Photograph by Gianluca Colla
Photograph by Gianluca Colla
Dan Buettner is an internationally recognized researcher, explorer, New York Times best-selling author, and National Geographic Fellow. He founded Blue Zones®, a company that puts the world’s best practices in longevity and well-being to work in people’s lives.
Buettner’s colossal research effort, funded in part by the National Geographic Expeditions Council and the National Institute on Aging, has taken him from Costa Rica to Italy to Japan and beyond. He has discovered that the way people interact with each other, nourish their bodies, and view their world impacts the extent and quality of their lives.
Buettner’s National Geographic cover story on longevity, “The Secrets of Living Longer,” was one of the magazine’s top-selling issues in history and a made him a finalist for a National Magazine Award. His books The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest (2008) and Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way (2010) appeared on many best-seller lists and were both featured on Oprah.
In 2009, Buettner and his partner, AARP, applied principles of The Blue Zones to Albert Lea, Minnesota, and successfully raised life expectancy and lowered health care costs by some 40 percent. He’s currently working with Healthways to implement the program in the Beach Cities of Los Angeles and the entire state of Iowa. Their strategy focuses on optimizing the health environment instead of individual behavior change. Writing in Newsweek, Harvard University’s Walter Willet called the results “stunning.”
Buettner has written for Outside, LIFE, and National Geographic magazines and has been profiled in People, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, The Washington Post, and USA Today. He also holds three world records in distance cycling and has won an Emmy Award for television production.
Popular Presentations
Blue Zones: Secrets of a Long Life
Traveling the globe to uncover the best strategies for longevity and happiness, Buettner identified Blue Zones—places where people have the greatest life expectancy and where more people reach age 100 than anywhere else. Dan debunks the most common myths and offers a science-backed, actionable plan to live longer, healthier lives.
Thrive: Unlocking the Secrets of Happiness
Science shows that where we live—not education, marital status, or wealth—is the biggest, controllable factor that determines our happiness. Working with Gallup, The World Values Survey, and the World Data Base on Happiness, Buettner researched happiness hot spots—places where people report the highest level of well-being or happiness—and distilled down the common denominators in each place. What can governments and individuals do to stack the deck to maximize happiness?
The Making of a Healthy City
Buettner, founder and director of the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project, created a “perfect storm” of health that transformed a city. He tells the fascinating story of how one typically obese American city of 18,000 adopted 28 evidence-based ways to change their environment to live longer and better. They got healthier without thinking about it.
Learn More About Dan
Blue Zones Happiest Places and True Happiness Test
New York Times Magazine: The Enchanted Island of Centenarians
National Geographic Adventure: The Longevity Experiment (June/July 2009)
NPR Interview: The Island Where People Live Longer
National Geographic: Longevity (November 2005)
USA Today: Town Sets Off on Healthy Path Practicing 4 Keys to Longevity
Listen to Radio Interview With Dan Buettner
Boyd Matson Interviews Dan for NG Weekend Radio Show
To find the path to long life and health, Dan Buettner and team study the world’s Blue Zones, communities whose elders live with vim and vigor to record-setting age. At TEDxTC, he shares the nine common diet and lifestyle habits that keep them spry past age 100.
Buettner talks about universal lifestyle behaviors that promote longevity, why they’re so hard to adopt in the U.S., and how one town undertook its own Blue Zone experiment, to great effect.
Dan Buettner offers universal strategies on how to best achieve that life balance we all seek.
Putting the lessons of Blue Zones and Thrive into practice, Dan Buettner sets out to make cities healthier.
Lessons for a longer life from the Blue Zones.
The town of Albert Lea, Minnesota, and its residents have gone through some serious changes in the past year. The town of 18,000 changed a lot, from sidewalks to attitudes, to put to use lessons learned by Dan Buettner as he explored areas of the world he calls Blue Zones, where the people live longer.
Thank you for your interest in the Speakers Bureau! Your request has been sent.
Oops! Something Went Wrong
To Submit a booking directly, please contact:
National Geographic Speakers Bureau
(202 775-7800)
speakers@ngs.org
| Speaker name |
|---|
No Result
Experience the wonder of deep-sea exploration with the man who found the Titanic.
Learn More
One of the first women photographers to work for National Geographic, Griffiths has photographed in more than a hundred countries during her illustrious career.
Learn More
An accomplished scholar of human origins and the discoverer of the “Lucy” skeleton.
Read MoreHire a National Geographic speaker for your event.
Meet Our SpeakersBook a distinctive setting for your event.
Learn About Our VenueBring an exhibition to your institution.
View Available ExhibitionsTouring floor maps bring memorable education to students.
See Our Maps
