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Michael Berkeley's guest on Private Passions is the British geneticist and biogerontologist Dame Linda Partridge, who works on the biology of ageing. She is currrently Weldon Professor of Biometry and Director of the Institute of Healthy Ageing at University College London, and one of three founding Directors of the new Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Ageing in Cologne. Her current research on the biology of ageing focuses on single gene mutations and environmental interventions, such as diet, that can extend a healthy lifespan and protect against age-releated diseases. She is the recipient of many international awards, and in 2009 was appointed DBE. In 2009 the UK Research Council declared her one of six Women of Outstanding Achievement in Science, Engineering and Technology.

Her musical choices range from pieces by Bizet and Chopin to Britten's Missa brevis, Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, the Prelude to Wagner's Das Rheingold, and Philip Glass playing his own Glassworks.