Brian Lehrer: Now we'll wrap up our two-day generational addendum to our recent call-in series about the defining news events of your lifetime. Most of you know we took calls about that over eight shows, going decade by decade from your 90s down to your 20s. We're taking on these two extra call-ins about what being part of your generation means to you and how you think it makes you different than the generations that came before or coming after you. Yesterday, we opened the phones to Gen Z and millennial callers, so anyone up to around age 42, yesterday.

Today, it's for the rest of you, anyone Generation X or older. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. If you consider yourself a member of Generation X or baby boomer, or if you were born during World War II, or if you were a kid during the Depression era, or if you're older than that, tell us what being part of your generation means to you. Does generation identity have a meaning for you? Tell us how it makes you different if you think it does than generations that came before or after. 212-433-WNYC.

Like we said yesterday, we know that generations are just generalizations and lots of people have individual and socio-economic differences that are as powerful as anything so broad as to be a better generation. Generational experiences also do run in patterns to some degree, and it's important that generations try to get each other to help the world be a better place for all generations yet to come. If you consider yourself Generation X or older, you're invited to call in and say what being part of your generation means to you and how you think it makes you different than the generations that came before or are now coming after you.

The two biggest themes that emerged from yesterday's call, and I'd say, were about money and about media. Certainly, one of the defining things for so many millennials and Gen Z Americans is the prospect that it's harder on average to live as well financially as your parents did. Here's Astrid in Northfield, Minnesota, who called yesterday. She's currently a college student and grew up here in New York.

Astrid: My mom moved to New York 40 years ago. She's about 65. For her, it wasn't such a big deal to move to New York and get random jobs. I don't think I will be able to afford moving back to New York unless I live with my parents or get a good job, or at least I won't be anywhere close to where I'm working. That really scares me.

Brian Lehrer: Astrid, around 20 years old, calling in yesterday with a very common Gen Z concern. Here's one more, a 38-year-old caller from Saratoga Springs, a millennial who sees the generational impact of digital media as being profound.

Kate: I really think that as a millennial, we were one of the last generations that had a true childhood. When I say that, I mean, I think we were one of the last generations where technology and social media didn't seep into our childhood. As a kid, I was out playing in the backyard or playing with toys and doing make-believe. Then all of a sudden, I think Gen Z started to seep in iPads at three years old at the dinner table.

Brian Lehrer: Kate in Saratoga Springs. There are two excerpts from yesterday, a Gen Z caller and a millennial caller. Now you're invited to call in and say what being part of your generation means to you if you're Generation X or older. We'll also ask you how you judge or feel judged by people from other generations. We're talking about your generation, and we'll take your calls after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now to your calls if you consider yourself Generation X or older and what that means to you. Boy, is there a theme emerging among our first callers, and that is that Generation X folks feel really neglected. We'll let Tim in Bensonhurst do the honors on this angle. Hi, Tim, you're on WNYC.

Tim: How are you doing? Glad to be on the show. I'm a little tongue-in-cheek but I'm definitely serious. I'm Gen X, and I think of Gen X as this diplomat between baby boomers and the millennials in the sense that baby boomers are the [unintelligible 00:05:05] of the French Revolution, just idealism, which was all good, but then it leads to this hyper privatization, Reaganism, Oprah Winfrey, this privatization of diversity for profit. Then they own all the resources.

Here we are, the biggest [unintelligible 00:05:26] power is not being really passed on into millennials who are very idealistic but are this internet generation [unintelligible 00:05:36] these feedback chambers of neo-Puritanism and ideology without a lot of tolerance sometimes. You can argue [unintelligible 00:05:45] culture doesn't take in 8.5 billion moving [unintelligible 00:05:49], which is essentially our population. We have all these different things, and things aren't pure. They're never going to be that pure even if the idea is good, even if it's idealistic and there's a good intention. I always think of Gen X as this diplomat, almost a voice of reason if I may be so bold.

Brian Lehrer: Wow, the diplomat, the mediator between all those other generations. That was comprehensive, Tim. You should write a book. Thank you for starting us off that way. A lot to think about there. Trudy in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Trudy.

Trudy: Hi. Oh, how wonderful to be here. Today, I am 78 and a half years old. That would make me a boomer. What has happened to all my boomer buddies? I am so frustrated. I don't get it. Around age 50, I began to notice I had nothing in common with my own friends anymore.

Brian Lehrer: With your own friends of your generation?

Trudy: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Why?

Trudy: For example, I still love all the things. I've always loved rock music, I love social media, I love current events, and I'm a lot more radical than I was when I was younger. This has caused a great divide between me and my fellow boomers, in my humble opinion. I feel very lost. I feel as if I have no one that I can communicate with.

Brian Lehrer: You just articulated some of your values and interests. What did all your friends who you're trying to migrate to?

Trudy: That's interesting. Wall Street, which completely shocked me and took me back. They seem to become more conservative in their beliefs, a lot less risk-taking, less interest in just modern life, interest in young people, what's going on in the world, and certainly, no interest in social media.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting, Trudy. Thank you for all that. Kevin in Bridgeport, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kevin.

Kevin: Hi. I'm 62 and technically a boomer, but I just feel like I never really felt like a "boomer." I feel like I'm in between. I don't feel like I'm necessarily a Gen X, but I identify with different parts of both of those "generations."

Brian Lehrer: What would some of those points of identification be culturally?

Kevin: I was too young to remember the Kennedy assassination. I know my dad told me how scared they were during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I didn't see the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, but the first concert I saw when I was five was the Beatles in Candlestick Park. I was fortunate enough. My dad was in the music business. I saw The Doors and Grace Slick and Janis Joplin at a festival. There are certain things that I feel very connected to that and I grew up to become a musician, but then there are other things that I feel like that was-- The generation before me, I do feel connected but I'm not.

It took me a long time to get up to speed with computers but not that long. It was funny because-- That's the thing. I don't know where I fit exactly. I have other friends who feel the same way. They say, "Oh, baby boomers. Oh, we don't think of ourselves as baby boomers." I guess, technically, we're at the tail end of it. I was, in the '70s, very aware of politics, very aware of the environment, very aware of Watergate, and some of my peers, they didn't really care so much about that. That's why I'm like, I don't know, maybe I'm more a boomer but then more towards the Gen X.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, really interesting, Kevin. Thank you. We're getting so many of these, what I'll call cuspers or Gen X people who feel that just by being Gen X they were cuspers. Another one like this, Francesca on Twitter writes, "Gen X was mostly ignored and occasionally maligned by boomers when we were younger. We are mostly ignored and occasionally maligned by millennials now that we are older." Francesca concludes her tweet with one word, "whatever", which I think was a big Gen X word, right? Gregory in Harlem I think is going to have an interesting perspective, a boomer with two kids born very far apart. Gregory, you're calling to compare and contrast three generations here.

Gregory: That's exactly right, Brian. How are you today? Listen, I really got an opportunity to see a wide spectrum of the generations because I'm one of those true boomers born in '46. My son was born in '71 and my daughter was born in '92, so I got a very, very good lesson on how to listen and given all the stuff that I know now. I got my first computer which was a Mac back when it first came out, and I've been an Apple guy all the time. I had an opportunity to learn from them as they learned from me, and that's why we're so close today.

Brian Lehrer: What, for example, culturally, do you think you learned from your 1971 kid and your 1992 kid that would be different from each other?

Gregory: I'm a jazz and classical guy and my son turned out to be more of a folk kid. I learned a lot of stuff from him. My daughter gave me Nirvana. The cultural differences between all of us were so intertwined. As I said, I learned from them how to navigate and not be that guy that says, "Get off my grass."

Brian Lehrer: [laughs] Gregory, thank you very much for all that. Nick in Brooklyn, age 60, I think is going to take a shot at people a little older than him. Nick, you're on WNYC. Thanks for calling in.

Nick: Hi. I don't know what-- I guess I'm a cusper, but I do have a strong feeling that our generation has a unique dichotomy in that we've failed the world in so many ways. We've helped to propagate climate change. We are learning about our racist history that we should have sought out decades ago. The list goes on and on. The selfishness is stunning. On the other hand, I was at a Mavericks concert a few months ago with a bunch of people who-- we were among the younger people in the crowd. It was completely rocking and terrific. Everybody was standing up. The security forces there had given up I think in part because they realized that the people in the audience were not physically able to really storm the stage or do any real damage. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: That's funny.

Nick: We were having a great time. I was getting misty-eyed about this generation that is so flawed. I'm thinking [unintelligible 00:14:38].

Brian Lehrer: That's so interesting. I said you were going to take a shot at people older than you. It's really you're taking a shot at your own generation and people a little older than you.

Nick: Oh, yes.

Brian Lehrer: I guess some social critics might say your generation did the best they could as a whole but the world is so complicated you couldn't have prevented 9/11 or the Great Recession or Trump or climate change, or you think that's letting you off the hook too much?

Nick: I think it is letting us off the hook too much. I think that, I don't know, we're responsible for so many terrible things in our ignorance and selfishness.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Nick, thank you for being so introspective. We really appreciate it. I think we can do one more here. How about Christina in Brea, California? Am I saying it right? Are you in Brea?

Christina: Yes, I'm in Brea, California. I used to live in New York, and I'm a huge fan of your show, Brian. I'm a Gen Xer and I have a five-year-old, and I'm realizing I'm constantly buying him all these things made of plastic. I was just thinking that really my generation feels like we're the last of that cusp between pre-plastic where everything now is made of plastic. Things back when I was a child were made with metal and wood and just better quality and things lasted longer but they were more expensive too. We didn't have 20 different toys of the same kind. I just feel like we cherished things a little bit more and things lasted longer back then.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Christina, thank you very much. All right. We're going to end heavy, I think. Venida in Jersey City. Venida, you're going to get our last 20 seconds. You there?

Venida: Hi, Brian, I'm Venida. I grew up in Teaneck, a racially diverse community. We had it good there. We were connected with so many people from various backgrounds. Unfortunately, when Phillip Pinnell happened, it really made us think very differently about the police, and certainly, with the killing of Amadou Diallo on my birthday, I'll be 57 on February 4th, and the cops [crosstalk].

Brian Lehrer: Generationally defining. Yes, police brutality.

Venida: Yes, very--

Brian Lehrer: That, unfortunately, is going to have to be the last word because we are out of time. Thanks to all of you from all the generations who called up the last two days.

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