There's a lot going on right now. Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air. I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media. Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here? And maybe how to head them off at the past? That's on the media's specialty. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts.
good morning i'm jane paulie and this is a special edition of sunday morning our money issue today we're focusing on retirement a magical word that for many conjures visions of enjoying the good life after years even decades of hard work Of course, this comes at a time of extreme financial uneasiness. What with the jolts to our nation's economic policies this past week, triggering volatility on Wall Street and uncertainty on a global scale.
all of which puts retirement savings under particular scrutiny. So this morning, the latest on the week's tariff turmoil and insight into how you can ride out the storm. then we turn to Susan Spencer for a look at how for many lucky Americans retirement means finally having a chance to well go for it For author Maria Leonard Olson, keeping a bucket list has been a decades-long obsession.
Three, two, one. A bucket list is a list of all the things you want to do before you die. That sounds slightly morbid. It doesn't have to be. It can be a celebration of the time we have here. The do's and don'ts of Bucket Lips, ahead on Sunday morning. It's been more than five decades since Cheech Marin met Tommy Chong and a legendary comedy team was born. 50 years on, they've proven there's no retiring from funny. This morning, they're looking back on some truly high times with Tracy Smith.
Cheech Marin and Thomas Chong made their names and their fortunes doing things their unique way. And now they're taking sort of a victory lap. You both could retire. I mean, financially, you're well off. Yeah, but we don't want to retire. The crazy, amazing story of Cheech and Chong, later on Sunday morning. Seth Doan will introduce us to some retirees who found the grasses a lot greener on the other side of the Atlantic.
What made you choose Malta? It really was love at first sight. Why? The peace, the quiet, the way of life. Whether lifestyle, community, adventure, or because it's easier than ever. What are the pluses and minuses to retiring? Well, one of the biggest ones is the cost of living. Why more retirees are going global, coming up this Sunday morning.
David Pogue looks at the past, present, and future of Social Security. Connor Knighton visits a very different sort of retirement community in Louisiana for chimpanzees. Robert Costa gets the inside scoop on AARP, the influential nonprofit for Americans of any age. Faith Saley meets some grandfluencers, older folks who become surprise stars online.
califasane introduces us to the man known as the father of the 401k martha tichener visits a 55 and up community capturing the tropical vibes of jimmy buffett's distinctive music plus lee cowan on how retired military aircraft are once again flying high and more on this special edition of sunday morning we'll be back in a moment however the economic winds are blowing for some 90 years social security has been a vital financial safety net for older americans
now as David Pogue tells us many people are wondering just how safe that safety net is The Social Security Administration is in turmoil. Social Security has been getting a lot of attention lately and not the good guy. The websites are crashing and seniors are getting lost in the system. We paid it in and now we want to take it out and live with dignity.
The Social Security Administration was already at its smallest size in 50 years, and now Elon Musk's Doge team has cut another 14% of its employees. 7,000 people. A spokesman told us, every recipient will continue to receive their benefit. There has not been increased wait times. But when we checked the agency's own website, the average wait time was nearly five hours.
They've already pushed service to people back nationally to a pretty horrifying extent and it's probably going to get worse in the next couple months. Michael Astrew was the commissioner of the Social Security Administration under George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
I'm getting calls now all the time from people that can't get through on the telephone, from people that can't get appointments in the field offices. And it will, in some cases, delay benefits. This is a very tough thing for millions of Americans. Elon Musk keeps saying that hundreds of millions of dollars are going to illegal immigrants. He's just lying. And that's one of the most ridiculous things I've heard anyone say in Washington. He's got it exactly backwards. So they pay in.
but they don't collect. In fact, what experts worry about is not fraud, which the agency itself estimates is below one one hundredth of one percent of payout. It's the Social Security time bomb. This Social Security measure... gives at least some protection to 30 millions of our citizens. President Franklin Roosevelt created the program in 1935 during the Great Depression as a safety net to help keep Americans out of poverty.
The idea was that the government would take a small piece out of every worker's paycheck and pay it to people reaching retirement age. Today, those checks average about $2,000 a month, and they're the primary source of income for 40% of older Americans. If Social Security were not here, you'd have about 22 million Americans who would be considered poor under the federal standard.
For years, this all worked pretty well. Social Security became America's biggest government program. Today, it pays $1.6 trillion in retirement, disability, and survivor benefits to 73 million Americans. But when World War II ended, there was a shock to the system. And all those baby boomer babies got older. Now there are a lot more people getting money from the system and a lot fewer people paying in.
And we started living longer. In FDR's day, the average age of death in America was 63 years old. Today, it's 77. That's 14 years more payments per person. You will hear a lot of people saying there will be no Social Security for you. And that's, in all likelihood, not true. So, if Congress does nothing, they'll get about 80% of what they get now. And that will be a significant hit for a lot of Americans. That hit is expected to arrive in 2033. That's eight years from now.
We've seen this moment coming for years. All kinds of solutions have been kicked around. We could increase the tax a little. We could shrink the payments a little. We could delay the retirement age, which is now defined as 62. Or if you're a high earner, today you're taxed on only the first portion of your income. So we could tax more of your income by raising that cap or eliminating it altogether.
Finally, we could invest your Social Security contributions in the stock market instead of Treasury bills. But that's really risky. As this past week makes clear, a market crash could wipe the whole thing out overnight. As Drew expects, it'll be some combination of those ideas. The likelihood is that Congress will panic. right toward the deadline. There will be some cuts in benefits and there'll be some increase in taxation.
In the meantime, Michael Astrew worries about the more immediate problem, the indiscriminate cutting. The way they're doing it, which is just meat acts, cuts that are fairly random, is not the way. It's actually going to impair the agency's ability to make productive change. And to be clear, you are a Republican? I am. I voted for President Trump.
So I'm all for change, but I'm all for intelligent change. And the people who are trying to drive this change don't understand the system. I don't think they care. There's a lot going on right now. Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air. I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media. Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here? And maybe how to head them off at the past?
That's on the media's specialty. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts. Many of us have dreams about what we'll do when we retire. Some of us even draw up bucket lists. And as Susan Spencer discovered, anything goes. Watching her quietly do crafts at home, you'd hardly guess what 83-year-old Bobby Oxford really wants to do. At the top of her bucket list, driving a race car, a real race car.
How fast do you want to go? As fast as I can. Maybe 130. 130 miles an hour? I would like. You really would. You're serious. I'm serious. She's been serious for some six decades since as a teenager she had to watch the hot cars from the sidelines while her brother went drag racing. I would go and see him race. But you weren't allowed to race. Not then. Because you were a girl. Yes.
But times have changed, and Bobbie, who retired from her day job at 69, says she has never been more ready to hit the track. We have a plant. You're holding the wheel, you're in the car, the motor is running and you can hear it. That's the adrenaline. And it's purring. It's purring. It's saying, come on, Bobby, let's go. It doesn't have to do any persuading. No, none at all. But you would concede that not many 83-year-olds probably share this dream. Yes, I would.
And yet she's not that unusual. In a Stanford University study, 9 out of 10 people said they'd made a bucket list. 15% included something daring. What is the appeal of skydiving? It's scary. It's something that not everyone will do. I am afraid of heights. It is on your bucket list. It's on my list. Maria Leonard Olson is what you might call a professional bucket lister. the 61 year old attorney turned author started her list more than a decade ago how about let's see getting a tattoo
I have three. Scratch that one off the list. How about hot air balloon? I already did that. What? I did that. We're 6,000 feet up in a hot air balloon. I am frightened, but I'm doing it. Here we go. Is there anything that you absolutely would not put on a bucket list? Bungee jump. Smart girl. There's nothing that appeals to me about hanging upside down. But this would be the ultimate challenge. It might be. We'll see. I think it goes on the list. Know what I did for my 65th? What?
You're going to jump up into the air. Excellent. Bring your weight. Good. I would do that. Yeah. Thank you for that idea. Put that on your list. I will put it on my list. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Yes! Also on her list, so much travel, she needs a map to keep it all straight. You've hit 70 countries so far? I have, and I'm striving for 100. 120 would be even better. She's already checked off Antarctica for good.
I did a polar plunge. I jumped into the water. It was horrible. That's insane. I'm sorry. Bucket list or not. Three, two, one. So what does it feel like to take a polar plunge? Like a thousand needles injected into your body. Oh my God, that's terrible. This is not fun. It's not pleasant. It's not pleasant. But it really made me feel alive. My gosh.
It was crazy! Isn't there a phenomenon as we get older where we're less interested in what other people think? Yes, I think older people are more likely to do what they want. Dr. Richard Friedman, a psychiatrist at Weill Cornell in New York City, has a friend whose 96-year-old mother recently went skydiving. He says chasing thrills is okay at any age, as long as we do it for the right reasons.
I would simply say go with the things that you love, even if you think that they're not all that curious to other people. Do them because you want to do them. So how much of our bucket listing, if you will, is
motivated by a need to show the rest of the world how interesting we are? Probably a fair amount because we see novelty seeking as socially desirable. So for example, studies have been done, you know, in which People are asked, what kinds of foods do you order in restaurants when you're by yourself versus with other people? And it turns out that people will order more exotic choices when they're around others, in part because they think
it's desirable to be open to novelty than to pick what it is like a hamburger. We're all still in high school. We're social creatures. Speed is real. The day after our interview, we met her at a racetrack near her Colorado home, in full racing regalia and with a load of astonished friends. Thanks to Wish of a Lifetime, a charitable affiliate of the AARP, Bobby finally would get to put the pedal to the metal. around NASCAR racing vehicle.
It must have been at least 120 miles an hour. Maybe 75, maybe 75. Does this take this off your bucket list? Yes ma'am. At any speed, racing is clearly Bobby's speed. Take it quick! Take it quick! 20 years from now, Maria Leonard Olson may be right behind her. So retirees, listen up. We are told retirement can be about going off into the sunset and relaxing, but that's not for me. Maybe it will be at some point, but not yet.
It's become a rite of passage for many of us, maturing into middle age and beyond, joining AARP. Our Robert Costa pages through its storied history. Drew Barrymore is beloved for her youthful energy. She also just turned 50. And we recently dropped by her talk show set because she landed on the cover of AARP, the magazine. Everyone keeps telling me that this magical age of 50 is when you really start to let go of things.
Today we empower people to choose how they live as they age. Aging is a tricky business, but it is the business of AARP. The nonprofit magazine's readership is staggering. Nearly 40 million people. The Average Issues audience, the largest for any print publication in America. In the magazine, what we're trying to say is we get you. We're going to talk about things that matter to you because you matter.
At 86, Myrna Blythe is editorial director. We know health works, money works, lifestyle works. Advertisers and celebrities recognize the power of older Americans. How did you get Bob Dylan to be on the cover? He called us and asked us. He called you? Yes. Dylan doesn't call anybody. He called the editor. We're all growing old at the same rate. And you know, it's rather comforting to know that Time just can't be managed.
In 1958, educator Ethel Percy Andrus founded AARP after growing alarmed about the struggles facing older people. Is there still a sense of alarm about the state of affairs for older Americans? Definitely. Dr. Myesha Minter-Jordan is now the CEO. We represent 110 million Americans who are in the 50 plus demographic.
People are living longer. They're staying in the workforce longer. And so the needs are changing, but the needs are still urgent. In 1999, they stopped being the American Association of Retired Persons and became just AARP. While it is nonpartisan, it's not immune from controversy. Over the years, it has been criticized from left and right for its lobbying efforts. What are your members worried about? Our members are most worried about Medicare,
Social Security and Family Caregiving. They don't think those things will be there for them? They're very concerned. This is something that people are earning their entire life, they're paying into for Social Security, and they're very concerned about their access to that.
and additionally family caregiving. We're hearing more and more from people who are in the sandwich generation, taking care of younger children, taking care of their aging parents, and the financial hardships that that can bring. As for the future, it's about welcoming new generations. We're growing up. And now we get to be on AARP. And Drew Barrymore is excited about everything to come. When you look down the horizon at your own life, how do you think about age and even possibly retirement?
I had never thought about the concept of retirement because I started working at 11 months old. and I'm still working. I've never known what life is like without that. So it seems like an exciting prospect. But things are so good right now that I don't want to be unappreciating everything that's happening in my life right now. So it's not soon, but it's something.
that like I get excited about dancing with in some ballroom one night. Like this new stranger will walk in and sweep me off my feet and his name will be retirement. some American retirees are finding the good life by going global Seth Doan introduces us to a few of them Meet us in the town square, they said. Well, this is nice. Lovely out today. Welcome to Gozo. Had you ever heard of Gozo? Did you know where Gozo was? I barely knew where Malta was.
Now Gozo is home. It's part of Malta, a picturesque Mediterranean archipelago where Californians Mary Charlebois and Kevin Scanlon chose to retire. Hit 70 and it's, you know, hey, I only have so much time left. It's time to enjoy it. There's music and dancing and... Wine, food. It really was love at first sight. And then there's the low cost of living. We would never have been able to stop working. We couldn't live on our social security. And that's really what we both wanted.
And here we do it easily and we have a good standard of life here. Much better actually. Their rent, for starters, is $750 a month. One of the things you wanted was a view. A view. And you got it. We got it. They were able to get rid of their car, and they say groceries cost half what they did in the U.S. Yeah. Rental income from their California house helps the couple qualify for a visa. What about health care? What if either of you got really sick? Would you want to go back to the US?
I was in the hospital a couple of days here. Part of our residency is that we have to carry private insurance, which is less expensive than Medicare charges, and it pays 100%. I started looking at Italy, did a deep dive and realized how hard it was going to be when I don't speak the language. Retiring in a country where English is widely spoken is what drew Lisa Kleinschisk Hamamoto to Malta a year ago.
She worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers to help with the paperwork. They determined I could probably do this on a certain type of visa, the Malta Retirement Program for Third Country Nationals. Her Social Security income helps her qualify. She's among about 800,000 people receiving those benefits abroad. What do you miss about the US? Well, not much. I have found everything I did in Seattle.
I volunteered the animal shelter. Found a Bollywood class, which is really good. Go to the gym, and I walk everywhere like I walked in Seattle. The family, friends. They come. I've had probably a visitor every month since I moved here. been easier to retire overseas than it is today. Jennifer Stevens is executive editor of International Living.
A publication which offers advice and seminars for those considering living or retiring abroad. It's not by chance that this conference is taking place on the beach in Portugal. It's beautiful here. For some people, the first time in their lives that they can make a decision about where they're going to live.
live. It's not about where a job took them. They can kind of decide and have that freedom. The three-day seminar earlier this month gave a taste of life, budgeting and finding a home in Europe. 52-year-old Ron Devlin from Los Angeles is considering Portugal or Greece. How much does the turbulence in the markets change your thoughts about?
In a way, it really kind of makes me think that we really need to seize the moment and do it sooner rather than later. Budget is the top reason retirees are looking overseas in increasing numbers, says Jennifer Stevens. You really can live well on a social security check in a lot of these places. and live at a level of comfort that you would be hard-pressed to enjoy in the U.S. on the same budget. But Lisa Kleinschus-Kamamoto adds another reason. I knew I needed another adventure in my life.
So here I am. I have this motto, nothing happens unless first a dream. Not long ago, many Americans counted on pensions to sustain them through their golden years. Then, along came the 401 , which changed everything. so where did it come from kalafasana goes straight to the surprising source If you've recently been spending lots of time thinking about your retirement account, You can probably thank this unassuming 83-year-old. I've heard you described as the father of the 401k.
Is that true? Are you requesting a paternity test? Actually, that label was given to me by Money Magazine. You were working in this office park when the idea came to you. That's correct. A little idea that changed. Meet Ted Benna. He created the first 401k plan in 1981. And you didn't get to name it, right? You would have probably chosen something catchier. 401 is a section of the IRS code that covers all retirement plans. And you go paragraph A, B, C. What happened was, in 1978,
They added paragraph K. So like all the best stories, this one starts with a revision to the tax code. Exactly. Back then, as co-owner of a small insurance company outside Philadelphia, Benna noticed an obscure provision in the code that allowed corporations to contribute tax-free to workers' retirement accounts.
You're imagining that it's going to supplement the pension, and instead it turns out to kind of replace the pension. That's been the result. It's not a good thing that companies have abandoned pension plans. That was going to happen, frankly, whether there's 401k or not. Bennis says the 401k was attractive to employers who wanted to get out of the pension business. But for employees, there was a learning curve. Generation X was like the guinea pigs and they're kind of the first generation.
that is in this world where all of a sudden you've got to figure out your own retirement. You've got to take an active role. Yeah, it's scary. I'd say the major reason it's scary is just educationally. They weren't given financial courses. I mean, it seems like one difference between a 401k and a traditional pension is that the traditional pension is automatic.
it requires a little bit of knowledge and attention, and the employee has to really kind of take ownership of that a little bit. Yeah, it's changed to some degree, fortunately. And the way it's changed is there's been legislation enacted now. that if you have a plan, employees are auto-enrolled. And I help support that legislation. And also, your contributions are going to be automatically increased. They've kind of idiot-proofed the 401k. Well, that's recent.
So that's certainly going to help going forward. A 401 can be idiot-proof, but it can't be market-proof, as the recent financial chaos has demonstrated. What most people want when they think about retirement is stability, predictability. And that's not generally what the stock market provides. Oh, it's absolutely a problem in the bond market either. You know, the bond market is oversold as being more stable. A lot of people are really nervous about the performance of their 401k.
How's yours doing? I don't have any in a 401k. You no longer have a 401k? I rolled it. Yeah, rolled it in the IRA. 44 years after inventing the 401k, Ted Bena is still planning for the future. As someone who helped a generation save for retirement... Well, at 83, I'm not retired yet. Am I wrong to see this as you conspicuously failing to practice what you preach? Yeah, probably.
you think social media success is just for the young faith saley says think again When Diane Schiffer retired from working as an educator and social worker, she thought she knew what her life would look like. reading, doing a little sewing, taking a walk And now you do all those things, but you film them. Right, that's exactly it. At age 68, she's what's known as a grandfluencer. During the pandemic, she decided to start making daily videos. I had a video of me doing my hair.
that I had accidentally shot in time-lapse. So I was like, okay, what the heck, I'll put that up right. Good morning, my sweeties. It was her second TikTok ever. That video went viral and got millions of views. Millions. Mm-hmm. Now she has nearly a million followers on Instagram and another million on TikTok. I might do some sewing. Where she dubbed herself your chubby vintage Nana. And I'm ready to go.
What do you think it is about you that people love to see? I think that that image of like a grandmother, an elderly person, all they want to do is support you and love you. right that's it her videos range from posts about her favorite vintage finds to offering comfort and advice nothing wrong with being you You take your warm beverage. To what she calls sit and stares. Feel gratitude for the beauty. Little meditations in daily music.
But mostly, it seems to be her soothing voice and her infectious laugh that draw people in. She is just one of a growing number of older content creators who are finding audiences and post-retirement careers in social media with videos about everything from fashion People don't think old people should be in the gym. But I say the heck with... Anybody in there?
A single post can be worth upwards of $10,000. Because for companies, creators represent an opportunity to reach their enthusiastic young fans as well as appeal to affluent older ones. 76-year-old Barbara Costello retired in 2007. Here we go! You know what? You don't have to spend a lot of money on Easter arrangements. She started her channel, Brunch with Babs, because her daughter insisted people would want to hear from her mom.
What's the highest compliment? Somebody that says you remind me of my mother. Do you know? Hopefully it's a good thing. She's an unfussy domestic doyen who offers up recipes. Prosecco vodka grapes. If you haven't had them, you're missing out. And tips and tricks you might not have known. Oh, my goodness. Look at that. Babs has more than 8 million followers across social media now. I call my online family. So, yeah, I'm a big family.
Her second book, Every Day with Babs, was just released this week, and her social success has attracted the attention of big brands. I've never been busier, even when I was raising four kids. Even when I was running a business, I ran a preschool, I have never been busier than today. As for Diane Schiffer, she isn't making money off her channels. But she does have a book deal. And she says the appeal of becoming a grandfluencer is something greater than the influence.
When I'm long gone, those videos will still be out there and I can still be, you know, giving to people. And please keep making videos. I'll try. to lee cowan with proof that when it comes to adventures in retirement the sky's the limit Arizona's famous dry heat is what entices snowbirds to thaw out from the corrosive pain of winter. But for snowbirds with real wings, it's no different. This is Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, where for almost 80 years...
Military aircraft have flocked to this sun-soaked desert by the thousands to live out their retirement. There's some airplanes out here that older than I am. Here these retirees sit, tails of detention like tombstones in a boneyard. Just don't say that in front of Unit Commander Colonel Neil Aurelio. We have a love-hate relationship with that title. It connotes junk, connotes decay, connotes trash.
He bristles at the suggestion that his 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, or AMARG as it's called, Is here just a warehouse old warbirds? The way he sees it, he's giving these retirees a new life. The truth of the matter is, once they come in here, we see it as the aircraft starting their new mission. Their vital organs are harvested and shipped off to keep other planes flying, ours and our allies.
So last year we pulled over 9,000 parts. Total cost avoidance to the taxpayer, about $470 million. That's because this place acts as kind of the nation's strategic back pocket where some of our best are cocooned from the ravages of time, first sealed in black latex, then in white to reflect the sun's heat.
They can sit safely like this for years. Hey, their number may be called again to replace someone else in the fleet. It happened during the Berlin Airlift in 1948 when C-47s were resurrected from the boneyard. Last year, two B1s in storage here for three years are now flying again. A dream come true for some aircraft that, like us, might just experience retirement remorse.
You can go to the Smithsonian or Pensacola or Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum and see airplanes sitting there in the same place they've been for two or three decades. But you can't hear them, you can't smell what the exhausts smell like. Which might explain why retired Air Force pilot Chris Fahey, whose F-16 is also retired, now does this. That's a Soviet-era MiG-15 that Fahey now flies in the skies over Chino, California.
Flying in the United States, the single seat MIG that we have, I think this is the only one. Fans come out to see it in the air, as well as other retirees, here at Planes of Fame, the oldest non-government aviation museum in the country. It keeps its aging aircraft active.
by keeping them flying. There's a lot of debate, quite honestly, around the world in that we ought to park these things and they're too valuable. But there are more airplanes flying now, World War II airplanes, Korean War airplanes, than there were in 1970. That's in part because of the museum's founder, Ed Maloney, who started buying up hundreds of surplus aircraft after World War II. It looks like jump was not. I mean, you know, anything you can get, you get.
Steve Hinton is now president of Planes of Fame. 3,000 horsepower. 3,000 horsepower. He's restored over 60 military aircraft and he's taken most of them back to their rightful place in the sky. Sounds like some of these you've been flying longer than they were actually in service. Oh, way, way, way longer. Take his 1944 P-51 Mustang. Today it survives as a flying, visceral reminder that retirement isn't the end of the story. We all have another chapter in us no matter our age.
And while the sun will eventually set on all of us. Our glory days aren't a trifle. They're what made us. It was beautiful. So good. So much fun. Both man and machine. What the deal is, man, is that every time we say man, you know, man, we get, like, 17 and a half cents. That's our royalty, man. You know, so, like, we try to get as many men as we can. That's not right, man.
Man. 17 and a half cents. I forgot what I was supposed to say there for a minute. The Money Issue, a Sunday morning guide to retirement. Here again is Jane Pauley. this may be our retirement issue but it's fair to say our next subjects will never retire from being funny the legendary cheech and chong are in conversation with tracy smith
What kind of joint is this, man? Oh, it's a heavy-duty joint, man. It looks like a toothpick, man. No, it's not a toothpick, man. No, hey, it is a toothpick, man. Oh, man, it's just... It's a toothpick. Say the names Cheech and Chong, and this is probably how you'd picture them. Two friendly stoner guys getting sky high in a Chevy lowrider. Richard Anthony, Cheech Marin, and Thomas Chong made their names and their fortunes playing laid back potheads. Am I driving okay?
I think we're parked, man. But the men behind those characters were show business trailblazers who took every chance and grabbed every opportunity. Whoa, what's that? She's hitchhiker. Hey, watch out! Come on over! Geronimo! Sure, they cultivated a party image. Hey, you ain't a chick. Yeah, I know, but listen, that's the only way I can get anybody to stop, man.
But on tour, they'd often spend their downtime working out. Now, on a bit more of a serious note, we were trying to determine how you'd describe your brand of humor. How would you describe it? Funny. It does seem like, in a way, you two have been underestimated. Do you think that's fair to say? Oh, all the time, yeah. Well, we went against the protocol of movie making. For instance, they often wrote, directed, and starred in their own projects.
And that model was a moneymaker. Their first movie, 1978's Up in Smoke, cost around a million to make and took in more than $40 million at the box office. And this... in name anyway, is their final cinematic effort. Cheech and Chong's last movie. The documentary, which opens next week in theaters only. takes them from their early days in a Canada improv group
Cheech came out of college and he had, you know, I mean, he was a singer. He used to sing like Johnny Mathis. And he had short hair and he'd meditate, you know. Everybody would be smoking dope and we'd go, is he a narc? They thought I was a narc for the longest time. By the early 1970s, they'd be... become comedy superstars. At one time, they were so big that Bruce Springsteen opened for them. What are your hopes for this movie?
Oh, the investors make their money back. Yeah. That's what I hope. And if they don't, it's cool because we got another idea that we want to make more money. Cheech and Chong's other last movie. I am working on a little old carving of mine. In between projects, Tommy Chong does wood carvings in the garage of his home in one of the tonier sections of Los Angeles. It's a skill he says he honed 20 years ago while serving a nine-month prison sentence for selling drug paraphernalia.
And some of these may or may not wind up as parts of a bong. But this is for treasure seekers. Tommy Chong will turn 87 next month. What's your advice for dealing with aging? Aging? Enjoy it. Even the aches and pains and all that? You've got a choice. Aches and pains means that stop doing whatever you're doing that gives you aches and pains. When you look at where you started and where you are... What do you think? There's a God and He really likes me.
The other half of the duo is counting his blessings as well. New York has the Met, Paris has the Louvre, and Riverside, California has the Chiefs. The museum houses a jaw-dropping collection of Latin American art, and most of it is his. Now this is, not all of your collection is displayed here. No, no. This is one of the rotations. I gave to the museum about 550 pieces.
And that should do him for a little while. Here's something else you might not know about Cheechmarin. He won the first ever Celebrity Jeopardy, beating out Anderson Cooper. But there is some truth to his movie image. What's your relationship with weed now? Very friendly, you know? Very friendly. You know, the thing is, I'm in an enviable position, if you want to characterize it that way, is that I don't go out looking for weed.
Weed finds me. No matter where I, I swear to God. I thought he was locked up in Folsom. Well, maybe he's got a weekend pass. You may recall he was Don Johnson's partner on this very network. And Cheech Monin's still active in show business. But at age 78, he says he's become something of a survivor. As you've gotten older, what's become more important and what's become... Time has become very important. You see all your contemporaries dropping off, you know.
Every day, you know, I read the obituaries and it's like my age group, you know, so that's important to me, to make the most out of the time that comes. What's least important to me? worrying about it, worrying about anything that's not important to me at all. They may have gotten older and wiser, but in an age when most people are hanging it up, they're still Cheech and Chong, still looking for the next punchline.
Cheech, you mentioned legacy. What is the legacy of Cheech and Chong? Part of our legacy is that we have joined the kind of immortal comedy teams, you know, with... Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello and Martin and Lewis and all those guys. We are part of that legacy. The Smothers Brothers. The Smothers Brothers, yeah. And we're proud to be in that, you know, because that's who we grew up with, you know, and that's who.
became our contemporaries and now we're the people that other people grew up with, you know, so there's a certain pride in that. And we're the old farts that just won't go away. We all know this beloved Jimmy Buffett tune, but as Martha Teichner saw firsthand, retirees living in real-life margaritavilles are far from wasting away. You'd think everybody drank the Kool-Aid before moving on to the margaritas. If I said, Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett, what immediately is the picture in your mind?
The beach, laid back, cool vibes. It's a lot of fun. It's like a resort here. It's actually Latitude Margaritaville. A 55-plus community in Daytona Beach, Florida. Well, first, it's 55 and better. Tamara Baldanza-Decker, Margaritaville's chief marketing officer, lives and breathes the brand. This is Latitude Margaritaville, Daytona Beach. Inspired by the tropical utopia, the late Jimmy Buffett sang into existence and turned into a hospitality empire.
From the street signs, to the slogans plastered all over the place, to the elaborately decorated golf carts, everything is Margaritaville messaging. So come on, you parrot heads, fins up. That also comes from Jimmy. So yeah, you got this. It's a rallying call, it's a hello, it's a goodbye. starting prices for the 3,600 homes, the low 300,000s. This was the first of three existing Margaritaville adult residential communities, with more on the way.
300 would-be buyers camped out all night before sales opened in 2018 and parties. The homes have sold as fast as they've been built. Only four are left. There are now nearly 855-plus active communities in the United States. The market is growing by more than 4% a year and is expected to top $800 billion by 2030. My friends are gonna be there too. Meet Jordan Statler. 72, divorced, a party-hardy Latitudian since 2019. She prefers rock and roll to Jimmy Buffett. But take a look at her house.
It's a shrine to the Margaritaville mindset. There's friends, there's people, there's music, there's food, there's drink. It was like this is a built-in lifestyle. Instant community at an age when isolation can be a killer. To keep things friendly, it is a would-be politics-free zone, although partisanship isn't entirely absent.
Did you come here expecting to meet somebody and get married? I had lost my husband, and I didn't even want to date at that time when I moved here. I just wanted friends. But one thing led to another for retired flight attendant Sally Kitchen. and retired software product marketer Gene Schmidt. Last night, they got married. People coming here didn't come here to die. They came here to have a good time. I need a margarita. During happy hour at the bar and chill.
We saw this. And this. So what else is there to say but fins up? And it's five o'clock somewhere. Not bad. if you're wondering how to handle your money during these uncertain times here's some insight from the washington post's personal finance columnist michelle singletary The questions have been coming nonstop with a level of worry I haven't seen since the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. What should I do now? Should I withdraw all my money from the stock market?
Investors, especially those in retirement, are understandably upset. Their trust in the systems meant to secure their retirement has been shaken. I am the first generation in my family to invest in the stock market. Like many of you, I've gone without certain things I've wanted for decades so I could contribute to my 401k.
Given the relentless negative news, I won't patronize you with platitudes about remaining calm. Go ahead and scream. Feel what you need to feel. Anger, frustration, fear, punch a pillow. However, do not allow fear to control your financial choices. seek guidance from a financial professional. If you don't have one, consider engaging one.
If you're retired and need access to investment funds for your living expenses, withdraw only what you need right now and allow the rest to recover. You don't want to lock in more losses than necessary. stockpile cash, not goods, cut expenses if possible, Remember this, if your portfolio was created with diversification in mind, it was made for moments like these. It was designed to withstand the inevitable swings in the market.
don't be afraid to tap the cash saved in an emergency fund. Because guess what? This is an emergency. My 24-year-old daughter, who has some cash reserves, texted me last week to ask whether she should still open an investment account given recent events. I reply with just two words. Yes, ma'am.
The stock market is frequently compared to a roller coaster featuring hard dropping drops and loops and turns. You know it will be scary, but you get on anyway. You follow the safety procedures, you buckle your harness, you hold on tight. But just like any roller coaster you've ever been on, wild rides in the stock market historically eventually come to an end. As our Connor Knighton can report, humans aren't alone in their quest for the good life.
Spread out across 200 acres in northwest Louisiana, Chimp Haven is the world's largest chimpanzee sanctuary. Every detail, from the moat to the meal plan. has been designed to ensure the more than 300 residents here are getting the most out of their retirement years. A lot of the chimpanzees that are here at Chimp Haven, they spent decades. in biomedical research, but Chimphaven provides their happy endings. Raina Smith is the president and CEO of Chimphaven.
Chimpanzees have been used in research for decades. Back in the 1950s and 60s they were part of the NASA space program, then in the 70s kind of moved into infectious disease. They are ideal surrogates for men in tests involving potentially hazardous conditions.
Chimpanzees were instrumental in the development of everything from rocket ships to the hepatitis B vaccine. In the 1980s they were used in HIV research. But precisely because of how similar they are to us, attitudes about chimp research began to change. In 2000, Congress passed the Chimp Act, establishing a sanctuary system to care for retired research chimpanzees.
You've done a good job with this. It's a humane bill. The bill required the National Institutes of Health to kick in 75% of the funding for the retirees. It costs around $25,000 a year to care for each chimp. And the banana budget alone is impressive. They go through an annual 117,000 of them. Colony director Michelle Reiniger, might call the staff here, knows the chimps by name.
For you, what is it about chimps that make them different than any other species? I think it's their personalities. I like the sassy ones. I like the ones who you have to really work hard to get them to respond to you and to trust you. When you get that trust, there's no feeling like it in the world to have that bond with an animal like that. Hi Sparkles! To minimize disease transmission, staff only interact with the chimps while wearing masks and gloves.
Hey, guys! The animals receive regular checkups from veterinarian Raven Jackson. Chimpanzee medicine is challenging. It's like working with... A really strong toddler. Each day I start with, am I smarter than the chimp? Are there days where you feel like they outsmart you? Oh, all the time. I work for them and they don't work for me. since Dr. Jackson's patients were retired at different ages, plus a few are rescues or former pets. She treats a wide variety of conditions.
if you were a doctor at a retirement home for humans you're not seeing anybody until they're in the later stages of life but you have much younger chimps here as well yeah so as young as seven all the way up into the you know mid-60s it keeps things very interesting
And I think it also keeps things interesting for the chimpanzees because we're able to put them in these very dynamic social groupings where you're going to see various age ranges. Each of the 30 or so groups has its own characteristics in alpha leader. They don't always get along, but they're quick to make up.
They always want to reconcile, right, very quickly. And so it taught me, like, hey, it isn't worth holding on to anything. Like, learn from the chimps. One day, a sanctuary like Chimp Haven may be unnecessary. Ten years ago, the NIH announced that it would no longer support any biomedical research on chimpanzees.
While there are still some new arrivals, animals that the labs had initially deemed too challenging to move, eventually there will no longer be chimpanzees retiring from careers they never chose. Do you think we owe a debt to the chimpanzee? Chimpanzees have given so much of their life to science and we feel like it's our responsibility and the government's responsibility to care for those chimps for the rest of their life.
Thank you for listening. Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. There's a lot going on right now. Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air. I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media. Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here? And maybe how to head them off at the pass? That's on the media's specialty. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts.