The World Health Organisation rightly says that ‘Longer lives are one of our most remarkable collective achievements. Advances in social and economic development as well as in health have lowered mortality rates, particularly among older people, meaning most people can now expect to live into their sixties and beyond.’ (WHO, 2025). But over recent decades, other social changes, such as work becoming more centralised in cities, more people going to college or university and increased access to family planning, have reduced family sizes in many countries. Fewer births means the number of people aged 60 and over is increasing and in some countries is already larger than the number of children in their population. 

Much of the current focus is on the challenges facing these ageing populations, such as the impact on a country’s health and social care services and the economic effect of the reduction in the number of working age people compared with the number of retirees. But no two people experience growing older in the same way. Whatever age we reach, growing older is shaped by our health, by the resources and relationships around us, and by the kind of society we're growing older in. 

Researchers from The Centre for Ageing and Biographical Studies at The Open University have come together in three podcasts to share their insights on questions that sit underneath a lot of policy and headlines, especially in the developed world, but don't often get asked directly. What does it actually mean to grow older in a world that keeps changing around you, the devices you're expected to use, the home you may or may not get to stay in, and what ageing well means to you?

Across the three conversations, a theme keeps resurfacing: that later life is shaped less by the things happening to people, and more by whether they're able to stay connected to others, to a sense of home, to their own sense of self, as those things shift. One episode looks at whether technology genuinely helps with that or just claims to. Another asks what ‘home’ means once the place itself is gone or has stopped feeling like home even though nothing's changed. A third turns to a transition that's rarely spoken about and asks what it would take to treat ageing well as something for everyone, not just those with the resources to manage it. None of these podcasts give neat answers. They're researchers thinking out loud, together, about work that often stays in academic papers.

Whose version of ageing well?

What does it mean to age well? In this podcast the researchers discuss what we can do to help ourselves to age well and what may make this more challenging for us.  

Transcript (80.6 KB) .

Comment 

Do join in the conversation. What does ageing well look like in your life? What's made it easier or harder than it should be? Please leave your thoughts below.

What does home mean when you can no longer live there?

What is ‘Home’?  In this podcast the researchers discuss what makes somewhere ‘home’ when your own home no longer meets your needs, you have moved into a care home or now live with a relative.  

Transcript.

Comment 

Do join in the conversation. What does home mean to you? What does home mean when you are caring for a relative or friend, when you are a care worker supporting residents to feel ‘at home’ or making daily visits to those living in their own home? Please leave your thoughts below.

Does technology actually connect us!

Technology is rapidly becoming ubiquitous.  But is everyone benefitting from these developments? Do they cause problems for anyone? What about AI?  - it is constantly in the News. In this podcast the researchers discuss how advances in communication technologies are impacting on people’s everyday lives.

Transcript (86.6 KB) .

Comment 

Do join in the conversation. What part does technology play in your life? Does AI feature at all? Please leave your thoughts below.

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