How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations - Hardcover

Freedman, Marc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1541767810 ISBN 13: 9781541767812

Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2018

Synopsis

The secret to happiness, longevity, and living on is through mentoring the next generation

In How to Live Forever, Encore.org founder and CEO Marc 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.

About this title

About the Author

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.

Review

#1 on the Wall Street Journal's list of "best books in 2018 on aging well"―


"A book that grabs us by the shoulders, turns us toward an important issue, and grips us until we truly see and understand."―Kirkus Reviews


"'The old and young are built for each other.' On this simple but profound statement, Marc Freedman builds an inspiring and timely manifesto for a better future. As heartwarming as Tuesdays with Morrie, yet deeply researched and enlivened by enough real-life examples to persuade the toughest skeptic, How to Live Forever is both an intergenerational love letter and a practical manual for change. The era of age apartheid is ending, and Marc Freedman's beacon lights the way ahead."―Jonathan Rauch, author, The Happiness Curve, and Contributing Editor, The Atlantic

"To be happy, what do we need? Strong bonds with others and a sense of meaning. In How to Live Forever, Marc Freedman brilliantly explores how we can foster happier, healthier, more productive lives by connecting the older and younger generations. Freedman illuminates why and how the generations are tremendous untapped resources for each other-and why, as we face a more-old-than-young world, creating this connection matters more than ever."―Gretchen Rubin, author of New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project

"In this powerful and persuasive work, Marc Freedman shows that the generation gap is far from inevitable. In its place, he offers a compelling vision for the future of intergenerational relations: an alliance of talents that brings joy, empowerment, and abundance to both youth and old age. How to Live Forever is a heartfelt and heartwarming book that will spark purpose in the young and hope in their elders."―Daniel H. Pink, author of When and Drive

"Beautifully written and enormously inspiring, How to Live Forever profoundly changes the conversation about long life and rewrites the generational compact. Read it and be changed."―Laura Carstensen, Professor of Psychology, Stanford University, and author, A Long Bright Future

"Marc Freedman's How To Live Forever is a wise and joyful gift to readers of every age."―Gloria Steinem

"Marc Freedman is one of the wisest thought leaders in the aging and longevity world. With this book, he has crafted a masterpiece, written with deep humanity and insight. This is a soulful rallying cry for intergenerational collaboration like we've never seen before. I finished this book brimming with optimism about our future."―Chip Conley, author of Wisdom@Work and Strategic Advisor, Airbnb

"In How to Live Forever, Marc Freedman draws upon his lifetime of knowledge and experience as one of the nation's foremost social entrepreneurs and his skill as a masterful storyteller to demonstrate that the only way to live forever is to live together. Arguing that our role as older people is not to try to be young, but to be there for those who actually are, he makes a compelling case that inspires us to connect people of different generations."―Jo Ann Jenkins, CEO of AARP and author of Disrupt Aging

"Twenty years ago I read Marc Freedman's groundbreaking book Prime Time and it changed my life...inspiring and guiding me as I embarked on my encore career. With How to Live Forever, Freedman has done it again. This extraordinary, insightful, and deeply moving book will touch your heart and remain on your mind long after you put it down. It might even change your life!"―Sherry Lansing, former Chairman and CEO, Paramount Pictures, and Founder and CEO, The Sherry Lansing Foundation

About this edition

• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1541767810
• ISBN 13: 9781541767812
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224