Why Your 70s Can Be Your Most Meaningful Years | Dr. Philip Pizzo

**Philip Pizzo** (0:00)
I've always been told along the way, when something was new to be started, well, that'll never work. You know, why are you wasting your time with that? And I've heard it so many times that I take it now as a great signal that this is likely the right to it.

**Chip Conley** (0:17)
I know the feeling. I know the feeling.

**Philip Pizzo** (0:19)
Yeah. And so I think that if you are willing to kind of look at the positive side, to see things, you know, as opportunity rather than loss, that's a better way to go.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:32)
Welcome to the Midlife Chrysalis Podcast with Chip Conley, where we explore how midlife isn't a crisis, but a chrysalis, a time of profound transformation that can lead to the most meaningful chapter of your life.

**Chip Conley** (0:48)
Welcome to the Midlife Chrysalis. This is Chip Conley and one of my heroes joined me for this episode. Phil Pizzo, Dr. Phil Pizzo, is one of those people you can look at and just like, damn, that guy knows how to curate a life, and he comes from very modest roots. A family, a Sicilian family, he was the first to actually go to high school or to graduate from high school, and his family in the Bronx and the Queen and Queens. He went on to have an illustrious career at the National Institute of Health, and ultimately became the Dean of the Stanford Medical School. He went on after that to create the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute, DCI, which is one of the best, most well regarded midlife transition schools associated with universities, and MEA has collaborated with them. And then in his 70s, he got the itch to actually go from being someone who had been not very active in his Catholic religious life other than going to a Jesuit school for college. And he got reacquainted with philosophy and religious history. And due to his wife, Peggy, he started to actually get curious about Judaism.
And ultimately went to rabbinical school, and ultimately went to a program in spiritual care and counseling at the Jewish Theological Seminary. So this is a man who has had many, many identities over the course of his lifetime. He's gone from being a physician scientist to philosopher soul tender. I highly recommend you, you listen to the whole episode. He's got a lot of wisdom to offer, but most importantly, he's a reminder that we have many eras in our life. Just when you think that you're done with the interesting part of your life, something else pops up, and that has been so true for Phil in his life. So I will talk about my three key lessons at the end of the episode.
Dr. Phil Pizzo, what an honor to have you on The Midlife Chrysalis.

**Philip Pizzo** (2:55)
Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate that.

**Chip Conley** (2:58)
What's a nice Sicilian, Italian, Catholic boy from the Bronx doing, going to rabbinical school and doing Jewish care in your mid-70s?
Let's start with that because I just think it's such a fascinating story. And then we're going to trace backwards.

**Philip Pizzo** (3:18)
Yeah. Well, you know, all these things are filled with connections, both anticipated and not, surprises along the way, and kind of opportunities to redefine who one is and what matters at a point in time. So, you know, I did start out in the Bronx and then in Queens in a working class family. And, you know, from prior conversations, you know, I was the first to go to high school. So it was all kind of opening.

**Chip Conley** (3:46)
First to go to high school or first to go to college? High school too?

**Philip Pizzo** (3:49)
High school.

**Chip Conley** (3:50)
Oh, you were the first in your family to go to high school.

**Philip Pizzo** (3:52)
Yeah.

**Chip Conley** (3:53)
Wow.

**Philip Pizzo** (3:53)
And, you know, and then when I did go to college, I had to have scholarships because there wasn't money. And I wound up, to your question, going to Fordham College in New York, which is a Jesuit school, and studied philosophy primarily. And it was a wonderful experience. And, you know, I have great respect and admiration for the Jesuits, certainly at that point in time, because I love to debate and to question and to wonder. And to your earlier comment, I know from having some discussions with them that they were happy to see that I went from the place I was as a teenager, which was a young person who had basically given up religion and moved into kind of an existential phase as a teenager, to now finding a new home and pursuing it more intently.