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The Measure of Our Age

Navigating Care, Safety, Money, and Meaning Later in Life

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The Measure of Our Age

By: M.T. Connolly
Narrated by: Tracie Frank
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About this listen

 An expert on elder justice maps the challenges of aging, how things go wrong, and presents powerful tools we can use to forge better long lives for ourselves, our families, and our communities.

As tens of millions of Americans are living longer lives, longevity is creating challenges that cut across race, class, and gender. Caregivers help older relatives for “free,” but with high costs to themselves in time, money, jobs, and health. Scammers target countless seniors. The institutions built to protect older people—like nursing homes and guardianship—too often harm them instead. And epidemics of isolation and loneliness make older people vulnerable to all sorts of harm.

In The Measure of Our Age, elder justice expert and MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, M.T. Connolly investigates the systems we count on to protect us as we age. Weaving first-person accounts, her own experience, and shocking investigative reporting, she exposes a reality that has long been hidden and sometimes actively covered up. But her investigation also reveals reasons for hope within everyone’s grasp.

Connolly’s strategies and action plans for navigating the many challenges of aging will appeal to a wide range of readers—adult children caring for aging parents; policymakers trying to do the right thing; and, should we be so lucky as to live to old age, all of us. This book transforms how we think about aging. Abuse Aging Parent Dysfunctional Families Parenting & Families Relationships Ageing Money

Critic reviews

“A book that deserves wide attention and discussion among aging readers and those who care for them.” —Kirkus
“This is a brilliant, urgent, and much-needed book that will occupy a special place on my bookshelves. In a rapidly aging country, the clear-eyed wisdom alone of The Measure of Our Age would make it exceptional, but M.T. Connolly also happens to be the rare expert who can write movingly and beautifully. I learned from this book, I loved it, and I’m sure I’ll be reaching for it again and again.”—David Finkel, Pulitzer Prize-winner, and author of Thank You for Your Service
“Our current systems are failing older people and their caregivers. This book reveals the new realities and challenges of aging today with invaluable insights to help us live both long and well. The Measure of Our Age is a humane and hopeful guide for anyone navigating the complexities of aging and care—who, in time, will include all of us.”—Ai-jen Poo, President of the National Domestic Workers Alliance & Executive Director of Caring Across Generations
“With a lawyer’s understanding of complex systems, a caregiver’s heart, and an advocate’s passion, Connolly has written a book that individuals, organizations, and government leaders can use to make aging easier, better, and safer for all of us.”—Louise Aronson, MD, New York Times-bestselling author of Elderhood
“This book is a revelation. It invites us to change how we think about caring, about aging, and about how we spend our time. With deep knowledge, humor, and heart, The Measure of Our Age shows us how to grapple with the hard parts of aging as well as its unrealized potential. This profound life-enhancing invitation is one Connolly extends to us all."—Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family
“M.T. Connolly is without doubt our nation’s preeminent guide to aging well. The Measure of Our Age is a singular testament to the power of purpose, meaning, connection, interdependence, and, above all, love. All that, plus a roadmap to fixing the systemic problems that make aging so much harder than it should be. A compelling read, from start to finish.”—Marc Freedman, author, How to Live Forever, and Founder and CoCEO, CoGenerate
All stars
Most relevant
This is probably the best non- fiction book I have read or listened to for a long time, and it took me by surprise. This book touches in a very personal way many aspects of ageing and elder care, in particlar financial, judicial, psychological and philosophical aspects. I believe this is a "must read" for anyone who is confronted with the care of an elder person and/or is thinking about the ways to plan his/her later years. In partcular, this book is "a must read" for politicians who are being entrusted with the shaping and reforming of our future Health and Social Care.
Having lived in the US, England and Switzerland, I find the issues discussed based on the United States applicable for much for the Society of the Western World. It certainly has revolutionized my thinking and care about my ageing parents in Switzerland and my thinking about my own old age here in the UK.
I also liked the narrator, Tracy Frank. Initially, I was disappointed that MT Connolly is not reading her book herself, but as the narration went on, my perception of the narrators voice and intonation became one with the ones of the author; - maybe a touch less nervous, a bit calmer and more serene, thus intensifying the experience.

a must read for anyone confronted with elder care

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