How we can end ageism

Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour episode Late Bloomers. Check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 4.

We receive a lot of messages about how bad it is to grow old. Anti-ageism activist Ashton Applewhite says that while some of our fears may be valid, aging offers more opportunities than we think.

About Ashton Applewhite

Ashton Applewhite is an author and anti-ageism activist. The Decade of Healthy Aging, a collaboration between the United Nations and World Health Organization, recently named her one of the Healthy Aging 50 — a group of leaders “transforming the world to be a better place in which to grow older.”

Applewhite is the author of the popular joke book Truly Tasteless Jokes and its many sequels, as well as Cutting Loose: Why Women Who End Their Marriages Do So Well. Her most recent book, This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, was published in 2019.

Applewhite is also the co-founder of the Old School Anti-Ageism Clearinghouse, which offers free anti-ageism educational resources. And she authors the blog, “Yo, is this ageist?,” in which she responds to reader submitted questions about everyday instances of ageism.

This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Matthew Cloutier and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour and Rachel Faulkner White. You can follow us on Twitter @TEDRadioHour and email us at [email protected].