MEA in the Press

Upworthy – A co-housing expert in New Mexico is testing out a new idea for retirement: groups of women in their 50s to early 70s attend retreats on a sprawling ranch to ask, “Could you really live like The Golden Girls?” The property is part of Modern Elder Academy (MEA), founded by Chip Conley, which he describes as a “midlife wisdom school” offering workshops on navigating transitions and cultivating purpose at its Santa Fe–area and Baja California campuses. Speaking with Upworthy, Conley said he believes “The Golden Girls may have been onto something long before the rest of us

Zoomer – When I recently turned 60, I started feeling really stressed about how quickly time was passing. So I was intrigued when I learned about the Modern Elder Academy (MEA) after hearing its founder, Chip Conley, speak at an online media event for the Transformation Travel Council. To plan the next stage of my life more purposefully, I booked a five-day program at MEA to learn from gerontologist, expert coach and Stanford Center on Longevity advisory council member Barbara Waxman how to map out how I want my hopefully “many” next years to look.

Worth – Conley is not a wellness skeptic—he runs a school built on the science of living longer. But when I asked him what actually moves the needle, he didn’t reach for a supplement stack. He reached for Becca Levy’s work, a Yale epidemiologist. “When you shift your mindset on aging from a negative to a positive,” he told me, “you gain seven and a half years of additional life.” That business is the Modern Elder Academy, which Conley bills as the world’s first “midlife wisdom school.” MEA now runs roughly 120 public workshops and 40 private retreats a

Kiplinger – The concept of retirement has changed. Today, people segue into multiple opportunities later in life, especially since they are living longer. “A generation or two ago, you turned 65, you moved to Florida, you played shuffleboard for a few years, and then you died,” says David Rich, guest faculty at Modern Elder Academy, an educational organization that supports people in the second half of life. “Younger people, such as those who are getting into their 60s are like, ‘Wait a minute, I could have 30 good years here.’ That might lead you to do things differently.”