Hello and welcome to History Extra's monthly series, History Behind the Headlines.

I'm Matt Elton. In each episode, our expert panel explores the historical news stories that have caught their eye,

and the history that will help you make sense of what's going on in the world in 2024.

Each month, I'm joined by our two regular panelists. I'm Hannah Skoda. I'm a historian of the later Middle Ages at St. John's College in Oxford.

And I'm Rana Mitter. I'm a historian of modern China and I'm the S.D. Lee Chair in U.S. Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Thank you both so much for being here as always.

Coming up, we're going to be talking about a project to tell the stories of working class people and the names of the new London Underground lines. But first,

we're going to be talking about something that's closely related to American news, which is the

age of politicians. We're in a year in which the two US candidates are 77 and 81, respectively.

Ran, I think you wanted to kick off talking about this.

Is that right? That's right, Matt. I'm based over here in the United States, and a lot of the TV

coverage at the moment is about the upcoming US presidential election. It seems to get

near and nearer and louder and louder. But one of the issues that's really been dominating

the headlines in the last

week or two has been the age of the candidates. And I have to say particularly Joe Biden, the incumbent

president, who is 81, and has, you know, has been noted for sometimes forgetting names of other

world leaders or, you know, slipping up on various things. It has to be said in the interests of equity

that Donald Trump also is 77 years old, and it's not unknown for him to say. leaders or, you know, slipping up on various things. It has to be said in the interests of equity that

Donald Trump also is 77 years old, and it's not unknown for him to slip up verbally as well.

The other day, I think he referred to, preferred his wife, I think, actually, by a name that was

not her own. She's called Melania, and I think gave her some other name, too. So, frankly, both

candidates are clearly having a bit of nominal aphasia,

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