For Release: March 12 , 2007
The Who famously sang, "I hope I die before I get old" to their fellow baby boomers, but with one member of this demographic group's 78 million turning 60 every eight seconds, they will soon be the largest elder population in American history.
An eye-opening new documentary, The Boomer Century: 1946-2046 , says boomers will rewrite traditional retirement and redefine aging, as they have transformed every other stage of their lives. With an unflinching look at the baby boom past and present, experts from across the academic, health, entertainment and business spectrum paint a visionary portrait both of the unprecedented challenges society will face as Americans born between 1946 and 1964 get older and the opportunities that lie ahead. The Boomer Century airs Wednesday, March 28 at 9/8 p.m. CT on KET1.
Hosted by researcher Ken Dychtwald, a renowned gerontologist and psychologist (and a boomer himself) who has studied this population phenomenon for more than three decades, The Boomer Century features an entertaining and enlightening look back to establish why boomers have the generational characteristics they do, but it also reveals how those traits have evolved into today's lifestyle, marketplace and workforce trends and perceptively probes what lies ahead.
Interspersed throughout The Boomer Century are candid interviews with dozens of prominent boomers including filmmakers Oliver Stone and Rob Reiner , civil rights pioneer Julian Bond , author Erica Jong , futurist Alvin Toffler , healthy aging doctor Andrew Weil , playwright Eve Ensler , White House press secretary Tony Snow , political analyst David Gergen , "emotional intelligence" visionary Dr. Daniel Goleman and human genome scientist J. Craig Venter, among others.
The Boomer Century: 1946-2046 is a co-production of Alexandria Productions Inc. and Generation Entertainment Inc. More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.