In Linda P. Fried’s view, changing the way we think about aging is a multi-generational challenge.  Fried, who serves as dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, believes that older people can and should lead healthy, productive lives that benefit their communities. In turn, younger communities can help promote the health and engagement of older people. It will require new infrastructures and new attitudes, and according to Fried, the outcome will impact people of all ages. “This is really an issue for people in their 20s and 30s even more than it is for people in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. By the time we are done building the institutions that we need to make these new years great, young people today will be ready to use them,” she said.

How can we create a world in which greater longevity benefits people of all ages?

The first step is asking that question, which is a very important one, because we don't have a roadmap yet. We all have to recognize that we have created a world of longer lives but we haven't created the content of those longer lives that would be good for everybody, including older people. The key is public health, meaning prevention of disease and disability and the promotion of health at every age and stage in the life course. If we do that successfully, people will increasingly arrive at older age healthy, and if they're healthy, they'll want to stay engaged and active. Being engaged and active means different things to different people, but by the time people are older they have a lifetime of experience, a wealth of knowledge, and they have a particular view that comes with getting older of wanting to ensure that they're leaving the world better than they found it. That means we have a huge amount of new social capital that can help us address so many of the unmet needs in the world and in our country. There are a million ways in which we already benefit from what older adults give, whether it's the fact that every child benefits from having their grandparent, to the fact that many grandparents are now raising their grandchildren. I think the missing piece is putting in place the institutions and processes that would enable people to be able to contribute in ways that matter to them and have huge benefits for society.

What would those institutions look like?

That's part of a conversation we should be having as a nation, and I can suggest a few models. There are already a whole host of models of institutions developed to deploy the social capital of older people for unmet needs. On Hilton Head, retired doctors and nurses are providing basically free medical care for people of little means. ReServe deploys older adults to bring their knowledge and skills to non-profits. Older adults also support environmental justice and preservation. I co-designed a model called Experience Corps, which deploys older adults to elementary schools in ways that could really help the success of the kids in school. That program was intentionally designed to also be a health-promoting program for older adults: Even though they come to make a difference, they also benefit from the same engagement and it's a way to invest in their future health. There are many other opportunities we could create to deploy older adults for anything from mentoring to vocational training.

What are some of the challenges involved in creating an infrastructure like this?

We need to get rid of the ageism that blocks our ability to deal with this and seeing the opportunity. If we assume that having more people who are living longer is going to turn out to be a disaster, then we give up and we don't plan. We have to explore where the opportunities are and where the investment payoff would be, and design programs that we invest in because they will have high impact and high benefits for everybody. I think we can do that.

You've suggested that older people are an "untapped resource for leadership.” Why would they make good leaders?

There’s some good evidence that people are great leaders for different things at different ages, but there is a huge capability for older people to lead in ways that I think it would be hard for a 20 year old to do. Nelson Mandela and Gandhi transformed their nations in ways that were against all odds and they could do it in large part because of their lifetime of experience, their deep connections built up over a lifetime, and their ability to hold in their minds the future that needs to be built for everybody. One of the characteristics of people as they get older is a deep commitment to leaving the world better and the capability to figure out key ways to get it to happen. Now, it's a rare attribute but there are certain aspects of that which I think you're particularly likely to find as people mature. We need to not leave that wisdom on the table.

Do you think there’s need for infrastructure to enable older people to continue their education?

There's a huge need to expand the educational opportunities for middle aged and older adults. With longer lives, people in Gen Y and younger are going to be having three, four, five and six careers over their lifetime. That's going to require opportunities for re-tooling to get ready for the next venture or adventure. Beyond that, people want to keep learning across their lifetime, and we need to think together about how to develop new opportunities for that. The other thing is that the more people use their minds in middle age and older age, the more they preserve their minds, which counter diseases like Alzheimer’s.

How can older people support younger people?

You can look at every stage of a young person's development and think about ways that a smart, caring adult can come in and play a role that supports that young person's success.  But there are also ways for mutual exchange. Can older adults and young adults partner together? It turns out that intergenerational teams are much more productive in the workplace and other settings than single generation teams. Can they pitch in together on service projects? In Experience Corps, we've shown that older adults can make a huge difference in the success of kids in kindergarten through third grade and there are increasingly programs for children across every part of the educational ladder in which older adults can play a role in getting them successfully to the next stage.

Are their roles for older people in society that you think we haven't even imagined yet?

I think we could imagine together many that we never thought of before. It's an amazing challenge and opportunity. Here's this new stage of life between what we thought of as the working age and what we think of as the years before we die, and it's a time of 30 years. What do we want do with it? What does society need that we could help with? How do we create a win-win for everybody in this new stage? It's a completely uncharted course.

Interview by Jordan G. Teicher.