The Longevity Book Club:
A Conversation with Stacy Torres
February 13, 2025

To understand elders' experiences of aging in place, sociologist Stacy Torres spent five years with longtime New York City residents as they coped with health setbacks, depression, gentrification, financial struggles, the accumulated losses of neighbors, friends, and family, and other everyday challenges.

At Home in the City chronicles how a nondescript bakery in Manhattan served as a public living room, providing company to ease loneliness and a sympathetic ear to witness the monumental and mundane struggles of late life. Through years of careful observation, Torres peels away the layers of this oft-neglected social world and explores the constellation of relationships and experiences that Western culture often renders invisible or frames as a problem.

During our Longevity Book Club on February 13th, Stacy Torres spoke with Ken, and highlighted how people find support, flex their resilience, and assert their importance in their communities in old age.