Intentional Reinvention: Transformative Journeys for Bold Living

MEA CEO Derek Gehl sits down with gerontologist and longevity advocate Barbara Waxman for a real-world conversation about what actually matters when it comes to living longer – and better.

We’re living in a moment flooded with longevity advice: supplements, protocols, biohacks, and bold claims. But beneath the noise, a more important question often gets lost: how can we age well in a way that’s personal and sustainable?

In this session, Derek and Barbara explore what it means to become “a study of one” – how to tune into your own signals, make smarter choices, and move forward with clarity instead of overwhelm.

For anyone navigating midlife who wants a more grounded, personalized approach to longevity.

Join MEA Santa Fe Program Director Mary Hofstedt, Rising Circle Ranch Manager Joanna “Jo” Nichols, and Land Steward & Horseman Christian Talamantes for a behind-the-scenes look at MEA’s new Rising Circle Ranch Camp.

Set on 2,600 acres of New Mexico high desert, Ranch Camp is a 3-day deep dive shaped by horses, cattle, wranglers, arroyos, big skies, and the daily rhythm of a working ranch.

In this live conversation, Mary and Jo will share what you’ll step into during the experience: time with horses, hands-on ranch work, a cattle drive, guided time on the land, wagon rides, evening programming, and facilitation that helps connect the ranch experience to your own life.

They’ll also talk about why being a beginner is part of the point. Most guests will arrive not knowing how to read a horse, move cattle, or understand what the land is showing them. That’s where the learning begins.

MEA founder Chip Conley sits down with sociologist, master coach, and bestselling author Martha Beck to explore what it really means to live in integrity in midlife and beyond.

Drawing from Martha’s book The Way of Integrity and her upcoming MEA workshop, they’ll unpack how we drift out of alignment through people-pleasing, cultural “shoulds,” and stale identities – and how to begin the gentle work of coming back to what’s true.

You’ll hear practical insights on reading your inner signals, questioning inherited beliefs, and making small shifts that bring your outer life closer to your inner knowing. This live virtual session is for anyone who’s curious about a more honest, joyful next chapter.

If there’s a book in you – even just a messy draft or an idea you keep coming back to – this one’s worth showing up for.

Derek’s sitting down for a virtual chat with Kelly Notaras, who’s edited more than 200 books over 25 years, a few of them New York Times bestsellers. She wrote The Book You Were Born to Write and founded KN Literary Arts. And she’s unusually good at seeing what a book wants to be before its writer does.

They’ll get into why writers stall out even when they know what they want to say – and how you keep moving without waiting for some mythical free time to open up. Plus the honest version of how a pile of scattered pages becomes a finished manuscript.

Most of us treat time away from work as a reward for pushing through. DJ DiDonna sees it differently: as protected time to ask what your work, energy, and ambition are asking of you now.

Join us for a live virtual conversation with DJ DiDonna, Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer, founder of The Sabbatical Project, and author of Big Time Off: The Transformative Power of Sabbaticals and How to Take One.

Drawing on a decade of research, interviews, and his own sabbatical after years of startup burnout, DJ will reframe sabbaticals from a rare perk into a serious tool for clarity, identity change, and regret prevention.