The Age Guide: Perspectives on the Aging Journey

Aging Unfiltered: Let's Talk About Ageism – with Dr Tracey Gendron

• Age Guide • Season 4 • Episode 1

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This is our first episode in our new Series entitled: "Aging Unfiltered". Through this podcast series, we are spreading the word about ageism, and we’re kicking it off intentionally on Ageism Awareness Day, October 9th. Today, we dive into the pervasive issue of ageism—how it shapes our perceptions of aging and how it influences our lives. Join us as we talk to Dr. Tracey Gendron, and explore the ways ageism influences everyone, from children to older adults. We’ll unpack the stereotypes that hold us back and highlight inspiring movements that are redefining what it means to grow older in today’s world. Tune in to discover how we can challenge these biases and embrace a more inclusive view of aging, reminding ourselves that we age every day.  

Resources

Why you feel younger (or older) than your age | Tracey Gendron | TEDxReno

Ageism Unmasked | Dr. Tracey Gendron

 

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SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to the Age Guide podcast, Perspectives on the Aging Journey. This is our first episode in our new series entitled Aging Unfiltered. Through this podcast series, we are spreading the word about ageism, and we're kicking it off intentionally on Ageism Awareness Day. Ageism is about stereotypes and how we think and feel and act towards others and ourselves based on age. This podcast series will explore effective strategies to to change our own and society's perspective on aging. By focusing on these topics and engaging in discussions with a diverse range of voices, we hope to raise awareness about ageism and inspire action towards building a more inclusive world for all ages. We have a very special guest today. I think she's our first guest who has done a TEDx talk, and I have to say I am fangirling a little bit over here. She is really the perfect thought leader to kick off our ageism series. Dr. Tracy Gendron is the author of Ageism Unmasked, Exploring Age Bias and How to End It, and she serves as chair for the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Gerontology and as director for the Virginia Center on Aging. Listen in as we discuss how we can work together to impact ageism awareness, not only on Ageism Awareness Day, but all throughout our lives. Welcome, Dr. Gendron. Thank you so much for having me. Well, it is such a pleasure. I'd love for you to share a bit about yourself and what sparked your interest in gerontology.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, such a good question. So I'm Tracy, and I'm a gerontologist. And that means I have a master's degree in gerontology. And, you know, I think what what got me interested was a couple of different things. I always I like to tell this that I was a terrible student in high school, because I was a terrible student in high school. And if I have, if one of my high school teachers was listening to this today, they would be shocked knowing that I actually went on for a PhD, but I did. So they did something right. But when I was a senior in high school, despite the fact I wasn't interested, I did take a psychology class that I loved. And in this psychology class, the instructor was talking about the growing demographic of older people and then introduced me to this word gerontology, which I had never heard before and which very few people had heard. And I was like, Oh, that's a thing. And she said, yeah, you know, you can actually like think about this as a career because there's going to be more and more older people. So that immediately kind of caught my attention. And I knew then that it was something that I wanted to look into. When you couple that with a very, very strong relationship with my grandparents growing up, I had personal role models for aging that were very powerful for me. That makes sense. I was

SPEAKER_02:

going to ask you if you had some personal connection to

SPEAKER_01:

older adults. older people and saw it as something to look forward to and look up to, which is so very powerful. So you put the personal and the professional together and it set off my interest in the field as a whole.

SPEAKER_02:

That is awesome. And you've been able to have such an impact. I think you talked about ageism. It's a term that is becoming more recognized, but not everyone fully understands it. We've got a lot of isms in our culture. Can you help us define what ageism is and explain how it manifests in different areas of life, like the workplace, the health care, the media?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. How long do you have? Because talk about this. Right. So, yeah, there are a lot of isms and they are all important and they all build upon each other. Ageism is interesting because aging is the one universal thing that we all have in common. Every one of us is aging every moment of our lives. So ageism is something that applies to every one of us. And it's so normative. It's so accepted within our culture that it's practically invisible. So we have made great strides over the Right. understand what I'm talking about. Just based on somebody's age, that's discriminatory. You know, that's leading into like, I'm making a judgment about you and I don't know anything about you.

SPEAKER_03:

So

SPEAKER_01:

ageism is other directed in that way. But ageism is also internally directed. So that's how we feel about ourselves as aging individuals. Do we carry around fear, shame, dread about our own aging? Do we want to disassociate with being aging? Don't call me old. I'm not old. That's internalized ageism. Do we put limits on ourself on what we think we can do? No, I'm too old to be able to do that. And that has actual, you know, real consequences for our health and for our happiness and even for our longevity. So it's externally, it's internal. And then it lives within our relationships and the way that we communicate and talk to each other. A lot of those little compliments that we give to each other that are really microaggressions. So that haircut makes you look younger. That outfit makes you look younger. Every time we put kind of a value judgment on young versus old or old versus young, we're feeding into that narrative of ageism. And the truth is that it exists everywhere. It's not only within us and our relationships, but it's in our institutions. So as you said, it happens at work. It happens when somebody's passed over for a promotion because of their age, why it's harder for older people over 50 to find new jobs. It's in the assumptions we make about old people can't use technology because they weren't born with it. All of those things happen in the institutional space. And then it's in our culture. So it lives everywhere. The most obvious example is the fact that we have an anti-aging industry. Think about that for a second. It is a billion dollar industry that tells us that we should feel shame and dread about aging. We should be anti-aging. Anti-aging is death. We're all

SPEAKER_02:

aging.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a good point. Yes. So it exists everywhere, which is what makes it so complicated.

SPEAKER_02:

So even in greeting cards, in advertisements, anywhere you look in the media, you're seeing negative stereotypes depicted and reinforced. And then that reinforces it for us. When do you think that bias begins? I've heard

SPEAKER_01:

it starts very young. I mean, children as early as three years old start to learn ageism, start to internalize ageism. So if you look at some of the early literature or even movies and you look at the depictions of like, you know, the old hag versus the young princess, young is beautiful, old is ugly and scary. When you think about kind of the way that older people can be portrayed as caricatures, one of my biggest pet peeves is how many people celebrate the hundredth day of school by dressing this a hundred year old, right. Or, you know, we are, we're making fun of old people. So from a very, very young age, and then it's, you know, the way we talk about ourselves. So if you have a parent who's modeling for you, like, I don't look old, I don't feel old. I will do, you know, whatever I can to not be old. That's also another way we're learning about it.

SPEAKER_03:

So

SPEAKER_01:

it starts at a very, very young age and it's just conditioned over time. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

And we're all kind of stuck in a rut of repeating these things, even if we're becoming more aware of it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

I know in your book, you explore strategies for creating a society that kind of does the opposite of what you've been talking about, that values people of all ages. Can you share some insights into how we can move toward a more age inclusive world? How do we change how we talk about this and what we say to ourselves and to others? Are there some key actions we can take?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I think this is a great beginning. First, we just have to be aware that ageism is a thing and we can start reflecting on how we feel about our own aging. That's just number one, is recognize that we are all aging. This isn't about other people. This isn't about old people. This is about all of us. So number one, we're all aging. Number two, we can actually start to educate ourselves on what aging actually means. We have a view of aging as a process of decline. We talk about aging as being over the hill, but the truth is aging is something that happens in our bodies. It's also something that happens in our minds, in the social space, to a sense of spirituality. In gerontology, we call it the biopsychosocial spiritual process of aging. So that means aging is not only about decline. It's also about growth. We continue to grow and evolve and become new versions of ourselves. So when we start to see aging as the holistic process of change and how we live over time, it becomes a little bit less scary. Definitely. We do have decline. We do have loss, although that can happen at any point in our life. But most older people actually feel a real sense of comfort and freedom being who they are because they've worked really hard. If you look back and think about a past version of yourself from five years ago, 10 years ago, even two years ago, and you think about something you've worked hard to accomplish, whether that be a fear you overcame, whether it to be a skill that you have, whatever it is, And you realize like, hey, I'm actually pretty proud of myself that I've gotten to this place. And we recognize that's a part of our aging. It actually recontextualizes aging.

SPEAKER_02:

That really does. I've accomplished this because I've moved forward in my life. I've aged.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. And it's because of my aging that I am who I am. So I think, you know, in personal ways, those are the first things we can do is start to see it differently. And then outwardly, we can start to recognize the bias that we may have when we make an assumption about someone based on their age and try and catch that bias and instead say, I don't know anything about this person Let me ask. Let me find out more about them. Let me not be driven by an assumption based on age. And then we can think about our language and, you know, kind of how we say things and use things. But I think that personal reflection is really the key piece.

SPEAKER_02:

It's really recognizing it, right? Yes. Yes. That's so powerful to think about our language. are aging in terms of the changes that we see and the progress that we make. I just love that. That is a really important message that you have to share. Do you have some tools or strategies for reminding ourselves of these things or internalizing that message?

SPEAKER_01:

I think to, you know, read as much about it as you can to be actually, you know, thinking about journaling, thinking through your own thoughts, remembering that wherever you are today is fine. You know, I don't want anyone to feel a sense of I do things that are that are ageist, I say things or think things, that's okay, we can't do better until we know better. But once we start kind Catch yourself. And try again.

SPEAKER_02:

Good, good. I think you should put out a journal with some props for us. I think that would be a great next project for you. Great idea. I would buy that. Okay. are hearing this and really thinking about it in a new way for the first time. They maybe want to make a difference. What are some other practical steps that they could take today to combat ageism in maybe in the wider arena, in their community, in the places where they work? How can each of us contribute towards shifting that? I mean, you talked a lot about what we can do personally, but is there a way to get this message out there?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think one of the most powerful ways things that I can think of is recognizing that every one of us is a role model for aging. Every one of us, because it's what we're all doing. So what you say about it matters because you as an individual are teaching it and role modeling it for other people. So the way that you talk to people younger than you, your own kids, the people that you work with really matters. The way you talk about your own aging, the way that we talk to older people matters. So if you are in, you work at a AAA, if you are working with older people, there are lots of strategies that we can use. We can start to think about, you know, how we communicate with older people. Do we talk about future selves and goals and purpose and possibilities, or are we kind of focused on the past? Instead of talking about who somebody used to be, do we talk about who you are and who you are becoming, right? What is it that brings you joy? We can take the deficit to the strengths. Some of that is just thinking about elderhood as a life stage, right? Right now when we talk to older people, a lot of them will introduce themselves and say they're retired. Retirement is a social institution. Retirement is not a life stage. Retirement tells me that you used to work, but it doesn't tell me who you are. Who are you now? So we can like start to really have strengths based purpose driven conversations with people. So I think there are, you know, kind of inward and outward things that we can do.

SPEAKER_02:

I love that idea. And I'm even thinking about like when we have events, we have forms that you have to fill out to register for an event. And we always put down, you know, what's your organization and what's your role there. And we often get people replying retired because we have a lot of older adults who are participating in our events. But is there a different way that we could ask that question that would encourage people to tell us who they are? Maybe we just say, who are you?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly. Or, you know, what, What is your purpose or goal or motivation for wanting to be here and to join? It's not you're retired. It's because you want to learn something new. It's because you want to give back. It's because you want to contribute, participate. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

The information that we're really trying to gather is sort of like what sector of our space are you from? Who do you represent? Why do you want to attend this event? So there's other ways we could ask that instead of what's your title in your organization. And we could do that in a lot of different areas of the field of aging.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so beautiful. And so you answered your own question. That's something so small that you can do to communicate something with purpose, to take something that was potentially limiting in terms of age and cracking it open. Yeah. You just need to like have

SPEAKER_02:

that aha moment of going, oh,

SPEAKER_01:

yeah, we could do this

SPEAKER_02:

a different way. for ASA, the American Society on Aging, and they are doing an Ageism Awareness Day toolkit that our listeners might be interested in. Are you familiar with that? Would you be able to share a little bit about that toolkit?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. Please feel free to go to the ASA website, Ageism Awareness Day. I think this is our third year that ASA has really put some effort behind raising awareness of ageism. And having a day is such a wonderful start to give people the opportunity to say, okay, wait, what is ageism and why should I care about this? So there's fact sheets that you can go look if you want any statistics about ageism. If you want to know about the impact of ageism, there's chock full of research on these fact sheets that we have. Going back to the 100th day of school, there's something on that as well as alternatives of how we can engage with our school districts. I love that. That's one of my favorite things. Because if you have kids in

SPEAKER_02:

school, you're going to get hit with the 100th day celebration and dress like an older adult, unfortunately. And this is a way to advocate.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. A way to say, hey, there's other ways of doing it. There's resources on there that I think, you know, are some of those things we were talking about. How do I start to think about this? How do I start to talk about this? So the toolkit is just a wonderful way to start if you're either dipping your toe into ageism or anti how ageism work for the first time, or you're seasoned in it and you just want more resources. I think there's something for everyone.

SPEAKER_02:

And it's to use throughout the year. It's not just for ageism awareness day, right? These are tools that you could use anytime.

SPEAKER_01:

This is every day. Yes. I mean, we have opportunities to role model every single day. guess

SPEAKER_02:

yeah so the actual day is a great time to celebrate and to kick it off and to help build some awareness and we are doing a lot of social media and promotion of the awareness day itself but these tools and resources are there for folks and we'll be sure to link to those resources in our show notes and we'll be supporting it on social media as well excellent yeah thanks for sharing about that and for all of the work that you do I'm really excited that we got to talk today and to be able to share your voice and your ideas with our listeners. Dr. Gendron, thank you so much for being here. Oh,

SPEAKER_01:

thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure. I appreciate that you're giving some thought to this. I appreciate that you're making it a priority for you because it's really important. It is. It makes the difference in how we see ourselves in our own future and how we interact with people. And just, yeah, I'm grateful

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you for being here. Do you have any more TED Talks planned? Not in the near future, but you never know. Maybe someday. It was an excellent talk. And we will also link to your TED Talk because it gives such a great overview. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome to your Medicare Minute. My name is Val Guzman and I'm the Benefit Access Specialist here at AgeGuide. Today we are answering a question about Medicare enrollment. When is the annual enrollment period? And does that mean my Medicare is changing next year? Medicare's annual enrollment period is going on from October 15th to December 7th and your coverage could be changing so it's important to stay informed. Many Medicare health and drug plans change their costs every year, so while your current plan may have higher prices, there could be new plans that cost less. It's important to compare your plan options every year to be sure that you have the best plan that covers what you need and saves you money. A big change for 2025 is that there will be an annual cap of$2,000 on the cost of your prescriptions. So that means after you reach this limit, the plan will pay 100%. Also, if you have expensive medications, you'll have the option to spread out the cost over several months instead of having to pay all at once. Your pharmacy will offer you these spread out payments the next time you refill your prescriptions. So a lot of improvements have been made to Medicare, and you can visit the Age Guide website at ageguide.org to get connected with a SHIP counselor and get a better idea of how Medicare will work for you in 2025. Thank

SPEAKER_02:

you for listening to The Age Guide, Perspectives on the Aging Journey. Age Guide coordinates and administers many services for older adults in northeastern Illinois. Our specially trained professionals are available to answer questions and connect you with local service providers and resources. If you are interested in these services or want to learn more, go to our website at ageguide.org or call our offices at 630-293-5990. Please follow our podcast so you can be notified in your streaming account. Thank you, and we will see you next time on the Age Guide podcast.