A Bit of OptimismSimon SinekAll episodes
The Longevity Secret Nobody Can Sell You with Gerontologist Dr. Kerry Burnight
If you’ve ever dabbled in looking into how to extend your life, your social media feed might be inundated with the “hottest” longevity trends: from cold plunges to VO2 max tests to celebrity-endorsed supplements. As a society, we are obsessed with the idea of living longer.
And longevity has become a multi-billion dollar industry where everyone’s trying to sell you their secret to a longer life. But if you meet the people leading that movement, you start to ask yourself “are they even happy?” If we’re all trying to live all these extra years, we should also make sure we genuinely enjoy them.
That’s why I wanted to talk to Dr. Kerry Burnight about how we age. Known as “America’s Gerontologist”, she specializes in the mental, physical, and social aspects of aging. Kerry has spent two decades as a professor of geratric medicine, and co-founded the nation’s first elder abuse forensic center, where she saw older people isolated, exploited, and suffering. After years of arriving after the damage was done, she started asking a different question: what would prevent that suffering in the first place?
Kerry’s answer is a concept she calls “Joyspan,” which is also the title of her New York Times bestseller Joyspan: The Art and Science of Thriving in Life’s Second Half. Her work reframes how we think about our long lives: not as a problem to solve by suppressing the aging process, but as a chance to grow with age and build a life with intention and joy.
In this episode you’ll learn:
➡️ Why the longevity movement lost its way (in a word: humility)
➡️ How Kerry’s mom changed her outlook on life in her late 70s, and is thriving at nearly 98
➡️ Three questions you should ask yourself every birthday
➡️ Why we should stop “growing older” and start “growing with age”
➡️ The one sentence that helps you find something good even when things are hard
➡️ How to help someone who’s stuck, without just commiserating
➡️ Why friendship might be “the Ozempic of longevity”
➡️ The four practices of people who are still loving life at 100
This conversation isn’t about rejecting the gym or the green vegetables – you should take care of your body too! But the parts of life that make it worth living are often difficult to assign a metric. They take work too. And it’s never too early (or too late) to start.
This… is A Bit of Optimism.
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To get a copy of Kerry’s book, Joyspan: The Art and Science of Thriving in Life's Second Half, head to: https://www.drkerryburnight.com/#joyspan
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Chapters
Chapters
- 00:00:00 Dedicating Your Life to Helping Others Age
- 00:00:43 Beyond Lifespan and Healthspan: Introducing Joyspan
- 00:02:20 Why the Longevity Movement Lost Its Way
- 00:03:13 From Elder Abuse to Prevention: A Gerontologist's Journey
- 00:04:45 How the Longevity Movement Lost Its Way
- 00:10:40 Introducing JoySpan: The Missing Piece of Longevity
- 00:13:48 The Chocolate Cake Principle: When Worry Is Worse Than the Thing
- 00:16:59 What Funerals Teach Us About What Actually Matters
- 00:18:20 The AGE Framework: Three Questions to Ask Yourself Every Birthday
- 00:21:25 Why the Intangibles Matter More Than Metrics
- 00:26:42 Growing With Age, Not Growing Older
- 00:32:30 Pain Isn't a Mistake: Why We Need to Stop Vilifying Struggle
- 00:32:45 Finding the Gift in Every Hardship
- 00:47:20 The Third Leg of the Stool: Friendship as Longevity Medicine
- 00:52:30 How to Talk to Young People About Aging (And Why Quality of Life Is the Key)
- 00:57:08 Four Practices for a High-Quality Life at Any Age
- 00:57:56 Redefining What It Means to Be Old
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Simon is an unshakable optimist. He believes in a bright future and our ability to build it together.
Described as “a visionary thinker with a rare intellect,” Simon has devoted his professional life to help advance a vision of the world that does not yet exist; a world in which the vast majority of people wake up every single morning inspired, feel safe wherever they are and end the day fulfilled by the work
