From Farm to Future: A Model for Sustainable, Intergenerational Living
Release Date: 11/12/2025
Elevate Eldercare
This week on the podcast, AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan is joined by Susie Singer Carter, a filmmaker, advocate, and caregiver, who shares her deeply personal journey into caregiving—and how it transformed her life, her work, and her mission. Inspired by her mother’s 16-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease, Susie recounts moving from “caregiver by surprise” to outspoken advocate for systemic reform in long-term care. Her mother, Norma Pecora, a former opera singer and art dealer, wasdiagnosed at age 72. Norma lived with Susie for a year following the death of her husband—an experience...
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What if better care actually costs less? And what if technology is the bridge to get us there? In this episode, AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan is joined in this week’s episodeby Kim Brawley, regional vice president of AgeWell Solvere Living, and Stu Hamilton,CEO and founder of Amba Health and Care, for a timely conversation about how technology—when implemented thoughtfully—can transform senior living. Against the backdrop of demographic shifts, aging infrastructure, workforce challenges, and rising healthcare costs, the discussion explores how passive sensor...
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In this episode, AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan sits down with Gautam Gulati, MD, physician, entrepreneur, producer, and “health artist.” Also known as “Dr. G,” hisbackground makes for a wide-ranging discussion that bridges medicine, storytelling, real estate, and wellness design. He shares his unconventional journey from medical doctor to real estate professional and certified interior designer—and how that path led him to reimagine the home as a powerful driver of health. At the center of the conversation is Dr. G’s framework for optimizing well-being through what he calls...
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In this episode, Joe Jasmon, CEO of American Healthcare Management and co-founder of Elevate Senior Living, joins AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan on the podcast to share the origin story and philosophy behind Elevate, a mid-market senior housing model designed from the ground up around residents—not corporate overhead. Drawing on a career spanning hospitality, healthcare turnarounds, and senior living operations, Jasmon explains how Elevate was born from a simple question: “What would senior living look like if we designed it entirely around personal needs, dignity, and efficiency?”...
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In this episode, AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan sits down with longtime senior living leader and consultant Michele Holleran for a wide-ranging conversation on leadership, resident voices, and why brain health must become a strategic priority in senior living. A passionate advocate for leadership development, Michele discusses her role in initiatives such as the Larry Minnix Leadership Academy, the LeadingAge Women in Leadership Task Force, and the Senior Living Women’s Leadership Retreat, all aimed at cultivating the next generation of mission-driven...
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In this episode, AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan sits down with Bob Kramer to explore a career shaped by purpose, perspective, and a deep commitment to improving the lives of older adults. Kramer reflects on his personal and professional journey—from his early work as a pastor, to leadership roles in government, to founding the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC)—and the values that have guided his work across decades in aging services. Throughout the conversation, Kramer emphasizes the importance of legacy, listening, and being “multilingual” across sectors,...
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In our final replay of 2025’s most popular conversations, Lisa McCracken, head of research and analytics at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), sits down with AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan to discuss her organization’s work to demystify the financial side of eldercare with data. In what was a clear-eyed forecast of the year, McCracken examines how high-quality, third-party information can inform the next generation of services and supports for older adults. You can’t fix what you can’t measure, but far too often, leaders from around the eldercare...
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This week’s replay, one of the most popular episodes of 2025, features a profound conversation between Barry Barkan, visionary eldercare advocate and Pioneer Network co-founder, and AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan. These longtime friends discuss reimagining aging and the transformative potential of community, spirit, and consciousness. Barkan shares his journey from founding the Live Oak Institute to helping launch the Pioneer Network, driven by a belief that aging is not a problem to solve but a gift to elevate. He recounts his efforts to create a regenerative, inclusive community at...
info_outlineElevate Eldercare
As we continue to replay the most popular episodes of 2025, this week’s features an insightful interview by AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan as she sits down with senior living innovator Andy Carle, consultant and founder of . Andy shares his personal journey into eldercare and the bold moves he’s made to elevate the field, from founding a 70-community company to creating the first university-level curriculum for senior living executives. Andy also dives into the concept of “nana technology”—his term for tech that supports aging with dignity—and explores the rise of University...
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This week’s episode is a replay of one of the most popular of 2025. It features a conversation with policy experts Joe Angelelli and Anne Montgomery as they discuss the EINSTEIN Option (which is now known as Connected Communities), a collaborative effort of eldercare changemakers dedicated to advancing a comprehensive plan to reimagine the entire care delivery system. The late Alex Spanko, who served as AgingIN’s director of communications and marketing at the time, moderates a compelling conversation about how this model could create full care continuums in communities around the country,...
info_outlineIn this episode, AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan welcomes Steve Nygren, visionary founder of Serenbe, a pioneering biophilic community outside Atlanta that blends sustainability, wellness, and human connection. Beginning in 1991 as an impromptu farm purchase, Serenbe has become a decades-long experiment in how people can live harmoniously with nature—and with each other.
Steve shares his story, which includes a transition from a successful hospitality career to a life dedicated to community building and land preservation. Confronted by the threat of urban sprawl, he turned his private sanctuary into a model for regenerative development. Serenbe’s design—complete with centralized mailboxes, shared gardens, trampolines, and a wellness hub housing 27 health providers—embodies the idea that thoughtful design can nurture both people and the planet.
Listeners will hear how biophilic design and new urbanism come together at Serenbe to create a thriving “agrihood” that supports intergenerational living. Nygren advocates for environments that foster mobility, creativity, and vitality at every age.
Steve and Susan also discuss Serenbe’s intergenerational housing models and its innovative wellness hub, which offers integrated medical and holistic care—including what may be the nation’s only chemical-free pharmacy.
As Serenbe evolves into a think tank for arts, agriculture, and health, Steve invites listeners to reimagine their own neighborhoods and communities.
Find his book, Starting Your Own Backyard: Radical Common Sense Reimagining, here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Start-in-Your-Own-Backyard/Nygren-Steve/9781637747445
Learn more about Serenbe here: https://www.serenbe.com