
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


If Donald Trump is elected to a second term as President of the United States he would be 82 at the end, if Joe Biden is re-elected he would be 86. Age has become a campaign weapon. How effective have the octogenarian leaders of the past been shown to be?
One was William Ewart Gladstone who was Prime Minister four times, the last when he was 82. Dr Ruth Windscheffel Head of Teaching and Learning Enhancement at York St John University and author and editor of a number of books and articles about Gladstone discusses how his advanced age affected his final administration.
Emperor Gordian I acceded to Rome's Imperial throne in 238 AD in his early eighties. Dr James Corke-Webster is Reader in Classics, History and Liberal Arts at King's College London. He discusses with Jonathan Freedland the events surrounding Gordian's rise to power in ancient Rome's most turbulent year.
Reader: Josh Bryant-Jones
Producer: Harry Parker
By BBC Radio 44.2
1818 ratings
If Donald Trump is elected to a second term as President of the United States he would be 82 at the end, if Joe Biden is re-elected he would be 86. Age has become a campaign weapon. How effective have the octogenarian leaders of the past been shown to be?
One was William Ewart Gladstone who was Prime Minister four times, the last when he was 82. Dr Ruth Windscheffel Head of Teaching and Learning Enhancement at York St John University and author and editor of a number of books and articles about Gladstone discusses how his advanced age affected his final administration.
Emperor Gordian I acceded to Rome's Imperial throne in 238 AD in his early eighties. Dr James Corke-Webster is Reader in Classics, History and Liberal Arts at King's College London. He discusses with Jonathan Freedland the events surrounding Gordian's rise to power in ancient Rome's most turbulent year.
Reader: Josh Bryant-Jones
Producer: Harry Parker

7,772 Listeners

1,068 Listeners

5,465 Listeners

1,826 Listeners

3,248 Listeners

1,811 Listeners

1,049 Listeners

2,104 Listeners

2,073 Listeners

144 Listeners

76 Listeners

3,229 Listeners

751 Listeners

106 Listeners

1,044 Listeners

15,609 Listeners

3,087 Listeners

208 Listeners

994 Listeners

759 Listeners

179 Listeners

2,267 Listeners

64 Listeners