Century Lives

We’re an aging nation. By 2050, for the first time ever, Americans over age 60 will outnumber those aged 10 to 24. Older adults increasingly prefer aging in place, so the need for technologies that support activities of daily living, mobility, and social connection is growing.  In Century Lives: The AgeTech Revolution, we travel to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where we and 150,000 of our closest friends scope out the technologies that claim they will improve our lives as we grow older. We ask: What do we want our final quarter of life to look like? And can the AgeTech industry actually improve the ways we live our longer lives?

The population of older patients is growing. Within a decade, there will not be enough providers to care for them. So what if older adults can monitor their own health, and actually prevent disease before treatment is needed? In this episode, we explore digital health innovations at CES — and learn that the future of disease prevention technologies has a lot more in store than step counters and smart watches.

There is a caregiving crisis in America. We simply don’t have enough caregivers to support the number of older adults who need help because of a chronic, disabling, or serious health condition. Most of that work is unrecognized and unpaid. And the situation is only getting worse as the population ages. Many experts argue that only technology can save us, with devices that can carry out caregiving tasks formerly done by humans. In this episode, we tour the aisles of The Consumer Electronics Show with Davis Park, Vice President of Transformation at a non-profit called Front Porch, to find out whether the tech cavalry is indeed on the way. His job is to evaluate and implement emerging technologies that can improve quality of life at the 20 Front Porch retirement communities in California and Florida.

We’re an aging nation. By 2050, for the first time ever, Americans over age 60 will outnumber those aged 10 to 24. Older adults increasingly prefer aging in place, so the need for technologies that support activities of daily living, mobility, and social connection is growing.  In Century Lives: The AgeTech Revolution, we travel to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where we and 150,000 of our closest friends scope out the technologies that claim they will improve our lives as we grow older. We ask: What do we want our final quarter of life to look like? And can the AgeTech industry actually improve the ways we live our longer lives?

Over the past 20 years, researchers have shown that certain types of physical and mental exercise can help stave off dementia and other forms of cognitive decline. In this episode, we look at how innovators are turning to tech-based activities to maximize brain health in aging adults. And we visit a retirement community in Maryland that has developed an innovative program called Kinnections, which uses high-tech games to make the process more fun and effective.

New research indicates that loneliness is again on the rise. And people over 60 are spending more time online and with their own personal devices. But if technology pulled us apart - can it also put us back together? Today we meet a new generation of robot companions that are designed to fix loneliness.

We’re an aging nation. By 2050, for the first time ever, Americans over age 60 will outnumber those aged 10 to 24. Older adults increasingly prefer aging in place, so the need for technologies that support activities of daily living, mobility, and social connection is growing.  In Century Lives: The AgeTech Revolution, we travel to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where we and 150,000 of our closest friends scope out the technologies that claim they will improve our lives as we grow older. We ask: What do we want our final quarter of life to look like? And can the AgeTech industry actually improve the ways we live our longer lives?

For aging adults, a loss of mobility often means the end of freedom and independence. In this episode, we talk to innovators who are developing exoskeletons and other robotic devices that rely on AI to help people move better and longer. We focus particularly on a company called Dephy, which makes sneakers that boost your ability to walk. The company’s founder describes them as e-bikes for your feet.