When music journalist Jude Rogers lost her father aged five, she turned to songs for solace and structure. Music helped her redefine her identity as a teenager and connect with her young child as a parent after post-natal depression.

In this emotional and educational series, we explore how music impacts us at each stage of our lives. In four programmes, Jude speaks to musicians, neuroscientists, psychologists and music-lovers to discover why music means so much to us all.

In this fourth and final episode, Later life, Jude explores how music can keep us active, alert, and involved in the world around us as we grow older. We now know that learning music as a child or taking part in a choir as an older adult for just 16 weeks can improve the way our brains process sound. Participating in a choir also makes us feel less lonely and increases our interest in life as we age.

We hear from English singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull, neuroscientists Professor Nina Kraus, Assistant Professor Assal Habibi, and Professor Julene Johnson, palliative care consultant and clinical director Professor Mark Taubert and Welsh chorister Effie Evans.

Producer: Georgia Moodie
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