Imagine a really great Tuesday. You have somewhere to go, something you’re looking forward to, and people who will be glad you showed up. Perhaps you’re teaching someone to knit, discussing a book, or finally taking that class on a subject that has fascinated you for years.

There’s nothing particularly extraordinary about this picture—until you imagine what life feels like without it.

That ordinary day became a surprisingly powerful touchstone in this Conspiracy of Goodness Podcast conversation with Marie Brodsky and Kat Close, the founders of WISE Connect. These two innovators are asking how technology can help us keep participating in the world as we age—and their answers reach far beyond anything we might put into a category labeled “for seniors.”

Sometimes the Technology Really Is the Problem

Marie’s interest began with someone she loved. As a child, she stood on a step stool beside her grandfather while he taught her to make oatmeal, adding raisins and walnuts. Years later, when he moved closer to her in the Washington, DC area, she was able to see his daily life more clearly than occasional holiday visits had allowed, and what she saw was the man who had helped open her world was beginning to feel that there wasn’t much left out there for him.

Meanwhile, the world around him was celebrating technological progress. We had smart cities, interconnected systems, and endless ways to exchange information—yet here was a person who needed somewhere to belong and couldn’t see how to find it. Marie began wondering how all that ingenuity could reach into an ordinary day and make it better.

Kat brought another revealing family experience to the conversation: her grandmother loves watching crime mysteries on television, but when Kat visits and is asked to find a particular show, even she struggles with the unfamiliar controls. Here is a person who builds technology, stumped by her grandmother’s television! What a perfect little example of something we get wrong all the time: familiarity matters, and we too often mistake a lack of practice for a lack of ability.

That distinction can change how we treat people—including ourselves. When a website leaves us confused, it’s easy to decide that we’re simply bad at technology. Then embarrassment makes us reluctant to try again. But if many intelligent, capable people struggle with the same system, perhaps the difficulty tells us more about the design than it does about them. A confusing website is something people can improve; struggling with it says very little about our potential.

The Technology Can Also Be a Solution

Marie and Kat took that lesson seriously from the beginning. Instead of deciding what older adults ought to need, they talked with the people they hoped to serve and allowed those conversations to shape the work. One of their early discoveries was that even the seemingly simple instruction to “download the app” could create an obstacle. So they changed direction.

The result was a website where people could discover social activities, classes, volunteer opportunities, transportation and services that support living independently at home. People with something valuable to share could also apply to become vetted local hosts. Interviews, testing and feedback continued as the work developed, with community members helping determine what might genuinely fit into their lives instead of being handed a finished solution designed around someone else’s assumptions.

And here’s something I loved: family members can help make those connections, even from far away.

My own mother lived a thousand miles from me, so I immediately understood the possibility. Imagine being able to help someone you love discover a class, gathering or volunteer opportunity they might never have found on their own—while still supporting their freedom to decide how they want to spend their days. Suddenly a long-distance phone call might include something wonderful, something beyond whether the appointments were kept and the errands got done.

Their name captures the intention beautifully: WISE stands for “Where Innovation Supports Everyone.” At the time of our September 2026 conversation, WISE Connect served the DC metro area, including communities in Virginia and Maryland.

WISE Makes Communities Stronger

Some of Marie and Kat’s most revealing discoveries came from hearing both sides of the same frustration. Residents, when asked, overwhelmingly said they hadn’t known about opportunities that existed nearby, while organizations offering those very opportunities wondered why more people couldn’t find them. The community already held far more possibilities than anyone realized; they were simply scattered across websites, buried behind links or separated by different registration processes.

Bringing those possibilities within reach could change someone’s week, their year—even their whole life.

This is where our conversation became deeply personal for me. During my 37 years as a dentist, our team made deliberate room for patients whose visits provided them with an important sense of belonging. In our morning huddle, we sometimes discussed how to find the time to make a particular person feel genuinely seen. We wanted people to leave feeling two inches taller, carrying the knowledge that their presence had mattered to us.

Those encounters mattered to us, too. I spent my working life surrounded by people who expected me to arrive, needed something I was uniquely equipped to contribute and noticed when I was not there. Retirement can remove those ordinary moments of recognition almost overnight. Chuck and I have experienced how much changes when you step away from a working life that naturally gave you somewhere to go, something useful to do and people who were glad you showed up.

During the interview, I found myself wondering about something we might call our “belonging span”: how long we continue to feel useful, welcomed and missed when we don’t show up.

Surely that deserves a place in our conversations about growing older.

We talk a great deal about lifespan and healthspan, as we should, but what good are additional healthy years if we have quietly designed people out of the places where friendship, purpose, usefulness, fun and curiosity flourish? Perhaps a long belonging span is one of the clearest signs that a community is genuinely wise.

Learning and Fun Have No Age Limits

Marie reminded us that our desire to learn, contribute and have fun continues through the years. We don’t cross some birthday threshold and suddenly become people whose only needs involve care. We still have interests worth pursuing, stories worth telling and gifts worth sharing.

Designing a great Tuesday or Wednesday (or any day) means taking those desires seriously. It also means attending to the very practical details that can make participation possible—or impossible. Can someone find the opportunity? Can they register for it without getting lost? Is transportation available? Will they be able to participate comfortably once they arrive? None of those questions is glamorous, but together they determine whether a promising opportunity ever becomes part of a real person’s life.

Marie and Kat also described big plans for nationwide expansion in 2027, including the use of AI to help gather local opportunities that already exist. Their stated goal is beautifully simple: to help people find their way to one another. To do that, they are looking for local partners and champions who know their own communities and can help those connections take root. A community center, a library, a trusted organization—or even one wonderfully well-connected person—could help open the next door.

And that leaves each of us with something useful to do. Watch or listen to this conversation, then share it with someone who might recognize a possibility for their own community. Think, too, about who you could invite into your next ordinary Tuesday. Who might enjoy the class, the walk, the cup of coffee, the volunteer project or the gathering you already plan to attend? Who might simply need to know that someone will be glad they showed up?

There is something each of us is uniquely built to contribute. Sometimes helping another person find where they belong is how we discover it in ourselves.

Explore WISE Connect

Discover local activities, volunteer opportunities, and services that help people stay independent, involved, and connected through WISE Connect⁠.

To receive updates, share where you’d like WISE Connect to expand, or learn about becoming a community champion, visit the WISE Connect information and signup page⁠. For partnership inquiries, contact [email protected] or (571) 354-6626.

Meet the People Helping Good Ideas Grow

The University of Maryland’s Do Good Institute⁠ helps students turn their desire to make a difference into action. It also helped connect us with Marie and Kat! Explore our earlier conversation and accompanying article: U-Maryland’s Do Good Institute Puts Progress on the Syllabus with Nathan Dietz and Jenny Cox—Episode 157⁠.

Discover PopTech

Chuck and I have found tremendous inspiration and connection through PopTech⁠, a gathering of people exploring fresh ideas and possibilities for our shared future. It’s the conference we enthusiastically mention in this episode—and one we’re delighted Marie and Kat will experience.

Keep the Goodness Going with These Related Conversations

Play Isn’t Just for Kids with Teresa Davis—Episode 243⁠
We never outgrow our need for fun, discovery, and delight. Teresa helps us rediscover play as a source of creativity, resilience, and joy—a wonderful continuation of our conversation about creating a really great Tuesday.

How to Human with Marjorie Malpiede—Episode 242⁠
Belonging and purpose matter at every age. Marjorie introduces us to colleges helping students develop the life skills and connections that support lifelong well-being.

• 0:00 — Intro & Welcome
• 5:22 — Rethinking Technology for Older Adults
• 13:27 — The Story Behind WISE Connect
• 23:04 — Aging With Purpose, Joy, and Belonging
• 34:35 — How WISE Connect Works
• 49:58 — Finding the Community Already Around You
• 58:03 — Using AI to Strengthen Human Connection
• 1:01:55 — What Generations Can Learn From Each Other
• 1:08:55 — How to Help Build More Connected Communities