Having It All · Episode 9 of 10 · 26 min
Unexpected Fortunes: Why Women Report Their Best Years After 60
Well-being bottoms out around age 47 and climbs from there. By their sixties and seventies, many of the women this series has followed report the most contented years of their lives, and almost none of it was on the brochure: friendships that outlasted marriages, freedom from caring what anyone thinks, degrees at 65, second acts. The episode stays honest that these fortunes are unevenly distributed.
Who's who
- Laura CarstensenStanford psychologist behind socioemotional selectivity theory
- David Blanchflower+1 more episodeDartmouth economist who mapped the happiness U-curve
- Andrew OswaldWarwick economist, Blanchflower's co-author on the 2008 paper
- Margaret MeadAnthropologist associated with 'postmenopausal zest'
- Marc FreedmanFounder of Civic Ventures who popularized encore careers
- Kristen HawkesAnthropologist behind the grandmother hypothesis
- Thérèse ClercFrench feminist who founded the Maison des Babayagas
- Julianne Holt-Lunstad+1 more episodePsychologist who made friendship a measurable health factor
Where it happens
- Montreuil, FranceHome of the Maison des Babayagas, a seniors' house run by women
- Davis, CaliforniaSite of Glacier Circle, first purpose-built senior cohousing in the U.S.
Timeline
- 1987Raging Grannies form in Victoria, British Columbia
- 1999Carstensen and colleagues publish 'Taking Time Seriously'
- 2008Blanchflower and Oswald publish on the U-shaped life cycle of well-being
- 2010Holt-Lunstad meta-analysis links strong social ties to survival
- 2013Maison des Babayagas opens near Paris
- 2025Researchers report the midlife 'unhappiness hump' has vanished worldwide
Still debated
The happiness U-curve is one of the most replicated patterns in well-being economics, yet critics argue it depends on statistical controls and may confuse age with cohort. Those who report late-life happiness are also disproportionately healthy and solvent.
← PreviousThe Ledger: What a Lifetime of Caregiving Actually CostNext →The Verdict: Luck Was an Equal Partner With Effort
