Telling Life Stories (highlights)

Hollywood, Health & Society’s panel event “Telling LIfe Stories: Crisis and Care at the Beginning, Middle and End” drew a full house to the WGAW on Feb. 2, 2016, when writers and producers from four leading network, cable and streaming TV shows—joined by experts and local storytellers— explored the issues of aging and health care.

The panel featured writer-producer Norman Lear, the creator of such landmark shows as “All in the Family” and “Maude”; Dr. Zoanne Clack, executive producer for the ABC series “Grey’s Anatomy”; Katie Elmore Mota, executive producer of Hulu’s “East Los High”; Stephen Hootstein, writer and co-executive producer for NBC’s “Chicago Med”; and Will Scheffer & Mark V. Olsen, creators and executive producers for HBO’s “Getting On”, a comedy about the staff and patients at a long-range care facility. HH&S Director Kate Folb served as moderator.

Following the panel, the writers and producers broke up into smaller breakout sessions with audience members and delved into the umbrella topic of health care and issues related to aging and undocumented immigrants.

The smaller table meetings included experts Dr. Bruce Chernof, president and chief executive officer of The SCAN Foundation; Dr. Scott Kaiser, a geriatrician and chief innovation officer at the Motion Picture & Television Fund; Joseph Villela, senior policy advocate at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles; Maria Romero-Mora, program coordinator at California Coverage and Health Initiatives; and Juanita Ontiveros, chair of the United Farm Workers Support Committee for Northern California and director of community advocacy for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.