| Bridging Generational Gaps with Narrative 4’s Lee Keylock

| Mark Swartz

| About 12 years ago, a Narrative 4 Story Exchange in Baltimore changed my life. These experiences involve a simple yet powerful process. Groups of people gather and break into pairs. These partners tell each other their stories, and then, when they return to the group, partner A tells partner B’s story in the first person and vice-versa. In my case, I described my young son’s recent positive tuberculosis test and what we were going through to make sure he didn’t develop symptoms. Hearing someone I just met relate this account in my voice allowed me to hear it with new ears, and the energy in the room suggested that all of us were feeling that same wonderment. 

But what was my partner’s story? Just a couple of hours later, I realized I had forgotten, probably because I was so absorbed in my own. Ever since that experience, I have made a concerted effort not just to retain the stories people impart to me but to incorporate them into an ongoing narrative project that most certainly includes this publication.

Narrative 4 was only two years old then, and since then it has developed a large international footprint. The model works in any number of contexts, using personal stories to break down barriers. Generational differences represent one such barrier. John Leland’s Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a Year Among the Oldest Old (2018) cites a study that found only 6% of people over 60 report discussing “important matters” with non-family members under the age of 36. Generations United and CoGenerate are two prominent organizations dedicated to addressing age segregation.

Read more: Meeting the Multigenerational Moment (Stanford Social Innovation Review)

Here, Narrative 4’s Lee Keylock outlines Narrative 4’s approach. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You’ve done a lot of work bringing younger and older people together through Story Exchanges. How do those intergenerational programs typically come about?

Anyone can show up to our Story Exchange at any time, so you never know the age group walking in. But if we specifically want younger and older people together, we usually have to be intentional about it — twinning a school or university with an assisted living home, for example. One of the more recent ones was a program called WOW — Wealth of Wisdom. It was a collaboration with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Chatham Place at Mary Wade (an assisted living home for older residents in New Haven), and Borrow My Glasses, which focuses on educating people about generational gaps. Their philosophy is that we have to get better at seeing the value in one another — and for us, stories are always the best way to do that.

How did that particular partnership come together?

A woman who sponsored the festival knew about Narrative 4 — I’d worked in New Haven a fair bit over the years — and she also knew about Borrow My Glasses. She basically said, “Why don’t you two get together and dream up an event?” So we did.

Our target age group was high school and college students, especially those interested in healthcare, nursing, psychology — anyone training to work with older people. We told them, “You shouldn’t just be learning from a textbook. You should be learning from the very people you’re going to serve.” Borrow My Glasses brought their own curriculum, built around the idea of literally borrowing each other’s glasses — looking through each other’s eyes.

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What stood out to you from that event?

The variety of stories. One man showed up dressed as an Elvis impersonator — he’d been doing it for 60 years and got fully dressed up for the occasion. Others talked about their Vietnam experiences with the students. One man in my group said it was the first time he’d heard his own voice in two days — he simply hadn’t talked to anyone.

For me, it’s always about what civic engagement comes out of these meetings. Empathy is great, compassion is great, but if it doesn’t turn into some kind of action, it’s just a nice feeling. A lot of the college students told us it was one of the better learning experiences of their entire degree. There needs to be more proximity to the people you’re going to serve — the same way I’d tell my own kids, if they were joining the police force, to do a ride-along first. Be in proximity to the thing you’re going to do.

There’s a lot of talk now about loneliness among older adults, and about tech companies trying to solve it with robots. What’s your take?

Anything is better than complete loneliness. But years ago, during the pandemic, I listened to a podcast that stuck with me — Ruby Sales, the civil rights activist who marched with Martin Luther King. She talks about needing “complete sight” — foresight, hindsight, and insight — and says you can only get all three by blending the generations. Older people give you hindsight; you need that alongside the other two.

You’ve run similar programs internationally too?

Yes — we did one in Ireland, pairing mostly assisted living residents with middle schoolers. The biggest age gap in the room was between an eighth grader and a 95-year-old. In the reflection afterward, one of the kids put his hand up and said, “I never realized old people swear.” That kind of moment is exactly what we’re after.

Beyond generational divides, has Story Exchange shown any effect on ideological divides?

It comes down to proximity — aligning yourself with people outside your own bubble or echo chamber. We published research in November 2025 built around the hypothesis that if you build up behaviors like perspective-taking, deep listening, and curiosity — the things that are inherent in Story Exchange — people are far more likely to act compassionately and turn that into real civic engagement. The political divide decreases significantly when people go through the Story Exchange method.

Is there a personal experience that shapes how you think about all this?

My grandfather is 99, and he’s incredible. What he misses most is conversation. Family visits, but they’re not there 24/7, and a lot of his friends have died. That’s the thing I think is really the problem as people get older — not just physical needs, but the loss of conversation, of people to talk to.

Mark Swartz is publisher of Aging in America News.