Marc Middleton

I recently delivered a commencement address to Masters graduate students at Florida Institute of Technology. All of the graduates were working professionals, many of them middle-aged and beyond. As I looked into their faces, I realized that they were as excited and as anxious about their future, about possibilities of...

Betty White is a national treasure. At 90, she can deliver a line with perfect timing, subtlety and innuendo like few actresses in Hollywood.

She's not only amazingly talented, she has become the ultimate demographic crossover character on television; audiences of all ages love and admire her. White's recent...

It's supposed to be the best time of our lives. For many, it's become the worst. There are now more single, unemployed and lonely men and women over the age of 50 than ever before. With so many looking for friendship, love or jobs, I find myself wondering -- what...

I was contacted this week by a journalist working on an article on the evolution of soccer moms. In her research, the reporter came across my HuffPost piece in which I coined the term Facebook Moms and made this prediction: The new most powerful voting block in...

How old are you? It's a question that puts most of us on our heels and that few enjoy answering. It's a question that, at best, is impolite to ask and at worst, illegal. For most of us, the four most difficult ages to turn are 40, 50, 60 and...

The U.S. National Masters Swimming Championships are underway in Mesa, Arizona, and this is an emotional moment for 55-year-old Dr. Susan Helmrich. As she climbs onto the starting blocks, Susan looks every bit like the world-class athlete that she is. She's fit, trim and filled with determination. Only a few...

It was an amazing night. My daughter Quinn was named valedictorian of her high school class. Exactly one year ago, my other daughter, Kelsey, was named valedictorian of her class. Both were in the National Honors Society with 4.6 GPAs and résumés filled with extracurricular activities and community service. They're...

Sometimes it seems like every 40-plus woman in America wants to be on "Oprah." Or wants to be Oprah. We hear from them every day. Ambition is a great thing. We encourage it; in fact, we nurture it when and where we can. But most of the Oprah-wannabes have little...

This week, Bolder Media Group VP Bill Shafer and I were hired to take part in a qualitative research project funded by a major corporation and serve as experts on the Baby Boomer market. You know this corporation very well, but I'm not at liberty to disclose its identity. I...

The power of community is amazing. The power of technology to facilitate and grow community is awesome. Combine the two, and you get an amazingly awesome tool with the power to transform lives.

Not long ago, if you were disabled, suffered from a disease or had a physical, emotional...

This not a political blog. I understand that politics pervades everything, but I'm not pushing a political agenda. I'm pushing a human agenda.

As a journalist for decades, I avoided making political statements at all costs. Back then you lost your job for it. Today, it's nearly a prerequisite...

World War II documentary filmmaker Tim Gray knows all about deadlines. He met them daily for years as a TV news and sports reporter. But he's now working against the most imposing, most important deadline of his career. The men and women whose stories he tells are dying...

The Ogilvy creative team in Taiwan has produced a great example of the power of storytelling. The agency has just created a three-minute ad for a Taiwan bank that asks the question, "What do people live for?"

It's a wonderful illustration of something we say nearly every day in the...

If you're a fan of "Inside the Actors Studio" you undoubtedly enjoy host James Lipton's questionnaire at the end of each interview. Lipton asks every guest 10 questions and gives credit for the questions to French talk show host Bernard Pivot.

The questions are the most popular...

Here's a prediction: the new most powerful voting block in America will soon be called Facebook Moms. Facebook Moms will replace Mama Grizzlies, who replaced NASCAR Dads, who replaced Soccer Moms.

Of course, Mama Grizzlies are female candidates endorsed by Sarah Palin in the 2010 U.S. midterm elections. Soccer...

Exercise physiologists, gerontologists and other researchers are talking a lot lately about compressed morbidity. Compressed morbidity is the opposite of a lengthy gradual decline, in which disease processes slowly rob you of your mobility, vitality and independence. Simply stated, compressed morbidity is "live long and die fast." It should be...

Thanks to the Internet, baby boomers, and a couple of celebrity TV shows, genealogy is now the fastest-growing hobby in North America with 87 percent of Americans interested in researching their family history, according to a Harris Interactive survey.

"I tell...

What was on your holiday wish list?" If you're over 50, advertising and marketing executives think it's the same things that have been on the list of 50-plus consumers for the past five decades -- not much and not very exciting.

Amazingly, most "experts" still subscribe to the outdated...

Poor Hugh Hefner. His self worth seems totally wrapped around the imaginary affection of 24-year-old blondes looking for a higher media profile. At 84, Hef is no longer smashing stereotypes, he's become one and he's perpetuating others. A sugar daddy, dirty old man, gold digger. Does he think we look...

Remember when no dream seemed too big? When the future was filled with possibility? Now we're led to believe that dreams come with an expiration date.

Here's a secret. You've been programmed to give up; brainwashed into believing that when your skin begins to wrinkle, your dreams begin to...