Hi, it's Diane. On my mind, aging. In 1900, we lived in average of 38 years. By 8

the year 2000, our average lifespan had been extended by nearly four decades. Our guest

today argues, unfortunately, our country's policies and institutions have not

kept pace with our advances in longevity. Too often we feel like we failed at aging or failed

at caregiving when in fact we've been failed by society's broken systems.

M.T. Conley is an attorney and longtime elder rights advocate. She received

democratic genius support for her work. Her new book is titled The Measure of Our Age

and identifies the obstacles that present us from maintaining quality of life into old age

and what we can do about them.

M.T. In the first pages of your book, you write quote, we strive for longevity but feel

conflicted about old age. What do you mean?

I mean that we have moved heaven and earth to live longer lives. We've used science and

public health and hygiene and all sorts of tools to extend life and have been spectacularly

successful at that. Yet we haven't really focused on how to assure quality of life in

the time that we've gained. I think a lot of it is because we have very mixed feelings

about aging. It's accompanied by a lot of fear and denial and sometimes shame and that

really undermines our ability to embrace it and assure we have the social systems to support

us and to take best advantage of the amazing things that old age can offer.

I wonder whether that is especially true women. Women have spent their lives hiding their age,

believing that age is somehow going to take away their beauty, their sexuality, their ability

to be hired and so they begin thinking negatively about age at such an early age.

That's exactly right and I agree with you that it's particularly insidious with women because

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