Elderhood

Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life

By: Louise Aronson

Narrated by: Eliza Foss

Bloomsbury presents Elderhood by Louise Aronson, MD, read by Eliza Foss.

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction
A New York Times Bestseller
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction
Winner of the WSU AOS Bonner Book Award
Winner of the 2022 At Home With Growing Older Impact Award

As revelatory as Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal, physician and award-winning author Louise Aronson’s Elderhood is an essential, empathetic look at a vital but often disparaged stage of life.

For more than 5,000 years, "old" has been defined as beginning between the ages of 60 and 70. That means most people alive today will spend more years in elderhood than in childhood, and many will be elders for 40 years or more. Yet at the very moment that humans are living longer than ever before, we’ve made old age into a disease, a condition to be dreaded, denigrated, neglected, and denied.

Reminiscent of Oliver Sacks, noted Harvard-trained geriatrician Louise Aronson uses stories from her quarter century of caring for patients, and draws from history, science, literature, popular culture, and her own life to weave a vision of old age that’s neither nightmare nor utopian fantasy—a vision full of joy, wonder, frustration, outrage, and hope about aging, medicine, and humanity itself.

Elderhood is for anyone who is, in the author's own words, "an aging, i.e., still-breathing human being."©2019 Louise Aronson, MD (P)2019 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Well written but too long

Well written book. Great ideas. Reading was excellent. But the book went on far too long for my tastes.

The truth about geriatrics in the USA

A bit too long and repetitive but still worth listening or reading—especially if you are old!!

Scary what lies ahead at my ripe age of 78

Louise, pls move to So FL, I’ll be your first patient in your new practice AND we have no state income tax

A Map for Our Third Act -- Elderhood

I listened to Elderhood as I'm navigating life supporting my 90-year-old mother and 94-year-old father. I'm in the thick of it. I'm grateful for the empathetic companionship, vision and advocacy of Louise Aronson as I strive to honor my incredible parents as they grow more vulnerable and more dear. I'm grateful for her calls for systemic transformation in our healthcare institutions. Hers is a much needed voice in these times.

Truly a great book

As I now find myself having to look out for my father who is in his 90s and dealing with my own reflections on approaching retirement age, this book is a great resource for finding positive energy and reconnecting with things that are important and enjoyable in life. When one gets past the more well known decades one gets exposed to in family and dealings in life, there is yet more to experience and grow from. I was not expecting such a journey with this book, but it is that and more. This book crushed the fears I was harboring and gave me insights into attitudes and the strength that comes from hope for the future.