Mapping The New Q3: What Twelve Weeks Taught Me About Life's New Quarter

Mapping The New Q3: What Twelve Weeks Taught Me About Life's New Quarter

After twelve weeks exploring what it means to live longer, this summary steps back from individual conversations to examine the bigger picture. Rather than recapping each episode, Avivah looks at the entire series from above and asks a more fundamental question: if the emergence of a new third quarter of life is such a profound shift, why do we still understand it so poorly? The answer, she argues, is that we’re trying to squeeze an entirely new life stage into outdated frameworks. The series naturally organised itself into three movements: Recognising, Understanding and Navigating. Recognising The first challenge is one of scale. Organisations, institutions and individuals have not yet grasped the sheer size of this demographic transformation. We have added decades of healthy life expectancy but continue to use industrial-age assumptions about education, work and retirement. We have built systems around a three-stage life model of learning, earning and retiring, even though millions of people are now entering a distinct and substantial third quarter between roughly 50 and 75. This isn’t an extension of midlife or a delayed version of old age. It is a new life stage entirely. Understanding The second phase explored the inner experience of Q3 itself. While external markers may remain unclear, people inside this transition often describe remarkably similar feelings. There is a growing desire to shift from ambition towards meaning, from accumulation towards contribution, and from identity built around achievement towards identity built around becoming. Many experience an unsettling sense of freedom alongside uncertainty. The old scripts no longer apply, yet new ones have not been widely written. This leaves many successful people feeling temporarily lost, not because they are failing, but because they are entering unfamiliar territory without a map. Navigating The final episodes focused on navigation. How do individuals, couples and organisations adapt to a life course that may now span a century? Avivah argues that the biggest opportunity lies not in adding more years to life, but in redesigning the institutions that shape those years. Companies must rethink careers, leaders must rethink talent, and individuals must embrace transitions as a normal and necessary feature of modern life. The central insight emerging from the series is that Q3 is not a problem to solve but a resource to cultivate. We are witnessing the birth of a new life stage, one that may ultimately become one of the most creative, productive and socially valuable periods of our lives. Why Care? We are no longer simply living longer. We are creating an entirely new chapter of adulthood. The question is no longer whether Q3 exists, but whether our systems, organisations and imaginations can catch up with it. Memorable lines “The question isn’t whether Q3 is real. The evidence has only got louder. The question is why something this large is still so badly understood.” “We have added decades to life, but we haven’t yet redesigned life itself.” “Q3 is not a problem to solve. It’s a resource to cultivate.” “Many people don’t feel lost because they’re failing. They feel lost because they’re entering a new life stage without a map.” “The complexities only really show up when you hold recognising, understanding and navigating together.” Get full access to 4-Quarter Lives | Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe [https://elderberries.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

New Maps: Sebastian Kernbach on Designing Purposefully for the Full Arc of a Working Life

This week on 4 Quarter Lives, we revisit Avivah Wittenberg-Cox’s conversation with Sebastian Kernbach, founder of the University of St. Gallen’s Next – Design Your Future initiative — the first university-based midlife programme in continental Europe. They discuss how St. Gallen’s approach blends design thinking, positive psychology and behavioural economics to help accomplished professionals rethink their purpose, portfolio, and personal transitions, in what Kernbach calls the multi-stage life. He describes how the three-day “sabbatical” has evolved into a five-day immersive experience, designed to give participants a structured yet creative space to pause, prototype, and rediscover what drives them. Together, Avivah and Sebastian compare models emerging from Harvard, Stanford and Chicago with Europe’s more academically grounded, culturally diverse programmes. They explore Kernbach’s key ideas — from infinite procrastination and the magic circle to the stairway to heaven — practical methods for turning reflection into action. The conversation widens to include the role of universities and employers in supporting lifelong learning, intergenerational connection and longer, healthier, more flexible careers. Kernbach shares his vision of “transition competence” — the lifelong skill of navigating change with agency, creativity and patience — and why Europe’s blend of rigour, reflection and community may offer a new model for longevity education worldwide. Sebastian Kernbach is Professor at the University of St. Gallen, where he teaches creativity, life design and visual thinking. Her is Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and Stanford University, and Guest Professor at the African Doctoral Academy and the Central University of Beijing. Previously he worked for Xerox and Interbrand. He advises and consults organizations like Nike, The United Nations, IBM and others. He founded the Visual Collaboration Lab and the Life Design Lab at the University of St. Gallen and co-authored the award-winning book “Meet up!” as well as the best-selling books “Life Design” and “Life Design Action Book”. His most recent book is Design Your Future (April 2026). Useful links: * University of St. Gallen – Next Programme [https://op.unisg.ch/en/executive-programme/leadership-development/next/] web page * Order Sebastian’s new book: Design Your Future [https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Sebastian+kernbach&crid=MDG2LSEWURDQ&sprefix=sebastian+kernbach,aps,114&ref=nb_sb_noss] Get full access to 4-Quarter Lives | Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe [https://elderberries.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Dr Mileham Hayes - Not Decline, Redesign: Mileham Hayes on Building Resilience With Science and Data

This week, on 4-Quarter Lives, we revisit the conversation between Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Dr Mileham Hayes, author of ‘Live Longer: Revealing Today’s Secrets of Longevity and Wellbeing’ and a specialist in preventative medicine. As he says, “preventive medicine has never realized its promise or potential...until now”. Mileham, who launched the world’s first longevity clinic and has spent nearly six decades in coronary care, shares how much of heart disease—still the world’s top killer - is preventable, yet persistently neglected. He discusses key diagnostic tests such as ApoB, Lp(a), and coronary artery calcium scans, many of which he began using in the 1990s but still remain underused. He advocates a targeted 20-test health screening battery for anyone over 40, customized by age and gender, which is downloadable with the episode. He critiques the broader health ecosystem where profit-driven industries—from pharma to fast food—drown out preventive efforts, leaving doctors and patients with minimal influence. He shares sobering statistics on the top causes of death by decade and gender across the US, UK, and Australia—highlighting suicide as a leading killer of younger men. Rather than obsessing over radical life-extension strategies, Hayes urges a back-to-basics focus on preventing known, measurable threats. Witty, forthright, and deeply experienced, Hayes is a passionate advocate for practical, accessible healthcare that prioritizes staying alive—and healthy—as the first rule of longevity. Dr Mileham Hayes is a Specialist Physician and a Fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians of London and Edinburgh. He was appointed to the world’s first Coronary Care Unit and researched prevention of heart attacks – still the greatest cause of premature death. He has now spent some 50 years in clinical practice and is the author of two medical textbooks and a series of books on living longer through prevention, nutrition and exercise. His most recent book is ‘Live Longer: Revealing Today’s Secrets of Longevity and Wellbeing’. Mileham studied medicine at the University of Queensland. He has five children, played most sports at a high level, farmed, gardens, writes doggerel and cooks. He also had an ABC radio weekly program and two national TV shows presenting and playing jazz. He has the Order of Australia Medal for his services to Jazz. Useful Links: * Download a pdf [http://chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://20-first.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/How-to-Live-Longer.pdf] from Mileham on main causes of death by sex and age, and recommended tests * Buy Mileham’s book ‘Live Longer’ * On Amazon.com [https://www.amazon.com/Live-Longer-Revealing-Longevity-Wellbeing-ebook/dp/B0DKVRQ793/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1GSTQ8EN3ILXD&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.WPAHIoOQx9z1GaSipGo6ZimyTkLG-UaXTw4HSqDL26YM8rnEoSHG11rsy2NQ8LeULhGq9fzUbbEWSVLS1hZe83mmxQtQ6mLcX0OPlRpuyaeZDFTPZAHtjKUJPAjekp91E0DNvGpOSuha4iqzLad1wQNv9TqMNUFIdEN4D63P-WgjEYWVXFjfq_evnu5S6Bop.InmVNm_N4cjT-e5rxTTfoazy6e_KvnixezZHoRsG-ag&dib_tag=se&keywords=Mileham+Hayes&qid=1750680757&s=digital-text&sprefix=mileham+hayes%2Cdigital-text%2C159&sr=1-1] * On Amazon.co.uk [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Longer-Revealing-Longevity-Wellbeing-ebook/dp/B0DKVRQ793/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1NMFV600O155R&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.WPAHIoOQx9z1GaSipGo6ZpPalwH8-VpNLGUyuEpxHxqR4jTYL-vYfIczbJMjOtOFnLE2ezb5PPuXGxWXFUaUXI6RIVnChbac4aJAO_-lWucUNM2jld5YqErvI7HQpUxKb2kCdxyQWZxYh9KPj7kErwU-Gry_QgaKvVPM_mYyFRw.2yvTOqYnYL-1-UeGLQkoJViIF8g2NSaE8CmD1PTXIIk&dib_tag=se&keywords=mileham+hayes&qid=1750681913&sprefix=mileham+hayes%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1] Get full access to 4-Quarter Lives | Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe [https://elderberries.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Jennifer Petriglieri - The Couple at the Centre: Jennifer Petriglieri on the Unit of Analysis We've Been Missing

In this week’s 4-Quarter Lives Podcast, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is joined by Jennifer Petriglieri, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD Business School and author of Couples That Work, to explore how longer lives are reshaping modern coupledom, careers, and power dynamics inside relationships. Jennifer argues that living and working longer removes the pressure to “have it all at once” and replaces it with a need to sequence ambitions across a lifetime. For couples, this means the old idea of a fixed deal or settled marriage no longer holds. What works in your 30s rarely works in your 50s or 60s. Instead, she introduces the idea of a more fluid marriage, one that adapts as careers, caregiving roles, and personal identities evolve. The conversation digs into why midlife has become such a critical inflection point. Empty nesting, career ceilings, and shifting energy levels often collide at the same moment. Jennifer explains why women in particular are driving the rise in midlife divorce, not because relationships are broken, but because being “supported” is not the same as being seen and celebrated. They explore the hidden role of power in couples, how it is shaped by thousands of small decisions over time rather than money alone, and why resentment builds when desire and agency go unspoken. Jennifer also maps her three major transitions in dual-career couples onto four-quarter lives, showing how reinvention now repeats several times as careers stretch into later decades. Looking ahead, Jennifer shares practical tools for navigating mobility, retirement, and reinvention together, from simple decision exercises to small daily practices that build connection. She closes by reimagining the future of coupledom, calling for relational literacy to be taught early, normalized often, and practiced intentionally throughout longer lives. Jennifer Petriglieri is Professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD and a leading expert on dual-career couples, leadership, and identity at work. Her research focuses on how professionals navigate ambition, relationships, and power over long careers. She is the author of Couples That Work, a widely cited book on modern coupledom and career sustainability. Jennifer teaches globally, advises organizations on leadership and talent, and is a frequent speaker on how longer lives are changing the way we work and love. Useful Links: * Jennifer’s Website: https://www.jpetriglieri.com [https://www.jpetriglieri.com] * Book: Couples That Work: https://www.jpetriglieri.com/books/ [https://www.jpetriglieri.com/books/] * Jennifer Petriglieri on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpetriglieri/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpetriglieri/] * INSEAD: https://www.insead.edu [https://www.insead.edu] Get full access to 4-Quarter Lives | Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe [https://elderberries.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Michael Fossat: After the Ladder: Schneider Electric Builds Career Architecture for the 21st Century

In this week’s 4-Quarter Lives, we republish Avivah Wittenberg-Cox’s conversation with Michael Fossat, head of Schneider Electric’s Future Ready program and Director of HR at Schneider Electric France. With a 180-year history, Schneider is now focused on assisting and driving the energy transition to an electric and digital future. Yet this 150,000 strong company discovered that employees over the age of 50 (what Avivah calls Q3) weren’t as motivated and engaged as the rest. Schneider determined to fix that, especially given the talent wars they feel pressing on their business needs every day. The Future Ready Program is their response. Michael Fossat has worked at Schneider for much of his professional career. Passionate about sustainable business and people’s central role in achieving it, he joined Schneider Electric in France as an HR apprentice in an industrial department, participated in the creation of HR shared services for the entire group and worked in the R&D division, before moving to Barcelona to create the HR Metrics function globally. Returning to Paris he was successively HR VP for one of the business units, HR head of Central and Eastern Europe and HR leader for European plants and distribution centres. He is currently Head of HR for Schneider Electric France. Since 2021 he has also headed up the Future Ready Program, bringing to the role a wide knowledge of what motivates people across the group. RELEVANT LINKS * Schneider Electric [https://www.se.com/ww/en/] website * Schneider Electric – Company Purpose [https://www.se.com/ww/en/about-us/company-purpose/] * Schneider Electric Senior Talent Program white paper [https://urlr.me/yThSL] * https://www.kornferry.com/content/dam/kornferry/docs/pdfs/KF-Future-of-Work-Talent-Crunch-Report.pdf [https://www.kornferry.com/content/dam/kornferry/docs/pdfs/KF-Future-of-Work-Talent-Crunch-Report.pdf] * https://www.aarpinternational.org/ [https://www.aarpinternational.org/] * Articles by Avivah on other Corporate Initiatives: Unilever [https://www.forbes.com/sites/avivahwittenbergcox/2021/05/23/flexibility-for-all--unilevers-vision-of-the-future-of-work/?sh=380a73ac75c6] and Aviva [https://www.forbes.com/sites/avivahwittenbergcox/2020/10/28/your-car-gets-an-annual-check-up-what-about-your-life/?sh=7cdd9fce813c] Get full access to 4-Quarter Lives | Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe [https://elderberries.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]