Think about the last social gathering you attended: how broad was the age range of the people in attendance? The question goes to how often we cluster with people around our own age... and conversely, how little we mingle with people much younger or older.

This is a focus for Ashton Applewhite, who spends much of her time and energy calling out ageism in society, everything from our social-group choices to our aversion to wrinkles and gray hair. Vanessa Finney hosts Applewhite in a new edition of our podcast My Better Half, exploring her book This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism.