Fernando Torres-Gil, director of UCLA Luskin’s Center for Policy Research on Aging and professor emeritus of social welfare and public policy, appears in the newly released documentary “Aging in America: Survive or Thrive,” airing on local PBS stations throughout the month of May, 2025.

Narrated by actor Martin Sheen, the program celebrates the promise of increased longevity while addressing crucial and unprecedented public policy challenges. It also explores critical topics such as ageism, healthcare, economic insecurity, and Alzheimer’s disease using Dr. Robert Butler’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Why Survive?” as a guide.

Butler, who coined the term “ageism” to describe discrimination against older adults, fought to eliminate stereotypes and saw aging not as decline, but as a life phase worthy of dignity. The 1975 book documented the neglect, isolation, and poverty experienced by many older Americans, offering not just a critique, but concrete policy suggestions, including better housing, healthcare, and opportunities for older adults to remain active and involved.

” ‘Aging in America: Survive or Thrive’ is about the realities of longevity, aging and how society views older people at a time when we will have more older than younger people, and when the health, long term care and social safety net for vulnerable elders is at risk,” Torres-Gil said, noting that, “Aging is about all ages: how young people plan for their expanded life span and how older adults can give back to their communities.”

A schedule of local PBS broadcasts may be found online at: https://aginginamericasurviveorthrive.com/schedule/