Gen Jones Stories: I've been busy interviewing Jonesers

The heart of the Gens Jones Chronicles is to tell the story of the Gen Jonesers - people born between 1954-1964. So far, I've interviewed 13 people. Three of them are Australian, four live in New Zealand, six are from the United States. Most of them are people I've known for a while, but some are people we've met on our travels. I have promises from five more people, so in a couple of months I should have almost 20 interviews.

I'm now in the process of editing the audio and creating a podcast channel that will link to this website. I'm also recording some of my own stories which I am posting in short YouTube videos on a Gen Jones youtube channel.

In the interviews, I'm asking about impressions from their childhoods, their education, their work life, and their thoughts on social and cultural impressions. The full list of questions is here.

Each one of them has interesting stories, opinons, and experiences. I'm looking for common threads, and I think I see some. Most of them describe a childhood with a lot more freedom than their children had: lots of free time, outdoors, with neighborhood kids. For most of them, the world they grew up in was more hierarchical than the world they have experienced in the last couple of decades. Most of them describe efforts to join practical and theoretical spheres to solve problems in the work place. And, they have seem giant shifts in how technology works in both their personal and professional worlds.

If you were born between 1954 and 1964 and are interested in sharing your Gen Jones story, feel free to record yourself, in audio or video format, and send it to me at kim@genjoneschronicles.com. Please be sure to complete this form if you want me to share your story on this website. I won't share anything without it. I retain the right to edit anything you send me, and I also retain the right to choose to post or not to post what you send me. If you're not ok with that, don't send me anything.

I'd also love to hear from you. Do you see patterns in any of these stories? Let me know.