Ageism Word List

AGEISM

Discrimination based on age

WATCH

1. I Care a Lot — J Blakeson, 2020 · Film · A legal guardian exploiting elderly clients; ageism weaponized as a business model.

2. The Father — Florian Zeller, 2020 · Film · Dementia experienced from the inside; Anthony Hopkins at his most shattering.

3. Still Alice — Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland, 2014 · Film · Early-onset Alzheimer’s and what identity means when memory fails.

4. Alive Inside — Michael Rossato-Bennett, 2014 · Documentary · Music reviving memory in elderly people dismissed as unreachable.

5. Young at Heart — Stephen Walker, 2007 · Documentary · A chorus of seniors in their 70s–90s performing rock music; joyful subversion.

6. Nebraska — Alexander Payne, 2013 · Film · An aging man and his son on a road trip; dignity, time, and what fathers leave behind.

7. The Intern — Nancy Meyers, 2015 · Film · A 70-year-old intern in a startup; lightweight but raises real questions about age and value.

8. Away from Her — Sarah Polley, 2006 · Film · A husband watching his wife disappear into Alzheimer’s; quietly devastating.

9. Amour — Michael Haneke, 2012 · Film · Two elderly musicians facing decline and death on their own terms.

10. Time Out of Mind — Oren Moverman, 2014 · Film · An older man becoming homeless; invisible to everyone around him.

LISTEN

1. Aging Matters — NPR · Policy and human stories at the intersection of aging and society.

2. The Aging Project Podcast — Various · Rethinking what it means to grow old in America.

3. Exactly Right: Older and Wiser — Various · Older women in conversation about culture, body, and power.

4. Elderhood — Louise Aronson audiobook · A geriatrician rethinking how America treats its elderly.

5. Hidden Brain: Age episodes — Shankar Vedantam · The psychology of how we perceive and treat older people.

6. The Longest Day — Alzheimer’s Association podcast · Caregiving, dementia, and the realities of aging.

7. Fresh Air: Aging in America — Terry Gross · Decades of interviews on aging, health, and meaning.

8. Death, Sex and Money: Aging episodes — WNYC · Honest conversations about getting older that most media avoids.

9. Being Mortal audiobook — Atul Gawande · Medicine, aging, and how we fail the elderly.

10. Ologies: Gerontology — Alie Ward · The science of aging made engaging and humane.

READ

1. Being Mortal — Atul Gawande · Medicine’s failure to honor what aging people actually want from their lives.

2. Elderhood — Louise Aronson · A geriatrician’s case for reimagining old age as a full and valued life stage.

3. This Chair Rocks — Ashton Applewhite · A manifesto against ageism from someone who decided to fight it head-on.

4. The Measure of My Days — Florida Scott-Maxwell · A psychologist’s journal written at 82; fierce and luminous.

5. Still Here — Ram Dass · Aging, disability, and spiritual practice after a devastating stroke.

6. The End of Old Age — Marc Agronin · A geriatric psychiatrist redefining what late life can and should look like.

7. How We Age — Marc Agronin · Stories from a psychiatrist working with the oldest old.

8. When I Am Old I Shall Wear Purple — Jenny Joseph · The beloved poem and essays on aging without apology.

9. Old Age — Helen M. Luke · A Jungian exploration of what the final years ask of us spiritually.

10. The Denial of Death — Ernest Becker · The cultural roots of ageism in our terror of mortality.