4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 October 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Today on “Post Reports,” Optimist reporter Maggie Penman shares the new science of aging, and a hopeful research finding that getting stronger and healthier in old age is possible for many of us – even after a health setback.
If you want to hear more stories like this, please let us know. You can reach the whole team at [email protected] or email Maggie at [email protected].
Today’s episode was reported and produced by Maggie Penman. It was edited by Allison Klein and Ted Muldoon who also mixed the show.
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| 0:00.0 | When Florine Schuber was in her early 80s, she had an experience a lot of older people have. |
| 0:08.5 | She started falling. |
| 0:09.5 | The one thing that old people don't realize when they fall is they don't know they're |
| 0:12.4 | falling until you're about this far from the ground. |
| 0:15.3 | And I found it pretty frightening. |
| 0:20.6 | Florine fell two or three times. |
| 0:22.8 | Thankfully, she didn't get hurt. |
| 0:24.6 | But she did realize something had to change. |
| 0:27.3 | So there was a small gym near where I lived, and I had passed it for 13 years. |
| 0:32.1 | I'm embarrassed to tell you. |
| 0:33.2 | And never went in. |
| 0:35.4 | But I thought, okay, I've got to do something about this. So I walked in, told |
| 0:38.5 | them my problem, and they introduced me to a young trainer, and I'm still with him. |
| 0:44.4 | Florine is 91 years old now, and she spent a lot of time over the last decade working on her |
| 0:50.8 | strength and flexibility and balance. |
| 0:57.6 | She says she feels younger now than she did 10 years ago. |
| 1:00.2 | So you can improve, and I see it in myself, for sure. |
| 1:02.7 | I'm much, much stronger than I was 10 years ago. |
| 1:03.9 | So I know that's possible. |
| 1:09.1 | I'm surprised at how much interest I have in the world and in courses, and it's exciting. |
| 1:18.4 | Many of us might think aging is a straight line. We get older, we get weaker, we need more help, but that's actually not always the case. In fact, new research shows that a large |
| 1:24.9 | number of older people can and will get stronger and healthier |
... |
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