talkin' 'bout Our Generation
About Us
HEAR or WATCH a brief introduction from Host Julian Simmons:
OURGENPOD "talkin bout our generation," is a bold irreverent and intelligent podcast about life in America, from the perspective of people 55+. . . like us. Our tagline is "Who we were, what he accomplished, how we got here, and what we can still do about it." We've done series on Woodstock featuring the visionary founder Michal Lang (who tragically left us in 2022) and Hall of Fame Santana drummer Michael Schrieve. We ran a series on "The State of Civility in America" featuring New York Times Best-selling author of "Pay It Forward" and forty other books, Catherine Ryan Hyde, as well as Harvard Psychiatrist and author of "The Power of Respect" Fr. Joe Shrand,. We're running a series on Friendship, featuring the voices of many listeners. preparing to do battle on the "Epidemic of Loneliness," and the monster of technology that is taking over our lives.
Anyone, of any age, is welcome -- just remember to be civil!
We deal with the issues we face every day, but we don't just rant and rave. We're looking for solutions. We also have a lot of fun talking about what entertains us, what makes us happy, What makes us laugh. We share powerful, provocative human stories, talking with great writers, thinkers, and musicians.
We also engage our audience: you can add your voice to the conversation. We really want to hear what you think. Our whole purpose is to lift your spirits, shake things up and help us all live happier, more informed lives.
You won't hear anything like OURGENPOD anywhere else. We're a huge part of the population; those born between 1946 and 1964 number 76 million. Most of us might listen to podcasts like OURGENPOD, but we don't know how. We have a short tutorial on that, but then -- if you're reading this -- you figured it out. We need to reach that untapped audience. Because just 35% of those 50 to 64 and 27% of those 65 and older listening, we're not considered a viable market. There's almost no programming that really takes us seriously. We've lived life for a while now, but we're not through, even though media, marketers, and some other folks might want us to think we are.
A lot of us buy into that ageism, but that's a big mistake. We're active, experienced, and full of wisdom worth listening to, so don't let yourself be ignored, isolated, or cut off -- JOIN US on OURGENPOD !
There are just two of us doing this...
Julian G. Simmons
Co-Producer, Host
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Julian was actually one of the hundreds of thousands of skinny long-haired kids stuck on the Thruway when Arlo Guthrie made his momentous announcement, “The New York State Thruway is closed, man…”
Julian was a true Woodstock Nation warrior for peace, a dedicated antiwar organizer with hair down to his waist. In his mid-teens, he was student president of a local western New York anti-war organization, S.T.O.P. (Students and Teachers Organized for Peace) and was also one of the student founders of the first Buffalo area Free Schools, first known as the Village School and later as Ultimatum. Julian studied journalism at Northeastern University and Shakespeare and Classics at Balliol College, Oxford.
Nowadays, when he's not busy producing OURGENPOD Julian works as an actor, VO artist, writer, and audiobook narrator in L.A. For many years he worked in Public Relations (including his own company JS/PR), in music promotion, entertainment, and rrepresenting photographers. He has worked as a freelance journalist, screenwriter and is a published author; he has written seven screenplays and published short stories and poetry. His poem "Kennebunkport" was featured in the Centennial Edition of the Kurt Vonnegut Library and Museum's Literary Journal, honoring Vonnegut's 100th birthday.
Julian's audiobook narrations consistently receive very impressive ratings on Audible, which make him giddily happy. His many fans are mostly young women, evidently in love with his dulcet voice.
Rob Wilson
Director, Co-Producer
Rob is a graduate of Stanford University, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in the City of New York, the American Film Institute Center for Advanced Film Studies, and is a member of both the Writers and Directors Guilds of America.
In his youth (when he still had hair), Rob was an avid environmentalist, serving 5 years as the Leader of Service Trips for the Sierra Club, and he has never lost his love of Nature, Wilderness and animals of all sorts. He has always been concerned with community, civility and the human story. He spent a summer working among the homeless in London. As an investigative reporter and TV writer/director/ producer, he covered the loss of community in rural America, the shameful history and present-day struggles of Native Americans, the Nicaraguan Revolution, police corruption in the Deep South, the cold reality on both sides of the death penalty among the many the conflicts and controversies of our Criminal Justice System, invasion of privacy and the manipulation of information by Government, Tech Companies and Political Campaigns, GLBT rights, herbicide spraying over back-country communes. He wrote & directed dozens of profiles about hometown heroes, outstanding teachers, and various other remarkable human beings. Bringing out the human story has always been his forte, and he’s won the Emmy, Cable ACE and CINE Golden Eagle , among other honors. His work has appeared on all major networks and cable channels, as well as in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Ford Foundation publications. Most recently, he was story producer on 15 documentaries and multiple shorts for the Annenberg Space for Photography, currently running on PBS, winning a Cine Golden Eagle.
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As Director of OURGENPOD , Rob is there on every interview, but muted -- restricted to sending Julian "directions" that he usually ignores. He also edits the content, but you wouldn't know it -- a sign of a true master. Rob, a man of strong opinions, will be periodically venting his views on OURGENPOD topics and other subjects via our pokey Blog, "Mutterings from the Man Behind the Curtain," which is sporadically available via the OURGENPOD website Blog page.
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And Now for Something Completely Different...
There is so much great music from our youth that instantly takes us back to "The good old days" For most of us, they WERE good, and the music spoke to that. It was heartfelt and poignant, and always about something that mattered. It brought us together, captured our dreams and gace us purpose. Boy do we need that today. We're hopefully going to figure out a way to add a playlist to OURGENPOD.
You can hear snippets of that music in our Woodstock Series, which reminds us of a time when we did indeed think we could change the world, make it a kinder, gentler, friendly place. Michael Shrieve -- famous for his awesome drum solo with Santana at Woodstock when he was barely out of high school -- also shares some of his new music. And his wisdom:
What we should have is a song like Ohio(1). "There's something happening here. There's a man with a gun over there." Right? We should have songs like that that are popular, songs that are touching on an emotion. So many people are feeling angry and confused about what the hell is going on with this government, and everybody feel feeling so helpless to be able to do anything about it. I think there needs to be simple, beautiful songs that are calling to the heart of the matter of what's going on all around us. What we need now is more humanity and more compassion . It takes a songwriter and a voice to make that kind of song. "
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In a way, Michael is talking about our purpose at OURGENPOD. That frustration, that disbelief. is the meaning of the crack in those rose-colored glasses in our logo -- our utopian dream ran smack into a brick wall of of a much less optimistic reality. And now it seems to be unleashing our worst angels. But it's all the more reason to remember "who we were, what we accomplished, how we got here, and what we can still do about it."
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There's one song from back then that could easily be our theme, except for it's melancholy ending. It's "Those Were the Days" by Welsh singer Mary Hopkin covering an old Russian tune with new words written by Boris Fomin and Gene Raskin. The song was arranged by Paul McCartney, and released in 1968, when music meant something.
Enjoy....remember...don't give up.
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Those Were the Days. By Eugene Raskin. Copyright © 2018 Essex Music Inc, EMI.
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