“Society may still view able, competent, sound-of-mind seniors as happy curiosities. But the fact is we are quickly becoming a sizeable demographic.”
Linda Marsa, a contributing editor at Discover magazine, argues that a growing number of people are living into their 60s, 70s, and 80s without debilitating conditions. These older people have both the physical stamina and the desire to continue working. “The question is whether society will adapt to make the most of this new labor pool.”
Marsa reports here on “some innovative companies [that] have already started to cater to their elderly personnel.” She concludes, “I’m hopeful that in the coming decades, the American workplace will shed its legacy of ageism to embrace a more diverse and equitable culture—one that blends the energy and inventiveness of youth with the wisdom and experience of maturity.”
We know we should quit smoking, eat better, exercise more, but adopting better habits like these can seem overwhelming.
Here’s some help, an interview with B.J. Fogg, a behavioral scientist at Stanford University and author of Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything. Fogg suggests starting small, with “tiny behaviors that can become habits.”
IN THE LATE 1880S, THE reporter Nellie Bly faked her way into an asylum on Blackwell’s Island, in New York’s East River. . . . On assignment for the New York World newspaper, Bly, who was was born Elizabeth Cochran Seaman and became one of America’s earliest and most intrepid female investigative journalists, reported on the people who were housed there by playing a patient herself.
Sculptor Amanda Matthews is designing a monument to Bly on the site where Bly endured the research that went into her piece “Ten Days in a Mad-House.” The momument is scheduled to be installed in summer 2020. This piece from Atlas Obscura features photos and drawings of the monument.
Recent research “found that Facebook users 65 and over posted seven times as many articles from fake news websites, compared with adults under 29.” Here NPR reports on a recent class held at a senior enter in suburban Maryland that helps seniors recognize fake news.
“Researchers say classes like this one should be more widely offered, especially with the 2020 election approaching.”
Jackie Varriano, Seattle Times food writer, takes a deep dive into local history to try to find the name and story of the woman who invented Krusteaz pie crust, which first hit grocery-store shelves in the early 1930s.
“It’s not easy to find histories of ‘regular’ women from the 1930s,” Varriano writes. Thanks to this dogged reporter for her effort in recovering one woman’s story.
And we’re back where we started with this article about understanding the lives of older Americans. Isaac Chotiner interviews Louise Aronson, a geriatrician, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and the author of Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life.
“During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed why so many Americans over sixty-five are entering the workforce, whether the Presidency is the wrong job for someone over seventy, and why we tend to view older Americans as a single, distinct group.”
© 2020 by Mary Daniels Brown
Retreading for Retirement 