Ellis produced a program for National Public Radio for which she interviewed people who were a hundred years old or older. She interviewed a wide variety including Margaret Rawson (a world-renowned expert on dyslexia), Ruth Ellis (the oldest living lesbian), Sadie and Gilbert Hill (married for over eighty years). At first, Ellis is focussed on the historical aspects of their lives, but soon finds herself on a personal journey of her own, where she connects to them as individuals alive in the world and begins to see how looking forward, not backward, is a secret to longevity, as is living in the here and now. More of a story of Ellis herself than the centenarians she met, "If I Live to Be 100" is a surprisingly luminous memoir that charms the reader and opens the mind to what it means to be really alive.