AFAR Expert in the News: New Op-Ed and TEDxBoston Talk by Scholar-in-Residence Raiany Romanni-Klein, PhD, on the socioeconomic gains of healthy aging
![AFAR Expert in the News: New Op-Ed and TEDxBoston Talk by Scholar-in-Residence Raiany Romanni-Klein, PhD, on the socioeconomic gains of healthy aging]()
This season, two new resources were published featuring AFAR Scholar-in-Residence Raiany Romanni-Klein, PhD. Both lend fresh insights to ongoing research and conversation on the longevity dividend.
On January 27, 2026, TEDxBoston posted Dr. Romanni-Klein's talk presented in the fall. In “Dying, Fast and Slow: Why We Should Live Longer,” she challenges the assumption that aging-related decline is inevitable and presents both the moral and economic case for investing in geroscience, expanding on the ethical, scientific, and societal impact of treating biological aging as a target for intervention rather than something to simply accept.
On February 6th, The Boston Globe published an Op-Ed penned by Dr. Romanni-Klein for the IDEAS section. In “America’s next moonshot: Ultra-healthy 60-somethings,” she discusses the economic and social benefits of investing in geroscience to extend healthspan. She posits that keeping American workers healthier and working past their 60s could produce substantial economic gains.
She states: “If older adults were in better cognitive and overall health, this would not only improve their lives but also substantially lower Medicare costs — now around $1 trillion yearly —while relieving burdens on roughly 40 million Americans who today are unpaid caregivers of older adults.”
Available with a subscription to The Boston Globe, read “America’s next moonshot: Ultra-healthy 60-somethings” here.
Watch “Dying, Fast and Slow: Why We Should Live Longer” from TEDxBoston here.
For more insights from Dr. Romanni-Klein, watch our recent webinar, "The Potential of Geroscience: from Economic Gains to Social Returns and Ethical Concerns" here.