The Creativity Effect in Healthy Aging:
Lifelong Artistic Practice and Beauty
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Thank you to everyone who attended the live interview and discussion on April 17, 2025! The recording of this conversation has been published as an At Home, On Air podcast episode.
Thank You to Our Featured Guest:
Patrick Roden, RN, Ph.D. | Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS), Award-Winning Nurse, CEO of aginginplace.com, Public Speaker, Author
Thank You to Our Podcast Host:
Susanne Stadler | Architect, Executive Director of At Home With Growing Older
About This Episode:
In this conversation, Patrick Roden draws from his 40+ year professional experience as a nurse, his academic work in gerontology, and his passion as an aging-in-place advocate to explore the profound connection between creativity and vibrant aging. Roden shares insights from his dissertation research, where he interviewed older artists and creatives to document the remarkable physical, cognitive, and emotional benefits of sustained creative practice throughout life.
Discover his evidence-informed ‘formula’ for healthy aging that places creativity at its core, and learn how beauty and artistic expression can become powerful tools for wellbeing in our later years. This episode offers an inspiring perspective on aging not as decline but as an opportunity for continued growth, meaning, and joy through creative engagement.
This episode is a part of our mini-series, Changemaker Interviews, where we highlight the impact of changemakers on the quality of our lives. These individuals have challenged and changed systems, introduced new ways of thinking and told previously untold stories.
More About Patrick Roden:
Patrick Roden has been caring for patients and their families since 1983, when he first began working in a nursing home to pay for his education. But his life with elders goes further back to when he was a baby crawling on the floors of the nursing home run by his grandmother, who was the head nurse. He feels this experience imprinted him and influenced his life’s work.
It was his “chance meeting” with 85-year-old marathon participant, Mavis Lindgren in 1992 that set Patrick on his current path. Acting as Mrs. Lindgren’s med escort for 5 marathons changed his view of what is possible in old age.
Patrick’s nursing career spanned over three decades and included ICU, CCU, Trauma, Inner-City Public Health, YMCA Cardiac Therapy Volunteer, and Post-Surgical Recovery. He has a Ph.D. in Gerontology as well as a Masters in Gerontology and Adult Education. Patrick was awarded the Lloydena Grimes Award for Excellence in Nursing from Linfield College School of Nursing.
Patrick’s Motto: Eat < Move + Purpose + Growth Mindset + Sleep + AIP Design x Community = Healthy Inter-dependence for Life!
Takeaway Resources:
Patrick’s Handout:
The Art of Possibility Aging, a handout created by Patrick Roden, Ph.D. that covers some of the topics discussed in this episode of At Home, On Air including:
- Historical Gerontology
- Critical Gerontology
- Creativity Effect
- Upside Risk
- The Life Course Perspective
- Divergent Thinking
- Possibility Aging
- Continuity of Self
- Biomedicalization of Aging
- Environmental Press
- Biomimicry
- Flow States
- Future Tense
About Those Mentioned:
Useful Websites:
To Read / Watch / Listen:
- Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- The Healing Power of Doing Good, by Allan Luks & Peggy Payne
- Listen to Linda Kafka on The Enabled Disabled podcast
Our Resources:
Thank YOU!
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The original, live conversation was recorded on:
Thursday, April 17, 2025 at 5:30 PM PDT.