We Have Age Minimums. Why Not Age Maximums?

Matter of Opinion

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Ross Douthat, News, New York Times, Journalism

4.2 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 June 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The median age of senators is 65. We’re heading into a presidential contest that might find candidates who are 78 and 82 facing off on Election Day. Our government, people have argued, is a gerontocracy. But is that a bad thing? Should our older leaders take a back seat? And for all of us, how do you know when it’s the right time to retire? (A full transcript of the episode will be available midday on the Times website.)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	How old and without having to reveal everyone's ages,
0:03.6	how old are you in your head?
0:06.3	I think I'm 38.
0:08.1	38 is when I finally got the job I always wanted
0:11.3	and I suddenly, like, the world was sort of unfolding
0:14.6	before me.
0:15.5	I had recently gotten married, had my first son.
0:18.5	This was suddenly, like, oh, this is my life.
0:20.8	Look, I'm the opposite.
0:22.1	I mean, every time I think about the degree of maintenance
0:25.0	required to keep myself from just falling apart,
0:28.4	every time I back cracks or my tendonitis and my elbow
0:32.1	flares up, I'm like, oh, I've got to be 75.
0:36.0	I was going to say that I feel ageless,
0:37.6	although I recently learned that one, one should know,
0:40.4	I think of you.
0:41.2	One should not refer to an older person as ageless
0:44.3	because it's coded language for, you know,
0:46.3	old but still in pretty good shape.
0:48.4	I aspire to be ageless.
0:49.7	I would too.
0:50.4	I would too.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New York Times Opinion, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of New York Times Opinion and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.