Don Akchin

Photo by Delano Ramdas on Unsplash The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Are you fearless? Good for you! I, unfortunately, am not put together that way. You would think that by now I would have outgrown my fears, most of which date all the way back to my childhood (if not the womb). And yes, I have mastered a few of them, including my fears of wasps, cockroaches, dead mice, and mortifying public humiliation. Sometimes the rational mind prevails. But let’s be honest. My most crippling... Continue Reading

Photo by Saikiran Kesari on Unsplash The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. People in our generation can take several approaches to climate change. The first is to be grateful that we won’t be around that much longer to worry about it. We can let somebody else worry about it. But that approach is generally considered cowardly, insensitive toward our children and grandchildren, and not especially constructive. A second approach is to focus on how older adults are particularly vulnerable... Continue Reading

No. 49/Jan. 31, 2024 NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers. Classic Board Games Rebooted for All Generations Three favorite board games from back in the day have been revived in new editions designed for intergenerational play. The Game of Life Generations, T… Read more  Continue Reading

Photo by Lucy Heath on Unsplash The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Would you like to live to be 100 years old? This is not a hypothetical question. It used to be that living to be 100 virtually guaranteed your picture in the local newspaper, along with a quote about the secret of your longevity. But centenarians are no longer a rare, exotic subspecies of humankind. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that in the next 20 years, 500,000 Americans will reach the age of 100 – a truly... Continue Reading

Photo by Laura Paraschivescu on Unsplash The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Last weekend my wife and I traveled to New York City to see our daughter. On the train my wife wore a mask. I did not. In New York we got around on subways. My wife wore a mask. I did not. I present these facts only to paint the picture of a man fully confident in his body’s strong immune response, buttressed mightily by six vaccinations and boosters in total, traveling in the company of a woman willing... Continue Reading

No. 48/Jan. 17, 2024 NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers. Tech Tools May Help Parkinson’s Patients Two devices emerging from Boston University’s Center for Neurorehabilitation could aid patients with Parkinson’s Disease walk with more confidence. One is mus… Read more  Continue Reading

Photo by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty Images The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I can recall a time, not so long ago, when a certain word caused adults to recoil in fear. That word was cancer. Receiving a cancer diagnosis was like confronting The Grim Reaper face to face. Today, with high survival rates for many types of cancer, the word carries less shock value. Unfortunately, another word has replaced the word as the biggest bugaboo, and that word is dementia. Dementia... Continue Reading

Photo by Boston Public Library on Unsplash When my wife and I bought our co-op apartment 15 years ago, we said (half seriously) that we would live here for the duration. It was a ground floor unit, all on one level. The previous owner had already installed grab bars in both bathrooms. We were within easy walking distance of supermarkets, restaurants, a hiking trail, and the homes of many close friends. The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Looking 10 or 15 years ahead, however, we still... Continue Reading

No. 47/Jan. 3, 2024 NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers. Feds Attack Private Equity-Owned Medical Practices Private equity firms have been buying up physician practices, and the Federal Trade Commission has fired a shot across their bow in the form of a law… Read more  Continue Reading

Photo by Jarl Schmidt on Unsplash The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. As the year ends, darkness has invaded our consciousness. Darkness, literally, because the days are short. Darkness, figuratively, as our species reveals its capacity for wielding death and destruction in Ukraine and the Middle East, but also in Myanmar, in Sudan, in Ethiopia, and in Mali. Closer to home, we see friends (some of them our own age) suffering from disease and disintegration. Sadness and sorrow confront... Continue Reading