Marc Freedman: The Case for Encore Careers

The Long View

Feb 20 2024 • 51 mins

Our guest on the podcast today is Marc Freedman. He is the co-CEO and founder of Encore.org, which is now known as CoGenerate and is geared toward helping people pursue meaningful work later in life. Freedman is also the author of How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations. He co-founded Experience Corps to mobilize people over 50 to improve the school performance and prospects of low-income elementary school students in 22 U.S. cities. Freedman 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. Freedman received his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and his Master of Business Administration from the Yale School of Management.

Background

Bio

CoGenerate

Experience Corps

How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations, by Marc Freedman

Age Diversity

Overcoming Age Segregation,” by Marc Freedman and Trent Stamp, Stanford Social Innovation Review, March 15, 2021.

Will 2023 Be the Year That We Begin to Make the Most of Age Diversity in the Workplace?” by Ramona Schindelheim, WorkingNation, Dec. 27, 2022.

Harnessing the Power of Age Diversity,” by Alene Dawson, John Templeton Foundation, Oct. 31, 2023.

America Is Arguably the Most Age-Diverse Society in Human History—It’s High Time to Prepare for Our Increasingly Multigenerational Workforce,” by Ramona Shindelheim, WorkingNation, Dec. 10, 2023.

Encore Careers

Encore Career: What It Is, How It Works, Prevalence,” by Julia Kagan, Investopedia, Jan. 16, 2022.

Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life, by Marc Freedman

The Case for Putting Seniors in Charge of Universal Pre-K | Opinion,” by Marc Freedman and Carol Larson, Newsweek, Nov. 29, 2021.

The Purpose Prize

Work/Life Across Generations

Kerry Hannon: Remote Work Trend Benefits Older Workers,” The Long View podcast, Morningstar, Oct. 20, 2020.

Is America Ready to Unleash a Multigenerational Force for Good?” A National Opinion Survey From Encore.org With NORC at the University of Chicago.

Other

The Globe: How BMW Is Diffusing the Demographic Time Bomb,” by Christoph Loch, Fabian J. Sting, Nikolaus Bauer, and Helmut Mauermann, Harvard Business Review, March 2010.

From Strength to Strength, by Arthur Brooks

Maggie Kuhn

Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative

Encore Fellowships

David Galenson

Troops to Teachers

Modern Elder Academy

Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones

Dr. Anita Mukherjee: Exploring the Link Between Wealth, Longevity, and Quality of Life,” The Long View podcast, Morningstar, Oct. 10, 2023.

Now Teach

Michael Gurven

The Encore Career Handbook, by Marci Alboher