When I tell people that I am a geropsychologist (a psychologist who specializes in geriatrics), I usually receive one of three responses: 1) I need you to diagnose my relative, 2) Wow, that sounds really hard, or 3) I thought…
Search Results for: ageism
The Few, the Proud, the Older
I recently had the opportunity to take my 11-year-old granddaughter to her softball tournament in Des Moines, IA. Just me and her for the weekend. Most of the grandparents reading this will know why I am smiling. Because of a…
Senior Centers Are Evolving
They’re expanding to match the wide-ranging interests of new generations of older adults.The first time Sue and Mike Miller visited their community’s senior center in Portage, MI, several years ago, they found a few people playing pool or bridge—and decided it wasn’t for them. But the couple tried again in 2022, when…
Good News That’s Also Disappointing
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a report titled “Aging in the United States: A Strategic Framework for a National Plan on Aging.” The report outlines steps to create a national effort to foster positive…
Medical Research Is Shortchanging Older Women
Their health is woefully understudiedIn the past, scientists assumed that males and females were so much alike that the results of studies done on men applied to women as well. They don’t. For this article, journalist Judith Graham asked top doctors and medical researchers…
‘Othering’ Other People
My friend Jack called me a few weeks ago to share an experience. He’d been at a public meeting at the library, seated at a table with three forward-facing chairs. He was sitting in the chair on the left, a…
It’s about Competence, Not Age
[In February], a gratuitous swipe ramped up the ongoing discussion about Biden’s age to a fevered pitch. When the Department of Justice declined to prosecute the President for his handling of classified documents, the special counsel went on to call Biden…
What a Waste
The luxury skin-care firm Estée Lauder just announced a partnership with the Stanford Center on Longevity. According to the press release, the goal of this new “longevity expert collective” is to “reframe the conversation from anti-aging to visible age reversal.” Let’s…
Do We Simply Not Care about Older People?
Three out of four killed by COVID were older adults. Where’s the outrage?The COVID-19 pandemic would be a wake-up call for America, advocates for the elderly predicted
Think ‘Too Many Old People’ Will Swamp Social Welfare Programs? Think Again.
Since the 1970s, population aging—the proverbial “gray tsunami”—has been used to justify “pension reform,” austerity and privatization across the wealthy nations. Alarmist projections have long fueled neoliberal, small-government policy reforms. In the Fall 2023 issue of Jacobin, editor-at-large Seth Ackerman argues that…
Women in the Workforce Are Never the Right Age
Why are women still so underrepresented in positions of power? In the United States, for example, why do women still make up only a meager 10 percent of people running Fortune 500 companies? Take heart, there’s always a reason. (Content warning: this article,…
Becoming Less Ageist Can Reverse Cognitive Decline
A growing body of fascinating research shows that attitudes towards aging have an actual, measurable, physical effect on how our minds and bodies function. People with more positive feelings about aging—fact- rather than fear-based, that is—walk faster, heal quicker, live…
What AI Can Do for Older Adults
Among other things, it can keep them safer and connect them better to those they loveWhen Alyssa Weakley’s 82-year-old grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2019, the family scrambled to respond. Her grandmother lived in southern California; Weakley and other family members were in northern California and Washington State. As problems arose, they took turns…
Enough with the Headlines about Age!
Age and age discrimination have never gotten more media coverage, especially in the wake of President Biden’s announcement that he’s running for reelection. If there’s anyone who should be delighted, it’s me. I’m in the age and ageism business after…
The Beauty of Our Own Impermanence
Since my heart surgery last year, I’ve lost weight, I exercise daily and I am energetic and forward-looking. A few weeks ago, working out with a trainer, I did full squats on a balance ball, something I never even knew…
Smartphone Saga
My cellphone failed recently, and the experience taught me a few uncomfortable things about myself. For one thing, apparently I’m a technophobe. It’s a long story. About a month ago, I was sitting in my car with my friend, Jeanne,…
Is it Ageist to Offer Actors the Right to Hide Their Age?
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) has been waging a years-long legal battle with the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) to stop the site from disclosing the ages of screen actors. Last June, GLAAD, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, signed on to support…
For the Umpteenth Time: ‘Too Old to Be President’
Wondering how to respond when people equate a political candidate’s age with their fitness for office? You’ll find plenty of answers in “Biden is now America’s first octogenarian president,” which appeared in Salon. The writer reached out to experts like physician Louise…
Celebrating Aging
Older adults are beginning to invent their own rites of passageAfter her mother passed away, Jeanette Leardi invited female friends to her home for a special gathering. It wasn’t exactly a memorial service; many attendees never knew her mother. Instead, it was a healing ritual for Leardi. The group lit…
Changing the Way You Think about Aging Can Improve Your Life
It’s good for everything from your memory to your healthPeople’s beliefs about aging have a profound impact on their health, influencing everything from their memory and sensory perceptions to how well they walk, how fully they recover from disabling illness and how long they live.
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day: It’s a Thing. It Shouldn’t Have to Be
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, which was launched in 2006, falls on June 15. That happens to be my mother’s birthday, which I find darkly amusing and which probably has something to do with my ambivalence around the event. It’s…
Can’t See the Stars During the Daytime
I just finished reading a really good book, entitled Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long & Well You Live (2022), by Becca Levy, PhD. I recommend it. It is about Levy’s groundbreaking research at…
Memory Hacks
When I was young, I could memorize epic poems with ease and recite the Gettysburg Address years after I learned it in school. I seldom forgot the names of books I’d read, the films I’d seen or who starred in…
The Old Woman with the Knife: A Novel
It seems ageism in the workplace is rampant, even for contract killers like Horn Claw. At 65, Horn Claw knows she’s not as spry as she once was
Percolating Conversations
One of the ongoing workshops that I facilitate is an all-men’s group. For the last several years, once a month, eight of us get together. Camaraderie, angst, disagreement and humor circulate around the general topic of aging. It is a…
The Paradoxes of Aging
I recently came across a passage about contemporary aging so concise and insightful that I had to post it. It’s from a review by eminent gerontologist Thomas Cole of Aging and the Art of Living (2012) by Jan Baars. We…
Aging behind Bars
The United States has the largest prison population in the world. What’s that got to do with aging? you may ask. Well, people 50 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the US prison population, increasing 25 percent from 2009 to…
‘They Treat Me Like I’m Old and Stupid’
Older people protest ageist incidents in medical careJoanne Whitney, PharmD, 84, a retired associate clinical professor of pharmacy at the University of California-San Francisco, often feels devalued when interacting with health care providers.
So What If I’m Old
Every so often, I have a flash of insight about my own internalized ageism. When it happens, I am both disappointed and pleased. To set the stage: I am driving to a doctor’s appointment at a major downtown medical center.…
Ageless, Clueless … I goofed
During my book tour, I often closed readings with a passage about aspiring to agelessness, declaring it a form of age denial. A woman at Powell’s Books in Portland, OR, said, “Saying you’re ageless seems like saying you’re color-blind,” and…
Me and We
A few weeks ago, my granddaughter and I took a summertime walk to the local market. On the way home, the afternoon sun was at our backs. In front of me, I saw the shadow of an eight-year-old girl and…
Learning from the Women’s Movement’s Mistakes
Here’s an excerpt from Ageist? Sexist? Who, Me? How to Start a Consciousness-Raising Group Around the Intersection of Ageism and Sexism (out later this spring from the Old School Clearinghouse). It’s about how women with privilege have left other women behind in the…
Can Artists Help Us Combat Hate and White Supremacy?
In 2016, PBS’s Next Avenue named writer/editor Paul Kleyman an Influencer in Aging, recognizing his long career. After 20 years as editor of the American Society on Aging’s newspaper, Kleyman became director of the Ethnic Elders Newsbeat at New America…
The Year of Letting Our Hair Go Gray
Six year ago, on an escalator coming out of a weekday movie matinee, I had a wild idea. Despite the fact that the entire audience was older, I spotted only one gray-haired woman. Covering the gray, I realized, is a…
Kaiser Health News: The Story Behind the Grant
KHN doubles its output during the Covid pandemic—with some help from Silver CenturyThe year was 2016. By most accounts, print journalism was dying. The rise of free digital content, the decline of trust in journalism and a drop in advertising revenue had led to what the Atlantic called a “print apocalypse.” Layoffs…
The Possibilities Even Where Our Darkest Fears Reside
My new talk, “Still Kicking—Confronting Ageism and Ableism in the Pandemic’s Wake,” debuted earlier this week at n4a, the national conference of Area Agencies on Aging—to rave reviews, yay! Here’s a look at some of the ground it covers: Remember…
Why Biden Won: The Missing Reason
The 2020 presidential election took place at arguably the most anxious time in the nation’s history, at least as threatening as the Civil War, the flu epidemic of 1918–1919, or the distant world wars.
Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing as We Age
Mary Pipher is a cultural anthropologist and clinical psychologist whose academic focus has been developmental psychology and trauma.
Age Justice Requires Disability Justice—and Vice Versa
A terrific special section of the New York Times [in July 2020] was devoted to the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act. There is no mention of age or ageism. It would be convenient to…
Discrimination Is Intersectional. Activism Can Be Too
… What 2020 brought home for me was that being anti-ageist means supporting every movement for equal rights. It’s a big ask, but we cannot dismantle ageism without dismantling ableism, and racism, and sexism and all the rest, because these systems reinforce…
Sex after 65: Friskier but Riskier - At 81, Hélène Bertrand, MD, and her 90-year-old husband continue to enjoy a fulfilling sex life. Once every week or two, they share intimate moments that lead to orgasm and, as Bertrand puts it, “a very good night’s sleep.” “Over…
Could the Key to Successful Aging Be Yodels and Beer? - If you had asked my 96-year-old grandfather, “What is the key to successful aging?” he would probably have said, “Yodels and beer.” He was never one to pass up a chocolatey dessert, and he loved a cold lager. The term…