055 – Interview: Bill Thomas on Ageism & Innovations to Improve Aging

In This Episode:

Dr. K talks with geriatrician Bill Thomas, MD, founder of ChangingAging.org, the Eden Alternative, and the Green House Project. They discuss his recent efforts to counter ageism and his latest housing-related projects, including:

• What is ageism and why is it so pervasive
• The stories we tell ourselves about aging (including our own aging) and youth
• Thinking about lifespan in terms of childhood, adulthood, and elderhood
• Why it’s a problem for older adults to cling to “adulthood” as part of their identities
• The words we use and why we might embrace the term “elder”
• How having “too much house” is risky in aging, and how a Minka house might help
• How Bill Thomas is planning for his own aging
• His plan to pilot a “Multi-Ability, multiGenerational, Inclusive, Community” (“MAGIC”) in 2018

Related episodes: 

035 – Interview: Aging in the Right Place

082- Interview: Bill Thomas on Housing & Communities as Engines of Independence in Aging

100 – Interview: Bill Thomas on Ageism, Housing & Changing Aging in 2019

Related Resources:

• ChangingAging.org:
  • Independence Rising (Nov 2017 article by Bill Thomas)
  • Minka (includes pictures)
• MyMinka.com
• Senior Living Innovator Bill Thomas Introduces MAGIC Housing Model
• We’re lucky if we get to be old, physician and professor believes
• Reframing Aging
• When It Comes to Older Adults, Language Matters: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
• Experiences from Pagan Women: A Closer Look at Croning Rituals