How to Define Old Age

In 2021 Dr. Kiran Rabheru, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Ottawa and a geriatric psychiatrist, found himself at the center of a medical debate. The World Health Organization wanted to officially designate “old age” as a disease, but with more than 40 years of work with aging populations, Rabheru saw this as another example of ageism that needed to be challenged. Dr. Rabheru talks with Yasmin Tayag about how he fought the WHO and about the impact such designations can have on research and our understanding of growing old. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can listen to How to Define Old Age online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

How to Define Old Age is an episode from How to Start Over by The Atlantic Monthly Group, LLC.

This episode is 31:25 long.

This episode was published on May 5, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from How to Start Over when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.