Terry Williams
Sociologist and ethnographer at The New School for Social Research who studies marginalized urban populations; author of Life Underground, which documents people living in New York's subterranean spaces over two decades.
Best podcasts with Terry Williams
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Jan 26, 2026 • 27min
Terry Williams, "Life Underground: Encounters with People Below the Streets of New York" (Columbia UP, 2024)
Terry Williams, sociologist and ethnographer at The New School, spent decades living alongside people sheltering in Manhattan’s tunnels. He recounts discovering hidden subterranean communities and the physical spaces they inhabited. Short, vivid stories explore daily survival, informal work like can-collecting, shifting public attitudes, and the pathways between underground life and topside housing.
