Almost 15 percent of the U.S. population is 65 or older, and that’s expected to grow to 24 percent by 2060. But even as the chance of living to old age increases, many people pull back from thinking about old age, afraid of the choices and challenges it presents, University of Chicago Law School professor Saul Levmore said.

“Part of it is they don’t want to see themselves in a new light. Part of it is they think everything will be too personal,” Levmore said. “And I think part of it is they’re just in denial: they don’t want to think about what their retirement income is like. Now some people think about it obsessively, I might be one of those, but we know half the population isn’t saving money.”

Levmore is co-author of the new book, "Aging Thoughtfully: Conversations about Retirement, Romance, Wrinkles & Regret,” which encourages the kinds of conversations about aging that people tend to avoid. It’s presented as a series of dueling essays between Levmore and philosopher Martha Nussbaum, discussing whether it is ever okay to distribute inheritances unequally among children, whether active retirement communities are a hedonist escape vehicle or when it might be appropriate to abandon aging friends who are sick.

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