Re:sound #72: The Retirement Show
This hour: the golden years.
2007 / TCF / WBEZ 91.5, USA
This hour: the golden years.
The Last Place: Diary of a Retirement Home
by Joe Richman (Radio Diaries, 1998)
The Presbyterian Homes in Evanston, Illinois, is a sprawling campus of retirement accommodations that range from independent townhouses and apartments to buildings with full nursing care. Over 500 elderly residents live there and producer Joe Richman got to know some of them, giving them tape recorders to document their days and thoughts for his Radio Diaries series.
Interview With David Greenberger
When David Greenberger graduated from college, he took a job as an activities director at the Duplex Nursing Home in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, where he unexpectedly found his life's work. He loved finding different ways to tell the stories of the elderly people he met. He started Duplex Planet magazine in 1979 and has since produced a wide variety of stories, essays, and films on similar subjects.
Break
by David Greenberger (Duplex Planet, 2005)
Thoughts about the inevitable losses of old age and the value of a positive perspective in life.
A Condition of the Heart
by David Greenberger (Duplex Planet, 2004)
Reflections on aging, the illness and death of a wife, decline, and then renewed social life by joining a retirement community.
Mom's Good Move, part 2
by Dan Collison (All Things Considered, 2000)
When Dan Collison's mother moved into a retirement home, he recorded the whole thing. And five years later ,when she made another major transition, he was there for the sequel, reviewing (with his mom) how things have panned out over the past few years.
Secret to a Happy Retirement
by David Greenberger (Duplex Planet, 2003)
Lessons to help a husband be more independent in retirement, including how to use a George Foreman grill.
This episode of Re:sound was produced by Roman Mars.
produced by
Joe Richman (@RadioDiaries) is a Peabody Award-winning producer and reporter, and the founder of Radio Diaries.
David Greenberger has spent the past three decades conversing with the elderly and publishing the results in a periodical called The Duplex Planet. His approach is outside the realm of oral history, focusing on exploring what the whole of society has in common with old folks: individualism, a desire to be known, and a hope of growing old with dignity. The work has yielded monologue performances, books, CDs, a comic book adaptation, two documentaries, a one-act play, and a short film.
Together with his life and radio partner Elizabeth Meister, Dan Collison produces audio documentaries and song/stories that detail everyday life in America, work that has consistently garnered radio's top awards.
Roman Mars (@romanmars) is the creator of 99% Invisible , a short radio show about design and architecture.