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Want to End Ageism? Start by Watching This TED Talk

Ashton Applewhite makes a call to action to build a movement

By Shayla Thiel Stern

Ashton Applewhite, the author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Aging, wants us to "dismantle the dread" about growing older and start recognizing that aging is not a disease to be cured.

Recently, Applewhite has taken her message to a worldwide stage by speaking at the annual international TED Conference in Vancouver in June 2017,

Next Avenue readers may be familiar with Applewhite, our 2016 Influencer in Aging of the Year. She consistently challenges people to recognize and rise up against ageism, which she calls the "last socially acceptable prejudice." In this engaging TED Talk, she calls on the world to recognize ageism, stop making disparaging quips about our own “senior moments” and pitting our current selves against our future selves.

Applewhite told Next Avenue in an interview last fall that now is the time to build a movement against ageism and to do it right.

"Since we’re at the very beginning of this movement, we have an incredible opportunity to make it truly inclusive, to try and ensure that no one, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, socioeconomic status — all of these things — is left out of this conversation. Everyone ages, after all," she said.

Watch her TED Talk here.

Shayla Thiel Sternis the former Director of Editorial and Content for Next Avenue at Twin Cities PBS. Read More
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