GBONEWS: $1,500 Reporting Fellowship Deadline, July 18; Don’t Reform Social Security Now; NYT Reports Blame Dem Policies, Not Biden for 2024 Loss; 84 and Marching Again; Caregiving in New Mexico, Puerto Rico; Study: Legos May Ease Dementia; & MORE.
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations.
June 30, 2025 — Volume 32, Number 10
EDITOR’S NOTE: GBONews, e-news of the Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), publishes alerts for journalists, producers and authors covering generational issues. If you have difficulty getting to the full issue of GBONews with the links provided below, simply go to www.gbonews.org to read the latest or past editions. Send your news of stories or books (by you and others), fellowships, awards or pertinent kvetches to GBO News Editor Paul Kleyman. [pfkleyman@gmail.com]. To subscribe to GBONews.org at no charge, simply send a request to Paul with your name, address, phone number and editorial affiliation or note that you freelance. For each issue, we’ll email the table of contents and links to the full issue at www.gbonews.org. GBONews does not provide its list to other entities.
In This Issue: Happy July 4th! Do You Know Where Your Independence Is?
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE: *** 16th Journalists in Aging Fellowship Applications Due by Friday, July 18.
2. SOCIAL SECURITY WATCH: *** “What the Heck Is Happening at Social Security?” by Richard Eisenberg, PBS Next Avenue; *** “This is not the moment for Social Security reform,” by Mark Miller, RetirementRevised.substack.com.
3. AGE POLITICS MARCHES ON: *** “A 1,400-County Crisis for Democrats,” New York Times, “The Daily,” Michael Barbaro’s interview with NYT political analyst Shane Goldmacher;
*** “Still marching after all these years,” byMargaret Morganroth Gullette, Boston Globe;
*** Headlines, Books (by Jake Tapper, Robert Reich, Joan Williamson) and Healthy Aging.
4. STORYBOARD: *** “Take Care: Former Health Secretary, geriatrician David Scrase discusses New Mexico’s aging population,”by Leah Romero, Source NM;
*** “Dementia in Puerto Rico,” investigative series by Aiola Virella, Metro Puerto Rico;
*** “Single people had lower dementia risk than married ones, study finds,” by Monica Williams, New York & Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative;
*** “Legos Can Be More Than Child’s Play for People With Dementia,” by Jeanette Beebe, AARP.
5. GOOD OLD SEX (AND MEMORY CAFES): *** Press Registrations for Kinsey’s Sex and Aging Scientific Symposium, October 4, 2025; *** New Memory Café Alliance Updates Directory to Locate Dementia-Friendly Sites Nationwide.
6. GOOD SOURCES: *** “Avoidable Mortality Across US States and High-Income Countries,” by Irene Papanicolas, PhD, and colleagues, JAMA Internal Medicine; *** “Flipping the Script on Generational Myths” About Older Workers, by Janine Vanderburg.
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE—JULY 18 DEADLINE
*** 16th Journalists in Aging Fellowship Applications Due by Friday, July 18, 2025: Now’s the time for working reporters (staff or freelance) to get their application going for our 2025-26 fellowships on covering the wide-ranging issues of aging in America.
Selected Fellows receive a $1,500 stipend, plus all expenses to attend the training at the huge gerontology Boston conference this coming November.
Applications must include a one-to-two-page story pitch for an in-depth project about any research-based aspect of aging, to be completed next year. GBONews’ publisher, the Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), and our academic partner, the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) have collaborated on this program since 2010, with nonprofit foundation funding.
New Fellows will join the roster of 245 alumni journalists from mainstream, ethnic, senior press or community media. Since the program’s start, Fellows have produced more than 850 stories in all types of media. Many have originated in non-English outlets serving U.S. audiences, from El Tiempo Latino to Sing Tao Daily, as well as in general-media outlets, such as the Washington Post, Science Magazine, NPR News, and numerous local new media.
Selected fellows will attend GSA’s 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting, which will take place November 12-15, 2025, in Boston. The conference will bring about 4,500 professionals in gerontology from around the world, many of whom will present their research in hundreds of symposia, papers, and study posters on nearly every topic in aging. Topics will range from the latest biological discoveries to public policy panels on federal cuts, as well as how state and local services are coping with the new budget cuts.
Don’t delay until the deadline is nigh! Applicants must submit proposals with an agreement by a news organization’s editor or producer to accept the project if it receives a fellowship. (Applicants who double as their outlet’s editor/producer need not provide a separate letter or email, but they should make their dual role clear in the proposal.)
Also, GBONews readers, even if you don’t plan to apply, we’d greatly appreciate your helping to spread the word to your friends, colleagues and networks. Please post this quick blurb where it might bring another reporter a good turn:
16th Journalists in Aging Fellowship application deadline, July 18. Staff or freelance Journalists in mainstream and ethnic/community media receive $1,500, plus expenses to attend Fall training conference in Boston. Questions: Liz Seegert: liz@lizseegert.com; Todd Kluss at tkluss@geron.org; Paul Kleyman, pfkleyman@gmail.com.
Currently supporting the program are grants from Silver Century Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, The John A. Hartford Foundation, and National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation (NIHCM).
2. SOCIAL SECURITY WATCH
*** “What the Heck Is Happening at Social Security?” by Richard Eisenberg, PBS Next Avenue (June 23, 2025):The Dek – “Amid the chaos at the Social Security Administration [SSA], dance the 3-step to get the assistance you need.”The Lede: “Halloween may be months away, but many older Americans are petrified by the specter of ghoulish customer service at the SSA and worries they won’t get their promised retirement benefits.
Harried: “ ‘Fearmongering has driven people to claim benefits earlier,’ the agency’s acting commissioner reportedly said at a March meeting. Nearly 18% more people have claimed Social Security benefits since January than during a similar period a year ago, according to NPR.”
Scary: “In a recent DepositAccounts survey, 59% of nonretired people worried they won’t receive their Social Security benefits. And that poll was taken a month before the release on June 18 of the 2025 Social Security Trustees’ Report forecasted Social Security recipients will get only 81% of benefits in 2034 — one year earlier than last year’s estimate — unless Congress and the President address the program’s solvency woes.”
Service Cuts, Not Benefits: “In April, . . . just 52% of callers reached a representative. Enrolling in Medicare — a process handled by Social Security — is taking longer too.”
“ ‘Many of those getting fired are surely the people with the most knowledge about Social Security,’ said Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor and Social Security specialist.
“Some staffers are being transferred to field offices, but without much training. ‘The problem is that training takes a year or two; it’s very intense,’ said Nancy Altman, president of the Social Security Works political advocacy group. “People are being forced into dealing with the public before they’re ready.”
*** “This is not the moment for Social Security reform,” by Mark Miller, RetirementRevised.substack.com (June 27, 2025):
Who Can You Trust?: Assessing the recent of the Social Security trustees’ annual reports, Miller clarifies much half-baked and falsely alarming reporting in major American media that implied a major change since last year.
He explaines, “The financial projections contained in these reports don’t vary much from year to year, which speaks to the high level of competence of the Social Security actuaries. The retirement fund still is projected to run dry in 2033 — at that point benefits would be cut roughly 23% across the board unless action is taken before that time.”
Miller emphasized, “But this is not the moment to rush into Social Security reform, despite what you may read in the media commentary.”
Says Who: “The report triggered the usual panicked media coverage; the Washington Post led the charge with an opinion piece demanding appointment of a commission to develop solutions. That’s a useful strategy for politicians who want to keep their fingerprints off unpopular proposals to cut benefits, but not good for a public that should demand accountability from their elected officials. This is typical fare from the Post.”
Bad Reporting: He goes on, “The [Post] has done a great job covering the crisis at the Social Security Administration this year but otherwise has had a miserable record covering the program. The Post has repeatedly (and incorrectly) tied the program to the national debt, claimed it is ‘running out of money’ and promoted false equivalency between the two political parties on solutions.”
Editor’s note: Miller’s criticism of WaPo may seem to sound competitive, since he is a frequent contributor to the New York Times. However, his regular “What I’m Reading” section also links to relevant stories from other news outlets.
What’s Next: Miller counsels, “What’s needed now isn’t panic or backroom commissions, but public pressure, political courage and a commitment to preserving the most successful anti-poverty program in American history for the generations to come—including, I hope, my grandchildren.”
3. AGE POLITICS MARCHES ON
*** “A 1,400-County Crisis for Democrats,” New York Times, “The Daily,” Michael Barbaro, interview with NYT political analyst Shane Goldmacher (June 3, 2025): The Dek—“A Times analysis of the last four presidential elections shows how Donald Trump made strides all across the country.”
Context: The Great Debate Debacle happened exactly a year ago, likely with a decade or more to come of consequences. President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s campaign-ending debate performance on June 27, 2025, was speedily met before morning—as the Biden had already headed out to make the first of a series of vigorous speeches in the fading hopes of recovering his quest for a second term.
Before his script was in the Teleprompter, the New York Times had double down on its nearly yearlong effort, urging him to step aside because of – his age.
With Biden’s withdrawal and nod to Vice-President Kamala Harris on July 21, she soared in campaign donations, although only slowly inched up in the polls. Immediately, the president was hailed, especially by his detractors, for conducting “the most consequential first term” in a half-century.
But Harris, regardless of her rock star campaign style, would concede on election night, significantly behind in the Electoral College, while falling short in the popular vote by a scant 1.5% (her 48.3% to Donald Trump’s 49.8%.)
Liberal commentators and Democratic politicos then whipped out the pointingest fingers East to West—sharply at Joe Biden. The blame was all his, said leading Democrats, except for what painstaking data reporting by another NYT reporter would reveal this spring.
The data crunch (May 24, 2025) by NYT political analyst Shane Goldmacher examined the last four presidential elections showing how Donald Trump “made strides all across the country.”
During the newspaper’s June 3 edition of its “Daily” podcast, titled “A 1,400-County Crisis for Democrats,” Goldmacher explained, “I think that a lot of people have looked at the 2024 election and said this was an outlier for the Democrats, that the Democratic Party lost because Joe Biden was too old, that he stayed in the race too long, that Kamala Harris was a weaker candidate, that she didn’t have enough time to prosecute the case, and on and on. But the 2024 election results were not a one off. They weren’t a one off at all.”
Examining presidential election results in all 3,100 United States counties since 2012, Goldmacher found, “Of the 1,433 counties where Trump has improved continuously, only three had a median income of more than $100,000, so way less than 1 percent.”
He added, “On the Democratic side, only 57 counties have moved to the Democrats; 18 of them have an income of $100,000 per household at the county level. So the Democrats are just improving where these wealthy enclaves are, and Republicans are improving just about everywhere else.”
Furthermore, he continued, “For years, the Democratic Party has basically identified itself as the party of the working class. It’s a core part of the party’s identity. And the results show that working class voters no longer see the party that way. And at the same time, the party has banked on more diversity helping, that a more diverse America was going to be a more Democratic America. And both of those things are no longer necessarily true.”
*** Headlines, Books ( Jake Tapper, Robert Reich, Joan Williamson) and Healthy Aging
With the GOP marching in step behind its 79-year-old commander-in-chief, political spectators can turn their attention to the Democratic Party’s power plays between its mainstream centrists and its progressive wing. Headlining this past week, the progressives could bask in the surprise win by Zohran Mamdani, 33, in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, with a hefty early endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders, 83.
More broadly, squaring off between Dem hardcovers, are center-left pundits, such as Original Sin authors Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson of CNN, whose book documents interviews with numerous Washington observers, who suggested that Biden showed signs of cognitive impairment.
Most prominent among progressive authors is former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich, now emeritus professor at UC Berkeley. His forthcoming memoir, Coming Up Short (Penguin/Random House, Aug. 5, 2025) argues that his party’s best hope for contesting the MAGA opposition that reclaiming their lost voters is in supporting a better and affordable living for working-class Americans. That was the victorious appeal of New York’s Mamdani. Also see Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back (St. Martin’s/McMillan, 2025) by legal scholar Joan C. Williamson.
Meanwhile, what about the aging of America? GBONews.org recommends a fascinating podcast by The Atlantic (May 5, 2025), headlined “How to Define Old Age.” Atlantic staff writer Yasmin Tayag learned among other things, that in 2021 a division of the World Health Organization was about to officially designate “old age” as a disease. Yet in March of that year, another office of WHO issued a global report aimed at combating ageism.
Tayag interviewed a leading geriatric psychiatrist at Canada’s University of Ottawa, who conducted careful discussions with the, leading to their withdrawing the recommendation. The Atlantic’s podcast also covers aspects of longevity research, especially the importance of healthy aging.
*** “Still marching after all these years,” by Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Boston Globe (June 21, 2025): The Dek — “I am 84. At demonstrations against the Trump administration, I see people as old as I am everywhere.”
Who: In this op-ed, Gullette, the author most recently of American Eldercide: How It Happened, How to Prevent It(University of Chicago Press, 2025) and a scholar at Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Research Center, writes of joining protests again “amid America’s turmoil and woe.” With her late parents in mind, she surmised, “They would be reassuring me and keeping up my spirits. They would be carrying signs at the rallies with all of us.”
On the March: “At the demonstrations, I see people as old as I am everywhere. At a ‘No Kings’ demo in Waltham, [Mass.] they carried signs saying ‘Save Social Security,’ [and] ‘If a Parade, then Medicaid’ . . . Another sign read, ‘I am 90, with Parkinson’s, and I am pissed.’ A woman in a wheelchair held a sign saying, ‘I am 83, my first protest!’”
Age Diverse: She concluded, “Intergenerational solidarity is precious. . . . To all of us lucky enough to have older people in our lives, they comfort us by their presence. Repositories of family lore and legend, they dole out secrets and, for better or worse, guide us by their experiences. And sometimes by the energy of their activism, right now!”
4. STORYBOARD
Following are recent stories from our 2024-25 “class” of Journalists in Aging Fellows:
*** “Take Care: Former Health Secretary, geriatrician David Scrase discusses New Mexico’s aging population,”by Leah Romero, Source NM, May 16, 2025):
The Lede: “David Scrase has worked as a geriatrician in New Mexico for nearly 30 years, and previously served as the [New Mexico’s] Human Services Secretary. . . Scrase told Source NM, ‘I always tell people. . . I never go into a room where at least 80% of the people aren’t trying to figure out what to do with an older person in their family who’s going through something like this. It might not be their immediate family, but . . . everyone is on the verge of, or in the middle of, or just past having to make these kinds of decisions about how to provide care.”
The Facts: “There’s going to be a dramatic growth of seniors and need for care for seniors. There’s also the fact that we have the number one poverty rate among people 65 and older, so we have the highest poverty rate for seniors. And poverty creates illness and complexity.”
The Question: Dr. Scrase, said, “Most people focus on the question of whether or not they want to go to a nursing home, yes or no. And . . . I think the question is, ‘Do I want to go to a nursing home and accept the pros and cons of that choice, or do I want to keep mom at home and accept the pros and cons of that choice? . . . I try to work with families to say, ‘Hey, this isn’t something you need to decide to feel guilty about. You could really focus on the quality of the time you’re spending with your loved one.’”
*** “Dementia in Puerto Rico” investigative series, by Aiola Virella, Metro Puerto Rico (May 15-16, 2025):
* Part 1 — “El Alzheimer a Posicionarse Tercera Causa de Muerte en Puerto Rico/Alzheimer’s on Track to Become the Third Leading Cause of Death in Puerto Rico.” (Links are in Spanish only and behind paywall; English translations are available on request to pfkleyman@gmail.com.)
The Dek: “As Puerto Rico’s population ages rapidly, the island is facing a growing public health crisis linked to dementia-related conditions. This two-part investigative series explores the data gaps, institutional challenges, and lack of coordinated care for individuals living with dementia and their caregivers.”
A Fact: “Dementia on the rise, but the figures lag behind preliminary 2024 data suggesting that Alzheimer’s disease may become the third leading cause of death in Puerto Rico—yet only 7% of registered dementia cases have been clinically validated. Despite a legally mandated registry and rising prevalence, the government lacks a comprehensive national plan, and key agencies like the Department of Family remain excluded from planning efforts.”
The Dek: “Hospitals are unprepared for dementia patients. Most hospitals in Puerto Rico lack protocols to treat dementia patients in emergency settings; psychiatric hospitals often reject them altogether.”
* Part 3 — “Cuidadores en crisis: la salud de quienes atienden a pacientes con alzhéimer se deteriora en silencio/Caregivers in Crisis: The Silent Decline of Those Caring for Alzheimer’s Patients.” The Dek: “New epidemiological report reveals high rates of chronic illness, obesity, and depression among caregivers in Puerto Rico.”
The Research: “The Puerto Rico Department of Health has released a new bulletin offering, for the first time from the agency, a detailed profile of people caring for individuals with Alzheimer’s on the island. The analysis—based on data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)—underscores a sobering reality: caregiving can also make people sick, especially in the absence of structured support.
The Stats: “Over 50,000 Caregivers—More Than 80% Are Women — The study estimates that 53,929 people were caring for relatives with Alzheimer’s in Puerto Rico during 2021–2022, representing 16.9% of all caregivers on the island. Most are women between the ages of 55 and 64, with a college education, employment, and simultaneous family responsibilities.”
*** “Single people had lower dementia risk than married ones, study finds,” by Monica Williams, New York & Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative (May 2025):
The Dek – “All of the unmarried adults in a study by Florida State University were at least 50% less likely to develop dementia than their married counterparts, challenging beliefs that marriage protects against declines in cognitive function.
Key Stats: “The study assessed more than 20,000 older adults for up to 18 years, evaluating them annually at specialized dementia clinics across the United States. . . The results were similar regardless of gender.”
Who Knew?: “Older married individuals may have a smaller social network, tend to be less self-reliant, and may experience stressful conditions such as caregiving, which could contribute to the risk of dementia,” Selin Karakose of FSU explained.
“There is some evidence that divorce can lead to greater happiness and life satisfaction, and widowed individuals may experience an increase in close network size in the years following widowhood, which could potentially protect against dementia risk. Another important possible explanation is that the findings could suggest a delayed diagnosis among unmarried individuals.”
*** “Legos Can Be More Than Child’s Play for People With Dementia,” by Jeanette Beebe, AARP (May 6, 2025): Access Wall Alert – AARP offer at least initial free-article access, but only after online registration with your email address and a password.
The Lede: “We are never too old to play, says Natalia Kasperovich, a gerontology researcher based in Portland, Ore. She studied how Legos, those brightly colored interlocking bricks, could offer some respite, even delight, to residents in two memory care facilities. The participants — five men and 15 women ages 75 or older — had moderate to severe dementia.”
The Journalists in Aging Fellowships are currently supported by grants from Silver Century Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, The John A. Hartford Foundation, and National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation (NIHCM).
5. GOOD OLD SEX (AND MEMORY CAFES)
*** Press Registrations for Kinsey’s Sex and Aging Scientific Symposium: No need to “swipe right” to request a comp media registration to attend the Kinsey Institute research conclave at Indiana University on October 4, 2025. Reporters may attend presentations in person or virtually. Request a press pass from KInsey’s Strategic Communications Director Camilla Peterson. She noted, “I’m also happy to explore potential opportunities for special interviews with our experts around this topic, too.”
*** New Memory Café Alliance Updates Directory to Locate Dementia-Friendly Sites: McArthur Foundation “genius” Anne Basting and colleagues have updated and relaunched the national directory of Memory Cafes. The revamped website now includes 500 places (and counting) “where people experiencing cognitive challenges along with caring family members, friends and professional caregivers can find meaningful programming, friendship, and acceptance,” she said.
More Accurate: Basting, emerita professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, founded the nonprofit TimeSlips.org, which has provided training and support to thousands of caregivers nationwide. She and her co-developers spent the past year revising the old directory to be more accurate and include train-the-trainer modules for widening their network of local organizations and volunteers offering Memory Café services, free of charge.
Clusters, Too: Beyond the directory’s individual Memory Café locations, Basting and her colleagues are identifying “strong clusters,” she said, such as a group of 21 libraries west of Milwaukee. Other examples she noted are The Memory Hub in Seattle, the UPenn Memory Center, the Denver Public Library’s numerous Memory Cafés and New York City’s Arts and Minds program. There’s also The Spark! Alliance, a group of arts or culture museums with 30 programs across six states, although don’t conflate it with The Spark Alliance that’s devoted to expanding chargers for electronic vehicles.
Basting, also the author most recently of Creative Care: A Revolutionary Approach to Dementia and Elder Care (Harper One, 2020), is reachable at anne@timeslips.org.
6. GOOD SOURCES
*** “Avoidable Mortality Across US States and High-Income Countries,” by Irene Papanicolas, PhD; Maecey Niksch, BA; Jose F. Figueroa, MD, MPH, JAMA Internal Medicine (March 24, 2025): This Journal of the American Medical Association article, but authors affiliated with Brown and Harvard universities, found, “Between 2009 and 2021, avoidable mortality increased in all U.S. states, primarily due to increases in preventable deaths, while it decreased in comparable high-income countries.”
Life Expectancy: “Despite spending more than any country in the world on health care, life expectancy in the U.S. is comparably worse than that of most other high-income countries and declining both in absolute value and relative rank. However, life expectancy across U.S. states varies just as markedly as it does across high-income countries, from 81.8 years in Hawaiʻi to 74.7 years in Mississippi in 2019—a divergence that has been increasing over time.
The Upshot: “Despite variation in avoidable deaths across U.S. states, the study reveals an increase in avoidable deaths—including both treatable and preventable deaths—and across most causes of illness throughout the U.S. before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is in stark contrast to improving trends in EU and OECD countries.”
*** “Flipping the Script on Generational Myths” About Older Workers: The informative “Flipping the Script” blog from Colorado-based anti-ageism advocate Janine Vanderburg, often provides extensive background and source links reporters can park for researching numerous issues on aging. This one dips into many resources on intergeneration workplace issues, such as the World Economic Forum, the London School of Economics, and the McKinsey Global Institute‘s 2023 global workforce survey.
For instance, Vanderburg cites a 2024 study from the London School of Economics and Political Science, which found, “82% of executives who report proportionate generational representation in meetings say their organization is outperforming the competition, compared to just 41% of executives who report no generational diversity in meetings.” Check out this post and others by Vanderburg.–
The Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), founded in 1993, publishes Generations Beat Online News (GBONews.org). JNG provides information and networking opportunities for journalists covering generational issues, but not those representing services, products or lobbying agendas. Copyright 2025 Paul Kleyman. For more information contact GBO Editor Paul Kleyman.
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