Louise Aronson

Louise Aronson will spend her year at CASBS writing a book that challenges current approaches to aging. Tentatively titled Middleaging, it will draw from history, psychology, anthropology, economics, science, ethics, and medicine to better define—and hopefully improve—the liminal decades when adulthood cedes to elderhood. Relevant topics will include the human race’s near ubiquitous age denial and disdain, how cumulative intersectional opportunities and inequities shape the second half of life, the ways most of us undermine our own aging and aged futures, and American society’s enthusiastic support for the multi-billion dollar “anti-aging” industry while underinvesting in proven strategies. 

Aronson is professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco where she is a practicing geriatrician, educator, and designer of clinical and educational innovations. Her current work focuses in two areas: public advocacy writing by health professionals to improve healthcare, and devising creative, evidence-based approaches to support agency and optimize health across the sub-stages of old age. Her most recent book, Elderhood:Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019) was a finalist for the Pulitzer in general non-fiction, and she has published widely in medical journals, newspapers, and literary magazines.

For more, please visit www.louisearonson.com or view her TEDMed talk.