The On Wisdom podcast features a social-cognitive scientist in Toronto and an educator in London discussing the latest empirical science regarding the nature of wisdom. Igor Grossmann runs the Wisdom & Culture Lab at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Charles Cassidy runs the Evidence-Based Wisdom project in London, UK. The podcast thrives on a diet of freewheeling conversation on wisdom and decision-making, and includes regular guests spots with leading behavioural scientists from the field of wisdom research and beyond. Welcome to The On Wisdom Podcast.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Life expectancy increased more in the 20th century than in the entire prior history of humanity combined.

With many more of us now getting the opportunity to live into old age, what do we have to look forward to?

Do our social and emotional lives degrade in step with our physical bodies as we age, or do we in fact get much happier as we get older?

How does the sense of ‘time-left’ impact our wisdom, behaviour and priorities?

Stanford Professor of Psychology and founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity Laura Carstensen joins Igor and Charles to discuss individual and societal aspects of human aging. We focus on the implications and opportunities of recent extraordinary gains in life expectancy, the socio-emotional selectivity theory, the positivity effect, the thorny issue of increasing retirement age, and the surprising role of time-horizons in how we choose to spend our time. Igor alerts us to the cultural differences and the positive impact old people have on a work team’s productivity, Laura reassures us that no-one ever wants to repeat their twenties, and Charles learns of the dangers of young people trying to think like old people as a route to happiness. Welcome to Episode 12.

Click here to listen to ‘Episode 12: Social & Emotional Aging’ in full

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You can get in contact at charles@evidencebasedwisdom.com, via the about page or find me on twitter @EBasedwisdom. You can also contact us through the On Wisdom site here or find us on twitter @onwisdompodcast.