Latest / The Art of Aging / Episode 6 - Research For A Cure

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Episode 6 - Research For A Cure · The Art of Aging

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to season two of the Art of Aging Podcast, produced right here at Montgomery Place, where we celebrate wisdom, lifelong learning, and stories that shape us.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Today's episode is entitled Research for a Cure.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: I have to say, I feel a little out of my league today as I am joined by Dr.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Astrid Mack, whose groundbreaking work includes becoming the only non-medical doctor working at one of the nation's earliest sickle cell disease research facilities.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Today, we will talk about his remarkable career and how education has evolved over time and how lifelong learning continues to connect so deeply with aging.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Most importantly, we want to learn the stories behind the titles.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: The Art of Aging is hosted by Mark Millet, President and CEO Montgomery Place, and sponsored by Trinity Rehab, Unodyme, Life Care at Home, and Plant Moran.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, welcome, Dr.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Mack, to the Art of Aging podcast.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: So what do you think of this view?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's absolutely marvelous.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm serious about that.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: So let's start at the beginning.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: What first sparked your interest and curiosity about learning?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: I would say around three or four.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Age.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: I would say that the person that had the most impressed on on me in my early life was my great-grandmother.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me more about that.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: At about age five, um maybe about age eight, um my mother uh decided to move to New York.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: And um my sister and I thought that we would be following her shortly.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but after about uh a year or two, um my mother sent for my sister and uh left me with my great-grandmother, and I cried in the in the process.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: But my grand great-grandmother said to me, No, your mother wanted you to come first, but I need you here with me because she was hard of hearing and in her late eighties eighties and that sort of thing.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: So that made me proud.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: I was no longer, you know, embarrassed, you know, by that.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: And um my great-grandmother just was a great woman.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: She never spanked me, but she would if I did anything wrong, she would tell me that I shouldn't do that again.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: And if I did it again, she would say, You do it again, I'm gonna kill you.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: So we had a wonderful r relationship in that way.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: And um in sixth grade, I had such a wonderful teacher.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, and um so my mother sent for me, and I told my great-grandmother I wasn't going anywhere, you know, and that sort of thing.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: So she she she couldn't she agreed with me for that because I would hear her say, I would go with her to her visit her friends and things like that.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: And when they would get into conversation that they weren't particularly interested in the young man person knowing it, uh my mama, my great-grandmother would say, asked me, Are you asleep?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I knew when to act to sleep.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I heard her say on more occasions than one, I don't know what in on earth I would do without that boy.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: And that just made me so proud.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: So were you a good student in school?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: I was a wonderful student.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: I never got a grade lower than B.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: What sparked that?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: What just sparked that curiosity of Just to learn more.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: I guess that's the best way to put it.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: How did you build up to being a professor at the University of Miami?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: My first teaching job was in high well at at a high school.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh for I think for maybe four or five years.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then I got a degree or uh an application for a master's degree at um University of Minnesota.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I just loved that.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: It was a real challenge.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: But um I made good grades in that sort of thing.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_03: Then um I got a job teaching at University of Miami.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: And um that worked well.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: And later on I was interested in sickle cell disease.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, uh.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: From just teaching and that made me, you know, that that sort of thing.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: But my the point that I'm making is that that inspired me to go to medical school, the University of Miami, but I was so fearful that I wouldn't have the money to go, but I was given a scholarship, and so that just made my day.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I was not going to embarrass my parents or anybody else and do poorly and that sort of thing.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: So that pushed me through, you know, med school.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: And and your scholarship was both was based on academics that you did so well with.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so after I got my uh PhD degree, or I got a job uh teaching at University of Miami, uh I I had put a low l whole lot of emphasis on the disease sickle cell disease that's prominent mostly in black people.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so I got to be s what they would consider to be like an expert, you know, on that.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: But that made me not feel less than, because in almost every meeting that we had, every question that I had on a on a on a piece of paper and anything like that was related to medicine, but none of that was new to me.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: You understand me?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: And so that made me a broad a proud uh person.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: I was meeting the the Associate Dean for Minority Affairs.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: My major effort was to help minority students in medical school.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I made it a rule that not a rule as such, but this is what I said to the to the minorities, to the black students that uh that applied.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: We're not coming here to play, we're coming to learn, and I'm going to do everything I can to help you to learn as much as you can.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so that was not a problem.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: Those students wanted to learn.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: And the uh minority enrollment, black enrollment at the medical school at that time was about 5%.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: When I left there eight years later, it was 55%.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, congratulations.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: So not only were you interested in the sickle cell disease, but you also then got involved in research.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you were on a research team with doctors, but you were you were the only non-doctor on that research team.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's true.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: How did that come about that you became part of part of this team?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: I really don't know.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: I really don't know, except that for some reason I was I got great interest in sickle cell disease.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I think primarily because it was mostly related to black people.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that that had everything to do with my m move because I had always wanted to be a medical doctor.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: But I knew, you know, coming from a family like mine and with that kind of with no money and things like that, that that was not a possibility.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: So when I got a job as the Associate Dean for Minority Affairs at the University of Miami School of Medicine, as the Associate Dean for Minority Affairs, I thought that that was the greatest place in the world to be.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: So so in your opinion, what makes a great teacher?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: Knowledge will in his or her, you know, profession makes it a point to teach in a way that they are not appearing to be above anybody or beneath anybody for that matter, but to um be serious about what you're doing and certainly uh professionally in the subject, you know, and that sort of thing.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: And having an ability to listen to others and find out what the problems are with regard to your reaction uh uh with the s with the students and their reaction to you.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I I imagine, you know, just um classrooms today are probably a lot different, you know, than classrooms, you know, in in your time.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: How do you think you would you would handle that of of having Zoom lectures and um and and your students using AI and different things?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Just there's been so much change in in how we learn and how we teach and what it's you have we lost anything, do you think, and in in going forward or I have thought about that on so many different uh uh occasions, but I think in the final analysis, the the conclusion that I came to is that students don't have to learn only the words that come out of your mouth.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: That they can read and f you know find answers to problems that you may not have given any consideration to because you were so focused on XYZ.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: You understand that sort of thing.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: That came to be a real reality to me when my son was in at medical at the medical school where I taught.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I knew that he was the kind of student that would stay up until three and four o'clock in the morning in the books, you know, and that sort of thing.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: So that was never a problem.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: But when the Joker started staying up all night long, and you know, and that sort of thing, I said, Yes, boy, you got to stop that.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: You understand me?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: If he got it from me, I think.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I guess the point is that when you're real interested in what you're doing, you look for challenges.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: Don't look for you know excuses or that sort of thing.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: So growing up in Florida, going to school in Minnesota, teaching at University of Miami, how in the world did you get to Chicago?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because both of my children came here.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh my son, after he got his medical degree at the University of Miami School of Medicine, came to Chicago.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: My daughter, who's three years younger than he is, was not interested in anything that moved.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: But as early as sixth grade, she was writing poems that you would think that an English professor had written.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I was not surprised that she majored in journalism, but I was stunned that after she got her ma master's in journalism in a school in Atlanta, she came to Chicago where her brother was practicing medicine.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I got sick and tired of coming to every summer and that sort of thing.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: So my friend said to me, Man, why don't you get up off your laser butt and go to Chicago and you don't have to have that problem?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's what I did.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Miami might be a little nicer in the wintertime than Chicago, but Dr.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: Mack, I I see you here at Montgomery Place uh every morning with your newspaper, heading down, you know, to breakfast with your coffee in the newspaper.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: And and it seems that you have a hunger and desire just to not only to continue to learn, but just to keep yourself updated, informed as you know, you know, what's that what what kind of drives that?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: And just in the aging process, just learning and keeping yourself educated, how do those things, in in your opinion, kind of kind of work together and just just kind of helped you to age so gracefully?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: I have wondered about that on numerous occasions.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: The thing that makes the difference is the desire to learn and to not think that you are, you know, the highest person in that profession and um nobody can know more than you can and things like that.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: From your work and studies that you've done, what do you hope that you kind of left behind?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_03: A desire to learn.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: And in that process, don't get to think that you are the absolute best and nobody knows as much as you do.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: My son p put me in that position on numerous occasions.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, Dr.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Mack, we're gonna move now into our our final segment of our podcast, of our time today, and this section is called the MP3.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: We have three Montgomery Place questions that we ask every guest on our show, and I want to ask those uh questions to you today.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Our MP3 is sponsored by The Art of Aging is made possible in part by Unodyne.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Dining at Montgomery Place is made even more special through its partnership with Unodyne.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: More than great food, Unodyne creates memorable dining experiences built on hospitality, connection, and meals prepared with care.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, Dr.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Mack, if you could go back and give your 20-year-old self one piece of advice, what would you tell yourself?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: Don't think that you know it all and nobody knows as much as you do.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: What is a one lesson that has taken you a lifetime to learn?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: That I don't need to try to be the best person in the world.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: Just to be yourself?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: And our final MP3 question: what brings you joy in your life today?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: My accomplishments.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: And the joy of all of that is to have children that love you, grandchildren that love you.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: That makes my day.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Dr.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: Mack, we uh certainly appreciate you being on with us today.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: It was truly an honor to have you on the Art of Aging podcast.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I have a couple parting gifts for you.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: And um these these gifts are sponsored by Clarence Davis, our award-winning landscape uh group that does all of our landscaping here at Montgomery Place.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: So our beautiful gardens that you see, those are all taken care of by Clarence Davis, and um, they sponsored our our gifts for you today.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I have a I have a wonderful uh koozie cup for you.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: So cold brev, you put your coffee in there if you want to, or a cold drink and sit outside, and just a very stylish art of aging uh jacket for you to wear to keep you warm on a on a chilly day or uh a morning like like this morning.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you again for being on with us today, and it was truly a privilege to spend some time with you.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again to our sponsors, Trinity Rehab, Unodyne, Life Care at Home, and Plant Moran.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep living fully, keep aging artfully, and keep sharing those stories that matter most.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for watching and listening.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: We will see you next time on the Art of Aging.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: The Art of Aging podcast is produced by Montgomery Place.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: For more information, visit MontgomeryPlace.org.