Wrinkled Radicals

When Maggie Kuhn was forced to retire from the job she loved at age 65, her colleagues gave her a sewing machine as a parting gift. Outraged, she shut the sewing machine in a closet and, instead, stitched together the first-ever movement against ageism in the U.S. The Gray Panthers would galvanize gray haired citizenry and youth alike to challenge the way Americans think about aging.

Transcript

Guests:

• Katherine Ott, curator and historian in the Division of Medicine and Science at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
• Emily Krichbaum, founding director for the Center for Girls' and Young Women's Leadership at Columbus School for Girls and scholar of women’s history
• Paul Nathanson, founder and former executive director of Justice in Aging (formerly the National Senior Citizens Law Center), a national advocacy group for the elderly poor
• Jack Kupferman, president of Gray Panthers NYC