Jessica Finlay

Jessica Finlay Quoted in USA Today: The surprising new way to find friends and true love? Your Costco card

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 14:55:01 +0000

Jessica Finlay Quoted in USA Today: The surprising new way to find friends and true love? Your Costco card Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 09/21/2026 - 08:55

Article text copied for archival purposes.

The surprising new way to find friends and true love? Your Costco card

by Jessica Guynn

Updated September 16th, 2026

With their busy schedules, Los Angeles besties and social media influencers Analyse Talavera and Carmen Rene Smith don’t always spend as much time together as they’d like. Their solution? Tag-teaming their Costco errands.

The outings double as catch-up sessions while they load their carts with everything from tins of spicy albacore and protein bowls to Neutrogena makeup wipes and paper towels.

"Especially in this economy, instead of going out and dropping $200 on dinner – which Analyse and I are good for – we go to Costco and stock up on meal prep for the week and then top it off with a $3 fro yo," Smith said. "You really can't beat that."

Arizona couple Lisa Bayless and Jeff Stitt share the aisles of Costco, too. For their 18 years of marriage, they rarely shop alone.

Stitt pushes and unloads the heavy cart while Bayless guides the way with their list, checking off household staples like bottled water, sugar and toilet paper.

"It's sort of like date night, but it’s an afternoon date with a purpose," Bayless said.

On the surface, Costco is a popular spot for Americans to stretch their grocery dollar, but it also feeds a deeply human need. As physical community spaces disappear and social bonds fray, the warehouse giant has emerged as an unexpected anchor for connection.

Take San Jose, California, mother of four Alyssa Munoz swaps the local park for a different kind of playground on Sunday mornings. She meets up with other parents at Costco to push side-by-side carts − one for the kids, one for the groceries − before wrapping up the playdate at the food court.

"They get samples, lunch and ice cream and we get our groceries done," Munoz said.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, says socializing is a "very overlooked, but also very important" reason why people shop at Costco.

"While Costco’s primary purpose is as a place to stock up on products, it has also become something of a social destination," Saunders said.

Searching for connection at Costco

Sociologists call it a "third place" – Ray Oldenburg's term for the parks, barbershops and libraries where people build community outside home and work. Increasingly, that gathering spot is Costco.

But these communal destinations are slowly vanishing from American life. Sprawling suburbs leave little room for walkable hubs while endless screen time – from TikTok scrolling to Netflix binges – has replaced real-world connection. As attendance at churches and civic clubs declines, Americans are left feeling isolated.

The fallout is a national loneliness crisis. Federal data shows face-to-face socializing has plummeted since tracking began in 2003, with Americans spending just 35 minutes a day connecting in person, down 15% from a decade ago.

So Americans are searching for new places to reclaim that sense of belonging.

For decades, the cultural ideal was "Cheers" – the neighborhood bar where "everybody knows your name." Today, that coveted "third place" is just as likely to be a climbing gym or yoga studio, an independent bookstore, a pickleball court, or, yes, Costco warehouses.

"They're typically physically accessible, relatively low-cost, low-pressure hub/hangouts, socially welcoming to a diversity of folks, and multigenerational – all key 'third place' attributes,' said Jessica Finlay, an assistant professor of geography at the �鶹��Ѱ��.

Take Wil Cid, a card-carrying member since 1988 – back when Costco was Price Club. For Cid, Costco isn't just a wholesale warehouse; it's his happy place.

Visiting three to four times a week, he is such a fixture at local stores that Costco employees know him by name. Once, upon returning from a vacation, staffers stopped him every few feet, asking where he had been. Friends routinely text his wife, Vivian, to report sightings.

"I tell them I’m not surprised," Vivian said. "He’s there all the time."

That devotion led Vivian to organize a surprise party at the food court for Wil’s 68th birthday, leaning into an obsession that she doesn’t really share or entirely understand.

"I like Costco in an average, normal, healthy way," she said.

From malls to McDonald's, America's meetups

Of course, Costco is not the first commercial space to function as a town square. According to Richard Kyte, a professor of ethics at Viterbo University and author of "Finding Your Third Place," corporate America has a long history of engineering social hubs.

In the 1950s and 1960s, suburban malls were explicitly designed as community cornerstones, complete with bustling food courts, movie theaters, arcades, and a smorgasbord of shops.

Fast-food staples like McDonald’s became a low-cost refuge where seniors lingered over morning coffee, students gathered after school and young kids frolicked in play areas.

Eventually, Starbucks revolutionized the concept, pairing comfy seating with free Wi-Fi to market itself as the definitive destination between home and work.

After an aggressive, pandemic-era pivot to drive-thrus, mobile pickups, and delivery app orders, the coffee giant is trying to recapture its roots under its "Back to Starbucks" strategy, actively renovating cafes with inviting couches and extra power outlets and even returning to ceramic mugs, softer lighting, and wood paneling to convince Americans to sit down and stay a while.

How Costco became a 'third place'

With its fluorescent lighting, concrete floors, and industrial shelving, Costco might seem like an unlikely setting for leisurely socializing. But the retail powerhouse is uniquely positioned to serve as a third place, according to Kyte.

For one thing, it is woven into the very fabric of American life. As a ubiquitous fixture across the country, the chain provides a familiar, predictable environment that makes millions of members feel instantly at home.

According to consumer analytics firm Numerator, roughly 72.3 million households shopped at Costco over the past year. Even more striking, over a quarter of all U.S. households are dedicated regulars, visiting at least 12 times a year.

On average, a Costco shopper makes 31 trips annually, spending $99 per visit for a total annual outlay of $3,043 – figures that comfortably eclipse competitors like Sam’s Club and BJ’s, Numerator said.

Once inside the warehouse, shoppers tend to linger, enticed by a potent cocktail of comforting routine, retail adrenaline and cheap eats.

Numerator estimates that members made 144 million trips for food-court fare last year, effectively putting Costco on the same scale as major regional fast-food chains like In-N-Out and Zaxbys.

And, according to foot traffic analytics firm Placer.ai, the average Costco visit lasts 15 minutes longer than a trip to a traditional grocery store and outpaces other big-box superstores by roughly seven minutes.

"For many shoppers, a trip to Costco is an experience to savor and enjoy," Elizabeth Lafontaine, director of research at Placer.ai, said.

Building community one hot dog at a time

Once or twice a quarter, University of California, Davis students Sharon Hwang, Katrina Le and Steven Zhang pile dozens of classmates into a caravan of cars and head to the nearest Costco about 15 minutes away.

Their college club, which unites students over a shared childhood love for all things Costco, has become an unexpected antidote to campus isolation. By organizing these massive shopping adventures and food court lunches, the group has fostered tight-knit friendships on a campus of tens of thousands.

"If something small like a Costco trip can help someone meet new friends or feel a little bit connected, then I feel like we accomplished something," Hwang said.

What began as a casual weekly lunch for Jaxon Smith and his friends quickly evolved into a lifeline for local men.

Gathering at the food court once or twice a week, Smith’s group frequently crossed paths with other acquaintances. But it was the sight of so many men eating alone that sparked an idea: What if a trip to Costco could be an intentional way to combat male isolation?

Last November, Smith posted a video on Instagram, officially launching the Men’s Mental Health Costco Club. The weekly meetup became an instant success, drawing crowds so large it has since expanded well beyond the warehouse walls.

"Mental health is often portrayed in a negative light,” said Smith, who grew up going to Costco with his father and siblings. Through the club, he aims to flip that script and "just help men feel less lonely."

How 'Camp Costco' brings people together

The ultimate testament to Costco's power to bring people together began more than a quarter-century ago in Brentwood, Tennessee. Two friends – a World War II B-24 pilot and an Army veteran from the Cold War era – started meeting every Friday in the food court over hot dogs. Before long, veterans from the Korean, Vietnam and Gulf Wars joined their ranks at "Camp Costco."

Officially known as the Middle Tennessee Veterans Support Group, the weekly assembly provides local service members with the vital camaraderie they first forged in uniform.

Paul Napoli, who served in the Marines before the Vietnam War, says he started going in 2010 when the group had just 10 regulars. Today, the roster has expanded to a couple hundred members, with 40 to 60 veterans gathering each week.

"Nobody cares what rank you were or what service you were in. Everybody mixes together," he said. "It’s just a wonderful group of people."

That makes Costco something exceedingly unusual: a gathering place where Americans of all backgrounds feel at home in a deeply polarized country.

Costco has a vested interest in preserving that sense of belonging. With membership fees driving nearly two-thirds of Costco’s profits in 2025, belonging fuels its business model. Tellingly, its in-house magazine is called "Costco Connection."

'Clubbing for married folks'

Going to Costco has become one of America's collective rituals, according to sociologist Randall Collins. For many, this shared time roaming the aisles is deeply personal. Collins’s wife regularly catches up with friends over food-court hot dogs, and he knows couples who first met in the wine aisle.

In fact, Costco has emerged as an unlikely romantic spot. Couples call it "clubbing for married folks." They graze on free samples, browse jewelry or big-screen TVs and top it off with chicken bakes or pizza slices. The "Kirkland Signature date night" is so popular that some couples now spend engagements, anniversaries, and Valentine's Day at the warehouse.

The allure crosses over to celebrities, too. Meta cofounder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have been spotted browsing electronics in Mountain View, California, while Michelin-starred chef José Andrés routinely tags along on his wife’s Costco trips to scout their impressive French Bordeaux selection. Country star Russell Dickerson and his wife, Kailey, even leave their boys with grandma for warehouse dates, with Kailey joking that any kid-free excursion – especially a Costco run – feels romantic.

Perhaps no couple can claim more miles logged in the name of warehouse devotion than New York residents David and Susan Schwartz.

Bonded by a mutual obsession with the brand, the pair traveled over 300,000 miles to visit more than 350 warehouses in 14 countries to write their book, “The Joy of Costco: A Treasure Hunt from A to Z.” Today, they still relish dates at their local store. Today, they still relish dates at their local store.

Pick up in the frozen food aisle

When it comes to romance, "Love Island" has nothing on Costco.

Margot Schein, a self-described "Costco nerd," was browsing a dating app when she spotted the profile of Jules Parris, who listed Costco as a favorite.

Intrigued, Schein reached out, and the two met at a San Diego warehouse. They spent hours strolling the aisles, grazing on free samples and dining in the food court. Parris admits she forgot almost everything on her grocery list that day because she couldn’t take her eyes off Schein.

After a cross-country move for graduate school, the couple returned to that exact San Diego store on the third anniversary of their meet-cute to get hitched. With the warehouse manager's blessing, they exchanged vows under an archway by the checkout stands.

Today, they still preserve their Sunday morning shopping ritual. "Costco literally brought us together," Schein said. "People are like, 'You must really love capitalism,' and I’m like, 'That’s not it. I love this one store.'"

Robert Bonilla’s Costco love story began with a similar twist of fate.

Days before Christmas in 2013, Bonilla was navigating a crowded frozen food aisle when he locked eyes with a woman wearing cowboy boots.

Years later, he proposed in that very same aisle, attaching a marriage proposal note to a package of frozen shrimp. The couple eventually wed after-hours inside the store, saying "I do" as employees drove forklifts and restocked shelves in the background.

Though the marriage didn’t last, Bonilla’s relationship with Costco did.

Now single and a still familiar regular at his local Santa Maria, California, warehouse, he hasn't ruled out a sequel.

"You never know," Bonilla laughed. "I shop there all the time. In fact, I’m going there today."

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Jessica Finlay received $3.7 million grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 14:31:20 +0000

Jessica Finlay received $3.7 million grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) National Institute on Aging (NIA) Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 09/21/2026 - 08:31

Congratulations to Assistant Professor of Geography and Institute of Behavioral Science Faculty Fellow, Dr. Jessica Finlay for receiving $3.7 million grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) National Institute on Aging (NIA) for her project!

The project is titled “Life Course Cognability: A Mixed Methods Study of Neighborhoods and Cognitive Health.” The five-year project will examine how neighborhood services, amenities and hazards influence cognitive health and dementia risk across adulthood.

In addition to this grant, Jessica Finlay has also received the Gateway Exposome Coordinating Center pilot grant and the Center to Accelerate Population Research in Aging pilot grant.

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Jessica Finlay in the Washington Post: What’s fueling loneliness—and polarization—in America today?

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 16:32:31 +0000

Jessica Finlay in the Washington Post: What’s fueling loneliness—and polarization—in America today? Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 09/04/2026 - 10:32

Text of article copied for archival purposes.

What’s fueling loneliness—and polarization—in America today?

The loss of third places is one reason.

September 2, 2026

By Juhie Bhatia, The Nation

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice.

In 2011, Richard Kyte, an ethics professor at Viterbo University, noticed that two of his colleagues were growing increasingly isolated. So he suggested they meet every Wednesday at 6:30 am for breakfast at a café five blocks from their university in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Fifteen years later, the meetups have continued and expanded, now happening at a tavern after the café closed. Some of the most reluctant participants are now the most engaged. Even as the group has changed, the opportunity for connection has remained.

“A couple colleagues that started with me years ago, our friendship has really deepened,” said Kyte, noting that he’s also become good friends with those who joined later. “When you’re talking about adding a close friend, that’s a huge change in the quality of your life.”

Places like Kyte’s local tavern have long offered more than food and drink. Known as “third places,” these informal gathering spaces outside home and work—from cafés and barber shops to local parks and libraries—can serve as hubs for social interaction, community ties, and civic engagement. But across the United States, many of these places are disappearing, transforming, or giving way to large corporate chains, some of which may prioritize efficiency and turnover over giving people a space to linger. That shift comes as Americans are feeling increasingly lonely, divided, and distrustful.

Kyte, author of Finding Your Third Place, said third places are not only declining overall but also changing. “They’re changing their character. The old places that were common third places are dying pretty rapidly,” he said. “Where do I find a third place? That’s a question I get a lot.”

First coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg, third places are a crucial form of social infrastructure. Research shows that they can foster belonging and social cohesion, as they offer opportunities for casual, low-stakes interactions. Regular engagement in these spaces has also been linked to lower loneliness and stress and better physical, mental, social, and cognitive health.

“Covid brought a greater awareness to third places, to how vital they are for everyday health and well-being,” said Jessica Finlay, an assistant professor of geography at the �鶹��Ѱ��. ”They can be a social glue that connects us, and it’s really important for not just individual health but collective health.”

Yet fewer people are visiting these spaces, particularly since the pandemic. A national survey found that 54 percent of Americans now regularly spend time in such places, down from 67 percent in 2019.

Rising costs, remote work, busy schedules, and growing e-commerce are some of the reasons these places have become harder to sustain and fit into daily life. People are also socializing and communicating less. In 2025, 30 percent of Americans did so on an average day, down from 38 percent a decade earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Part of that may be because there are more ways to connect and be entertained without leaving home. Social media, gaming communities, group chats, and other digital spaces have moved more social interaction online. Finlay said these digital third places can bring both promise and peril.

“Even though you might be able to find folks who share the same passions or interests, there historically is value in productively encountering difference. When we’re in third places in person, we might be right next to someone who doesn’t think like we do or navigate the world in the same way,” she said. “We can lose a lot of that online.”

As third places become scarcer, their loss isn’t felt equally. A 2025 study found that the overall decline in third place availability may disproportionately affect majority-Black, lower-educated, and rural communities. Some of these groups already report higher rates of loneliness or less social support.

“We wanted to dig a little bit deeper into where are these closures concentrated? And we did find that underserved communities typically saw a greater concentration of closures,” said Finlay, one of the study’s authors.

But the pattern isn’t uniform, Finlay added, as some kinds of third places are holding steady or increasing. For instance, the majority-Black communities in the study had more access to civic and social organizations, beauty and barber shops, and restaurants. Libraries, meanwhile, were more concentrated in less-educated and rural areas. Some of these communities may also be more adept at finding other places to gather. “The story is complicated.”

The Trust for Public Land has also found that neighborhoods where most residents are people of color have access to an average of 44 percent less park acreage than predominantly white neighborhoods. Similar park space inequities exist in low-income neighborhoods.

Without accessible third places, experts warn, people may become more isolated and social networks can shrink. Their loss may also deepen political division and mistrust. In a 2025 Pew survey, just 44 percent of Americans said they trusted all or most of the people in their neighborhood.

“When you have a decline in the amount of time that people are actually spending getting to know others in their community, you have a decline in trust, because…most trust is built through person-to-person relationships,” said Kyte. “And so we’re going to continue to see less trust, and that leads to more polarization.”

Still, creating more opportunities to gather starts with supporting places where it can happen. That means helping existing third places stay open while making it easier to create new ones, from investing more in public spaces and lowering barriers for small businesses to rethinking policies and regulations that make such spaces harder to build.

“The main thing that needs to be done is to revise zoning codes in towns and cities to allow for small business in residential areas, usually called mixed-use zoning,” Kyte said. “There is a growing movement among urban planners to do this, but it’s a long, slow process. My own city of La Crosse is in the middle of this process right now.” Other cities such as Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Seattle have also been rethinking such zoning rules.

Through its Local Conversations initiative, Strong Towns is supporting more than 290 locally led groups across the country to take small steps to build community and improve their neighborhoods. The changes can be simple, said John T. Reuter, the organization’s executive director, such as adding benches at bus stops and dog parks, making intersections and crosswalks safer, or turning front yards into gathering spaces.

“People were reaching out to their neighbors, finding ways to connect, and starting to figure out how to heal their places,” Reuter said. “The very core problem that we have is our built environment is what’s driven us to this space of disconnection. And the solution is to start with reconnecting public space.”

But creating more third places isn’t enough; they also need to encourage connection. Comfortable seating, for example, can give people a reason to linger, while programming can draw people into the space. Finlay said that can require getting meaningful input from the communities the spaces are meant to serve.

“It is both quantity and quality,” she said. “Folks have mentioned wanting to just feel welcome in places, so little things like having ‘all are welcome’ signs or doing programming like game nights and trivia.”

Ultimately though, people have to show up.

“Each of us individually can have third places reappear for us, whether that’s a church or a coffee shop or a bowling alley or a game store, right? Whatever it might be, I would just encourage people to go out into the world,” said Reuter. “All of these things are happening today, and you just have to go out and find them and join them. You might not be able to end the loneliness epidemic for everyone, but you can end it for yourself.”

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Jessica Finlay Quoted in Axios: A loneliness epidemic meets uneven social infrastructure

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 14:46:09 +0000

Jessica Finlay Quoted in Axios: A loneliness epidemic meets uneven social infrastructure Gabriela Rocha Sales Sun, 07/05/2026 - 08:46

Article text copied for archival purposes.

A loneliness epidemic meets uneven social infrastructure

Jul 5, 2026 - Economy

by Avery Lotz

It's not just the kids: Adults in some U.S. communities are seeing their gathering places shutter.

The big picture: Losing essential sites of connection and care — like senior centers and churches — risks escalating America's loneliness epidemic.

Already, fewer Americans are talking to their neighbors, and young people fear they have nowhere to gather. But many of the places that ease isolation have closed their doors.
"There's no single story to this; we've lost many sites, the sites themselves have changed, there's a growth of online places that fill varying needs —or not — for folks," says Jessica Finlay, a �鶹��Ѱ�� professor and a faculty fellow of the Institute of Behavioral Science.

By the numbers: A 2025 report from Finlay and other researchers found a rapid decline in third place availability — those gathering spaces outside of home and work — between 2019 and 2021, according to their analysis of Census tract-level data.

Third place access varied across different groups. For example, majority-Black areas had fewer libraries, while low-educated and rural areas had fewer civic and social organizations.
Despite the variation, the study found that the overall decline may disproportionately impact majority-Black, low-educated and rural communities.

Zoom out: More broadly, traditional brick-and-mortar churches are facing closures at unprecedented rates.

When Ryan Burge's church in Mount Vernon, Illinois — once the cultural touchstone of the community — closed, he questioned what would come next.
Burge, a professor at Washington University who served as a pastor for over 20 years, tells Axios that near the end, a large share of his congregants were widows, for whom the church was a "social network." His biggest worry, he says, was "where are these people going to go?"

Reality check: Just because a third place closes, it doesn't mean gatherings have ceased — but it does mean there's one less site for connection, which can have real impacts on physical, mental, social and cognitive health.

On top of that, a third place doesn't necessarily need to close for it to be inaccessible, such as when sports leagues carry pricey barriers to entry, Kimberly Burrowes, a senior manager at the Urban Institute, told Axios.

What they're saying: Paige Hammond tells Axios that while there are public spaces in her Shorewood, Wisconsin, community, there's a lack of opportunity to gather.

That struck her as she sat alone in her six-person backyard sauna. So, she posted a call on Facebook to see if any other women would be interested in joining. Well over 100 women responded.
Hammond tells Axios, "It just became immediately clear that there was a need for this, and the need far exceeded the need to sauna."
So, she launched the Shorewood Women's Social: A come-as-you-are space that's brought women in their 20s to their 70s together.

Zoom in: Spaces for connection are particularly important, Finlay says, for the "bookends of life."

Lack of social interaction and gathering space "can be devastating" for older people, Finlay says. Informal social connections, such as at the supermarket checkout, "may be some of the only friendly smiles and engagements they have in a day."

The bottom line: While the status of third places across America is nuanced, their value is clear.

There's no single story to this; we've lost many sites, the sites themselves have changed, there's a growth of online places that fill varying needs —or not — for folks," says Jessica Finlay, a �鶹��Ѱ�� professor and a faculty fellow of the Institute of Behavioral Science.

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Jessica Finlay Quoted in The New York Times: How Americans Became Less Connected

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:50:03 +0000

Jessica Finlay Quoted in The New York Times: How Americans Became Less Connected Gabriela Rocha Sales Wed, 06/17/2026 - 08:50

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How Americans Became Less Connected

Plus, the start of a series on the opposite of violence.

Dear reader,

Believe it or not, we are experiencing a period of record declines in violent crime in the United States.

I say “believe it or not” because the public, by and large, does not believe it. Americans consistently report a perception that violent crime is increasing, a phenomenon observed over nearly three decades when the reverse was mostly true.

And I can imagine some of the reasons for the dissonance: The U.S. is still a good deal more violent than most other high-income countries. The country has grown rapidly less affordable in recent years, wages are stagnating, a sustained series of mass protests is afoot.

But I also have a theory, which has been reinforced by our coverage of violence prevention: Violence has only gotten more visible. Not only do about three-quarters of Americans say they routinely get local news and information about violent crime, but it’s also extremely common to see violence in our social media feeds. Mass shootings and political violence, now routine, feed into the sense of its ubiquity. It has become a spectacle that’s hard to look away from, and its absence is far less visible than its presence, wherever it appears.

So over the past few months, we’ve been pairing stories about violence prevention with a quizzical prompt: What is the opposite of violence? If we are being constantly buffeted with images of violence, how could we begin to observe the forces that restrain or counteract it?

We’ve gotten more than 300 responses to these questions, and over the past several weeks, we’ve worked with our colleague Ama Sarpomaa to explore ways of measuring what we heard.

One of the most common themes in what we’ve heard is “community” and its variants. Many responses included indicators such as “interactions with neighbors,” “social connectedness” and “neighbors looking out for each other.” “Neighbors would not commit violence against one another,” wrote one young adult from Chicago. “Instead, they watch out for one another. That is the opposite of violence.”

So in today’s newsletter, the beginning of a series arising from our violence prompt, Ama explores one of the best measures we could find in this direction: the nation’s levels of socializing and communicating. It might not surprise you to hear this, but even though violence has been declining, social connection has been too.

— Matt Thompson

When did people stop connecting?

The number of hours Americans spend “socializing and communicating” has been falling since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking it in 2003.

Since then, there have been any number of developments that might have helped fuel isolation, from the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 to pandemic-induced stay-at-home orders and curfews in the early 2020s. In 2024, Americans spent about 35.4 minutes per day socializing in person, down from 46.8 minutes a little over two decades ago. Although the number is about a minute higher from the year before, it hasn’t bounced back to prepandemic levels.

Dr. Vivek Murthy, the nation’s 19th and 21st surgeon general, officially declared a national epidemic of loneliness and isolation in 2023. Low levels of social connection were fueling increasing rates of loneliness, he said, raising people’s risk of disease and chances of dying early. His advisory included recommendations for improving social connection, such as adopting pro-connection policies and developing a research agenda.

It’s not just the U.S. Many countries are taking steps to address growing loneliness. In 2019, for example, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands introduced “chatty checkouts” for customers open to casual interactions with cashiers and others. The United Kingdom appointed a minister for loneliness in 2018 to plan the government’s response to loneliness. The baton has since been passed down to the nation’s minister for sport, tourism, civil society and youth, who’s tasked with addressing loneliness and social connection.

Why is this happening?

Social connection in the U.S. is falling for many reasons — political conflict, economic stress and technological evolution are just a few.

Text messaging and algorithm-driven binge watching on social media, for instance, have completely altered how teenagers interact. A Harvard researcher found that out of a group of 500 teens surveyed daily, over half reported that they hadn’t spoken to anyone in person or online in the last hour. Apps like TikTok and Instagram have implemented screen time limits that can easily be ignored, and artificial intelligence has completely replaced in-person contact for some.

One big factor, researchers say, is disappearing social infrastructure — physical places and services that encourage social activity. Third places, the informal public gathering spaces outside one’s home (first place) and work (second place), play critical roles in connecting people. From parks to bars to libraries, the nation has been losing places where friends and strangers congregate.

“There are broader ripple effects on other determinants of health beyond just, say, nutrition when we lose those types of places,” said Dr. Danielle Rhubart, a faculty member in biobehavioral health at Pennsylvania State University.

These effects can be particularly evident during natural disasters. When the fast-moving wildfires tore through parts of California in early 2025, for example, restaurant owners and street vendors in Los Angeles mobilized in just a few days to feed first responders. Local gyms gave evacuees and first responders free access to gym amenities like showers and charging stations.

A research team led by Dr. Jessica Finlay, a professor at the �鶹��Ѱ��, found that the number of third places in multiple categories decreased between 2011 and 2015 across the United States. Then came the pandemic, which accelerated the rate of closures and shifted the types of businesses being born.

Some spaces have also held on to lockdown-era policies that discouraged people from lingering. Simple things that often make a space more inviting, like comfortable seating, public bathrooms and human-powered checkout counters are becoming scarcer, Dr. Finlay said. These examples of hostile architecture are completely altering spaces which once promoted social gathering, she argued, and could be contributing to the decline.

Who has been most affected?

There are significant disparities in the distribution and quality of third places. Communities with more Black or Latino people, regions with higher poverty rates and rural areas tend to have a limited supply. The numbers are particularly stark in majority Latino communities, which had between 82 and 86 percent fewer of these spaces than areas with little to no Latino residents, according to Dr. Rhubart’s research.

There were similar disparities in the number of closures between 2019 and 2021, Dr. Finlay and her team found. Many of the same types of communities already lacking these environments lost disproportionately more of them.

On average, parks serving neighborhoods of color are also roughly half the size and serve nearly five times as many people as parks in majority white neighborhoods, according to a Trust for Public Land analysis that used U.S. census data.

What’s being done about this?

Some states are working to improve social connection:

Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services awards grants to private and public organizations fighting loneliness and improving the quality of life for older adults and people with disabilities.
Utah established a Social and Community Health Day last year to encourage Utahns to connect with friends.
Two teenagers in Atlanta were awarded a $50,000 grant by the mayor’s chief of staff to help bring to fruition their reimagination of third spaces.

And some organizations are building off the surgeon general’s 2023 recommendations:

RAND and the Connection Institute, with support from the Barnes Family Foundation, is conducting the first nationally representative survey focused solely on measuring social connection. The survey will be published annually for the next 25 years.
Dr. Murthy started a Knight Foundation-funded initiative in 2025 that will “spotlight scalable models that help communities thrive and promote their replication across the country.”

What can I check out next?

The New York Times reporter Dana G. Smith described the ways introverts can build strong social connections without being “the life of every party.”
The World Health Organization released a detailed report on social connection in 2025.
Can online communities be third places? Rolling Stone has answers.
NPR’s “Here & Now Anytime” podcast looked at how people socialize and combat isolation in third spaces.
Take this New York Times quiz to find out how healthy your ‘social biome’ is.

— Ama Sarpomaa

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Hayes Hart-Thompson Awarded Student Employee of the Year

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:42:04 +0000

Hayes Hart-Thompson Awarded Student Employee of the Year Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 04/28/2026 - 09:42

Hayes Hart-Thompson is a master’s student studying Geography. Dr. Jessica Finlay (Assistant Professor in Geography) nominated Hayes for their roles as a teaching and research assistant. Across both positions, Hayes consistently exceeds expectations, through exceptional initiative, intellectual leadership and a deep commitment to equity, inclusion and collective success.

In the classroom, Hayes builds an inclusive environment where students feel seen, heard and intellectually challenged, especially in a course centered on power, privilege and urban inequality. During stressful or uncertain moments, Hayes proactively checked in with students and adjusted instructional approaches to keep the class grounded in trust and mutual respect. Hayes also made a lasting instructional contribution by designing and leading a three-week interactive capstone project that asked students to apply course concepts to a realistic urban planning scenario, setting a new standard for experiential, justice-oriented learning in the department.

Hayes strengthens departmental research by contributing novel ideas that improve project design, collaborative workflows and advance equity-centered research practices. As a leader, Hayes supports and mentors other students and elevates their peers through encouragement, constructive guidance, and deep collaboration.

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Jessica Finlay: GOALie Geographer

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 21:22:44 +0000

Jessica Finlay: GOALie Geographer Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 04/27/2026 - 15:22

Assistant Professor Jessica Finlay co-founded GOAL (Geographies of Aging and the Life Course), an interdisciplinary working group that has grown to include more than 150 researchers worldwide. GOAL brings together scholars engaged in spatial and place-based studies of aging and the life course across a wide range of disciplines, including geography, gerontology, epidemiology, sociology, transportation, and urban planning. The group’s mission is to foster connection, collaboration, and innovation in research on the dynamic relationships among space, place, environment, and health across the life course.

Dr. Jessica Finlay and GOAL co-founders Dr. Amber DeJohn and Dr. Michael Desjardins.

Dr. Jessica Finlay led a qualitative methods workshop during a GOAL 2026 scientific workshop in Tallahassee, Florida, helping participants build interview skills with volunteers from local senior centers.

GOAL members gathered for an ice cream social after the GOAL symposium sessions at the 2026 American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting in San Francisco, where they shared updates on their latest research and explored new opportunities for collaboration.

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Jessica Finlay Named 2026 Research and Innovation Office Faculty Fellow

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 14:25:59 +0000

Jessica Finlay Named 2026 Research and Innovation Office Faculty Fellow Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 12/12/2025 - 07:25

December 11 , 2025 by Kelly Holguin

Copied from IBS for Archival Purposes

Assistant Professor of Geography and Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) Faculty Fellow Jessica Finlay has been selected as one of 18 �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Research & Innovation Office (RIO) Faculty Fellows for the 2026 cohort. This is the largest and most interdisciplinary cohort since the program began eight years ago.

The RIO Faculty Fellows program identifies emerging leaders across �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder who are poised to advance high-impact, collaborative research. Fellows are chosen through a competitive nomination and application process, with priority given to those whose work bridges disciplines and demonstrates strong potential for innovative scholarship and institutional leadership.

For Finlay, the recognition is both meaningful and motivating.

“It’s a true honor. Becoming a Faculty Fellow represents an opportunity to grow alongside a new, cross-disciplinary community at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder,” she said. “It feels deeply validating to have RIO invest time and resources into my development as an early-career scholar. I’m excited to learn from research leaders across campus and to contribute to a collaborative environment focused on leadership, innovation, and impact.”

Finlay’s work explores the social and environmental determinants of health across the life course, often integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches to understand how lived experiences and physical spaces shape aging, wellbeing, and equity. Her interdisciplinary research is anchored in geography and spans public health, environmental gerontology, and community-engaged scholarship.

Through the year-long fellowship, Finlay hopes to strengthen the skills that will support her evolving research program and growing mentorship roles.

“I hope to gain a tight-knit peer community and to strengthen my leadership skills so I can be a better scholar, mentor, and representative of �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder,” she said. “I’m looking forward to structured time and creative activities for reflection, feedback, and skill-building.”

When asked what advice she would give to faculty considering applying in future years, Finlay encouraged authenticity and intention.

“Lean into the parts of your work that feel most meaningful, and articulate how leadership development can enhance your distinct contributions to the university and broader community,” she said. “Reflect on your scientific or artistic niche and your longer-term career aspirations. The program is designed for people who are eager to learn, collaborate, and stretch themselves.”

Finlay’s selection underscores IBS’s continued representation among campus research leaders and highlights the Institute’s commitment to supporting rising scholars whose work advances understanding of complex societal challenges.

Assistant Professor of Geography and Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) Faculty Fellow Jessica Finlay has been selected as one of 18 �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Research & Innovation Office (RIO) Faculty Fellows for the 2026 cohort. This is the largest and most interdisciplinary cohort since the program began eight years ago.

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Jessica Finlay Publishes New Popular Science Book: The Microbiome Master Key

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:14:20 +0000

Jessica Finlay Publishes New Popular Science Book: The Microbiome Master Key Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/08/2025 - 14:14

Assistant Professor Jessica Finlay and her co-author father Dr. Brett Finlay published The Microbiome Master Key: Harness Your Microbes to Unlock Whole-Body Health and Lifelong Vitality. In this popular science book, they explore how microbial communities everywhere in and around us impact your brain health, sleep, immune system, metabolism, and more. The work bridges Jessica’s expertise in geographies of aging with microbial science to demonstrate how social, spatial, and environmental factors connect to invisible ecosystems within and on our bodies. It also weaves personal narratives—including stories of cross-generational scientific collaboration—into the science, making complex research accessible through family, science, and place.

/asmagazine/2025/09/15/when-microbiome-family-matter

https://theexperimentpublishing.com/catalogs/summer-2025/the-microbiome-master-key/

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Jessica Finlay: Why your microbiome may matter more than DNA for your lifelong health

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 14:16:32 +0000

Jessica Finlay: Why your microbiome may matter more than DNA for your lifelong health Gabriela Rocha Sales Thu, 07/24/2025 - 08:16

Pulled from Big Think, webpage: (https://bigthink.com/books/microbiome-master-key/) on 7/24/25 at 8:18am.

Text copied for department archival purposes.

Article by Jasna Hodžić

Key Takeaways

Everyone hosts trillions of bacteria in their gut and millions more in places like their skin and mouth.
This collective microbiome has been linked to nearly every aspect of physical and mental health, from digestion to depression.
The Microbiome Master Key reviews the research to show how supporting the microbial ecosystems in our bodies and environments may be a powerful way to live and age well.

“Am I human, or am I bacteria?”

The question sounds like something out of Star Trek, but it popped into my head around chapter four of The Microbiome Master Key, and I couldn’t shake it. Written by Brett Finlay and Jessica Finlay — yes, they’re a related father–daughter scientist duo — the book explores how the microbes living in and on us shape nearly every aspect of human health.

“Microbes,” short for microorganisms, are tiny living things like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. When scientists talk about the human microbiome, they usually refer to the trillions of bacteria that live in and on our bodies, especially in the gut.

Like many people, I had a vague sense that gut bacteria help with digestion. I eat yogurt and drink the occasional kombucha partly because I assume it’s “good for my gut.” I even knew the classic fun fact: By sheer number of cells and DNA, we’re more microbial than human.

However, the Finlays’ book challenged my assumption that my microbiome was made up of mostly passive passengers. Instead, the authors show that it is essential to almost every part of how we function: healing, sleeping, how our skin looks, and maybe even how we think. The connection made me reconsider, well … what actually “am” I?

In an interview, I asked Brett if studying the microbiome made him question things like free will, agency, or identity. He chuckled the way a scholar does when someone new to their field finally has that “Aha!” moment.

“Learning more about your microbiome will certainly shake your definition of what it means to be human,” he says.

A microbiologist and professor at the University of British Columbia, Brett has spent decades immersed in the world of bacteria. In his classes, he tells students to look around the room and describe what they see. “Where they say ‘human,’ I say, ‘Yes, a human, but also a vessel for bacteria.’”

Jessica, a geographer, environmental gerontologist, and assistant professor at the �鶹��Ѱ��, brought a more relational view. She described microbes as her “lifelong invisible partners.” “We give them a home and food,” she said. “In return, they help us function. They’re with us from birth to death. You don’t really get to opt out.”

While that thought might elicit cringes from some readers, the reality is far from a germophobic nightmare. That’s because embracing your microbiome may be, as the authors put it, the real “master key” to better health and aging.

Rewriting the microbial story

This perspective motivated the Finlays to update their 2019 book, The Whole Body Microbiome, and expand it with new chapters and fresh research in The Microbiome Master Key.

“Really, this is the book we wanted to write five years ago,” Brett tells me. “Back then, we had hints that microbes weren’t just important in the gut but critical to many functions. The research wasn’t strong enough to make a compelling case, though.”

Today, it is, and the Finlays have pulled together the evidence linking the microbiome to a wide-ranging — and, frankly, almost unbelievable — list of health outcomes: from chronic inflammation to cognitive decline, from depression to physical fitness, from better sleep to more youthful skin.

Beyond sharing the new research, the Finlays were also motivated to update the book because they felt we may be on the edge of a mindset shift — one that could influence whether we, collectively, choose to embrace our microbes.

“We’ve spent the last 120 years trying to kill bacteria so we don’t die from infectious diseases,” Brett explains. Over time and alongside revolutions in medicine, hygiene, and sanitation, germs became public enemy number one. But more recently, people have started to embrace the idea of the gut microbiome.

“We were moving in a good direction when the public was embracing the importance of the gut microbiome,” Jessica adds. “People were encouraging kids to play in the dirt, backing off hand sanitizer a bit, eating fermented foods to support their microbiome. Then COVID hit, and understandably, people became terrified of germs again.”

The Finlays aren’t against fighting infectious diseases or practicing good hygiene, of course. They simply argue that our post-pandemic recoil into extreme cleanliness risks disrupting the delicate microbial ecosystems our bodies depend on to thrive.

Gut check: The microbiome’s central hub

The human gut is home to an astonishingly diverse and abundant community of microbes, estimated at over 100 trillion bacteria. That’s roughly equivalent to the number of human cells in the body. Among these are hundreds of unique species, many of which live in the colon and large intestine.

We pick up most of our gut bacteria early on, starting with a major dose during the journey through the birth canal. From there, the microbiome tends to stabilize through adulthood as we’re exposed to microbes in our environment and from the people around us. Interestingly, it begins to shift again as we age. People over 65 often show a different balance of key bacterial groups and tend to have more microbes associated with inflammation.

“When you study the microbiomes of people with many of the world’s most pressing conditions, you’ll find a microbial signature associated with them,” said Brett.

In other words, many conditions — such as obesity, cancer, liver disease, heart disease, and neurodegenerative disorders — are associated with a shift in the microbiome. Certain microbial species may be present or missing; imbalances in microbial function may have occurred. Researchers are still working to determine whether these patterns play a role in causing disease or are associated with it. Still, one thing is clear: The pattern emerges again and again across a wide range of diseases and conditions.

Early in my reading, I wondered: What causes the microbiome to shift away from a community that supports health? A major culprit is diet.

Ultra-processed foods — anything from Pop-Tarts to protein powder — are called “ultra-processed” for a reason. They’re so refined that your body can break them down and absorb them early in the digestive tract, so they never reach the large intestine where many beneficial microbes live. As a result, those microbes are essentially starved of the complex fibers they rely on to survive and thrive. In Western countries like the United States, ultra-processed foods now make up a growing portion of the typical diet.

Antibiotics are another disruptor unique to modern life. While lifesaving in many cases, antibiotics don’t discriminate: They wipe out harmful pathogens and beneficial gut bacteria alike. In the book, the Finlays note studies that detected changes to the microbiome up to four years after a single course of treatment.

Then there’s the obsession with cleanliness. Our environments are increasingly sanitized, and while that helps prevent infections, it also limits our exposure to the diverse microbes our guts evolved alongside.

Add up these habits and stressors, and over time, your gut begins to support a different kind of microbiome, one that may include harmful species. And, as the Finlays argue, a changing microbiome can have systemic effects on physical and mental health.

The microbiome and the immune system

One of the key ideas in The Microbiome Master Key is that your gut microbiome plays a powerful — though still not fully understood — role in regulating your immune system.

Several patterns suggest a strong link between the gut and the immune response. For one, the gut houses 70–80% of the body’s immune cells. In addition, low-grade inflammation tends to increase as we age. At the same time, the composition of the gut microbiome shifts, often to favor microbial species associated with inflammation.

Taken together, these observations suggest a possible connection between age-related inflammation and changes in the gut microbiome.

Researchers are beginning to uncover mechanisms that support this idea. Certain gut microbes produce signaling molecules that help train immune cells to distinguish between harmless and harmful substances. Since the immune system constantly samples its environment through the gut, a well-balanced microbiome may help prevent overreactions (like allergies and autoimmune disorders) and under reactions (which can leave the body vulnerable to infection).

The emerging evidence also shows that disruptions in the gut microbiome can contribute to autoimmune conditions outside the gut. For instance, people with rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis often have altered gut microbial communities. These findings suggest that supporting a balanced microbiome could be one way to reduce low-grade inflammation and potentially help prevent or manage age-related and autoimmune diseases.

The mind-gut connection

We tend to think of the brain as the body’s command center, but more and more, it looks like the gut microbiome has a prominent say in the conversation. For me, the idea that bacteria in your gut could affect your mood, anxiety levels, and even cognitive function was one of the book’s biggest “Wait! What?” moments.

Brett wasn’t surprised by my fascination. “The potential of the gut–brain axis is the most exciting area of research for most people,” he tells me. He’s referring to the complex communication network between the gut and the brain, which includes a major nerve called the vagus nerve.

This nerve isn’t a one-way street. The brain regulates gut function, but the gut sends signals back, and that’s where microbes come in. Research suggests the microbiome may influence the brain by producing neurotransmitters or interacting with gut neurons connected to the vagus nerve.

There is also growing evidence to link disruptions in the gut microbiome to various conditions, such as stress, depression, and anxiety. For example, the Finlays highlight one study where researchers transferred fecal matter from stressed rodents into healthy ones. Afterward, the healthy animals began showing signs of stress themselves. The researchers changed the animals’ moods and behaviors simply by changing their gut microbiota.

Another study found that people who had taken just a single course of antibiotics in the past year had a significantly higher risk of developing depression. There’s also emerging evidence connecting the microbiome to neurological conditions like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and even stroke. (It was around this time in the book that I had my “who am I?” moment).

Although a complete picture of the gut-brain relationship is still evolving, the knowledge is already actionable. The Finlays reference the MIND diet (short for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay), a plant-forward dietary approach that includes leafy greens, berries, poultry, and fish to reduce the risk of cognitive decline.

“People who follow this diet have delayed the onset of Parkinson’s by up to 17 years,” Brett points out. The book also cites studies showing that the MIND diet can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s by as much as 50%.

Turns out, this brain-friendly diet is exactly what people’s gut microbes thrive on. So, while scientists are still working out the details, the overlapping evidence suggests one promising explanation: It may support brain health, at least in part, by supporting the microbes in your gut.

Beyond the gut and beyond the body

Microbes aren’t just in the gut. On the skin, they help create chemicals that maintain our protective barrier, may influence whether you sunburn, and even hold the key to pesky signs of aging like wrinkles. In the mouth, they affect gum health and possibly heart health.

It doesn’t stop at the surface, either. As Jessica points out, your microbes aren’t just in you. They’re all round you.

“Your zip code is one of the biggest predictors of how long you live,” she notes, and after immersing herself in microbiome research, she’s come to believe that microbes may help explain why place matters so much.

When you touch your counter? Microbes. A door handle? Microbes. Package from Amazon? More microbes. A handshake or hug? Think of it as a microbial swap. For some, the idea that microbes are everywhere might sound alarming, but the Finlays argue that this constant exposure isn’t something to fear. It’s something to design for.

“There’s a huge opportunity in public policy and architecture,” Brett says. “We can build environments that support microbial health, not just sterilize it away.”

Jessica adds, “Imagine hospitals, schools, and care homes designed not only to keep pathogens out, but to support beneficial microbes.”

In that case, how do we take care of our microbiome and ensure it’s populated with good stuff?

The advice will sound familiar: Eat a primarily plant-based diet (microbes love fiber), exercise regularly (physical activity seems to support a more diverse and resilient microbiome), stay socially connected, reduce stress, and get enough sleep. Less common but still beneficial advice includes enjoying more fermented foods, opening the windows in your home to let the air in, and getting outside in nature.

As for probiotics, the Finlays note, they likely won’t hurt, but there’s little evidence they do much to broadly support the microbiome.

Unsurprisingly, something as fundamental as our microbial ecosystem thrives when we follow the same habits we already know support human health. But that raises another question: What does the microbiome lens add if the lifestyle advice remains the same?

“Understanding why these activities could benefit my microbiome, and by extension, me, gives me a more fundamental, ecological understanding of why these actions help,” Jessica says. “And that type of knowledge is more motivating and meaningful.”

She adds, “I love that I don’t have to recommend some crazy supplement or strict regimen. It’s just eating well. Open a window. Go outside. Shake hands. Move your body. Knowing that all these things help my microbiome just makes me want to do them more.”

As someone who tries, but admittedly doesn’t always succeed, in following that advice, I asked them what they’d recommend to an overworked person who is stressed out, potentially sick, and fresh off a regimen of antibiotics.

“The best thing about the microbiome is that you can change it,” Brett says. “You can’t change your human DNA. But bacterial DNA? That’s flexible.”

He told me that even in animal studies where the microbiome has been nearly wiped out, introducing basic conditions like healthy food can restore balance within days.

“They’re all around us,” he says. “If you take antibiotics, for example, and start taking simple, proactive steps — like eating fermented foods, spending time outside, or adjusting your habits to support them — they’ll find you. And once they do? Those beneficial functions kick in fast.”

The future of microbiome science

Despite all the exciting ways microbiome intersects with human health, Brett and Jessica don’t ignore some of the big knowledge gaps in the field. Ironically, we still don’t have a clear definition of what a “healthy” microbiome even is. There’s no universal set of microbial species that defines good health. Different people can have diverse microbiomes and still be perfectly healthy.

“If the microbiome is so fundamentally important, why don’t we all have similar microbial communities?” Brett asked. “It’s a central question and a sticking point in microbiome research.”

The leading theory, he explains, is functional redundancy — the idea that different microbes can perform the same roles. “Even though the bacterial makeup might differ, the functions they carry out are relatively conserved across people.”

You can tell that applied use, clinically and in public policy, is where the Finlays believe and hope the science is heading. Throughout the book, they sketch out futuristic possibilities that may be closer than you think: preventing diseases with the microbiome, personalized supplements tailored to your unique microbiome, bacteria-informed skincare, microbial interventions to boost athletic performance, the list goes on.

I think … therefore I host?

The Microbiome Master Key is a technical and scientific book at heart, but the Finlays also strike a surprisingly personal tone. In fact, the book reads like an ode to the underappreciated microbes that make us who we are.

By the end of our conversation, I wasn’t as concerned with whether I had “true agency” or if bacteria were secretly calling the shots. In the end, it’s all still me.

Maybe Descartes had it wrong. Maybe I think … because we are?

In “The Microbiome Master Key,” Brett and Jessica Finlay argue that we need to stop waging war on all germs and start working with the microbes that make us who we are.

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