Joe: Lewis, quick guess. In the US, what percentage of the country's total wealth is controlled by people over 50? Lewis: Hmm, they've had more time to save... I'll say a lot. Maybe 50%? Joe: Try 83%. They're 35% of the population but hold 83% of the wealth. And yet, for decades, the market has treated them like they're invisible. Lewis: Whoa. 83 percent? That is a staggering number. It feels like every ad I see is targeted at someone in their twenties. Joe: That invisibility is exactly what we're exploring today through the book Longevity Hubs: Regional Innovation for Global Aging, by Joseph Coughlin and Luke Yoquinto. Lewis: Right, and Coughlin isn't just some random author. He's the founder and director of the MIT AgeLab. He's been studying this for decades, and this book basically grew out of a year-long project with the Boston Globe. So it's deeply researched. Joe: Exactly. And the book argues that this demographic shift is one of the biggest opportunities of our time. But it starts with a personal story of the authors' own blindness to this phenomenon, which is where we'll begin.

Lewis: Blindness? From the guy who runs the MIT AgeLab? That seems... ironic. Joe: It is! And it's the perfect entry point. In late 2018, they see an Inc. magazine article listing the best places to start a business. Their city, Boston, is on the list, but the reason given isn't biotech or finance. The article calls Boston the "Silicon Valley of the octogenarian set." Lewis: Okay, I can see why they'd be skeptical. That sounds like a backhanded compliment. Like being the world's most exciting librarian. Joe: That was their reaction exactly. They thought it was "a little overblown." They knew all about Boston's big industries and felt this "age-tech" thing was a niche distraction. But then they had to confront one undeniable fact that was mentioned in the article: a company called PillPack, based just outside Boston, had just been bought by Amazon. Lewis: For how much? Joe: For nearly a billion dollars. Lewis: Hold on. A billion dollars? For what? What did PillPack even do? Joe: That's the beautiful part. It was an incredibly simple, human-centered innovation. The founder, T.J. Parker, was watching his pharmacist father dispense medications for assisted living facilities. He saw the chaos of managing multiple pill bottles. So he designed a system that organized a person's medications into little packets, sorted by the date and time they needed to be taken. Lewis: That's brilliant. It’s not a high-tech gadget, it’s just a better system. It solves a real, frustrating problem for anyone juggling multiple prescriptions, especially older adults. Joe: Precisely. And that billion-dollar exit forced the authors to realize this "longevity economy" wasn't some cute niche. It was a massive, powerful force hiding in plain sight. The book argues this is a multi-trillion-dollar global market. The 50-plus population accounts for half of all consumer spending. But it's a market that has historically been a graveyard for new products. Lewis: Why is that? With that much money on the table, you'd think companies would be falling over themselves to serve this demographic. Joe: Because, as the book quotes from a New Yorker article, older adults are "a market that cannot be marketed to." Lewis: That sounds like a nightmare for a business. Why? Are older people just stubborn? Joe: It's about stigma and self-perception. Nobody wants to buy a product that screams "I'm old and frail!" The book points to some classic product flops. In the 1950s, Heinz launched a line of "Senior Foods." Lewis: Senior Foods? What was it? Joe: Basically, mashed-up baby food in a jar, marketed to people with dentures. Lewis: Oh, that's just insulting! It's infantilizing. I wouldn't buy that if I were 90. You're defining people by their ailment, not their life. Joe: Exactly. It failed spectacularly. Or a German company in 2007 launched a cellphone for seniors called "Katharina das Große"—Catherine the Great. It was huge, clunky, with giant buttons. It was stigmatizing. The most successful products, the book argues, use "stealth innovation." Lewis: Stealth innovation? Like a ninja-walker? Joe: Kind of. Think about the Apple Watch. It's a mainstream, cool product worn by people of all ages. But for users over 55, it automatically enables fall detection and emergency alerts. It's a PERS device—a Personal Emergency Response System—without the stigma of the "I've fallen and I can't get up" button. That's the secret. You design for everyone, but you embed features that are particularly valuable for an aging population.

Lewis: Okay, so it's a huge market, but it's a minefield of stigma. You need this 'stealth' approach and a deep understanding of people's real lives, not just stereotypes. How do you even begin to innovate successfully in that environment? Joe: That's where the book's central idea comes in. It's not just about what you build, but where you build it. The authors argue that this kind of nuanced innovation doesn't happen randomly. It clusters in what they call "Longevity Hubs." Lewis: A hub? Why can't a smart 25-year-old in Silicon Valley just code an app for this? Joe: They can try, but they'll probably fail for the reasons we just discussed. They lack the specific, tacit knowledge. The book uses a fantastic historical analogy to explain this: the Italian manufacturing districts of the 1970s. Lewis: Italian manufacturing? What does that have to do with aging? Joe: In the 70s, economic theory said big, vertically-integrated companies were the future. But in northern Italy, a "strange bloom" of small, family-owned firms making things like shoes, textiles, and furniture were thriving. They were all clustered together in the same towns. Lewis: I can see that. Like a whole town dedicated to making amazing leather bags. Joe: Exactly. The economist Alfred Marshall described this phenomenon back in 1890. He said in these clusters, the "mysteries of the trade become no mysteries; but are as it were in the air." Kids learn them unconsciously. The knowledge of how to design for discerning customers, how to work with specific materials, how to find the best suppliers—it's all shared implicitly within that community. Lewis: So, Boston is like the new Prato for... octogenarians? The knowledge of how to design for older adults without being stigmatizing is 'in the air' there? Joe: That's the argument. A longevity hub isn't just about a few startups. It's a whole ecosystem. In Boston, you have world-class hospitals and research universities like MIT, where the authors are. You have a massive financial services industry focused on retirement. You have a government that's thinking about these issues. And you have a population that's older than the national average. All these pieces create an environment where that specialized knowledge can flourish. Lewis: And you get real-world examples of innovation, not just in tech. Joe: Right. The book talks about Beacon Hill Village. In 1999, a group of neighbors in Boston decided they didn't want to go to a traditional retirement home. They wanted to age in their own houses. So they created a "virtual retirement community"—a member-driven organization that helps them coordinate services, from transportation to social events. It was a social innovation, born from the community itself. That model has now spread to hundreds of locations worldwide. That's the kind of thing that happens in a hub.

Lewis: That's a great story. But is this just a Boston thing, then? Or is this happening everywhere? Joe: It's a global phenomenon, but the book shows that everyone is running a different kind of race. There are diverse models for what a longevity hub can look like. The authors lay out a fascinating typology. Lewis: Give me the extremes. What are the two most different approaches? Joe: On one end, you have a place like Dubai. This is the top-down, state-sponsored model. The UAE government has a national strategy called 'Centennial 2071' with the explicit goal of becoming the best place in the world for older adults. They are pouring money into massive real estate projects, like dedicated wellness villages. Lewis: So Dubai is basically building a 5-star resort for the world's rich retirees. Joe: In a way, yes. They've introduced a 'Retire in Dubai' program and a Golden Visa to attract affluent older expats. They see an aging population not as a burden to be managed, but as a high-value customer base to be attracted. It's a deliberate, centrally planned economic strategy. Lewis: Okay, that's one model. What's the opposite of that? Joe: The opposite might be Tel Aviv. The book describes it as a 'new-age' market, driven by grassroots, tech-focused innovation. Israel has a relatively small domestic market for older adults, so it can't just build for its own population. Lewis: So what do they do? Joe: They use their local older population as a 'beta site.' They are deeply integrated into the community, gathering insights and testing products locally. But the ambition is global from day one. The book notes that some of these Israeli startups prioritize English-only functionality in their apps, not even Hebrew or Arabic, because their target market is the US and Europe. Lewis: That's fascinating. They're using their local 'in the air' knowledge to build products for a global audience. It's a completely different strategy from Dubai's 'build it and they will come' approach. Joe: Exactly. And you see other models too. Louisville, Kentucky, is a hub built around a single anchor company, Humana. Japan is developing satellite hubs outside of Tokyo to deal with its hyper-aging population. There's no single blueprint. Each region leverages its own unique strengths.

Lewis: It's really a powerful reframing. We started with this invisible, multi-trillion-dollar market. And the solution isn't some single killer app, but these complex, local ecosystems that are emerging all over the world in different ways. It’s this massive economic shift, but the solutions are surprisingly local and human-centric. Joe: That's the heart of it. The book's ultimate message is that global aging is not a crisis to be managed, but an opportunity to be designed for. We're moving from a world where we had seven working-age adults to support every person over 80, to a world where that ratio will be three-to-one by 2050. That's a monumental shift. Lewis: Wow, three-to-one. When you put it like that, you realize the old systems simply won't work. We have to innovate. Joe: We have to. And these hubs are where that innovation is happening. They are the laboratories for our collective future. The book shows that the regions that get this right—the ones that build communities that are great places to live, work, and connect at every age—are the ones that will thrive in the 21st century. Lewis: It makes you think. It's not about creating separate 'old people' cities, but about designing better cities for everyone. Joe: That's the profound insight. A city that's good for an 80-year-old—with great public transit, safe sidewalks, accessible services, and opportunities for social connection—is also a great city for an 8-year-old, or a 38-year-old with a stroller. The book really makes you ask: what is my own city or community doing to prepare? Are we seeing aging as a burden, or as a chance to build a better, more inclusive future for everyone? Lewis: That's a great question for our listeners. We'd love to hear what you're seeing in your own communities. Are there innovations, big or small, that are making your town more age-friendly? Drop us a comment on our socials. Joe: This is Aibrary, signing off.