she discusses growing older in america with aarp's state news editor sylvia smith. >> host: susan jacoby, welcome. you're the author of a new book "never say die" with the subtitle the myth of marketing of the new old age. what is the myth of the new old age? >> guest: this is a new old age is that we are all -- baiji we've i really mean people who are not old now. the age in the boomers, people in their 50s and early 60s now and in their forties. but our old age is going to be lived in a way that's totally different from the way in which old age has been lived in the past, that we are going to all be skydiving centenarians, i like to think of it that way. [laughter] that we are simply going to get older, but not actually old. >> host: and so why do you think the culture is invested in sugar coating old age? >> guest: well, it's really interesting. when i was growing up like all of the oldest boomers in the 1950's, i would say that attitudes toward old age were - in a particular way. old age was just something that started the minute amana retired and she returned home to bother his wife

she discusses growing older in america with aarp state news editor sylvia smith. age. what is the myth of the new old age? >> guest: the myth of an old age, we are all -- people that are not old. the aging boomers people in the 50s and early 60s and 40s. but our old is going to be lived in a way that's totally different from the way in which old age has been lived in the past. that we are going to all be sky diving -- yeah, that we are simply going to get older, but not actually old. >> host: so why do you think the cultures invested in sugar coating old age? >> well, it's very interesting. now when i was growing up, like all of the oldest boomers in the 1950s, i would say that attitudes toward old age were negative in a particular way. just old age was just something that started the minute a man retired. and he returned home to bother his wife. and her only role was to be the grandmother to her grandchildren, and that was the whole idea. not just of old age, but just of anybody who was retired in their 60s. now i think we've had a great corrective to that. which aarp