Dan Buettner is an American explorer, author, journalist, educator and producer. He is famous for the Blue Zones project which combines the best methods in longevity from different cultures to help people to live the longest and healthiest lives.
Buettner is also known as a holder of three Guinness World Records in endurance cycling.
Background
Dan Buettner was born on June 18, 1960, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. He is a son of Roger and Dolly Buettner.
Dan’s parents were avid travelers and the lovers of a healthy lifestyle. So, they developed that passion in their four boys, including Dan who adopted the interest in outdoor activities and traveling.
Education
Dan Buettner studied at the University of Saint Thomas in Minnesota. He graduated in 1983.
Career
The start of Dan Buettner’s career can be counted from the work at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. where he came in the early 1980s. While there, he took part at the organization of the National Public Radio’s Celebrity Croquet Tournament along with the Washington Post columnist Remar Sutton and the journalist George Plimpton. It was a fund-raising project.
In 1986, accompanied by his brother Steve, Buettner began the first of his record-setting bicycle expeditions. The one-year tour was entitled ‘Americastrek’ and was followed at the beginning of the new decade by ‘Sovietrek’ and ‘AfricaTrek’. A couple of the latter trips was the subject matters of Buettner’s books ‘Sovietrek’ and ‘Africatrek: A Journey by Bicycle through Africa’. In addition, ‘Africatrek’ was also featured in the PBS documentary.
By the middle of the 1990s, Dan Buettner developed his exploration tours. He enlarged the team of his MayaQuest with many online experts who helped to explore the mystery of the 9th century Maya Collapse. The project was later used by the Hamline University’s Center for Global Environmental Education for educational purposes. In 1995, the explorer established Earthtreks, Inc. to control his odysseys. Although the company was purchased by the Classroom Connect two years later, Buettner has continued to be the leader of the expeditions till 2002. The destinations of the period included the Galapagos Islands, the Silk Road, the Anasazi and Western Civilization.
The new idea of Dan Buettner consisted of the research of longevity hotspots. To realize the project, he first gained support of National Geographic, then contacted with the head of the Center on Aging at the University of Minnesota Robert Kane who provided the researcher with the grant and the team of specialists from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in Washington, D. C. The first trips to Sardinia, Italy, Okinawa, Japan and Monterrey, Nuevo Leon and Loma Linda, California were initiated in 2003. Blue Zones LLC was born.
In a couple of years, Buettner shared the results of the explorations in the article ‘Secrets of Long Life’ which appeared in the November edition of National Geographic Magazine. The story became a magazine’s third bestseller. In collaboration with Dr. Michel Poulain and a demographer, Dr. Luis Rosero-Bixby, the specialist in the region of Costa Rica, Buettner and his team then explored the fourth longevity hotspot in the Nicoya Peninsula in 2006. Two years later, the same task was done for the Greek Island of Ikaria.
The success of the project pushed Buettner to test his Blue Zones principles on an American place, Albert Lea, Minnesota. The experiment led to a significant decrease in inhabitants’ healthcare problems. With the support of National Geographic Books, all the favorable outcomes of the project were united in a 2008 book ‘The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest’. Due to the New York Times Best Seller, Buettner was invited to The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Dr. Oz Show and Anderson Cooper 360.
Other writing dedicated to the Blue Zones researches, ‘Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way’, appeared in a couple of years. The accent was made on the statistical methods to define the happiest areas on Earth. In 2015, the explorer published ‘The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World's Healthiest People’ featuring Ikaria (in Greece), Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Loma Linda (California), and Costa Rica as the areas with the best longevity. The book also became the New York Times Best Seller.
To apply Blue Zones Program for different American communities, workplaces and universities, Dan Buettner has collaborated and continues to collaborate with various municipal governments, large employers, and health improvement companies, including Healthways, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield. As a public speaker, he has challenged young people and adults to take risks, set goals, and realize their dreams through his lectures and writings.
Views
Quotations:
"Knowing why we get up in the morning is one of the great antidotes to the downs in life."
"Eat your vegetables, have a positive outlook, be kind to people, and smile."
"If you’re around people who are more positive in general, you get more positive. On the other hand, when you’re unhappy and you’re bitching all the time, you’re not just affecting yourself, you’re affecting other people, too, and you’re also teaching them about how to act or not act."
"The more things for which you develop a fondness the richer the life you live."
"Materialistic people, that is, are seldom the happiest people because they want too much."
"Genuinely happy people do not just sit around being content. They make things happen. They pursue new understandings, seek new achievements, and control their thoughts and feelings."
"A stranger is a friend I haven't met yet."
"A doctor may know more than a peasant, but a peasant and a doctor know more together."
"No one thing explains longevity in the Blue Zones. It’s really an interconnected web of factors—including what we eat, our social network, daily rituals, physical environment, and sense of purpose—that propels us forward and gives life meaning."
"And as we shall see in forthcoming chapters, purpose and love are essential ingredients in all Blue Zone recipes for longevity."
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"[Buettner’s] style is livelier than National Geographic ... and there’s a good sense of the grind that such a journey can be.” Roger Sutton, editor