How can we live long and live well, too? Experts on aging will discuss the individual and societal challenges as well as gifts of longevity from legal, health, and practical perspectives, as well as share advice on preparing for a safe and healthy old age.

M.T. Connolly, author of The Measure of Our Age: Navigating Care, Safety, Money, and Meaning Later in Life, is a leading elder justice expert who won a MacArthur Fellowship for her work. Her book’s compelling stories reveal longevity’s abundant challenges and gifts, showing how unprepared we are for both—as individuals, families, and a society. Connolly founded the Justice Department’s Elder Justice Initiative, was architect of the federal Elder Justice Act, and is part of the USC Center for Elder Justice.

Valter Longo is the Edna Jones Professor in Gerontology at USC, director of the USC Longevity Institute, and group leader at the IFOM cancer research institute in Milan, Italy. He is the author of The Longevity Diet. The culmination of 25 years of global research on aging, nutrition, and disease, this unique combination of an easy-to-follow “everyday†diet and short periods of fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) provides a key to living to a healthy old age.

Laura Mosqueda is a professor of Family Medicine and Geriatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and a widely respected authority on the care of older adults and people who are underserved. Since joining Keck, her roles have included Chair of the Department of Family Medicine, Associate Dean of Primary Care, and Dean. She is the principal investigator of two studies funded by the National Institute on Aging to understand the causes, consequences, and prevention of abuse of people with dementia. As a clinician, researcher, administrator, and educator, she has a unique perspective that is informed by her extensive experiences in the community.

Paolina Milana is the author of several books, two of which are award-winning memoirs. Paolina is first-generation Sicilian-American and was primary caregiver to her mother and sister, both diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Paolina began her career as a features writer for a daily newspaper, then crossed over into public relations and marketing, succeeding as a communications executive. Paolina is the Founder of Madness to Magic Life & Book Coaching. She most recently spearheaded The Caregiver Chronicles, a collaborative book project with 22 family caregivers, each of whom authored a chapter. She is the USC Family Caregivers Support Center community engagement specialist.

Moderator: Sean P. Curran is a professor and James Birren Chair of Gerontology who serves as the Vice Dean of USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and leads a research program focused under understanding the connection between genes and diet in maintaining health across the lifespan. He established the Los Angeles Aging Research Alliance (LAARA) and co-founded the Geroscience Los Angeles Meeting (GLAM). He is the director of the Geroscience PhD program and is the co-director of the GEMSTEM program that provides research training and professionalization to undergraduate researchers interested in studying aging.

Thousands of new homes and businesses will be built to replace the ones that were incinerated by the Los Angeles County fires this month. If done properly, the rebuilding could create more resilient communities. However, if done poorly the structures will be tomorrow’s fire fuel. Join a panel of experts to learn the right — and wrong — ways to rebuild L.A.

The panelists are:

Christopher Boone, USC Price Dean and Director of USC Urban Futures.

Santina Contreras, USC Price Assistant Professor of Environmental Planning.

Richard Green, Chair, USC Price Wilbur H. Smith III Department of Real Estate Development.

William Deverell, Historian and Co-Director of The West on Fire.

With the moderator, Sarah Pilla, Climate Reporter for Spectrum News 1.

Authors and creators will discuss the role of TV in society historically and today, including connections to politics, queer spectatorship, and representations of race, class, and gender.

David Craig is a Clinical Professor of Communication and director of the Global Media and Communication program at USC. An expert in Hollywood, Chinese, and social media industries; a television historian; an Emmy-nominated producer and television executive; and a pioneer in the field of Creator Studies at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his most recent books is Apocalypse Television

How The Day After Helped End the Cold War.

Anthony Sparks is showrunner, head writer, and executive producer of the TV drama, Queen Sugar, created by Ava DuVernay and executive produced by Oprah Winfrey and writer/producer for the Iron Mike series on Hulu. A former cast member of Broadway hit STOMP, he holds three degrees from USC (BFA, MA, and Ph.D.), where he studied Theatre, Film, Anthropology, and American History.

Karen Tongson is the author of Normporn: Queer Viewers and the TV That Soothes Us, Why Karen Carpenter Matters (one of Pitchfork's best music books of 2019), and Relocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries. In 2019, she was awarded Lambda Literary's Jeanne Cordova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction. She directs the Mellon-funded Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race, and Public Culture at USC, where she is also Chair and professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies and professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity.

Moderator: Tara McPherson is the HMH Foundation Endowed Professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and director of the Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study. She is author of Feminist in a Software Lab and Reconstructing Dixie, co-editor of Hop on Pop and Transmedia Frictions, and editor of Digital Youth, Innovation and the Unexpected. She was founding editor of the pioneering multimedia journal Vectors and the lead PI of the online platform Scalar. She has received funding from the Mellon, Ford, Annenberg, and MacArthur foundations, as well as from the NEH.