Envisioning a Better ‘Old Age:’ A Q&A With Dr. Louise Aronson

Dr. Louise Aronson brings vast experience and compassion as a geriatrician, writer and educator to the pages of her new book, Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life. Aronson is professor of medicine at the University of Ca… Continue reading

Ashton Applewhite and Her Manifesto Against Ageism

Imagine being in the crowd at a bullfight; the feeling of being terrified for the matador in the ring, worried about what you might see and turning away in fear because you don’t want to experience what’s going to happen next. But if you’re the matador… Continue reading

Are Schools Doing Enough to Identify and Stop Ageism?

The e-mail from her son’s kindergarten teacher left Kelly Papa shaking her head — and her fist. “I was infuriated; I screamed at my computer,” said Papa, corporate director of learning at Masonicare, a senior care and living nonprofit in Connecticut. “… Continue reading

The Negative Effects of Elderspeak

Faye Kirtley doesn’t appreciate it when store clerks talk down to her and act as if “I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said. “It’s embarrassing, and I don’t know why they think it’s okay to treat an older person like that,” added the 88-year old reside… Continue reading

Ways to Embrace Aging in This Youth-Obsessed Culture

When you look in the mirror and expect to see a younger version of yourself but, instead, someone with worry lines and crow’s feet stares back, it can be disheartening. Because our culture values youth and beauty over age and experience, you may have u… Continue reading

An Older Actor Follows a New Script

The cliché of becoming stuck in your ways as you age was never true with me. I’ve been like that since birth. Boundaries were my friend, the narrower, the better — no improv for me, thank you. Just give me my well-worn script to follow. Why take a chan… Continue reading

Peter Gosselin: Muckraking Journalist on the Aging Beat

Peter Gosselin, a 2018 Influencer in Aging, has had a long and illustrious career as a journalist, but his biggest and most important story may have been the exposé he and reporter Ariana Tobin recently wrote for ProPublica: “Cutting ‘Old Heads’ at IBM… Continue reading

Fighting Ageism on a Hiking Trail

This is a story about me, a woman of a certain age, gray-haired and a little thick through the middle who, a few summers ago, asked a much younger, positively lithe national park guide …well, I asked her a question I didn’t really want answered. At lea… Continue reading