How to improve old age - with Prof Tom Kirkwood - Ep 6

03/16/20 • 48 min

In this episode I talk to Professor Tom Kirkwood. Tom is a biologist who for several decades has been a leading figure in the study of aging - how and why we age.

He has published several books, including Time of Our Lives: The Science of Human Aging and The End of Age: Why Everything About Aging Is Changing. In 2001 he gave the annual Reith Lectures.

I asked Tom to be a guest on the podcast because I’d read some of his papers and books about the science of aging, and found them completely fascinating. They made me look at ageing in a completely different way. Most people think that our bodies are somehow ‘programmed to decline and die’, and that this is why we age, but as you’ll hear Tom explain, it’s actually the opposite - our bodies are programmed to survive. This has some amazing consequences for aging and how we might look to improve the quality of people’s lives in the future.

Our increasing life spans also raises some fundamental ethical, cultural and political questions about the attitudes we should have towards old age and old people.

I hope you enjoy our conversation. Please follow or subscribe to this podcast, and do share it with anyone you think might like it!

In this episode I talk to Professor Tom Kirkwood. Tom is a biologist who for several decades has been a leading figure in the study of aging - how and why we age.

He has published several books, including Time of Our Lives: The Science of Human Aging and The End of Age: Why Everything About Aging Is Changing. In 2001 he gave the annual Reith Lectures.

Our increasing life spans also raises some fundamental ethical, cultural and political questions about the attitudes we should have towards old age and old people.

I hope you enjoy our conversation. Please follow or subscribe to this podcast, and do share it with anyone you think might like it!

Previous Episode

How to raise funds and campaign - with Tim Walker - Ep 5

In this episode I speak to Tim Walker. Tim is a direct response copy writer and campaigner.

Tim’s been a colleague and friend of mine for many years, and is the founder of the fundraising agency TWCAT, now On agency, and is a member of my team at ChangeStar. He has had decades of success in helping charities and other good causes to raise more funds and build stronger campaigns by communicating better with the public and their supporters.

This is an aspect of the work of charities and political causes that is often not seen by the public yet it can be critical to how well they are able to achieve the change they are seeking. A lot of people work in the social change sector simply to help charities get their message across to people, and Tim is one of the most knowledgeable people doing this.

In this chat, I’ll talk to Tim about the work he does, why it matters and some of his biggest successes.
I hope you enjoy this episode - thanks for listening. Please follow or subscribe to this podcast, and do share it with anyone you think might like it!

Next Episode

How to seek Remain - with Mike Buckley - Ep 7

My guest in this episode is Mike Buckley. Mike is a political campaigner who has been seeking social and political change for many years, most recently as head of the ‘Labour for a public vote’ campaign.

I got to know Mike after my social change consultancy Praxis had prepared a report in 2019 to set out the strategy the Remain campaign needed to take if there were a second referendum on Brexit. In the end of course this report wasn’t needed!

Our conversation took place at a very interesting point, when the Labour party was recovering from a massive election defeat to the Conservatives, and as a consequence Brexit was going to happen. Mike was taking stock of what had gone well and what hadn’t in the campaign, and gave some very honest and passionate answers.

I hope you enjoy this episode - thanks for listening. Please follow or subscribe to this podcast, and do share it with anyone you think might like it!