Don Akchin is a recovering journalist who publishes a weekly newsletter and biweekly podcast called The EndGame, which encourages "chronologically gifted" Baby Boomers to live their later years with joy and purpose. In his former life he wrote for magazines, newspapers, colleges and universities, and nonprofit organizations.
Recent Content
No. 69/November 20, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.New “Medicine” for Loneliness: A So…
No. 69/November 20, …
No. 69/November 20, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.New “Medicine” for Loneliness: A Social PrescriptionSocial prescribing, a practice that began in Great Britain, is when a physician prescribes a non-medical support or service – art classes, a c… Read more
Photo by Getty Images through Unsplash+The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I started The EndGame to cel…
Photo by Getty Image…
Photo by Getty Images through Unsplash+The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I started The EndGame to celebrate the positive aspects of getting older. As you and I are well aware, positive Aging flies in the face of conventional Wisdom and omnipresent stereotypes, which paint old age as a pitiful one-way path consisting only of suffering, senility, decline, disability, decrepitude, and ultimately, death.If that’s what you believe, you’re right!If you believe old age comes with positive benefits t…
Photo by Yunus Tug for UnsplashFirst, my apologies for not showing up in your inbox for the past two Saturdays. It was not my intention to abandon you. Knowing that I would be going on vacation for 10…
Photo by Yunus Tug f…
Photo by Yunus Tug for UnsplashFirst, my apologies for not showing up in your inbox for the past two Saturdays. It was not my intention to abandon you. Knowing that I would be going on vacation for 10 days, I selected two previous posts and set them up to be published on those two dates. To my surprise, neither went out to you. Since Substack never makes mistakes, I must assume that I did something in the setup that did not compute, which I regret.The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Speaking of t…
No. 68/November 6, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Having a Satisfying Post-Career LifeWhat…
No. 68/November 6, 2…
No. 68/November 6, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Having a Satisfying Post-Career LifeWhat does it take to have a satisfying life after you hang up your spurs? According to an article in the Harvard Business Review titled “Retire Without Regret… Read more
No. 67/October 23, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.New Book Documents Preventable Elder Dea…
No. 67/October 23, 2…
No. 67/October 23, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.New Book Documents Preventable Elder DeathsEldercide: How It Happened, How to Prevent It is the latest book by Brandeis University scholar Margaret Morganroth Gullette. In it, she documents the u… Read more
Photo by Centre for Ageing Better on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The kitchen renovati…
Photo by Centre fo…
Photo by Centre for Ageing Better on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The kitchen renovation is 95% complete, our finances are secure again after the latest incident of identity theft, and we have planned, executed, and survived three home invitational events around the Jewish High Holidays. Now, finally, we have returned to the front burner the task of assembling everything our children need to know when one or both of us departs this earthly vale.It is a somewhat macabre enterprise, …
Photo by National Cancer Institute on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.There is a major d…
Photo by National C…
Photo by National Cancer Institute on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.There is a major disconnect between what older adults want from health care and what the health care system delivers to them.That disconnect appears on every page of a new study by Age Wave and the John A. Hartford Foundation, titled Meeting the Growing Demand for Age-Friendly Care: Health Care at the Crossroads. When adults aged 65 and older were asked to assign a letter grade to the health care system, only 11% a…
No. 66/October 9, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Election Dilemmas – Medicare Gets Even …
No. 66/October 9, 20…
No. 66/October 9, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Election Dilemmas – Medicare Gets Even More ComplicatedFrom the “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” Department: In 2025, out-of-pocket costs for drugs covered by Medicare are limited to $2,000 annually… Read more
Photo by Vladislav Babienko on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.From the time I was 12 ye…
Photo by Vladislav …
Photo by Vladislav Babienko on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.From the time I was 12 years old, I knew exactly what I wanted to do in life. What a pity that I was wrong.My ambition was to become a newspaper reporter in the footsteps of role models Mark Twain and Clark Kent. In single-minded pursuit of this goal, I worked on my school newspapers in junior high school, high school, and college. In high school I was a stringer for the local daily, earning the princely sum of 25-cents p…
Photo by Jan Canty on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On Thursday, September 5, I receiv…
Photo by Jan Canty…
Photo by Jan Canty on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On Thursday, September 5, I received an email from Microsoft, stating: “Thanks for your order on September 4, 2024.” The billing statement showed that I had purchased Microsoft 365 Business Standard package for $450.00, marked up (for reasons unstated) to $492.08.I do have Microsoft 365 on my computer, but not the business standard. I don’t need it. I don’t want it. And I was mad as hell about it.Share The EndGameScam …
No. 65/September 25, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Most Retirees Are Okay FinanciallyDesp…
No. 65/September 25,…
No. 65/September 25, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Most Retirees Are Okay FinanciallyDespite the persistent drumbeat of scary stories declaring that workers are not saving enough for a secure Retirement, 86% in a Federal Reserve survey said th… Read more
Photo by Torsten Dederichs on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.At 7:45 a.m. there is a kn…
Photo by Torsten De…
Photo by Torsten Dederichs on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.At 7:45 a.m. there is a knock at the front door, just as there has been every weekday morning for five weeks. Still wearing a t-shirt and running shorts, I open the door to admit Chris and Matt, the carpenters remodeling our kitchen, a room which, coincidentally, has been unavailable to us for five weeks.Today starts a little differently. They need to remove everything from our storage room so the floor can be swept and th…
Photo by charlesdeluvio on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My heartfelt thanks to the New Y…
Photo by charlesdelu…
Photo by charlesdeluvio on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My heartfelt thanks to the New York Times for bringing to my attention one more damned health condition to worry about in my dotage. As if weakening eyesight, questionable hearing, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and receding gums weren’t enough.To these I now must add a condition known as “dead butt syndrome.” It typically affects people who spend hours at a time sitting. People like me, in other words. A lifelong …
No. 64/September 11, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Maybe You Don’t Need That StatinMore…
No. 64/September 11,…
No. 64/September 11, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Maybe You Don’t Need That StatinMore than 92 million Americans take statin drugs to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart attack and Stroke. Doctors who prescribe them follow guideline… Read more
Photo by Patrick Marah on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My memory has a negative bias.…
Photo by Patrick Ma…
Photo by Patrick Marah on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My memory has a negative bias. Maybe your memory isn’t wired this way, but whenever I have occasion to look back at my life, I find it easy to recall my failures and hard to recall any successes. Looking across the broad expanse of my life, my first impression is a series of stumbles, meanders, and random events. No pattern or consistent theme is readily apparent.The retrospective view happens to be top of mind because my …
Photo by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Curated LifestyleThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My wife a…
Photo by Unsplash+ i…
Photo by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Curated LifestyleThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My wife and I have been talking about how to handle our final resting places. Not with our friends, of course. The surest way to clear a crowded room instantly is to talk about death. The subject makes most people a bit twitchy.My siblings and I had that exact reaction when our mother sat the four of us down and demanded that we divide her possessions among us, now, because she didn’t want any bickering …
No. 63/August 28, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Aging Occurs in Great Leaps …
No. 63/August 28, 20…
No. 63/August 28, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Aging Occurs in Great Leaps A study published this year has found that humans age – at the molecular level – in two great bursts, one at age 44 and a second one at age 60. Scientis… Read more
Photo by Alisha Hieb on UnsplashAs a former vice president of the United States once remarked to the United Negro College Fund, "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is bei…
Photo by Alisha Hie…
Photo by Alisha Hieb on UnsplashAs a former vice president of the United States once remarked to the United Negro College Fund, "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is." For many years, the conventional wisdom was that, with rare exceptions, losing one’s mind was an inevitable part of aging. An inability to recall names, or proper nouns, or any nouns, can certainly fuel the fear that the loss is under way.The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or pai…