Ep 55: Dan Buettner: Blue Zones Founder and Longevity Explorer

Dan Buettner is an explorer, National Geographic Fellow, award-winning journalist and producer, and a New York Times bestselling author. He discovered the five places in the world—dubbed Blue Zones—where people live the longest, healthiest lives.  He is the founder of Blue Zones , a company that puts the world’s best practices in longevity and well-being to work in people’s lives. He has written a number of NY Times best-selling books with his latest one titled: “The Blue Zones Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100”.

 

Some interesting insights from this episode:

  • Setting world records on a bike was a vehicle to fund his addiction to fascinations. The work needed to set these world records provided the tools needed for future scientific exploration – you have to develop a lot of patience, you have to be strategically prepared, and you have to know how to network with experts across various fields.
  • He has discovered and studied hot spots of longevity around the world where people are statistically the longest lived. He coined these regions Blue Zones.  Blue Zones must meet at least one of three criteria: high middle aged mortality (chances of reaching the age of 90), low chronic disease, or high centenarian rate.
  • Health behaviors are known to be measurably contagious.
  • Going to the gym a few times a week isn’t enough to offset the damage from a sedentary lifestyle. It’s important to move around naturally throughout the day.
  • People who know their sense of purpose live around 8 years longer than people who are rudderless.
  • Other important practices found in Blue Zones include sacred everyday rituals to relieve the stresses of everyday life; a diet composed primarily of plant based whole foods; a couple glasses of wine a day; breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper; putting family first; belonging to a faith; strong social support systems.
  • Loneliness is as harmful for your health as a bad smoking habit.
  • What produces health is not a function of behavioral modification but rather a function of the environment in which we live.
  • “Excellence is having a very clear idea of what your personal passions are, what you’re good at, and having an outlet to do it every day for most of your life.”

Ep 45: Eduardo Strauch: Andes Mountains plane crash survivor

Eduardo Strauch is an architect and painter living in Montevideo, Uruguay.  He is also one of 16 survivors from a 1972 plane crash in the Andes mountains which was charted by an amateur Uruguayan rugby team.  He survived 72 treacherous days trapped high up in the mountains.  He wrote a book about his experience called Out of the Silence: After the Crash.

 

Some interesting insights from this episode:

  • Learn how he and 15 others managed to survive for over two months with minimal provisions, subzero temperatures, and thin air which was very difficult to breathe.
  • Learn how spontaneous meditation helped free his mind and save his life.
  • Mental strength was as important as physical strength for survival. You had to maintain hope and continue to have positive thoughts and believe that things would eventually work out.
  • You had to learn how to control your mind in order to do what was needed to survive. “It was essential to strip away the deep associations of the past from our actions and maintain that strict separation to be able to act.”
  • Once they ran out of food, they had to get past age-old societal norms and resort to cannibalism to survive.
  • “We all occasionally fell into bouts of deep depression, but then the group would notice it and act in support of that person, like a living organism trying to rebuild its own weak cells.”
  • From the very moments following the crash to this day, Eduardo has learned to appreciate the value of life.
  • “Excellence is to be in peace with oneself and ensure that you are living the life you must live.”