The Wall Street Journal features reporter Amy Dockser Marcus’ visit to the MIT AgeLab and her time using the AGNES age-simulation suit on the The Future of Everything’s Best of 2025 list, reports Conor Grant for The Wall Street Journal. Grant highlights Marcus’ newfound awareness “of challenges faced by the elderly – and a new motivation to prepare for old age.”
Prof. Emeritus Paul Osterman speaks with The Boston Globe reporter Scotty Nickerson about increased employment opportunities in nursing homes and residential care facilities. “Baby boomers and retirements are going to increase demand, and a lot of folks are going to need longer-term health care,” says Osterman.
Writing for Forbes, AgeLab Director Joseph Coughlin underscores how, in his view, “caregiving is the great crack in America’s retirement and longevity plans. While financial security in retirement is, with good reason, often cited as a public crisis, caregiving remains largely a private problem that is only described as an issue.”
Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with CNBC reporter Laya Neelakandan about the labor shortages impacting senior care across the country. “If we can create a better caring system with an entitlement to all care for those who need it, that will free millions of workers to make our economy grow,” Gruber explains.
Boston 25 reporter Rachel Keller visits the MIT AgeLab and dons the AGNES suit, “an innovative tool designed to simulate the physical and cognitive challenges of aging, allowing users to experience what it feels like to be 80 years old.” Lauren Cerino, a technical associate at the AgeLab, explains that “the intention of the suit is really to help people to think about how can I make the built environment better or how can I make these little changes that can actually make it really much easier for people to navigate spaces.”
Nature reporter James Mitchell Crow spotlights Prof. Leonard Guarente’s work studying the impact of calorie restriction in life expectancy. Guarente’s research points to “the importance of a set of genes and associated proteins called sirtuins.” Guarente says: “If you make them more active, you extend the lifespan.”
Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, speaks with Boston Globe reporter Kay Lazar about his recent study examining how Americans are preparing for their later years. “I’m hoping this is a kick-start moment, to start having people realize that it’s more than money,” says Coughlin. “It is more than my blood pressure and my cholesterol level, and that I need to start thinking about other dimensions.”
Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab spotlights how researchers from the MIT AgeLab and John Hancock developed a new longevity index. The Index aims to change “how we measure, teach, discuss and think about the future of aging,” explains Coughlin. “The Index measures preparedness across eight critical domains that research shows are fundamental to quality of life in older age: health, finance, care, home, daily activities, social connection, community, and life transitions.
Fox Business reporters Daniella Genovese and Eric Revell spotlight a new longevity index developed by researchers from the MIT AgeLab and John Hancock that shows how “U.S. adults are largely underprepared to live well as they age.” Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, explains that the findings “underscore that taking some small but intentional steps — such as planning for a new hobby, starting a fitness routine or having a conversation about care — can lead to a better future and make a big impact on how we spend our later years."
ABC News reporter Will Reeve spotlights the AGNES, a suit developed by MIT AgeLab researchers in an effort to help wearers experience the effects of aging on the body. “One of the greatest challenges that we’ve uncovered here at the AgeLab and elsewhere is that we really can’t envision our future self,” says Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab. “If everyone could wear AGNES, they would be in better touch with what their future self is, and what I would hope is they would invest in themselves physically [and] cognitively.”
WBZ NewsRadio reporter Emma Friedman visits the MIT AgeLab to get a firsthand look at the body suit AgeLab researchers developed to replicate what aging feels like. The Age Gain Now Empathy System or AGNES suit “mimics the visual capability, motor ability, and strength of people in their 70s and 80s,” Friedman explains. Graduate student Sophia Ashebir notes that “essentially what AGNES is, is a series of equipment that you can put on to gain empathy for and experience what an older version of yourself might be like.”
To get a better sense of the physical and cognitive experience of aging, Wall Street Journal reporter Amy Dockser Marcus donned the MIT AgeLab’s age-simulation suit, called the “Age Gain Now Empathy System” or Agnes for short, and embarked on a number of activities, including shopping at the grocery store, riding the subway, crossing a busy street, and cooking a meal. Dockser Marcus notes that research at the MIT AgeLab is focused on “finding ways to improve life for the elderly,” and noted that the Agnes suit provided a “greater insight into what it is really like to age—and what I could do to prepare.”
Kurt Knutsson of FOX News spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new mobile robot, dubbed E-BAR, designed to help physically support the elderly and prevent falls at home. “What stands out about E-BAR is how it's designed with real people in mind, not just as a tech gadget,” Knutsson explains. “It's easy to see how something like this could make a big difference for seniors wanting to stay independent without feeling tied down by bulky or uncomfortable devices.”
Dr. Mallika Marshall joins CBS Boston to discuss E-BAR, a new mobile robot developed by MIT researchers to physically support the elderly and prevent them from falling as they move around their homes. Marshall notes that E-BAR could also “lift someone from sitting to standing or vice versa, and catch someone safely by rapidly inflating side airbags if they begin to fall.”
Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, speaks with Barron’s reporter Megan Leonhardt about the longevity economy, workforce trends, and why he sees opportunities for innovation and growth as the senior population in the U.S. increases. “The future isn’t just about living longer—it is about living better. This gap between traditional aging and modern aspirations creates a white space ripe for investment and innovation,” says Coughlin. “We need to look at what a 100-year life span does to our expectations and behaviors, and probably most important, how government and business are going to innovate around disruptive demographics that don’t fit the story line that has been in place for the past century.”