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Think from KERA

This is your brain on aging

Think from KERA

KERA

Kera, 071003, Think, Society & Culture, Krysboyd

4.7911 Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

With President Joe Biden in the White House at 81 and Donald Trump at 78 running to replace him, plenty of Americans are wondering how people at advanced ages handle high-pressure jobs. Stacy Vernon is program manager, head of adult assessment at the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas at Dallas. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss what makes a “super ager,” common health ailments for senior citizens, and if age makes a demanding job more difficult.

Transcript

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0:00.0

There has been a lot of talk about aging lately in this country as 78-year-old Donald Trump and 81-year-old Joe Biden prepare for November's presidential election.

0:20.2

Those conversations were supercharged by Biden's struggles in a recent debate.

0:24.4

Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been

0:30.4

able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with, look, if we finally beat Medicare.

0:44.3

But both candidates have been caught on tape mixing up names and going off track in conversations.

0:50.3

So I said, let me ask you a question.

0:52.3

And he said, nobody ever asked this question. And it must be because of

0:56.0

MIT, my relationship to MIT, very smart. He goes, I say, what would happen if the boat sank from

1:03.3

its weight? And you're in the boat. And you have this tremendously powerful battery. And the battery is

1:10.0

now underwater. And there's a shark that's

1:12.9

approximately 10 yards over there by the way a lot of shark attacks lately do you notice that a

1:17.8

lot of shark i watched some guys justifying it today well they weren't really that angry they

1:22.9

bit off the young lady's leg because of the fact that they were not hungry but they misunderstood

1:29.1

what who she was these people are great he said there's no problem with sharks they just didn't

1:34.3

really understand a young woman swimming now really got decimated and other people to a lot

1:39.3

of shark architects I said so there's a shark 10 yards away from the boat, 10 yards or here.

1:46.7

Do I get electrocuted if the boat is sinking, water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking.

1:52.0

Do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted?

1:55.3

And each of them, it should be said, insists he is uniquely qualified to handle whatever challenges might arise in the next

2:02.2

four-year term. From KERA in Dallas, this is Think. I'm Chris Boyd. Neither candidate has agreed to

2:09.4

take and release results of truly comprehensive cognitive testing, so we can't discuss the specifics

2:15.3

of their cognitive health. But it does seem helpful to get an overview of what scientists know about the way our ability to think, speak, control emotions and make decisions tends to change as we get older and consider the difference between healthy aging and symptoms that might indicate a problem.

...

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