Save the date!
Experience Talks 3/13: Author Beth Baker
Tune in to Experience Talks, our weekly “Radio Magazine for the Experienced Listener,” on Sundays at 5:00 PM PT on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, 99.5 China Lake, 93.7 N. San Diego, streaming live online, and now syndicated on up to 100
Pacifica Network stations! Experience Talks is produced by the non-profit EngAGE, Inc.
Miss the show? You can always hear it as a podcast on the Listen Page of our website! You’ll also find an archive-in-progress of all of our previous shows there for you to enjoy. New shows are usually posted within 48 hours after broadcast.
SUNDAY, 3/13 @ 5 PM PT
BETH BAKER
with host
CYNTHIA FRIEDLOB
BETH BAKER is a long-time freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers. Her book, With a Little Help from Our Friends: Creating Community As We Grow Older, explores how and where we might choose to age. Drawing on new research showing the importance of social support to healthy aging and the risks associated with loneliness and isolation, the author encourages the reader to plan for a future with strong connections. Learn more at her website.
Recorded live with an audience at the North Hollywood Senior Arts Colony in 2014. Check our Experience Talks website after the show is posted online to hear the additional Q&A session after Beth’s interview.
Just for Fun: Senior Fashion Is More Than Just a Fashion Statement
We’ve posted in the past about Ari Seth Cohen’s Advanced Style book, blog, and film, and applauded his efforts to spark an awareness about senior style that had been ignored. His subjects include people who can afford to shop at high end boutiques as well as people who rely exclusively on thrift shop finds. These seniors don’t just want to be fashionable; primarily, they want to make a statement about who they are, including their ability to be creative and valued in our society, regardless of their age.
Below are several posts that show some examples. Here are a couple of interesting observations from the slideshow in the first post:
Alice Carey (mid-60s): “My generation has only just entered into a new stage of life, what I call the ‘adolescence of old age.’ Think of it as another shot at youth, with all its pitfalls and pleasures, with you — and not your parents — at the helm.”
Colleen Heidemann (67) – “The splendor and majesty of a grand symphony lie within the presence and participation of its myriad components. The ‘plus âgée sect‘ are the violins of the orchestra. Their music is fanciful, fearless, feisty, and fun. Their flair has its own form of beauty and majesty, and they have a right to be a visible, viable part of the world in which they live.”
[Personal note: It seems that we’re often looking for terms other than “senior” to describe older people. I’m very fond of her term, the ‘plus âgée sect‘!]
“Throw out the ‘granny’ stereotype”
“Dress My Age? Hell No, Say These Inspiring Senior Women”
“14 older women rocking awesome hair (and proving that ‘cool’ has no age limit)”
94-Year-Old Iris Apfel Is Cooler Than You’ll Ever Be, as the New Face of Two Brands
Do you use fashion to express your creativity or make a statement about ageism?
Tim Carpenter on Panel at Association for Gerontology in Higher Education Annual Meeting
Last week at the annual meeting of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education, EngAGE Founder and Executive Director Tim Carpenter shared the Opening Plenary panel with Hank Rogerson and Jilann Spitzmiller, the filmmaking team behind the documentary, “Still Dreaming.” (The film is about a group of elderly Broadway actors, musicians, and dancers who reside at the Lillian Booth Actors Home just outside New York City, and bravely dive into a production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”)
The panel, entitled “Still Dreaming: The Power of the Life Course in Late Life,” included clips from the film, and a discussion with the audience around themes of artistic endeavors, images of aging, and the continuity of one’s life work.
Learn more about the documentary, and listen to Tim’s “Experience Talks” interview with Hank Rogerson prior to the release of the film (10/5/13).
Posted in Film/Television, News from the Team, Tim Carpenter
Tagged changing aging, creative aging
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EngAGE Featured in New York Times: “Using the Arts to Promote Healthy Aging”
We’re pleased to be featured in “Using the Arts to Promote Healthy Aging,” an article by Jane E. Brody, who writes about health and aging for the New York Times.
Worth Repeating: Major Demographic Shifts in U.S. Change “Age Pyramid”
“Worth Repeating” is a weekly feature on the EngAGE Blog that will bring you previous
posts that we think are still timely, interesting, or just plain fun! From 3/2/15:
“Demographic transformations are dramas in slow motion. America is in the midst of two right now. Our population is becoming majority non-white at the same time a record share is going gray. Each of these shifts would by itself be the defining demographic story of its era. The fact that both are unfolding simultaneously has generated big generation gaps that will put stress on our politics, families, pocketbooks, entitlement programs and social cohesion. . . .
“In every society since the start of history, whenever you broke down any population [into five year groups], you’d always get an age pyramid [with those ages 0-4 on the bottom and those ages 85 and older on the top].
“But from 1960 to 2060, our pyramid will turn into a rectangle. We’ll have almost as many Americans over age 85 as under age 5. This is the result of longer life spans and lower birthrates. It’s uncharted territory, not just for us, but for all of humanity.”
Get more information here and in the book, The Next America, by Paul Taylor and the Pew Research Center. You can see the changes animated on the pyramid at the link. Just click the arrow below the graph. [Hat tip to Ann Davis Garvin for the link.]
