[Applause]
this is Jo Jo 74 years old he’s an
attorney he lives in Boston
Massachusetts
when Jo was 70 his partners at his firm
came to him and said they were thinking
of retiring and this gave Joe a couple
of options he could have taken over
management of the firm didn’t want to do
that could retire definitely did not
want to do that or you can see Joe’s a
pretty spunky guy so what Joe does is he
gets himself a headhunter goes on for
job interviews gets himself a job offer
and I just recently spoke to Joe and he
told me he’s very much enjoying
practicing law at his new firm now what
is it about this that strikes us as
unusual he loves what he does he’s great
at what he does he happens to be 74
years old do we think that passion ages
out I’m currently 59 when I was 55 I
spent my entire career as a professional
photographer and I’d done a number of
covers for the New York Times Magazine
and I was doing quite a bit of
advertising for people like American
Express and coca-cola Nike and for these
advertising jobs the casting specs they
were always staying the same 22 to 28
and me I’m getting older my friends
getting older and I’m thinking where is
the media communication it’s aimed at me
the way I’m living in the way everyone I
know is living and I’m looking around
I’m not seeing a whole lot what I am
seeing is a certain kind of stock photo
perhaps you’re familiar with this a
couple of nice-looking gray haired
people they’re dressed in pastels my
cardigan over the shoulder they’re on a
beach they got a bike they’re pushing
the bike but they’re very fragile right
they have pushed the bike they don’t
ride the bike and then over here there’s
a golden retriever
right now I love dogs and these people
are probably great I would love to speak
to them I do not get it with this
messaging so I think well let’s go find
the people who are living the way I am
so I start to photograph them I’m going
to show you some of them here today and
I start to interview them because I want
to find out about their stories and what
I find is after thousands of hours of
interviews of people really all over the
world I find that we are living in this
new vital vivid forward-looking way that
our parents were not at this age that we
are culturally engaged at this point in
life that well at least my parents were
not essentially what’s happened here is
around the world the line in the sand of
Aging has moved but it’s not being
picked up out here in the media
communication so I was very excited to
find out that there’s really a whole lot
of us and we’re living this brand new
way all around the world and we started
to publish these pictures and tell these
stories and then something amazing
happened
we found that 25 percent of our
subscribers are under the age of 30
I thought 25 percent that is a lot of
people so we investigated and I remember
speaking to this guy he’s 24 years old
in Georgia
and he says to me he says Dave let me
get this straight by you guys you seem
like you’re kind of cool you seem like
you know what you’re doing I’d like to
be like you guys when I’m your age why
would I not want to know about this and
I thought well that that makes a lot of
sense but what I loved about that was he
aspired to be us at our age and my guess
is that’s not how he felt about the
situation over here on the beach this is
Bella
Bella’s 59 years old when she was 50 she
had spent her entire life raising her
family and she thought now is the time
when I want to get a career something I
can really sink my teeth into and you
can see Kelly Bell is kind of a badass
so what Bella does is
she gets herself into a very demanding
ph.d program and then at 59 she moves to
the Island of Hawaii where she’s always
wanted to live and she’s practicing as a
clinical psychologist with her new
degree now why does it strike us as
unusual that a woman of 59 would do
something like this is it because the
way we are living is in dissonance to
the way we were told we should be living
and by this I mean this virtual tsunami
of images and language and messaging
that’s hitting us that says at a certain
age we need to be medicalised and they’d
invisible and push to the side I’m not
down with this and really no one I’m
speaking to is down with this either and
this is particularly interesting if we
think that 40% of the American
population is over 50 that’s a lot of
people to take and move over to some
kind of semi invisible medicalised group
over here this is also the first time in
human history within two years time
there will be more people over the age
of 65 than under five that’s never
happened before this is also a time when
someone who is 50 can have a rational
belief of living another 20 30 40 maybe
50 years essentially a life 2.0 in front
of them this is the greatest demographic
disruption our species has ever known
and I think it’s fantastic because not
only we living longer we’re living
better more effective lines further into
advanced age than ever before think of
the contributions the humanitarian the
cultural the economic contributions that
we can make if we are allowed to do so
and not only are we contributors we are
also consumers the greatest consumer
group of Apple electronics are men over
the age of 65 this is Sophia she’s 63
years old when Sophia was 54 she was the
director of undergraduate studies at the
Yale School of Architecture and rather
than think about
hiring Sophia converts her money to
euros she moves to Spain she starts an
architecture practice Sophia says to me
it takes a long time to learn how to
live but once you do you gotta get
moving she’d always wanted to be a
practicing architect now is the time
let’s do this thing this demographic
disruption that we’re seeing is causing
all manner of interesting things for
instance match.com is doing this booming
business in people our age so what’s
that about
well if you think you’re gonna be a why
for a considerable period of time in the
future maybe you are not willing to
tolerate a situation that you would
otherwise we are simultaneously feeling
it that we are at the peak of our powers
we also feel that we are being
disempowered by a culture around us made
to feel invisible and push to the side
but think about what we have done we are
the people that helped create the
personal computer the mobile phone punk
rock skateboarding and we don’t feel
that we’re done yet we feel that we have
a lot more to give and think of what we
can contribute going forward if we are
allowed to do so these people I’m
showing you out here today I mean are
they rarities are they are they complete
outliers they are not they are among us
each and every one of us right here
today they are hidden in plain sight
this culture of aging that we live in is
tremendously powerful and each and every
one of us have bought into this myself
included everyone I’m showing you up
let this be the moment that we
understand that life after 50 can be
just as powerful just as meaningful just
as satisfying as what we’ve done under
50 thank you so much you
this is Jo Jo 74 years old he’s an
attorney he lives in Boston
Massachusetts
when Jo was 70 his partners at his firm
came to him and said they were thinking
of retiring and this gave Joe a couple
of options he could have taken over
management of the firm didn’t want to do
that could retire definitely did not
want to do that or you can see Joe’s a
pretty spunky guy so what Joe does is he
gets himself a headhunter goes on for
job interviews gets himself a job offer
and I just recently spoke to Joe and he
told me he’s very much enjoying
practicing law at his new firm now what
is it about this that strikes us as
unusual he loves what he does he’s great
at what he does he happens to be 74
years old do we think that passion ages
out I’m currently 59 when I was 55 I
spent my entire career as a professional
photographer and I’d done a number of
covers for the New York Times Magazine
and I was doing quite a bit of
advertising for people like American
Express and coca-cola Nike and for these
advertising jobs the casting specs they
were always staying the same 22 to 28
and me I’m getting older my friends
getting older and I’m thinking where is
the media communication it’s aimed at me
the way I’m living in the way everyone I
know is living and I’m looking around
I’m not seeing a whole lot what I am
seeing is a certain kind of stock photo
perhaps you’re familiar with this a
couple of nice-looking gray haired
people they’re dressed in pastels my
cardigan over the shoulder they’re on a
beach they got a bike they’re pushing
the bike but they’re very fragile right
they have pushed the bike they don’t
ride the bike and then over here there’s
a golden retriever
right now I love dogs and these people
are probably great I would love to speak
to them I do not get it with this
messaging so I think well let’s go find
the people who are living the way I am
so I start to photograph them I’m going
to show you some of them here today and
I start to interview them because I want
to find out about their stories and what
I find is after thousands of hours of
interviews of people really all over the
world I find that we are living in this
new vital vivid forward-looking way that
our parents were not at this age that we
are culturally engaged at this point in
life that well at least my parents were
not essentially what’s happened here is
around the world the line in the sand of
Aging has moved but it’s not being
picked up out here in the media
communication so I was very excited to
find out that there’s really a whole lot
of us and we’re living this brand new
way all around the world and we started
to publish these pictures and tell these
stories and then something amazing
happened
we found that 25 percent of our
subscribers are under the age of 30
I thought 25 percent that is a lot of
people so we investigated and I remember
speaking to this guy he’s 24 years old
in Georgia
and he says to me he says Dave let me
get this straight by you guys you seem
like you’re kind of cool you seem like
you know what you’re doing I’d like to
be like you guys when I’m your age why
would I not want to know about this and
I thought well that that makes a lot of
sense but what I loved about that was he
aspired to be us at our age and my guess
is that’s not how he felt about the
situation over here on the beach this is
Bella
Bella’s 59 years old when she was 50 she
had spent her entire life raising her
family and she thought now is the time
when I want to get a career something I
can really sink my teeth into and you
can see Kelly Bell is kind of a badass
so what Bella does is
she gets herself into a very demanding
ph.d program and then at 59 she moves to
the Island of Hawaii where she’s always
wanted to live and she’s practicing as a
clinical psychologist with her new
degree now why does it strike us as
unusual that a woman of 59 would do
something like this is it because the
way we are living is in dissonance to
the way we were told we should be living
and by this I mean this virtual tsunami
of images and language and messaging
that’s hitting us that says at a certain
age we need to be medicalised and they’d
invisible and push to the side I’m not
down with this and really no one I’m
speaking to is down with this either and
this is particularly interesting if we
think that 40% of the American
population is over 50 that’s a lot of
people to take and move over to some
kind of semi invisible medicalised group
over here this is also the first time in
human history within two years time
there will be more people over the age
of 65 than under five that’s never
happened before this is also a time when
someone who is 50 can have a rational
belief of living another 20 30 40 maybe
50 years essentially a life 2.0 in front
of them this is the greatest demographic
disruption our species has ever known
and I think it’s fantastic because not
only we living longer we’re living
better more effective lines further into
advanced age than ever before think of
the contributions the humanitarian the
cultural the economic contributions that
we can make if we are allowed to do so
and not only are we contributors we are
also consumers the greatest consumer
group of Apple electronics are men over
the age of 65 this is Sophia she’s 63
years old when Sophia was 54 she was the
director of undergraduate studies at the
Yale School of Architecture and rather
than think about
hiring Sophia converts her money to
euros she moves to Spain she starts an
architecture practice Sophia says to me
it takes a long time to learn how to
live but once you do you gotta get
moving she’d always wanted to be a
practicing architect now is the time
let’s do this thing this demographic
disruption that we’re seeing is causing
all manner of interesting things for
instance match.com is doing this booming
business in people our age so what’s
that about
well if you think you’re gonna be a why
for a considerable period of time in the
future maybe you are not willing to
tolerate a situation that you would
otherwise we are simultaneously feeling
it that we are at the peak of our powers
we also feel that we are being
disempowered by a culture around us made
to feel invisible and push to the side
but think about what we have done we are
the people that helped create the
personal computer the mobile phone punk
rock skateboarding and we don’t feel
that we’re done yet we feel that we have
a lot more to give and think of what we
can contribute going forward if we are
allowed to do so these people I’m
showing you out here today I mean are
they rarities are they are they complete
outliers they are not they are among us
each and every one of us right here
today they are hidden in plain sight
this culture of aging that we live in is
tremendously powerful and each and every
one of us have bought into this myself
included everyone I’m showing you up
let this be the moment that we
understand that life after 50 can be
just as powerful just as meaningful just
as satisfying as what we’ve done under
50 thank you so much you
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