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The Beauty Industry Is Shifting from Anti-Aging to Anti-Anti-Aging. So What? June 6, 2018 by Ashton Applewhite - 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,…
Books to Give or Keep in 2017 December 6, 2017 by Pepper Evans - Friends all know I’m an avid reader, and it’s that time of year when they ask me to recommend books for holiday gift lists. I primarily seek out new fiction, but I enjoy deviating for an interesting memoir. Each of…
Emotional Contagion Is a Mixed Bag December 1, 2017 by Flora Davis - In 2008, my husband fell backward down a flight of stairs and suffered a brain injury. When I brought him home from rehab three months later, he was childlike and often confused. He sank into a deep depression—and I caught…
Not Your Mother’s Genes? November 15, 2017 by Pepper Evans - I once had a discussion with a friend, who is a geneticist, about his research. Perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek, I suggested that he rethink his current cell experiments and instead study someone healthy—like me.
Dementia in Films: Getting It Wrong November 8, 2017 by Maggie Sullivan - Fiona, a woman in her 70s living with Alzheimer’s disease, announces to her husband, Grant, “We are at that stage.” She means the point at which she belongs in a nursing home. Her husband, like almost all family caregivers, finds…
If Aging Is So Awful, How Come No One Wants to Be Younger? October 18, 2017 by Ashton Applewhite - 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.
Ageist Trolls on Social Media and in the New Yorker Too October 4, 2017 by Margaret Morganroth Gullette - The Internet is notorious for commenters who feel grossly entitled to dismiss vulnerable others. This past summer, Harvard University hit hard against racist and sexist speech on Facebook, rescinding admissions to some potential first-year students.
Dementia in Films: Getting It Right September 14, 2017 by Maggie Sullivan - I loved the novel Still Alice because it was an accurate portrayal of Alzheimer’s disease. And the movie Still Alice got it right too.
My Car Still Needs Me August 30, 2017 by Flora Davis - For years, I loved the idea of a self-driving car. I could hardly wait until they were available because so many friends my age (over 80) had been forced to give up driving. I didn’t want to be next. Most…
Lying to Mom? August 14, 2017 by Pepper Evans - A few years ago, a New York Times New Old Age blog had me thinking about my mother's later-life driving. The blog is about lying to an older person, ostensibly for his or her own good. In one tale, a grown daughter sabotages her mother's driver's license renewal to avoid confrontation over concerns about waning driving skills.
Let’s Get Intergenerational! August 4, 2017 by Ashton Applewhite - 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…- Helping Hands, Joined Online July 21, 2017 by Pepper Evans - When you’re coping with the needs of someone who is hospitalized or convalescing, you may wish you could clone yourself to handle everything on your plate. Take heart—a website can become your personal assistant.
What a Living Will Can—and Can’t—Do for You July 18, 2017 by Flora Davis - My friend Anne taught me some important things about dying. Anne had congestive heart failure. In January 2012 her cardiologist told her regretfully that she probably wouldn’t live past the end of the month, so she went home to set…
Green Old Age July 7, 2017 by Flora Davis - A friend of mine recently questioned something she read on this website that presented what she called “a depressing view of aging.”
10 Vital Truths about Aging and Health June 26, 2017 by Ashton Applewhite - 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.
Weighty Issue June 16, 2017 by Pepper Evans - Are we teaching our children today what they need to know to assure good health beyond childhood and throughout their lives? Confuse Hamlet with Macbeth and you may not graduate from high school. Forget that pi is 3.141592 and it’s…
What Good Are Support Groups? June 12, 2017 by Maggie Sullivan - This was Chester’s first time at our caregiver support group. A man in his 70s, he told us about his wife who has Alzheimer’s disease and has become anxious whenever he is out of sight.
What Does ‘Old’ Look Like to Millennials—and to AARP? May 19, 2017 by Ashton Applewhite - 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…
The Happiness Check May 15, 2017 by Pepper Evans - I received a milestone-birthday gift from a dear, longtime friend. It was a generous monetary gift that came with a caveat: I must spend it on myself. No college tuition help, no car repair, no electric bill—I had to spend…
The Violence of Ageism May 12, 2017 by Margaret Morganroth Gullette - As the entire world now knows, Dr. David Dao is the passenger who was dragged off a United Airlines flight on April 9th (2017) by Chicago police, who broke his nose, gave him a concussion and smashed two of his teeth.
Senior Centers Are Evolving - 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…
The Upside and Downside of Being Owned by a Cat - I love my cat, but until now, I hadn’t thought of her as a way to stay healthy. In fact, when I first brought Velvet—a small, feisty black kitty—home, I thought of her as a dog substitute. My beloved dog…