Ageing

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ageing. In 1900, 1% of the world’s population were over 65. In the 1990s nearly 8% are. By the year 2020, nearly 1/5th of the world’s population will be over 65 - the figure rises to 25% in the UK. We are now living longer than at any time in our history. How much do economic factors, rather than biological factors, determine what ageing really means and our attitude to it? And what are the ethical, economic and biological implications of living longer?

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Guests

• Tom Kirkwood No other episodes
  Expert on the science of ageing
• Alan Walker No other episodes
  Expert in the sociology of ageing

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Programme ID: p00545c0

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00545c0

Auto-category: 612.67 (Gerontology)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello, today I'm joined by Britain's first Professor of Biological Gerontology, Tom Kirkwood from Manchester University, and Alan Walker, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Sheffield, to discuss and explore one of the great revolutions of our century, that of old age.