Thursday, January 24, 2019
8pm
Marc Freedman
in conversation with Michael Eisner
discussing his book,
How to Live Forever:
The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
3131 Olympic Blvd.,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$53.00 Reserved Section + Book
$43.00 General Admission section + Book
$20.00 General Admission section
The secret to happiness, longevity, and living on is through mentoring the next generation
Marc Freedman is CEO and president of Encore.org, an organization he founded in 1998. Freedman is a member of the Wall Street Journal‘s “Experts” group, a frequent commentator in the national media, and the author of four previous books.
Originator of the encore career idea linking second acts to the greater good, Freedman cofounded Experience Corps to mobilize people over fifty to improve the school performance and prospects of low-income elementary school students in twenty-two US cities. He also spearheaded the creation of the Encore Fellowships program, a one-year fellowship helping individuals translate their midlife skills into second acts focused on social impact, and the Purpose Prize, an annual $100,000 prize for social entrepreneurs in the second half of life. (AARP now runs both Experience Corps and the Purpose Prize.)
Freedman was named Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the World Economic Forum and the Schwab Foundation, was recognized as one of the nation’s leading social entrepreneurs by Fast Company magazine three years in a row, and has been honored with the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. He has been a visiting fellow at Stanford University, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and King’s College, University of London. Freedman serves or has served on the boards and advisory councils of numerous groups, including the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, the Stanford University Distinguished Careers Institute, the Milken Institute’s Center for the Future of Aging, and the EnCorps STEM Teachers Program.
A high honors graduate of Swarthmore College, with an MBA from the Yale School of Management, Freedman lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife, Leslie Gray, and their three sons.
For four decades, Michael Eisner has been a leader in the American entertainment industry. He began his career at ABC and became president of Paramount Pictures in 1976. In 1984, Michael assumed the position of Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company and transformed it from a film and theme park company into a global media empire. In 2005, Michael founded The Tornante Company, a privately held media & entertainment holding company. Today Tornante owns Topps, Inc., Portsmouth Football Club in England, and has a large and growing television division, including ownership of BoJack Horseman. He and his wife, Jane, founded The Eisner Foundation in 1996, which supports intergenerational programming in Los Angeles County. The Eisner Foundation has been a longtime supporter of Marc Freedman and Encore.org, and in 2018 awarded him and his organization the Eisner Prize for Intergenerational Excellence.
In How to Live Forever, Freedman tells the story of his thirty-year quest to answer some of contemporary life’s most urgent questions: With so many living so much longer, what is the meaning of the increasing years beyond 50? How can a society with more older people than younger ones thrive? How do we find happiness when we know life is long and time is short?
In a poignant book that defies categorization, Freedman finds insights by exploring purpose and generativity, digging into the drive for longevity and the perils of age segregation, and talking to social innovators across the globe bringing the generations together for mutual benefit. He finds wisdom in stories from young and old, featuring ordinary people and icons like jazz great Clark Terry and basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
But the answers also come from stories of Freedman’s own mentors-a sawmill worker turned surrogate grandparent, a university administrator who served as Einstein’s driver, a cabinet secretary who won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the gym teacher who was Freedman’s father.
How to Live Forever is a deeply personal call to find fulfillment and happiness in our longer lives by connecting with the next generation and forging a legacy of love that lives beyond us.