Oliver Hartwich

speaker

270 appearances 5 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 16 Aug

Oliver Hartwich’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 2.

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So in a way, we're just doing what the rest of the world is also doing.

But still, the result is that life expectancy is improving dramatically.

What we also see, of course, is a massive demographic shift.

In the 1970s, the median age was 25 years, meaning half the population under 25, half the population over 25 years of age.

That is now 38 years, which is still relatively young by developed world standards.

but it is a massive increase in ageing.

I think that's exactly right.

What really stands out about all the improvements that we've tracked is actually these improvements almost happen automatically.

We have fewer deaths on the roads because our cars are getting safer, for example.

Well, that doesn't require any great reformist politician.

And of course, we're living longer because our medicines are getting better.

And again, this is something that just happens automatically automatically.

where we're stagnating or going backwards are usually those issues where it would demand bold reformers to actually improve a situation.

We haven't really had them, with a few exceptions, like Erica Stanford on education.

She's doing...

a remarkable job turning around the curriculum, the assessment system.

She's getting into teacher education soon.

So she's actually making a real difference that we will probably see in the statistics in the year to come.

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