Why Do Some 80 Year-Olds Have Extraordinary Memories?

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

The human brain tends to slow down as we age — even healthy brains shrink. That can make learning and memory harder as people age. But some people’s brains shrink more slowly than their peers. This lucky group is called “SuperAgers.” They’re people aged 80 or older. But they have the memory abilities of someone 50-to-60 years old. This week in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia, researchers from Northwestern University’s SuperAging Program summarized some of the secrets they’ve learned in the last 2.5 decades.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from TED Talks Daily, a podcast from TED.
0:04.0	Ted Talks Daily brings you an inspiring idea every day.
0:07.9	Learn about the ideas shaping humanity from the science behind the autism spectrum to the existence of aliens.
0:14.8	Listen to TED Talks Daily.
0:17.3	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:22.4	Hey, short waver is Regina Barbara here.
0:24.8	And Rachel Carlson with our biweekly science news roundup featuring the host of All Things Considered.
0:31.1	And today we have Elsa Chang.
0:33.0	Welcome.
0:33.5	West Coast representing.
0:35.3	Woohoo.
0:35.9	And I heard we've got some new research on how some people are aging extra well, hopefully
0:40.5	including me, right?
0:41.3	Yeah, me too.
0:42.3	Oh yeah.
0:43.3	Plus endangered eagles feeding on toxic toads without harm.
0:46.3	And a new discovery about life in some of the deepest parts of the ocean.
0:50.3	Fascinating.
0:51.3	I love mysterious deep sea stories. Just like our whole, you know, summer
0:55.9	series, Seacamp. That's right! You're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR. Okay, Elsa, West Coast, Best Coast. Where do we start?
1:21.6	Okay, I definitely want to start with the people who age extraordinarily well. Super curious if we're talking about Asians.
1:28.4	Rachel, kick us off.
	...

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