Interview with Dr. Ken Dychtwald - World's Foremost Visionary and Thought Leader on Aging-Related Issues

With this podcast, I’m excited to introduce a new theme, namely, conversations with experts in disciplines and issues that are in a simpatico relationship with Unconditional Healing issues and themes.  I can think of no better way to start than by bringing on the leading spokesperson and thought leader for aging-related issues in the United States and many other countries in the world, my good friend, Dr. Ken Dychtwald. 

Over the past 40+ years, Ken has emerged as the foremost visionary and original thinker regarding the lifestyle, marketing, health care, economic, and workforce implications of the age wave. He is a psychologist, gerontologist, and best-selling author of 17 books on aging-related issues, including his most recent one, What Retirees Want: A Holistic View of Life’s Third Age, (an Amazon #1 bestseller in both the retirement and business marketing categories). Ken was the executive producer and host of the highly acclaimed PBS documentary, The Boomer Century: 1946–2046 which aired over 2,000 times on PBS stations nationwide, and his new Public Television special is titled Life’s Third Age, which is soon to air nationally. 

In 1986, Ken created Age Wave, a firm created to guide companies and government groups in product and service development for boomers and mature adults. His client list has included over half the Fortune 500, and Ken has consulted with every U.S. President since Jimmy Carter, (excepting our last president with whom Ken makes clear he had no involvement whatsoever). 

I could go on and on with superlatives for Ken, but you can check him out for yourself here. 

In this episode, we discuss Ken’s engagement with the Human Potential Movement in the 1970s at the famous Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and then discuss his involvement with the holistic health movement, a term he and his colleagues coined.  We also discuss his transition to working with older adults on the Sage project, which eventually led to Ken’s prescient warnings about the coming age-wave of the Boomer generation that would affect almost every institution within our society.

We also delve into Ken’s work trying to eradicate Alzheimer's, the 21st century’s scourge of the aging population, and there is some positive news on that front.