.. aging", joanne jenkins who also serves as ceo of aarp. no, that's not true. 50 is the new 50 and it looks good and that's part of what "disrupt aging" is all about, that the way we are aging is changing and 50 is not the new 30 and 60 is not the new

40, 50 is the new 50 and it's okay. we ought to be comfortable with what age we are. that middle age is really extending well beyond 60 and 65 with this increased longevity. people are living 20 or 30 years longer than they ever anticipated >> what does that mean public policy wise? >> guest: it has huge implications for public policy and for cities, not only in the us but around the world. when social security was originally put in place some 80 years ago, lifeexpectancy was around 62. you've got to work until your 62 and you are likely to die when you were 67 or 68 . today, the fastest-growing age group in this country is people over the age of 85 and the second is over the age of about 100 three we are living really 20 or 30 years longer than our parents or grandparents did so as we think about public policy, about not only social

security and medicare but mobility and this whole wealth of brainpower that is just sitting there in their 60s and 70s and 80s, how can we as society engage the 50+ generation in helping us to solve some of our ills in this country. >> host: why is it we are living longer? before it's a lot to do with our advances we've made in medicine and technology. we are also hopefully eating healthier and exercising. we know people who have a better eating habits and are physically and mentally active, they tend to live longer and if you feel good about what you are doing, our latest research says you're going to live another six or seven years longer if you have meaning and purpose in your life so i think all those things add up to this increased longevity we are all experiencing.

>> host: from your book,over half of all households nearing retirement have no retirement savings . social security provides most of the retirement income for about half the households 65 and older. >> guest: it's huge implications and in my hometown, in alabama, over 50 percent of those folks who rely on social security, their social security payments are less than 13,000 a year. i don't know anybody who can live on $13,000 per year so it's an opportunity for us to rethink these policies, to look at what increased longevity is going to mean for our social support system and the way we are building our communities. i think about the large mansion that they built over the last 10 or 16 years and so many of us want to downsize or relocate the house that we grew up in is too big for us and it needs to be retrofitted so part of

what we talked about in "disrupt aging" is how we build the housing community that lives through our lifestages so that we don't have to move, that we can anticipate that and we know what's good for the old is usually good for the young. when we were doing research about how do we build safe sidewalks, our biggest partners were the mothers with strollers. that access to what was good for the elderly are good for people with disabilities has the same effect or young mothers who are trying to use those strollers so i like to call it the seedless society so we are creating long-term solutions that help all of us as we age. >> host: is there a policy that aarp would like to see done with social security? >> we have been very engaged with our take a stand campaign, take a stand is around hitting the

presidential candidates to focus on telling us how they are going to make sure social security is not only there but adequate so we've been following both candidates around trying to make sure they tell us what their plans are, during the debate monday to see if we can get a social security question asked at the presidential debate but i think it's important for our social support system in this country for us to not let these problems linger. i think we all know that we have to make adjustments to social security in order for it to go be there for us, not only for our kids but our kids kids. >> jo-ann jenkins, how is aarp set up? you said there's an insurance aspect, how is that? >> "disrupt aging". >> guest: we also have aarp foundation which is our charitable arm that focuses

on so serving the needs of low income honorable people across the country and we have company called afi services which is our for-profit company that provides products and services, insurance being one of them. i like to remind people that our founders was the first female principal in the state of california and she went to visit a friend who she heard was ill and found her living in a chicken coop in someone's backyard. that began aarp's association with insurance. she went to 42 insurance companies trying to get them to provide an insurance plan for retired teachers so 58 years ago, this woman started the association of retired teachers and aarp. here i am, 58, following in her footsteps. first permanent woman to be in that job since our founder

. >> host: from your book, it is socially unacceptable to ignore, ridicule or stereotype someone based on their render, jake race or sexual orientation so why is it acceptable to do this to people based on their age? >> guest: that is so profound because you still allow communities,comedians, we make jokes about our own age whether it's around your birthday, it's over the hill . so my thought is, why do we still allow this? why do we judge people by how old they are rather than what they bring to the table so "disrupt aging" is really trying to get us to focus on the positive aspects of aging and that 50 today is very different than it was 10, 20 years ago. i know that me coming into this role as ceo, one of the reasons why i wrote the book was because i was living a different 57, 58 then what people would say oh, you should be retired, you should

be vacationing, doing whatever and it's about letting people decide how they want to age, whether they want to stay active or retire. aarp drop american association of retired persons 12, 13 years ago because a lot of our members are not retiring. they want to stay engaged, stay active for the full-time or part-time or volunteering. i think that's what "disrupt aging" is all about, letting people decide how they want to live their lives and for me, trying to figure out how we can engage this 50+ community in volunteering in providing support services in our schools, in our healthcare area. caregiving, there's such a great need. >> how is the workforce changing as we age as a society and stay healthier?

>>guest: i will tell you some companies today have five generations working in the workforce at one time . that's very different and very unique and what we're finding is in our marketing research is that people who are in their 50s and older, boomers, have more things alight with millennial than they do with any other generation. that 50 85 percent of millennial's when asked who is your best friend, 85 percent site one of their parents and we know they are influencing each other's purchasing power. and decisions that they make in life so in the workforce we know that the economy is changing very differently and that people use to have one or two of replaces they worked. now they're going to have 10 to 15 different places in two or three different careers and this whole idea of permanent employment and work i think in the next 5 to 10 years is going to go away and

people will be doing more self-employed projects which bodes very well for millennial's as well as people 50 and older who may not want to work that full-time gig but really state engaged and do project management and do project case employment to be able to do that so it's going to have huge implications for the workforce of the future and how we engage five generations in the workplace at the same time. i like to think it's the next phase of diversity and gender changes are going on in the workforce. the women as well as gay and lesbian issues and now there's aging issues in the workplace and how do we make sure we are getting the best out of our our employees? >> host: what your connection to the national book festival?

>> guest: i'm excited because in 2001 when laura bush became the first librarian to ever be in the white house so we went to her, i happened to be the chief operating officer at the library of congress to talk about what project might we do with her as the national library in this town and it's to establish the national book festival so here we are 16 years later, our goal in 2001 was to have 5000, i think last year they had over 100,000 people and i think from what we are seeing on these three floors, i fully expect to exceed that again this year but i think it's an exciting time for book lovers and people who enjoy reading, whether in paperback oronline .

i'm pleased to come full-circle from helping to starting it to be an author this afternoon. >> host: jo-ann jenkins, you worked at the department of transportation, library of congress, chief operating officer. how do you get to washington from alabama? >> guest: i was from a small town in mobile alabama, political science major. hadto do an internship, came to washington , interned in washington , went home, graduated and came back to work for the reagan campaign and i've been here in this town since 1980 and i'm very fortunate to be working with a number of people in this town and both in the executive branch and in the legislativebranch. >> . >> host: jo-ann jenkins is the ceo of aarp and she's the author of this book, "disrupt aging: a bold new path to living your best life at every age". 50 is the new 50, as she says

. >> guest: indeed. >> host: thanks for being on book tv. >> guest: my pleasure. >> here's a look at authors featured on book tvs after words, our author interview program. face the nation moderator john dickerson remembered important moments from presidential campaigns. representative david brad talked about his time in congress and the economic challenges facing the country. a new york times president and ceo, mark thompson discussed the way political speech is changed over time. in the coming weeks on after words, temple university president sarah oldenburg ross will describe possible solutions to rising college tuition costs. former goldman sachs vice president felicia ortez will talk about her experiences as an undocumented immigrant. coming up, columbia university law professor tim wu will explain the ways society has been affected by advertising. this weekend, former state department official mary thompson jones discusses her investigation of thousands of leaked diplomatic people the

guardian and the new york times who collaborated on the release of these cables were surprised to find that in fact these were mostly mid-level officers going about their duties and they would deal sometimes with interesting approaches, with a writing style that was surprisingly we readable and not bureaucratic and making efforts to understand the environment in which they had been placed and sending the commission back to washington. >> after after words airs at 10 pm and sunday at 9 pm eastern. watch all previous after words programs on our website, booktv.org. >>. [inaudible conversation] hi

everyone, thank you for coming out tonight. i know this community is getting hotter and hotter. so thanks for coming in and i'm glad we got bac going. you're so welcome, let me get that. before we get started, a few housekeeping notes. if you could take the time to silence your cell phones. while you have your phone out, you don't have to turn it off, you can follow us on facebook and twitter and instagram and the sign up for our email newsletter if you haven't already. we have a website, it's kramer.com and on our website you can find all our events and sign up and that way you