Will 2019 be the year we get closer to reaping a longevity dividend? How do we make the most of our ageing society when inequality, inertia and ageism skew the experience of living healthy, longer lives? I put these questions and more to David Sinclair, director of the UK's International Longevity Centre, a think tank exploring the impact of longevity on society.

Hear what when:

Work of the International Longevity Centre, funding, process
The global challenges and opportunities of healthy, longer lives
New stage or stages of life emerging during classic midlife retirement years

“We’ve got no plan over what this stage is for. Governments are terrified about trying to tell people what it’s for, probably quite rightly, individuals haven’t planned for it… and our lives are going to be different to how our parents and grandparents did live.”

How encourage positive attitudes towards ageing, culture change and redesign age-specific policies and expectations
I question the need for innovation to specifically target older consumers. Do they really want/need different things? Don’t your passions dictate what you want to buy, no matter your age?
While olders spend less than youngers, makers are missing a trick by not catering to discerning over-50s who don’t mind paying for a bespoke service / experience
His biggest concerns around general lack of preparedness to deal with ageing populations
Economic imperative for corporates to retain / hire older workers
How address general complacency of all sectors of society to meet need to redesign jobs recognising and valuing greater empathy levels of olders?
There’s a big advocacy gap in UK, suggests follow Norway’s example and appoint a minister of the future
Startling statistic showing historic decline in UK deployment of older workers:

“While we’ve seen growth in the proportion of people working longer, it’s still only 12 or 13 percent of people 65 working. A hundred years ago, seven in 10 men worked until 65. Now, it’s 12 in 100.”

How happened?
If he were minister of everything, how deliver significant societal change and fight ageism?
Takeaways from ILC’s Future of Ageing conference last November?
The importance of injecting some fun and lightness into the heaviness around discussion of ageing - nothing is age-inappropriate
Reasons to be hopeful?
Corporates ahead of governments when it comes to adapting offerings and services to match reality of demographic shifts
On the ILC agenda this year?

Hear what when:

Links