Rick Rosner On, 29: Aging, Air Quality, Antisemitism, and Everyday Priorities
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Personal SubStack
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2026/08/20
In this interview, Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner discuss aging, climate preferences, indoor air quality, radon mitigation, air filtration, and the practicalities of later life. Rosner reflects on becoming more realistic with age, his experiences with antisemitism, and the persistence of Jewish conspiracy theories online. They also consider education, prejudice, moral advocacy, and everyday priorities, ending with lighter questions about choosing among household essentials such as refrigeration, toilets, dishwashers, and air conditioning in summer.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So if you were looking at 25 years from now, given your current physical condition, rather than imagining yourself as an 85- or 90-plus-year-old Rick, would you rather live in a colder climate with heating or in a warmer climate with air conditioning?
Rick Rosner: I don’t know. I mean, each has pluses and minuses. The colder climate might be somewhat more healthful for me, but then you have the dangers of slips and falls. If I were in my 90s, I’d want firm footing. I’ve also had bad reactions to getting overheated lately. You can be uncomfortable either way.
Jacobsen: If someone lives in an old home, should they get an air filter?
Rosner: Yeah, I guess so. We have an air filter running all the time, and it’s probably better for us. I don’t know how much better.
We’re on quite a bit of bedrock. I mean, everybody is, but the geology where we live can produce elevated radon levels. We had radon levels on our first floor that were higher than the national average, at least before I sealed gaps in the flooring and installed a crawl-space fan.
Radon is a radioactive noble gas produced naturally through the decay of uranium in soil and rock. Colorado has widespread potential for elevated indoor radon. The important correction is that an ordinary air purifier or HEPA filter does not effectively remove radon gas itself. Radon mitigation normally involves preventing the gas from entering the home or venting it outdoors, including systems that depressurize the soil or crawl space beneath the building.
We run an air filter anyway, and we live in Los Angeles, where outdoor particulate pollution and wildfire smoke can also make indoor filtration useful. HEPA filtration can reduce airborne particulate matter, including smoke particles.
Jacobsen: Do you feel more realistic about life as you’ve gotten older?
Rosner: Yeah. I know more. I’ve experienced more stuff. I understand how things work better.
Jacobsen: What’s the worst type of antisemitism that someone you know has experienced?
Rosner: I don’t know. I don’t hang out with that many Jews. I’ve experienced people calling me out recently on X for being Jewish, where there’s a ton of antisemitism.
I had a Sunday school teacher, and this would have been more than 50 years ago, who said somebody shot him in the back while he was riding his bicycle. It was with a small-calibre pistol. It had to be something like a .22. He survived with no lasting damage, as far as I know.
Was he shot for being Jewish? I’m not sure he actually said. He told us the story in the context of Sunday school, so I assumed it implied antisemitism was involved. But beyond that, I don’t personally know people who’ve been beaten up for being Jewish.
I see a ton of antisemitism on social media now, and it’s disturbing.
Jacobsen: Do you think one reason so many moral heroes in the history of not only the United States, but internationally, have had Jewish backgrounds is an acute awareness of the larger problems of racism and prejudice?
Rosner: Yeah, maybe so. Yeah, I would say so.
Jacobsen: I mean, there’s a lot of stuff involving conspiracy theories about power and control, finance, so-called “global bankers,” NGOs, the Rothschilds and the Warburgs, and the idea of “white genocide.” There’s a whole range of conspiratorial pseudo-geopolitics, pseudopolitics, pseudoscience, and so on that keeps resurfacing.
And, yeah, many people with an acute ethical sensibility, sometimes informed by hard-won historical or personal experience, have had Jewish backgrounds, and their work gets quoted a lot. So it comes to mind.
Rosner: There are a lot of highly educated Jewish people. When you get educated, you learn about things, and then you speak out when you see shit in the world that comports with what you’ve learned.
On X, some people call themselves “noticers.” It’s an antisemitic trope. They point to the prominence of Jews in various professions and institutions and treat that as evidence of some coordinated Jewish power or conspiracy. You were talking about all these conspiracy theories, but contrary to these assholes, Jewish people, many of whom are highly educated and professionally accomplished, are often simply well qualified to address issues in the world and speak out about them.
Jacobsen: Would you rather live with only two of these three things: a dishwasher, a refrigerator, or a toilet?
Rosner: I’d do without the dishwasher. That’s easy.
Jacobsen: What about a toilet, refrigerator, or air conditioning in the summer?
Rosner: Again, you use a refrigerator and toilet more than you use air conditioning.
Jacobsen: Thank you very much for the opportunity and your time, Rick.
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