In an often-retold Talmudic story from Tractate Ta’anit, Rabbi Honi happens upon an old man planting a carob tree. Honi asks the man if he expects to live to see it bear fruit.
He responds that just as fruit he has consumed was planted to nourish those who came after them, so, too, might the fruit of the tree he is planting be enjoyed by all who come after him. (See D’var Torah column in this issue.)
The traditional lesson of this story is one that Dr. James Ausman and his wife Carolyn (nee Rapkin) — both 73 and creators of the television show “The Leading Gen: What Will You Do With the Rest of Your Life?” — learned while they both were growing up in Milwaukee.
“It’s a way to give back and give toward the future,” Carolyn said in a recent telephone interview, citing the examples of the couples’ parents and grandparents.
Indeed, as she said in an email to The Chronicle, while she and James have lived all over the country and now are based in Rancho Mirage, Calif., “Our values are still Milwaukee-based; and we produced and wrote this series to help ‘give back’ to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the nation.”
But the Ausmans, who have been married for 51 years, would also likely point out the vitality of the Talmud’s arborist.
And if he lived in California, it’s very possible that he’d be among the hundreds of people between the ages of 40 and 100 featured in one of the 26 existing episodes of “The Leading Gen.”
Battling bias
Asked for the inspiration behind the series, James’ response was immediate. “There’s a bias in society against older people,” he said.
A neurosurgeon with a doctorate in pharmacology, he said that part of the reason for that bias is what medical students used to learn about aging.
“We’re told you keep losing brain cells as you get older, and that statement is totally false. You can grow brain cells until the last minute you breathe by stimulating your body, exercising, and stimulating your brain,” he said.
There’s also bias from employers and the media, particularly the entertainment industry, which, he said, caters to people under age 30. Asked how to address the issue, his response was, again, immediate. “Watch the television show,” he said.
So far, some five million people have done just that. To date, the first season has been shown 5,500 times on 157 public television stations, including Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10.
And this past May, the first season of “The Leading Gen” received two 2011 Communicator Awards from the International Academy of the Visual Arts.
Each episode, co-hosted by Carolyn and Gino LaMont, 50, introduces people who provide insight and information on dealing with a range of physical, emotional, mental and financial challenges.
Topics range from money management, employment issues and career transitions to dealing with the loss of a spouse, health care, raising grandchildren, and volunteering.
While the majority of featured people are not famous, some are. Stage, screen, and television singer-actor Shirley Jones is the focus of an entire segment. Others like dance instructor Caren Marsh-Doll, who was Judy Garland’s double in the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” have enjoyed longer and more satisfying careers than some of their better-known peers.
A “more than the usual Jewish excited” newspaper announcement about the birth of a grandchild drew Carolyn to Blanca Rothschild (z”l). Interviewed for the first time by Steven Spielberg for his Shoah (Holocaust) Project, Rothschild granted Carolyn the second — and final — interview of her life.
“You cannot be Jewish and hear her story and let it go,” Carolyn said.
Carolyn said her professional background was instrumental to the creation and success of “The Leading Gen.” Being the youngest account executive at J. Walter Thompson before starting her own advertising, public relations, mass communication and market research agency gave her the expertise to transform James idea into an award-winning series.
Additionally, helping to create and follow 44 studies on helping older people while working for the dean of the medical school and head of the hospital at the University of Illinois while her husband was the head of neurosurgery gave her insight into issues they faced.
“We did research for five years,” she said. The Ausmans examined the problems encountered by people between the ages of 40 and 100. They then used government data to get an idea of ages, cultures, and religious backgrounds of their target population.
Only then did Carolyn begin looking for people to interview. That their production budget didn’t allow them to travel out of the region was not an obstacle.
“The real advantage to being 73-years-old is that you’ve had a lot of experience in everyday life, and your antennae go up. You look and you talk to people about their problems and how they resolve them,” she said, “and people are very interested in helping others.”
Additionally, James said, people from all over the country have come to live in California. One couple came in from Michigan and another person from Arizona, but otherwise the Ausmans were able to cover the entire country without leaving southern California.
Although the Ausmans had a small grant and a gift donor, they financed the rest of the first season themselves and have offered it at no charge to any public television station interested in airing it. They self-funded the second season and are looking for people willing to donate tax-deductible financing for the next two seasons.
It appears likely that they will succeed, given their previous track record and, as James put it when describing the attributes of his Leading Generation peers:
“Older people have a great deal to contribute, and that’s wisdom, and that wisdom is stored in a brain that is far more complex than a younger person’s brain.”
Amy Waldman is a Milwaukee-based freelance writer, a member of the board of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, and coordinator of the ACCESS Program for Displaced Homemakers at Milwaukee Area Technical College.
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