Aging Unfiltered: Flipping the Script on Ageism - With Jan Golden and Sara Breindel

With Ageism Awareness Day approaching, the final episode of Aging Unfiltered features Jan Golden, founder of Age Friendly Vibes, and Sara Breindel, Communications Specialist and Ageism Consultant with the American Society on Aging. Jan shares how a contest for anti-ageist birthday cards led her to create an age-positive greeting card company, while Sara recalls the moment she realized how subtle language can reinforce stereotypes. Together, they explore why our mindset toward aging matters, and how the way we talk about aging shapes culture while influencing health and longevity.  Sara and Jan share how stories, word choices, and even humor affect how we think and feel about aging. Tune in to discover practical ways we can all flip the script and build a more inclusive vision of growing older.

Episode Links

https://www.agefriendlyvibes.com

https://www.asaging.org

ASA Ageism Awareness Day Homepage

Social Media Toolkit

Fact Sheet 

Contact Sara: agepositive@asaging.org

Becca Levy’s Breaking the Age Code

Aging Unfiltered: The Power of Intergenerational Advocacy – with Arielle Galinsky

Aging Unfiltered: The Power of Human Connections Across Generations - with Shari Foos

https://www.smpresource.org

Facebook: facebook.com/AgeGuide
Twitter: twitter.com/AgeGuide
Instagram: instagram.com/theageguidepodcast
Podcast: ageguide.org/the-age-guide-podcast
Website: ageguide.org

Transcript

00:00:09:02 - 00:00:40:14
Haley
Welcome to The Age Guide podcast series Aging Unfiltered, where we explore bold conversations about ageism and growing older. In today's world. I'm Hayley Williams, filling in for Gretchen as your host today. Age guide is an area agency on aging, helping our community to age well at home. In this episode, I'm joined by Jan Golden, founder of Age Friendly Vibes, an age friendly greeting card company, and Sarah Brandel, communications specialist and ageism consultant with American Society on Aging.

00:00:40:16 - 00:01:05:20
Haley
As we're recording, this Ageism Awareness Day is coming up on October 9th. This is an annual day focused on challenging stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination related to age. Some of our listeners are very familiar with ageism awareness, and if you've been following our podcast series, Aging Unfiltered this year, you've learned a lot about different aspects of this ism that is so persistent in our culture.

00:01:05:22 - 00:01:25:06
Haley
But we've got some experts and changemakers with us today, so we're going to dive a little deeper into this topic. And I think all of us are going to take away some new inspiration from today's conversation. I'd like to start by asking each of you, Jan and Sarah, to introduce yourself and tell us how you came to work in this space that focuses on how we talk.

00:01:25:11 - 00:01:33:20
Haley
Think and feel about aging. Have you been in the aging space your whole career? Jan, let's start with you.

00:01:33:22 - 00:01:53:16
Jan
Okay, great. Thank you for that introduction. My name is Jan. I'm the founder of, greeting card company called Age Friendly Vibes, which focuses on age positive greeting cards, which are very much needed in this world. I'm pretty new to the ageism space or the anti-aging space.

00:01:53:16 - 00:02:26:03
Jan
Probably 6 or 7 years into it. I feel like that is pretty, pretty new. I became aware of ageism working in. I live in the Denver area, and I volunteered for an anti-aging ageism campaign called Changing the Narrative, which is actually where I met Sara, and I was involved in this organization because of my background in tech and my experience firsthand with workplace age discrimination in the tech field, especially being an older woman in tech.

00:02:26:05 - 00:03:12:03
Jan
And, just offered my services and skills to try to help advance awareness around ageism. It's actually the way I got involved in anti-ageist greeting cards as well, because of, a birthday card contest, an anti-ageist birthday card contests that happened during Covid. I was, participating in that campaign, and, you know, I discovered that I absolutely loved using my graphic design background and my tech skills designing, cards that actually flip the script about ageist messages that are still so prevalent in the greeting card industry and just have really enjoyed kind of diving in and, you know, making an impact in that space.

00:03:12:03 - 00:03:24:03
Jan
Like, again, that I was mentioning is very much needed. So yeah, pretty new to the space, but absolutely love it. I feel like is important and everybody's aging. So here we go.

00:03:24:05 - 00:03:34:21
Haley
Yeah. And ageism is one of those things that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And greeting cards you've opened my eyes to that. Especially how how prevalent it is in that area.

00:03:34:23 - 00:03:39:16
Haley
Sarah, what about you? How did you, come into the aging space in your career?

00:03:39:18 - 00:03:53:10
Sara
Sure. It was also sort of by accident. I've been working in communications and marketing in non-profits for a bit, and I ended up in a job where I was working for an organization that served older adults. And while I was there, I think initially.

00:03:53:10 - 00:04:11:20
Sara
Oh, I know initially I was exposed to how we spoke about older adults and how we talked about it, and I wasn't sure why I was unsettled at first. I was working with someone who was writing about, some older adults who were living with dementia, and she talked about how, how much she loved being there because they were so adorable.

00:04:11:22 - 00:04:27:01
Sara
And there was just this visceral reaction on my part. I'm like, I don't think I want to be called adorable. I'm not sure what's going on here, but it's not feeling right. And it was definitely an eye opener. A lot to unpack on my own ageism and my own internalized ageism, as well as what? Whether that was a good way to talk about other people.

00:04:27:03 - 00:04:45:18
Sara
And then while I was working there, I ended up being one of the early trainees in age friendly communications by Changing the Narrative. And I ended up working at Changing the Narrative not long after. And as it grew into a national anti-ageism campaign, obviously met Jan and worked with her there. But got really involved with that and it's been it's been great.

00:04:45:18 - 00:04:59:05
Sara
I really came to it more with the idea of being a communications person and being interested in being inclusive, and how do we talk about people so that we bring people in, not being as aware initially that age was a factor, and I've learned a lot.

00:04:59:07 - 00:05:10:06
Haley
You both mentioned changing the narrative, flipping the script, that idea. And I know that you're both involved in the American Society on Aging ageism awareness campaign.

00:05:10:08 - 00:05:20:05
Haley
Jan, can you tell me, as the co-chair of their Ageism and Cultural Advisory Council, how are you preparing for the upcoming ageism Awareness Day this October 9th?

00:05:20:07 - 00:05:37:24
Jan
Yeah. So, first of all, the American Society on Aging, I just really was impressed by the organization as a whole. And then I think it's my third year involved with, maybe my second full year involved with the campaign.

00:05:38:01 - 00:06:25:21
Jan
For Ageism Awareness Day. I was on the ageism and culture advisory, ageism and culture Advisory Council via sorry. And one of the main focus of that council is to promote and support ageism, awareness Day. I volunteered my time to actually help with the graphic design and help through some of the website, updates. I actually designed the logo for Ageism Awareness Day, which was pretty fun, and then also spent a lot of time like revisiting the toolkit and just making sure that we had a lot of resources available that made sense, that allowed people and organizations to easily take action on Ageism Awareness Day, since it is a concentrated day of awareness, we wanted

00:06:25:21 - 00:06:47:20
Jan
people just to kind of flood the internet, their email, communication, everything around ageism and helping people understand more about the harmful impacts around ageism. So it's been a really great, council to be a part of it meant a lot of really great people, and we've done a lot of really impactful work. So

00:06:47:22 - 00:06:56:11
Haley
and we will be linking to those resources in our show notes below, so that our listeners can get involved in the upcoming ageism awareness campaign.

00:06:56:13 - 00:07:02:16
Haley
Sarah, why is the focus on ageism important right now, and what do you hope to accomplish?

00:07:02:16 - 00:07:16:04
Sara
The American Society on Aging, it's one of the pillars of the organization's mission to end ageism. It's a multidisciplinary, professional society for anyone who's working in aging. And ageism is a barrier for everyone who is working in ageism to get their work done.

00:07:16:04 - 00:07:42:10
Sara
And ageism is always important because it impacts our physical and mental well-being. It impacts our financial well-being as individuals. That impacts, our economy, their cost to the economy through health care, through not hiring people with your workplace discrimination. It's always been a big issue, with our society, aging, though, with a society that's increasingly older, it's even more imperative these days that we don't let ageism get in the way of finding solutions to the problems that face all of us.

00:07:42:12 - 00:07:58:24
Sara
And one of the one of the pieces of ageism that we're trying to counter in general, and especially this year, are the stereotypes that aging is a single experience, that one person at 60 is having the exact same experience as the other person at 60, or the two people who are at 20, or that having the same experience for that matter.

00:07:59:01 - 00:08:33:09
Sara
Aging is a really diverse experience. One person at 60 is working. One person is starting a new job, one person is taking care of a loved one, one person. So it's kids in the house. And that's just assuming, like workplace kinds of considerations. There's also a tremendously diverse experience of aging. Everybody ages. So everyone is not, the older married couple who's wealthy, running down the beach in a commercial bus that people are aging, whether whatever ratio or whatever your gender, your sexual orientation, your socioeconomic level, your education, that all impacts how you age.

00:08:33:09 - 00:08:51:04
Sara
It impacts your day to day experience every day. And so we're really trying to break the idea that aging is one thing. So this this year we're going to be sharing stories about the diverse experience of aging and also giving people as many resources as possible to talk about ageism in a way that makes sense for them as individuals and for the organization.

00:08:51:06 - 00:09:05:04
Sara
So we're hoping to accomplish is that more and more people will get involved in this. More and more organizations will be talked, will be understand, and will be helping us spread awareness about what it means to be aging for real in the in America.

00:09:05:06 - 00:09:12:06
Haley
So there's a large effort towards shifting those internal narratives, about aging and what that looks like for, for us and others,

00:09:12:08 - 00:09:36:15
Sara
internal and external, which is really kind of circular. I think it's our internal narratives that affects how we see the world and how we understand things, but also the stories that are being told around us affect our internal narratives. So if people are only showing pictures of older adults doing certain things, or only older adults in decline in being sad and lonely, only older adults, not being able to use tech or only older adults being successfully retired.

00:09:36:17 - 00:10:02:07
Sara
All those kinds of things we need. We need a diverse representation of what's actually happening to people so that we can understand aging better, or we're not thinking of it as something that only happens one way. And we're also not thinking about older adults as “them,” the other people that something happens to. So it's it's it's nuanced, but we're really trying to get a better picture out there so that the stories we tell ourselves, as well as the stories that we see, are things that really represent what aging actually is.

00:10:02:09 - 00:10:25:06
Haley
You talked about the circular aspect of those internal narratives leading to the external, messages we send, and I think that has a lot to do with Jan, and Age Friendly Vibes, the greeting cards that you make. Can you tell us more about how you've turned the industry on its head a little bit? And are these age friendly messages catching on? How is the response been from the people that you've reached?

00:10:25:08 - 00:11:04:20
Jan
Yeah. It is actually interesting because most people understand ageism, meaning just how getting older is perceived in this country through celebration of birthdays, which makes sense, because that's when we all think about age and talk about age. And when I started this business, I mentioned I was part of an anti aging birthday card contest during Covid and I, I googled clever or funny birthday card, and I was just astounded to see the number of really ages messages that were coming up in the search results.

00:11:04:22 - 00:11:37:02
Jan
And so I decided to do something about it. And started with, you know, designing a couple of cards that flip the script but think instead of, you know, “damn, you're old” think “damn you're hot.” That's sort of the, the general, kind of messaging type of messaging that I, I do, but what's been interesting is I got involved in the greeting card association because I needed to really have influence, or I wanted to really have influence with retailers, with other makers, with these large organizations that were creating these ageist messages.

00:11:37:04 - 00:12:02:08
Jan
And it's worked. From the perspective of just providing a different type of message and narrative, there's been a gap in the market, for sure. There's a lot of and we you know, as Sara mentioned, everybody's aging and the demographics are such that the over 50 population in this country is, is huge and actually has very large, buying power as well.

00:12:02:10 - 00:12:35:16
Jan
And so the messages that I put out there with celebrating age and actually talking about age, not being afraid to talk about age, but talking about the upside of getting older and clever, inspiring and thought provoking ways really resonates with with people. And my sales and recognition that I've gotten in the industry, just proves it. I've been in business for years now, and I've got I, you know, I've had some success and recognition in the greeting card industry for my designs.

00:12:35:16 - 00:12:53:24
Jan
I've also got cards in in stores all across the country, including in Barnes and Noble and Paper Source. So, I've had great success, but I think it's just because people are ready to hear a different narrative around aging, especially on birthdays. So

00:12:54:01 - 00:13:09:06
Haley
and a lot of your greeting cards use humor to, to rewrite that narrative on aging. So can we talk a little bit more about humor and how it comes to play in this conversation? That's right. Either one of you have you have, some thoughts,

00:13:09:08 - 00:13:12:07
Jan
Sarah. Go ahead. Okay.

00:13:12:09 - 00:13:20:05
Sara
It's such a complicated thing. You could easily write a dissertation on humor and what it means. There are whole books on, that kind of thing.

00:13:20:07 - 00:13:43:05
Sara
The easiest way to think about it for me is that all the stories we tell reflect our beliefs and our values, and that includes our humor and our jokes. So if I'm telling you a joke and we're both laughing, we share something underneath our belief that we both have a value that we both have. And I think it's really important that we at least that we're curious and open about the stories we're telling and the humor we're telling to think about what's this?

00:13:43:05 - 00:14:01:00
Sara
What's the thing underneath it, what's the thing that we're laughing at? What's the value or this or that is the story that we're sharing. Humor is always complicated because there's a context aspect of it. If Jan and I are telling jokes to each other just by ourselves, sitting there like, you know, meeting up after work or something like that, I know where she's coming from.

00:14:01:05 - 00:14:26:03
Sara
She knows where I'm coming from. The joke has a certain context. I mean, certain other things, when it's on the front of a birthday card that everyone sees in target, or when it's a national advertising campaign that's utilizing jokes about something, it becomes a much more public conversation about what values we share, in which what we believe about in this case, like believe about aging, if you're thinking about that, but humor, just like anything else that we're any other stories we're telling, anything else we're doing, we're underneath that story.

00:14:26:03 - 00:14:45:02
Sara
If we're connecting in some way, there's some sort of values and beliefs underneath that. And I think it's worth being curious about that to to sort of analyze, are we what it was, what is that storytelling, whether it's a joke or whether it's something else about what we think about aging or what we think about? Honestly, in the past, when there were racial jokes or more jokes about gender and things like that, for us both to laugh at it.

00:14:45:02 - 00:14:56:19
Sara
But we share that sort of we shared that set of beliefs and those set of values. And so I think with humor, that's possibly ageist or that's making fun of age, we need to ask the same questions.

00:14:56:21 - 00:15:09:23
Jan
Yeah. And the reason why it's relevant is that I think jokes about getting old still get a pass in society. And, and people like to make fun of, getting older.

00:15:09:23 - 00:15:40:05
Jan
And as Sarah mentioned, it's like a shared experience that we all have. But it contributes to that narrative, that drip, drip, drip. What I like to say is that, you know, your future boss is seeing that age is message your health care provider. Seeing that age is message. You know, everybody is seeing that kind of message around how getting older is all about decline, depression and dementia in however funny way you can spin that.

00:15:40:05 - 00:16:06:10
Jan
So we're working hard to provide an alternative to that and to bring awareness. We do get pushback, on, when we call out like a just humor because, you know, don't take away my funny joke because on my birthday kind of thing. So again, it's kind of nuanced. And as Sarah was mentioning, and I think the really important part is just making people aware of adding context to it.

00:16:06:10 - 00:16:19:21
Jan
It's okay if you're just, you know, have an inside joke with your bestie, but it's really not okay when it's, distributed in a broader context in that it's, you know, contributing to the everyday ageism that we see.

00:16:19:23 - 00:16:33:01
Haley
I agree, how would you encourage us to broaden our perspectives on aging? Would that be challenging stereotypes, calling out ageism when we see it?

00:16:33:03 - 00:17:00:24
Jan
Yeah, I think part of it, is educating yourself about it. And that's what so great about Ageism Awareness Day. It's it when people understand, some of the impacts to longevity, for example, I think we've talked about Doctor Becca Levy's research and breaking the Age Code and the, the, her, famous book. The fact that you're the way you think and feel about aging really impacts your longevity.

00:17:00:24 - 00:17:21:18
Jan
And her research shows up to seven and a half years. It'll it'll impact or longevity by that amount. And I think when you tell people that they kind of get it, they're like, oh, yeah, I know people who blame age or sedentary or isolated and, and then I know other people that have a really good positive outlook about age.

00:17:21:18 - 00:17:55:05
Jan
And, you know, you can understand the impact that your mindset has about aging. So I think when you also bring up, as Sarah mentioned earlier, the workplace age discrimination stuff, the difficulty that older adults have in retaining employment or gaining employment while they're still viable, working, ready to work. And the ageism in health care. There's just a lot of really tangible impacts around our attitudes about aging that that really impacts society as a whole.

00:17:55:07 - 00:18:11:03
Sara
Yeah. When there's I mean, obviously, we're going to keep plugging Ageism Awareness Day because we're creating a lot of resources in that website to help people. But I would say the easiest thing, if you're just individuals and start where you are, is to think about like, again, it's like you buy a new car and then you see that same kind of model everywhere.

00:18:11:03 - 00:18:26:04
Sara
It's the same kind of thing with ageism. You mentioned earlier, Haley, that like when you see, once you start thinking about age, once you start thinking about it, you're going to hear those stories a lot. So you're going to start thinking about you're going to notice the things that you say, like, oh, she's not aging well, or that person doesn't look good for their age.

00:18:26:04 - 00:18:41:19
Sara
And then you have to go back and think, well, what does that mean? That to look good for your age and is it okay to look a certain way. And so you'll start hearing those stories. I also think it's important to just meet people who are not like you. And this is true with any idea, any of the isms and things like that.

00:18:41:19 - 00:19:01:09
Sara
Strike up a conversation with someone who's not your age. And if there's a bit of slang or a movie reference that's too old or too young for you, you don't know. Don't just dismiss it. Go look it up. Learn. Learn what other people are, where they're coming from, and how they express themselves. And often when you find that out, you realize that there's actually we have a lot more in common across age groups than we do within them.

00:19:01:11 - 00:19:15:13
Sara
There have been surveys that actually show that, that say that they're actually values and things across generations that we all hold more in common than we do that than we have more in common with people who are our age. So I would also say as individuals, get out there and get out there and just start meeting people and being curious.

00:19:15:15 - 00:19:32:16
Sara
If you're an organization, there are all kinds of things you can do to share information about this. You can talk about how your organization cares about aging. And we have at American Society, website, we have tons of facts about aging. If you want to pull something out about your specific area where you work, there's a sample press release.

00:19:32:16 - 00:19:50:06
Sara
There's a sample proclamation. If you would like to get your local legislators involved in this and saying that they're behind, this effort as well, working on newsletter blurbs, all kinds of other resources for people. So if you want to write about this, write a letter to your editor. If you're part of a community organization, you can put something in your church newsletter.

00:19:50:06 - 00:20:03:12
Sara
There are things like that. There are lots of ways to do little bits of things, as both an individual and an organization, to help other people become more aware of this. And, at the American Society meeting, we're really excited to help you with that.

00:20:03:14 - 00:20:10:24
Haley
Sarah, you mentioned, the importance of for individuals to to incite conversations with those who are different than them.

00:20:11:01 - 00:20:25:21
Haley
Do you either of you have stories of your own or others that have been pivotal, pivotal in terms of impacting how you think more broadly about the whole spectrum of aging? Any conversations that you remember initiating or being a part of?

00:20:25:23 - 00:20:36:15
Jan
I can start with one. And it kind of goes back to, kind of a powerful experience that I had in with my greeting cards.

00:20:36:15 - 00:20:59:23
Jan
I have peers in the industry that, other card makers, and we like to tell stories to each other when we see one of our cards in the wild. I kind of forgot to bring my my card that I was going to talk about. But anyway, I have this friend who's another card maker in New York, and she was at a birthday party, one weekend and she said, hey, come.

00:20:59:23 - 00:21:19:08
Jan
She's let me know that my card was given as a card during this birthday party. And she said it was a hit. You know, everybody was talking about it and how much they liked it. It on the front, it said the older you get, the more beautiful you are inside and out. And she was just talking about what a sweet sentiment it was.

00:21:19:08 - 00:21:39:21
Jan
But the thing that was really interesting is that the birthday girl was 30 years old. She was having a 30th birthday, so I thought that was so. And she just got a big kick out of it too, because when I designed that card, I was thinking of, I don't know, I was thinking of just somebody older that need a little boost on, you know, feeling better about getting older.

00:21:39:21 - 00:22:06:22
Jan
But here is also ageism impacts people of all ages and especially, you know, having a great big impact for somebody at 30 years old. And if you think about that's prime time age where people are taking digs at their peers about getting old and wrinkles and all those things. So I thought that was kind of just a really sweet, story about how you can really impact somebody, especially when they're thinking about age.

00:22:06:24 - 00:22:12:20
Jan
On their birthday, especially a milestone birthday. So that was a cool story.

00:22:12:22 - 00:22:25:00
Haley
It's also a nice reminder that our attitude towards aging is shaped over a lifetime and over a lifetime of little moments like that. So that's a really powerful story. Sarah, do you have anything that comes to mind here?

00:22:25:02 - 00:22:32:17
Sara
We had a really good conversation in, in a less informal way that we had an ageism and ableism webinar.

00:22:32:19 - 00:22:53:21
Sara
It is a few weeks ago, and it's really fascinating. I think a lot of the professionals and folks who work in aging are trying to counter the decline in aging narrative, the idea that as you get sicker, if you have health challenges, people need to stop thinking of older folks as incapable. And if you're coming from the disability standpoint, you're like, I was never incapable just because I was disabled.

00:22:54:02 - 00:23:14:07
Sara
And, you know, whoa. It turns out we've not been thinking about that. Well, even within the aging community, to think about the idea that, like, there's a birthday card, actually, that Jan and I, have used as an example in some previous conversations. We're on the front of the birthday card. The birthday present for the person is a walker because they're getting older, and there's so many things to unpack with that.

00:23:14:09 - 00:23:46:18
Sara
The idea that having a walker means you're a bad person or not valuable in some way, or you should feel bad about yourself, let alone the fact that they're aging equals disability. There's so many layers to that and those kinds of conversations, getting out there and talking to other people who are having other experiences and who are thinking about in a different way, is so crucial and so important and, and it happens even if you're a completely well-meaning person who is doing their job and working in a nonprofit and trying very hard to support folks like, I'm often surprised that sometimes the people who are saying the strangest things about older adults are older

00:23:46:18 - 00:24:06:07
Sara
adults themselves who work in the older adult aging community. So here, a 65 year old leader of an organization talking about our poor seniors, I'm like, whoa, again, lots to unpack there. And like our like, it's an us versus them. You're the other group. Poor like all seniors are sad. There's just so many levels to this. And so I think we have a lot of work to do.

00:24:06:07 - 00:24:24:16
Sara
And the more we meet people in other communities, the more we work with other people who are, coming at things from different angles. The better it is. I another example is, a seminar that I was in at American Society, an aging conference last year, where we were talking about breaking down, power barriers between age groups.

00:24:24:18 - 00:24:44:06
Sara
And we're working on a whole a guide, a set of tips about that, because we have a multi-generational workforce. And it was really interesting to have people in that same seminar who were in their 20s, who were working in the aging field, as well as people in their 60s and everything in between. Talk about how to have conversations between people of different ages so that we're actually sharing power so that we're actually working together.

00:24:44:08 - 00:24:53:12
Sara
It was very it was I was really excited that we're having these kinds of communicate, those kinds of discussions with people from other communities because, we'll just get better if we can work together better.

00:24:53:14 - 00:25:00:07
Haley
Yeah, we've we've done another episode about intergenerational communication so people can check that out, too, if they want to hear more about that.

00:25:00:09 - 00:25:20:11
Haley
So at Age Guide, we're trying to move away from stressing the importance of independence and instead encouraging social connectedness and communication. Do you have any communication tips that could help us to challenge ageism, and to to build more social connectedness among intergenerational connections, or just people in this field?

00:25:20:13 - 00:25:24:13
Sara
First of all, I would just point out that this notion of independence is a little problematic.

00:25:24:18 - 00:25:45:08
Sara
No one is independent at any age in my life, I've not been able to fix all the things that I own there. You know, there's no one who doesn't have some kind of dependance on devices, on on glasses to see, on things like that, like throughout life. So I've always been a little, I'm a little skeptical about the whole notion of dependance and independence and what that means, because it's always, a relative thing.

00:25:45:08 - 00:26:01:15
Sara
And so I think we're all interdependent, and that doesn't change while there were, you know, 20 or 40 or 60 or whatever health concerns and things we have, we're always caring for someone or being cared for by someone, those kinds of things. So I would, I support that that idea of moving away from that idea of independence.

00:26:01:17 - 00:26:24:18
Sara
I from my, my communication tips that I use for myself when I'm trying to write and do well, there are a couple things. One is when I'm writing about other people or when I'm writing about a topic. See if you can switch to the first person. Put yourself in the center of what you're doing. So instead of say, for instance, saying, as people age, I might say as we age or if I.

00:26:24:19 - 00:26:43:14
Sara
So if I get an if I can turn into something that I would be willing to say about myself. That example I had earlier about talking about our poor seniors, how would I feel about being at the other end of that? Or how would I feel about being called Dorable, for instance, things like that, if I put myself in the center of it and if it doesn't feel good to me, it's definitely worth questioning how you're writing about that kind of thing.

00:26:43:19 - 00:27:03:09
Sara
And it's a basic, like age inclusive, communications guide tool we use all the time to just switch to the first person, try to say as we age, try to say as I do this, as we do this, and not you and not they. And if it doesn't work, if it if it feels like maybe it's heavy handed or you don't want to be included in that, it's definitely worth it.

00:27:03:09 - 00:27:11:23
Sara
Not every situation fits that, but it's definitely a nice shorthand for just doing a little gut check of what you're writing about and what you're doing. Is inclusive.

00:27:12:00 - 00:27:29:23
Jan
It reminds me also, the power of just speaking up and initiating a conversation when somebody says something offensive about age or makes remark that you find a little bit off, just you, you can just simply say, tell me more about that.

00:27:30:00 - 00:28:08:22
Jan
You know, I don't feel that way. So tell me a little bit more about why why you're saying that one of the really common examples or use cases is or not use cases, but, you know, I mean, it's is when somebody says you look great for your age, you know, and Ashton Applewhite has the best comeback for that because she, she basically suggests people just go back to that person and say, well, you look great for your age to write and just to initiate a conversation, with somebody to when you when you find them crossing the line, it's really important getting back into that birthday card or conversations.

00:28:08:22 - 00:28:28:18
Jan
That was people are getting older and celebrating their birthdays is to if you're in a room or an event when there's age, just birthday cards present, you know, you can basically just say, so I don't really find this to be that funny. Can you tell me more about what what makes you think this is, you know, funny or appropriate or whatever?

00:28:28:24 - 00:28:52:07
Jan
And then you can also include some of the information that we talked about related to longevity. You know, it's like, well, really how you how you feel about getting older has a big impact on, you know, how you age and how well you age. So why would we make fun of people for getting older or why why are we going to make somebody feel bad about getting older on their birthdays?

00:28:52:07 - 00:29:10:08
Jan
So I think it's really important just to even if you can't do it in the moment, because sometimes there's class or status or other things going on, or you're in a group of people that you really don't know that well. You can have sidebar conversations later with people or go up to the person afterwards and just say, you know, I didn't really think that was all that funny.

00:29:10:08 - 00:29:22:20
Jan
And, you know, kind of give them a little bit more context. So I think it's really important to speak up and, challenge those ages messages when you, when you see them and when you're on common,

00:29:22:22 - 00:29:44:04
Haley
the message about, or the information about your attitude towards aging impacting longevity is really powerful information and should be shared. As we wrap up this conversation, I'm curious if you could send listeners in the right direction as far as educating themselves for this upcoming Ageism Awareness Day, where would you have them go?

00:29:44:04 - 00:29:48:13
Haley
Is at the ASA website. How would they get there?

00:29:48:15 - 00:30:22:02
Sara
Yeah, the website, so it's Asa's website is “asaging.org” and there's a separate web page for ageism awareness on there. And we can hopefully we can get that to you so that it'll be in the show notes. I also have an email address there which is agepositive@asaging.org And if you are an individual, an organization, anyone who has ideas, questions, need certain things. Brainstorming, want to know what's going on in terms of activities or what? Have an activity. I'm happy to give you my email address, obviously, so folks can, reach out and talk to me about that

00:30:22:04 - 00:30:22:18
Haley
great. Thank you.

00:30:22:19 - 00:30:42:17
Jan
There's also our fact sheet. That's great that there's a lot of great facts about ageism. And then there's also a lot of like ways to share on social media ideas for stories, things like that. So check out the great resources on the Ageism Awareness Day page. On the website. That's the best place to start.

00:30:42:19 - 00:30:45:06
Sara
And if you're on social media, that's the easiest way to take action.

00:30:45:06 - 00:31:01:05
Sara
That takes like nothing, no effort. Like you can just follow as a we'll give you the links for those for the social media and things like that. Reshare the posts. There's a social media toolkit on the website that has graphics and has hashtags in the language. So if you're creating a fresh one for your organization, you can just steal all those.

00:31:01:07 - 00:31:06:23
Sara
But social media is probably the, the easiest way to do, some of that as well. And they're resources for that as well.

00:31:07:00 - 00:31:23:02
Haley
Yeah. Great. We will make sure to have all that information linked in our podcast notes as well. Jan and Sarah, thank you so much for joining me today to have this conversation. I'm really looking forward to to spreading awareness about Ageism Awareness Day this October.

00:31:23:04 - 00:31:24:18
Sara
Okay. Thank you for having us.

00:31:24:20 - 00:31:34:09
Jan
Thank you.

00:31:34:11 - 00:32:03:10
Val
Hello and welcome to your Medicare Minutes. My name is Val Guzman and I'm the benefit access specialist here at Age Guide. Medicare fraud and scams are a huge issue where over $60 billion are lost every year. It's important to treat your Medicare number the same way that you would treat your Social Security number or credit cards. You should only share your Medicare number with your doctor and never over the phone.

00:32:03:12 - 00:32:33:19
Val
Check your Medicare statements and look out for any claims that you don't recognize, or that you suspect could be wrong. And when you do suspect something wrong, make sure you're reported right away. You can report potential Medicare fraud to the senior Medicare patrol program. For more information about the S&P program, you can visit our Fraud assistance page on AgeGuide.org, or you can call at 800 528 2000.

00:32:33:21 - 00:33:07:09
Gretchen
Thank you for listening to The Age Guide. Perspectives on the Aging Journey. Each 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.

00:33:07:11 - 00:33:16:06
Gretchen
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