Friday, March 26, 2010

One Hundred Years of Stories

This morning on The Takeaway, there was a segment on how the average human life expectancy is now approaching 100 years old for children born today. This is an amazing statistic that means that our life expectancy has doubled in the last century - a remarkable achievement.

One of the guests on the show was Neenah Ellis, the GM for a public radio station in Ohio, who is known for her reporting on centenarians. When I heard her speak today, I recalled her original radio interviews from ten years ago, when she went out and interviewed people from all over the country who were more than 100. I used to listen to them on my way to work, and they always improved my commute immeasurably. The stories were very moving, and there is one, about "the Mayor of Belmont Street," that always stuck with me.

The series is still available on NPR's web site, and it's worth listening to again if you didn't get to hear it the first time.

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