Longtime New York Times writer Jane Brody writes about her own encore career in today’s Personal Health column, “In Act 2 of Life, Doing Work That Matters.”

Brody cut back her hours 10 years ago when she officially retired after 32 years as a science writer. “I have, however, continued to do the work I love most — writing this weekly column as a contract writer and speaking to lay and professional audiences about fostering good health,” she writes.

She enjoys spending time with her grandsons and friends, traveling and pursuing her hobbies. Yet, she writes, “I realize that I am still missing something — the personal (as opposed to financial) giveback to social causes that I might support, like helping parents and schools turn out healthier children and helping young people achieve a wholesome work-life balance.”

Bridgestar, the nonprofit talent-search firm that specializes in people “bridging” into the nonprofit sector from the corporate world, features an interview with Marc Freedman headlined, “Encore: Finding Meaning in a Post-Retirement Career.”

Marc Freedman, author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life.

Baby boomers know and fear that they are part of the first generation in American history in danger of leaving the world worse than they found it, writes Marc Freedman in the lead editorial in the March 3 issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

“At the same time, the nation — and the world — today face serious problems that need to be reversed in the three or four decades the boomers have left,” says Freedman. “Our challenges in education, poverty, health, and the environment all require a massive infusion of human capital, experience and ingenuity.

A fitness trainer at the YMCA in Rochester, New York.

Marc Freedman challenged employers to invest in older adults who want meaningful work in the second half of their lives.

“Employers need to recognize, particularly those facing talent shortages, that there is more than one place to look when filling these gaps,” Freedman says in an interview in today’s online edition of The New York Times. “While many young people have an enormous amount to offer, there is another vast and growing pool of talent and commitment.

“And employers need to correct some misconceptions,” he told reporter Marci Alboher. “They often assume that people in their 50s and 60s have one foot out the door. But an accumulation of evidence supports the fact that turnover is less with this population than with young people. So it is worth investing in these individuals.”

Velma Simpson. Photo by Alex Harris.

Marc Freedman, in a column in today’s Washington Post, takes issue with an Allstate ad exhorting Americans to save for 30 years of retirement.

“Millions of boomers are headed not for endless vacation but for a new stage of work, driven both by the desire to remain productive and the need to make ends meet over longer life spans,” Freedman, author of Encore, writes in the piece, “One More Time, With Meaning.”

That makes the central question, both for individuals and society at large, “What work will boomers do?”

2007 Purpose Prize winner Gordon Johnson

In an interview with BusinessWeek, Marc Freedman defines encore careers as ‘give-back careers’ and challenges boomers to answer the call for a higher purpose.

Freedman called for policy changes that make encore careers easier to find and for more programs such as Troops to Teachers, which trains veterans for second careers in teaching.

CBS Sunday Morning profiles several people pursuing encore careers in a segment by correspondent Rita Braver that features an interview with Marc Freedman, author of Encore.

The CBS crew spent a day with Freedman on the road, including his appearance at a Capitol Hill briefing organized by Sen. Herbert Kohl.

Here’s the promotion blurb from CBS’s website:

“Just like they’ve redefined so many other things, baby boomers are already redefining retirement. By 2012, people over 55 will make up over one-fifth of the workforce. But, unlike their parents, they’re not going to go off to the golf course or the rocking chair. A full three-fourths of boomers say they expect to work in their retirement years. And most say they’ll have a new, second career — a career they want to be more fulfilling, that contributes to the greater good. Rita Braver introduces you to “Encore Careers” which experts say will be the biggest change in the labor force since women entered the workplace in the 1970s.”

In a Q&A with The Wall Street Journal, Marc Freedman distills the essence of the encore idea.

Freedman cites as encore examples Ed Speedling, a health care executive turned advocate for the homeless, and Gary Maxworthy, the food industry executive who has brought fresh produce to food banks throughout California.

Some excerpts from Glenn Ruffenach’s interview:

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: What is an “encore career”?

MR. FREEDMAN: I see an encore career as having five key characteristics. First, it’s a significant body of work, one that could entail, say, 10 or 15 or even 20 years of your life. It takes place in the second half of life, after the end of a midlife career. Ideally, it involves some type of pay or benefits. And at its core, it’s about the search for new meaning and a deep desire to contribute to the greater good.

Marc Freedman’s Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life was named Best Inspirational Retirement Guide by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.

“This book challenges baby-boomers to build a better world through a second career and provides concrete steps to help them find their next job,” the magazine wrote.

Ode magazine adapts a section of Marc Freedman’s Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life in its November issue.

“The emerging trend toward extended productivity needs to be supported at every turn, as individuals seek to make ends meet over longer lifespans and societies seek to balance the fiscal ship,” Freedman writes.