in Death’s Shadows: Collected Writings on How We Grieve
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Website: Thomas Attig Author Page
30% Discount Code: AUFLY30
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Connect with Dr. Gillian Lockitch at https://www.askdrgill.com/ or email: [email protected]