This Chair Rocks

On March 5th, the day my manifesto was published by Celadon Books, I landed a full 50 minutes on NPR’s I received a bunch of wonderful responses, of which my favorite by far was this one from Sharon Morrissey: This week I am embarking on an intensive six week hot yoga teacher training in Canada. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

How’s that for jazzy! Reviews in many UK publications, including the Spectator and the Irish Times are in the works, and I’ll be coming to London to promote the Melville House edition on May 20th. Stay tuned! Beef up in the meanwhile by ordering the book online from your local bookshop via the Hive (pick it up or get it delivered straight to you); or order it from Waterstones, Foyles, or Blackwells

With that in mind, let me say it has been quite a journey, starting in 2013 with many, many months of WotB (“WOT-bee,” for Working on the Book, my shorthand for why I couldn’t come out and play) at the kitchen table ; on to the publisher that had an option turning it down because they were “concerned that no one else is writing about this;” on to the decision to Self-Publish Together to Change the World (a thousand thanks to all who made up that original “together” and helped put the book on the map exactly three years ago); and on to finding the right editor, Jamie Raab, who bought the manifesto in 2018 for the inaugural list of her new company, a new Macmillan imprint called Celadon Books; and on to March 5, 2019 –publication day! She has high hopes, and so do I. I’m heading out today on a multi-city book tour; details here. , find me on the road, join the movement to dismantle ageism and make the world a better place in which to grow old—which is a better world for every one of us. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

The issue is the candidate’s ideology, not their age Older voters are widely blamed for bringing us Trump and Brexit, yet class, race and gender all predict voting behavior far more accurately than age does. Actuarial tables tell us that the average 80-year-old faces a 36% risk of dying within six years and a 16% risk of being diagnosed with some form of dementia by age 84. The issue is the culture the candidate inhabits,  not their age Sanders would turn 80 during his first term in office, and in an ageist world, being an octogenarian is a liability. When he announced his candidacy, the senator placed age alongside gender, race, and sexual orientation as a criterion for diversity, calling for “a nondiscriminatory society that evaluates people based on their abilities, on what they stand for.