Mayor Ewing and Dr. Ewing, thank you so much for being here and welcome. We're glad to be here. Thank you. You bet. We're going to start with the first question. How do you define what old is and do you consider yourself old? So for me it changes as I get older and I don't consider myself old at all. I think age is just a number and it's really about how well you're taking care of yourself. Are you exercising? Are you eating properly? Are you getting enough rest? If you do all, are you getting enough water? If you do all those things then you can continue to be healthy, continue to be active and live a great life. So it's just a number. I do agree with that but also with aging I think it's a mindset and you are only as old as you think you are because if you continue to stay active as John said you continue to eat healthy, get your rest, take care of yourself. You can do those things that make sure you have longevity in your life and can have a fulfilled life and with that I also think it's important to take care of yourself when you're caring for others. As you age and you get more mature sometimes you find yourself taking care of a parent, a grandparent or someone else in your household and as a caregiver that can shorten your life if you don't take care of yourself so we want to make sure that people understand that not only is aging a mindset but it's something you really want to think about in terms of caring for yourself as you care for others. Thank you. When you think of the term older adults what do you think of? The first thing I do is I laugh because when I look at the boxes that you can check for what age you are I'm in the second to last box and in April I'll be in the last box 65 and older so I laugh first because I don't think that's old. Now 20 years ago I might have thought it was old but like I said it just changes and then secondly I think as Viv said it is a mindset and it's really about how well you're taking care of yourself and not only just your physical being but your mental health as well and also your brain. The things that you need to do to keep your brain healthy are the same things you need to do in terms of keeping your body healthy. Keep it active. Do things that make your brain have to work and if you do those type of things then you will be young physically as well as mentally and emotionally. That's true. I know that just in my experience I was president of the Alzheimer's Association for Nebraska and Iowa for a while and one of the things we would tell people is that the things you do to keep your heart healthy are the same things you need to do to keep your brain healthy. So that brain health as John mentioned is critically important to take care of our brains. Make sure you're doing things that challenge you, learn something new, don't just do the same things every day but challenge yourself, learn something new whether it's a habit or a hobby you want to take advantage of, perhaps learning a language or whatever that might be for you but keep your brain active is really important. Thank you. What similarities or differences have you seen between the aging of earlier generations and yours? I think for the most part earlier generations were not as physically active in terms of exercise. I think there are exceptions obviously where you see people who are continuing the lift ways, continuing to do cardiovascular things, continuing to walk, run into their 70s, 80s and maybe even into their 90s but I think overall that's I think especially for me when I think about what I saw at the police department. I believe that as we got officers in during my generation we took better care of ourselves, less alcohol and things of that nature. So I think just more knowledge than you should do better. With that too there's more information available about healthy lifestyles and healthy living. That information is more available now than it used to be years ago. There's a plethora of information out there on a variety of platforms so that individuals can educate themselves on how they can continue to age wisely as they mature. And I know that when I think back to earlier generations long before we were born that kind of information was not as readily available and so easily accessible you can pull out your cell phone and look up anything you'd like to know more about. And so I think that's one of the critical differences as well. And I also think there's a difference with regard to understanding the importance of taking care of ourselves. Because I think years ago you may have heard about healthy living, healthy lifestyles but now it's almost an expectation that people will have some type of healthy lifestyle as they're aging. How do you think aging will be different for future generations? I think as Viv mentioned you will get more information available about how to be healthy. I think there will be more science behind what you should actually be doing as well. So I think you'll have access to information, you'll have access to better information, and then you'll have even more access to things like accurate information on nutrition, what exercises to do. An example, I don't think weightlifting or strength training was as readily recommended for people as they aged but now we understand the importance of that when it comes to bone density and making sure that you keep your bones healthy and that weight bearing exercises help you do that. And so that'll lead to less fractures and other things that endanger people as they age. And I think AI will have a lot to do with healthy aging as we go forward. That whole area is exploding in terms of what AI can do and I think for our younger folks who are coming up in this generation they'll have all of that AI information at their fingertips as we do but there's going to be more of it in the future. We were watching a show the other day that talked about a robot that can now do tasks that people used to do in manufacturing and so there's a lot of uses for that in our society and we will see that explode in the health arena. What is your perception of old age and how has that changed as you have aged? Once again I think you push that back as you get older and it's really to me my perception of old age now is that you can still lead a quality life, you can still be active, you can still be healthy out there, have as much energy as people who are significantly younger. One of the things we laugh about in my office is how much energy I have and how some people I even joke with my security details about well you guys only work one day and then I work five or six days and you guys get a break but they're like how do you do it and I'm like I love what I do first of all but I take great care of myself and I think that gives you the energy to be able to perform and do great things. So I would say maybe around 80ish or something that's when that aging number is more relevant but again as John said and I completely agree it's really about how we take care of ourselves throughout our lifetime so it's not something you just do as you get a certain age I think that having a healthy lifestyle taking care of yourself now will carry you into the future. When you hear the phrase aging is living what does that mean to you? To me it's a simple thought process if you don't continue to live you're not going to age but also it's really about the fact that aging is a process that every one of us is going to go through and so for me as I'm aging I want to continue living and continue to have a great life so I don't want to be slowed down I don't want to have a walk or I don't want to be in a wheelchair I want to be able to move around and for me that's what aging means to me is still being able to have a great life and living with gusto. And I think with aging what we're also looking at is the fact that you have so much more knowledge now as you mature knowledge that you didn't necessarily have when you were younger and I think that's important as you go forward as well because when you know more you can do more or when you know better you can do better and so I think that as an individual ages there's some benefits with that because of that knowledge and that wisdom that you have.

Okay final question what have you done individually or as a couple to maintain vitality later in life? Sure so I'll go through the list I went through for you before but I make sure I sleep great every night I get up I make sure I do my workout I make sure I drink plenty of water I actually start a quart of water before I ever leave our bedroom and then I drink more water as I'm getting ready to work out get my workout in then I try to make sure I eat very healthy throughout the day as well and just keep going and for me it's a matter of this is what I love to do I'm going to take care of myself so that I can do the very best job that I can for the people of this community and have fun doing it.

What I do to maintain vitality is several things one I get up and I meditate two I do exercise three I do make sure I drink enough water four I also pay attention to the sugar that I consume and try to minimize that years ago when I was younger I used to have a really bad sweet tooth but I got over that habit and so I pay attention to how much sugar that I intake and then the last point is I also monitor the carbs that I take in because too many carbs end up in the wrong places in my opinion and so all those things help me to maintain vitality and I also read and I write I still even though I'm not in college I still enjoy reading and writing even today and so that's something that keeps my mind active and healthy as I look at maintaining vitality and then I make sure I get outside and get some fresh air because I think that's important too to look at breathing in some fresh air every single day not just walking from your car to your office but actually inhaling deeply taking five deep breaths and exhaling and really allowing your lungs to fill with air that helps you to feel more vital as well so for me those are some of the things that I do.

Key voices offering key perspectives on the wisdom of aging Mayor Ewing Dr.

Ewing on behalf of the conference committee thank you both. Thank you thank you for asking us to be here today we appreciate it thank you.