spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer
 

Home
Shows
Search
Listen
About Us

subscribe to our archives through Audible.Com


Peabody
Winner of the
64th Annual
Peabody Award
for Radio
Programming!
To the Best of Our Knowledge

 


A Five Part Series from TTBOOK!

 

PRI
Public Radio International

WPR
Wisconsin Public Radio

 

 
spacer from Wisconsin Public Radio  

BOOMER BACKLASH

Program 08-09-14-A

Listen!

America is in trouble. The decline of the dollar, climate change and the ugly math of Social Security and national debt are just a handful of the challenges facing the next generation. And who's to blame for the current mess? Baby Boomers - according to a growing movement, pitting one generation against the next. In this hour of To the Best of Knowledge, we'll take a look at Boomer Backlash. Are Boomers selfish and materialistic or iconoclasts who deserve gratitude?

SEGMENT 1:

Jeff Gordinier is a proud member of Generation X and the author of "X Saves the World." He tells Steve Paulson why his generation has the perfect qualities to improve the world they'll inherit from the Baby Boomers. Also, Leonard Steinhorn tells Jim Fleming that Boomer Bashing is the last acceptable prejudice in America, and that it's nothing new. Steinhorn' book, "The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby boom Generation" tries to restore Boomers to their rightful place in history.

SEGMENT 2:

A recent show, "Rethinking the Sixties" contained an anti-Boomer rant by TTBOOK staffer Charles Monroe Kane. The piece touched a nerve and we were flooded with emails in response from both sides of the debate. We revisit Chuck's piece, then hear a response from Jim Fleming. Jim reads from several of the listener emails and we also hear telephone responses from three listeners. And, Lisa Chamberlain is a Gen-X journalist and author. She feels the economy has been an enormous influence on Generation X, turning them into innovators and free-thinkers who operate outside the status quo. Chamberlain talks with Anne Strainchamps about the business strategies she describes in her book, "Slackonomics," and they discuss the advent of the Millenials or Generation Y.

SEGMENT 3:

Christopher Buckley is the best-selling author of 11 books, including "God is My Broker," and his latest, "Supreme Courtship." Buckley talks with Steve Paulson about his novel "Boomsday," which posits a piece of runaway legislation providing tax incentives for Boomers who choose to commit suicide...sort of an updated "Modest Proposal."

 

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 08-09-14-A.

................................................................

Books:

Christopher Buckley, Boomsday (Grand Central)

Lisa Chamberlain, Slackonomics (Perseus)

Jeff Gordinier, X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking (Penguin)
Leonard Steinhorn, The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy (St. Martin's)

Websites:

Music:

  • - Smells Like Teen Spirit/ The Bad Plus/ The Bad Plus/ Fresh
    Sound New Talent
  • -Dark Star/ The Grateful Dead/"Live/Dead"/ Rhino
  • -Purple Haze/Jim Hendrix/ "Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix"/Experience Hendrix
  • -Silver Rocket/ Sonic Youth/"Daydream Nation"/Geffen Records
  • -Everybody Wants to Rule the World/The Bad Plus/Prog/Heads Up

Distribution dates: week of 09/14/2008 - hour 1
click HERE for timings and cues

Listen!

................................................................

Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

     


Wisconsin Public Radio is a service of the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension.

Page design and management by Jim Fleming at Wisconsin Public Radio and Sarah Fleming.

© 2008 WHA Radio and the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. All rights reserved.