Hi there, I'm Jason Gautz, and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.

In 1972, the year I was born, there was apparently a famous TV ad for Geratol.

My guest today describes it thus.

Quote, a husband spoke to the camera while his wife draped herself

over his shoulder, smiling like something between a model and the brainwashed resident of a

creepy commune. My wife's incredible. She took care of the baby all day, cooked a great dinner,

and even went to a school meeting, and look at her, end quote. Her potion of eternal youth

is, of course, geritol. It's got all the vitamins and iron

she needs. This perfect woman grins silently at the camera as her husband concludes, my wife,

I think I'll keep her. Though what constitutes getting old for women in America has been a moving

target throughout our history, it has rarely been a picnic. But our history

is also full of women who have raised hell and pushed back in a hundred different ways against

the cultural and literal corsets America keeps trying to stuff them into. My guest today is New

York Times columnist and celebrated author Gail Collins. Her new book is No Stopping Us Now,

a history of older women in America. It's a bumpy,

often exhilarating ride through the lives of older women in America from colonial times up to the

present day. And Gail's good company as our wise, wisecracking stagecoach driver. We're headed west,

and there's hope on the horizon. Welcome to think again, Gail. Thank you. It's great to be here.

Maybe we can start with pants. Pants? Maybe beginning with bloomers. I thought that might be a nice

entree. That's a very interesting entree. No one has ever done that to me before. Let's start with

pants. Yeah, I mean, it's the fact that women were not comfortable in the clothes they wore was a really limiting thing.

And the whole idea was really to make sure that you couldn't go wandering off by yourself or something.

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