The Future of Retirement

By Flora Davis
Someday, Americans may recall the 20th century as the heyday of retirement, when individuals left the workforce in their 60s with decades ahead in which their time would be their own. Life’s later years are apt to be very different in the future—for better or worse. A quick look at the past suggests why that’s so and what may be in store for us.  Read more...
 

What Is Old Age For?

By William Thomas, MD
Old age is humanity's greatest invention, and on an even deeper level, it invented us. Old age transformed the way our most distant ancestors gave birth, reared their young, lived together, and fed themselves. Later it propelled the development of culture, language, and society.  Read more...
 

It’s Never Too Late to Exercise—but Starting by Midlife Is Best

By Leigh Ann Hubbard
Harrison Caldwell had a good excuse for not being athletic: one of his legs was about a quarter inch shorter than the other, thanks to a childhood bout with polio. Plus, his feet were so flat that the Army turned him down at the height of the Vietnam War.  Read more...
 

How to Keep Driving (Safely) in Your Later Years

By Flora Davis
Americans outlive their ability to drive by an average of six to ten years. If you’re like most people, you can’t imagine how you would manage without a car. Fortunately, there are ways to extend your time behind the wheel and simultaneously become safer on the road.  Read more...
 

Guess Who’s Confronting Ageism Now?

July 23, 2014 By Ashton Applewhite
Ageism in Silicon Valley has been all over the news lately. “The Brutal Ageism of Tech,” a March 2014 feature story in the New Republic, noted that some male techies, still in their 20s, are contemplating BOTOX and hair transplants, while middle-aged engineers, a swelling cohort of “highly trained, objectively talented, surpassingly ambitious workers,” are being sidelined “for reasons no one can rationally explain.” Meanwhile, the New York Times Magazine ran a cover story titled “Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem.”  Read more...
 

A Shortage of Heroes

July 18, 2014 By Flora Davis
I think my doctor is a hero and I once told him so. He’s a geriatrician—a specialist in treating older people—and a rare find.  Read more...