Author and activist Ashton Applewhite has been recognized by the New York Times, National Public Radio and the American Society on Aging as an expert on ageism. She blogs at This Chair Rocks, speaks widely, and is the author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, “a book we have been waiting for… that blows up myths seven to a page like fireworks” (Los Angeles Review of Books). In 2016, Next Avenue, a website that’s part of the PBS system, named Applewhite its Influencer of the Year, for sparking a revolution against ageism.
We Can Do Something about Ageism—Here’s the Evidence January 10, 2020 - We’ve known for a while that ageism—negative beliefs and stereotypes about aging—makes us vulnerable to disease and decline, and also that the opposite is true. People with fact- rather than fear-based attitudes towards aging walk faster, heal quicker, live longer…
Health Care Is Failing Older People December 13, 2019 - Treating patients slowed by Parkinson’s, geriatrician Louise Aronson, MD, sings a chorus of “Happy Birthday” in her head to make sure they have enough time to respond. I’d love a doctor this humane as I head into old age, not…
Rowing North Against Ageism, Sexism and Misogyny October 29, 2019 - Mary Pipher is a psychologist who specializes in women—adolescents in her first bestseller, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (1994), and now those entering old age in Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing As We Age.
Five Things I Learned on My Book Tour September 25, 2019 - Five weeks, 11 cities, 14 book talks, 9 media appearances, 21 regular talks. Phew. I got so tired, it felt as though gravity was messing with me, or as if I’d been inexpertly inflated. It was also exhilarating: a nationwide…
Not ‘Old Enough to Die,’ Old Enough to Choose Wisely August 27, 2019 - Author and activist Barbara Ehrenreich has long been one of my heroes, and I imagine an affinity in our fondness for myth-busting. In her new book, she describes herself as an “amateur sociologist,” and I thought, “Aha, me too!” 
What Will It Take to End Ageism? Part 2 June 24, 2019 - A consumer revolution requires a social revolution. We know that as time grows shorter, a sense of purpose becomes an ever-higher priority for olders. As Coughlin observes, “Culture helps determine what older people find meaningful. And that raises a question: can . . . new, socially permissible routes to meaning open up?”
What Will It Take to End Ageism? Part 1 June 10, 2019 - Most Americans aren’t optimistic about getting older and think the source of the problem is aging itself. So do most policy wonks: they frame population aging as a set of choices about how to care for an avalanche of “frail…
Shared Stigma, Separate Silos, Part 2 April 3, 2019 - In my last post, I wrote about the regrettable tendency to act as though older people and people with disabilities form two separate groups. When groups within companies don’t share information or knowledge, it’s called a “silo mentality.” It reduces efficiency…
Shared Stigma, Separate Silos, Part 1 February 18, 2019 - People with disabilities come in all ages, and almost all of us encounter some change in physical or mental capacity as we grow old. Yet, as I wrote in an earlier blog, “We act as though old people never become disabled and…
Less Ageism = Less Dementia. It’s That Clear November 13, 2018 - What affliction do Americans fear most? Alzheimer’s disease. I’m one of them, but facts comfort me. Abundant new data shows that our fears are way out of proportion to the threat—and that those fears themselves put us at risk.
Why It’s Just Fine to Fail at “Successful Aging,” Part 3 September 21, 2018 - More about what’s wrong with the concept of “successful aging”—a topic explored in Parts 1 and 2 and in Successful Aging as a Contemporary Obsession: Global Perspectives (2017), a collection of essays edited by Sarah Lamb. What else is problematic…- Why It’s Just Fine to Fail at “Successful Aging,” Part 2 September 20, 2018 - Part 1 of this series of blogs argues that, as a model for growing older, “successful aging” leaves ageism unchallenged or contributes to it. What else is problematic about “successful aging”? There are some insightful answers in a collection of…
- Why It’s Just Fine to Fail at “Successful Aging,” Part 1 September 18, 2018 - Eleven years ago I started a writing project about people over 80 who work. Upbeat! Inspirational! Safe! I didn’t realize it at the time, but it epitomized an approach that has dominated gerontology since the 1980s: “successful aging”—also known as…
The New Yorker’s Ageist Take on Ageism August 22, 2018 - I’m a lifelong New Yorker addict, so when I heard they were running a piece on ageism, I got excited. That was a mistake. Tad Friend’s article in the November 20th issue, “Why Ageism Never Gets Old,” is glib and…
The Beauty Industry Is Shifting from Anti-Aging to Anti-Anti-Aging. So What? June 6, 2018 - The New York Times Magazine opens every Sunday with an essay about what a given word or phrase reveals about the moment. On September 17, 2017, the word was “anti-aging.” The line at the top of the print version read,…
If Aging Is So Awful, How Come No One Wants to Be Younger? October 18, 2017 - You hear people say “I wish I were young again” all the time. Yet I’ve never met anyone who would actually choose to move their game piece back on the board.
Let’s Get Intergenerational! August 4, 2017 - A century ago, Americans didn’t need programs to connect the generations: homes and communities housed people of all ages. But as people started living longer and moving into cities, we started thinking differently about those at both ends of the…
10 Vital Truths about Aging and Health June 26, 2017 - The World Health Organization (WHO) is in the public health business, and no organization has done more to raise awareness of ageism—the biggest obstacle to meeting the challenges of population aging.
What Does ‘Old’ Look Like to Millennials—and to AARP? May 19, 2017 - AARP’s #DisruptAging site has some commendable goals: to “hold a mirror up to the ageist beliefs around us,” and “change the stories we tell ourselves about aging.” In other words, as they put it, to “disrupt aging”—which also just happens to…
19, Going on 90 April 24, 2017 - Here’s a note that came to me recently from a reader of my Q&A blog, Yo, Is This Ageist? She wrote that:
