
AGEIST
The AGEIST podcast is where we rewrite life after 50. Hosted by David Stewart, founder of AGEIST and Super Age, we talk with extraordinary people—scientists, creatives, and thinkers—about living vibrantly in your 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond. From longevity science to emotional well-being, fitness to purpose, we explore the tools and mindsets that help us stay curious, energized, and deeply engaged with life. This isn’t about aging gracefully—it’s about living boldly.
Latest episodes

Dec 6, 2023 • 1h 53min
Using AI to Change the Face of Longevity with Greg Macpherson
In this show, we learn that incredibly high powered AI is now being used in human nutraceutical research, specially targeting the 9 hallmarks of aging. Our guest Greg Macpherson, CEO of SRW Labs in New Zealand, joins us this week to share all about how automated labs are making unprecedented progress in identifying and creating compounds that may solve human longevity. By automating many of the tedious testing and refinement processes, AI labs are able to work with extreme efficiency, which translates to bringing meaningful longevity products to the public with extraordinary speed. We are very excited to learn about this from Greg, and to hear that we could be expecting to see some new targeted products hitting the market by summer 2024. What kind of SuperAger are you? Take the SuperAge Quiz and find out! (visit: ageist.com/quiz)Don’t forget to watch this week’s episode of “Since You Asked” a new Q&A show from AGEIST. Thanks to our sponsors:InsideTracker – the dashboard to your Inner Health. Listeners get 20% off on all products at InsideTracker.com/AGEIST.Timeline Nutrition — our favorite supplement for cell support and mitochondrial function. Listeners receive 10% off your first order of Mitopure with code AGEIST at TimelineNutrition.com/ageist.LMNT Electrolytes — our favorite electrolytes for optimal hydration. Listeners receive a free 8-serving sample pack with their purchase at DrinkLMNT.com/AGEIST.Key Moments“So we are going to get to a stage where we get to have a DNA test before we start taking medicine and you know there may be 10 drugs on the shelf that are appropriate for whatever condition that's being treated and they'll select the one that's best for you. But also they'll be able to look at it and go, okay, look, there's a high chance, given your genetic makeup, that these are going to be a problem.”“There are animals out there that live for 200 years like the bowhead whale. They are mammals just like us, so there's no reason that we can't learn from whatever genetic hacks that they've got which mean that they live longer. And then, of course, the Greenland shark lives for 500 years. So these are animals. We can learn from them, and once we do, then all bets are off as to what kind of longevity we're going to see.“Of course it's not the longevity that we think of today. We're going to be talking about bodies aged 30 to 40 and having those bodies for 200 years, which is a little outside a frame of reference right now. But future humans are going to go ‘golly, those poor people back then who only got to live for 80 years and only 40 years in good health.’”“In 3-5 years, there will be a product to slow or stop the aging clock”“You know, unfortunately, sugar is cheap and it's tasty and it's nice and we all love it. So there's just a huge industry around it, but it's not serving us well, and now we understand that, just like we went through taxing tobacco, maybe we've got to do the same just to nudge the population away from it and educate people how bad it is for us.”Connect with GregProfile PieceSay hi to the AGEIST team!

Nov 28, 2023 • 58min
The Everyday Performance Mindset with Dr. Lauren Loberg
We are very excited to have sports and performance psychologist Dr. Lauren Loberg on the show this week to ruminate on the intersection of everyday life and this idea of a “performance mindset.” Everyone wants to do their best, and using insights from working with the world’s top athletes (think: NFL stars and pro skiers like Mikaela Shiffrin), Dr. Loberg shares her tips on how we can implement high performance mental strategies into our daily lives. Together, we discuss anxiety, flow state, and the value of mental preparedness. What kind of SuperAger are you? Check the SuperAge Quiz and find out! (visit: ageist.com/quiz)Don’t forget to watch this week’s episode of “Since You Asked” a new Q&A show from AGEISTThanks to our sponsors:InsideTracker – the dashboard to your Inner Health. Listeners get 20% off on all products at InsideTracker.com/AGEIST.DIVI – Take back control of your hair and scalp health, and do it with Divi's clean, science-backed ingredients. Listeners get 20% off your first Divi order at diviofficial.com/AGEIST or enter code "AGEIST" at checkout.Key Moments“If someone comes to you and says I want to be fit this summer, what does that mean? What exactly does that mean? Or ‘I want to be more present.’ Well, what does that mean for you? What does that look like? Like, what's the action? Because when people provide us with these really arbitrary things and sometimes they do, they can keep judging themselves on it because there's no measurement to it. Does that make sense?”“I think that everyone can be mentally tough, but it's also a thing that takes time. Remember that some of the things you struggle with mentally, might stem from a pattern that you've had for 50 years. Putting this in the context of sports, if you tried to change your golf swing or basketball shot after 50 years of playing, would you be able to fix it in five tries? No. The same goes for mental toughness.”“You can kind of learn how to embrace fear, the fear of when it becomes paralyzing. That's the part that you have to talk through.”Connect with LaurenPyramid PerformanceAbout LaurenContactSay hi to the AGEIST team!

Nov 22, 2023 • 1h 5min
Kaatsu: A Japanese Technique to Effortlessly Gain Muscle and Improve Your Heart
Is it possible to build muscle without lifting weights? Can we tone our facial muscles? Is it possible to improve our cardiovascular system with almost no effort? Today, we sit down with former USA swim coach and Kaatsu CEO Steven Munatones. He tells us all about his decades-long journey of discovery and tutelage under Dr. Yoshiaki Sato in Tokyo, wherein he studied the myriad benefits of Japanese Kaatsu bands and developed a plan to introduce this technology to the world. Huge amounts of research out of Japan are showing that one can maintain strength and vitality as they age, improve overall vascular function, rehabilitate injuries all with zero risk of injury.What kind of SuperAger are you? Check the SuperAge Quiz and find out! (visit: ageist.com/quiz)Thanks to our sponsors:Timeline Nutrition — our favorite supplement for cell support and mitochondrial function. Listeners receive 10% off your first order of Mitopure with code AGEIST at TimelineNutrition.com/ageist. LMNT Electrolytes — our favorite electrolytes for optimal hydration. Listeners receive a free 8-serving sample pack with their purchase at DrinkLMNT.com/AGEIST.InsideTracker – the dashboard to your Inner Health. Listeners get 20% off on all products at InsideTracker.com/AGEIST.Key Moments“Why would someone [restrict blood flow]? They do it for a variety of reasons, and there's a lot of literature out there by researchers, scientists, physicians, and physical therapists, and you want to do this mostly to build muscle. Building muscle helps if you're injured, maybe you had a surgery on your knee, maybe you broke your arm. It helps reduce atrophy. And so part of the recovery process is rebuilding that muscle loss. When you use BFR, you actually reduce the amount of muscle atrophy that you get, so your body will heal itself and then you go through a shorter recovery period because you're not losing as much muscle mass.”“Fundamentally, what's happening is a bit of hypoxia or lack of oxygen in the muscle. If you do movement as simple as bicep curls. It could be stretching, it can be walking, whatever you want to do that leads to that uncomfortable feeling you have when you work out. That lactate sends a signal through your central nervous system up to your brain. And then the brain thinks that you are doing something very vigorous, something very intense. And when the brain receives that signal again, the brain does not know if you're lifting heavy weight or you're just doing BFR. So it reacts as it naturally does and produces growth hormones amongst other metabolites, which flow through our vascular system and promote muscle growth”“The Japanese found that when you engorged the limbs and blood and you do slight movement, this is the most effective way to trigger those signals up to the brain and then release a variety of hormones.”Connect with StevenKaatsuLinkedInBook: Open Water SwimmingSay hi to the AGEIST team!

Nov 15, 2023 • 57min
Defining the Hero: Reflections on Responsibility, Community, and Compassion with Author Chris McDougall
This week, we host Chris McDougall, runner, reporter, and author of Born to Run, on the show to discuss his wide-ranging life experience. His concept of the hero is that they are responsible for others, that we humans are designed to be cooperative, that we are at our best when we are thoughtful and caring. In it all, it is important that we seek out fun. From learning from Mexico’s Rarámuri ultrarunners, to training a mistreated donkey to join him in competing in the 29-mile Pack Burro race in the Rockies, Chris’ life has been anything but average. Now living on Oahu, Hawaii, the 61 year-old continues to push himself to uncover stories, pick up new hobbies, and reflect on how his past informs his present day outlook on health, wellness, and keys to longevity.What kind of SuperAger are you? Check the SuperAge Quiz and find out! (visit: ageist.com/quiz)Thanks to our sponsors:InsideTracker – the dashboard to your Inner Health. Listeners get 20% off on all products at InsideTracker.com/AGEIST.SRW Labs – Science Research Wellness — improve your cellular health. Listeners receive 20% of all products with code AGEIST20 at SRW.co. DIVI – Take back control of your hair and scalp health, and do it with Divi's clean, science-backed ingredients. Listeners get 20% off your first Divi order at diviofficial.com/AGEIST or enter code "AGEIST" at checkout.Key Moments“I think what bothers me the most–and this applies in every aspect of our lives–is this sad human arrogance that we can outthink two million years of evolution. Natural selection has created this unbelievably complex self-healing device.”“I spent a lot of time on the Greek island of Crete looking at World War II resistance fighters. Crete was one place that had a sensational story about average citizens who rose up to resist the German occupation. Again, these are not trained soldiers, these are just citizens who overnight, literally from one week to the next, went from being citizens into being military operatives against the most formidable army on the planet. And so my question was well, how do you do that physically? How do you turn yourself into a super soldier? And one of the things I looked at was diet.”“You know one thing when you look at the human animal, there are two things that we are really good at. We are extraordinarily adaptive–we're very creative and ingenious. But secondly, we're extraordinarily cooperative. What is the internet all about? It's about trading stuff, trading images, trading thoughts, trading ideas. We are probably the most cooperative animal on the planet and we tend to forget that sometimes because, particularly in America and particularly in this era in America, we've come across this very sad notion. You know you gotta be tough. You know you gotta close the borders, you gotta be strong, you gotta crush this guy, you gotta win, win, win. That's not who human animals are. You know human animals throughout history have coexisted and have shared and cooperated. And if you look at most ancestral cultures, they were not about accumulation and acquisition and conquering. They were about coexistence, cooperation and learning from each other.“Connect with ChrisBorn to RunWebsiteContactSay hi to the AGEIST team!

Nov 8, 2023 • 52min
Age-Proofing Your Brain: Insights from Dr. Marc Milstein
What are the actions we can take to maintain our long-term brain health? This week, we discuss this and more with Dr. Marc Milstein, author of The Age-Proof Brain. It turns out that even small behavioral changes, such as eating less processed foods and regularly challenging yourself with activities like playing an instrument will support overall brain fitness and neuroplasticity. Furthermore, Dr. Marc also breaks down the surprising link between gut and brain health. What kind of SuperAger are you? Take our quiz today and find out! Visit: ageist.com/quizThank you to our sponsors: Timeline Nutrition — our favorite supplement for cell support and mitochondrial function. Listeners receive 10% off your first order of Mitopure with code AGEIST at TimelineNutrition.com/ageist. InsideTracker – the dashboard to your Inner Health. Listeners get 20% off on all products at InsideTracker.com/AGEIST.LMNT Electrolytes — our favorite electrolytes for optimal hydration. Listeners receive a free 8-serving sample pack with their purchase at DrinkLMNT.com/AGEIST.Key Moments: “Anything that is processed is likely to feed bad bacteria. These bacteria have been around much longer than us, and so the things that they like to eat are the things that were around much longer than us, long before we got here, and the bad bacteria tend to feed on the things that we created.”“There's definitely foods that are great for brain health, but it's really about variety and we really have evidence that it's a synergistic relationship. It's not one food item that is just like this brain-boosting magic food. It's how the foods work together and that's why we believe that supplements can be beneficial, but they're not in many cases as beneficial as dietary changes, because what's in the food works together with other nutrients.”“So what we see is that it's not about this stress-free lifestyle. Our brain is like a car, I like to say, and if you don't drive it, it falls apart, and if you over drive it, it falls apart. Stress is a burst of cortisol. Say I want to get something done. There's a challenge, I want to tackle something. All those moments of stress are actually good for our brain because they release cortisol and there's a part of our brain called the hippocampus which is really important for memory, and a squirt of cortisol in a moment of stress actually helps the hippocampus stay strong.”Get in Touch with Dr. MarcThe Age-Proof BrainWebsiteContactSay hi to the AGEIST team!

Nov 1, 2023 • 1h 6min
Democratizing Wellness with Dr. Rich Joseph
This week, we chat with Dr. Rich Joseph, the Chief Medical Officer at Restore Hyper Wellness, founder of vim Medicine, and co-founder of Vital CxNs. David made ample use of the Restore facilities during his recovery from knee surgery, and we like how their business helps to make treatments like hyperbaric oxygen therapy, red light therapy, IV drips, and others accessible to the public. During our conversation, Rich shares his view on the literature supporting up-and-coming therapy treatments, the importance of challenging oneself at any age, biomarkers, and his nonprofit work with underserved populations in Boston. What kind of SuperAger are you? Take our quiz today and find out! Visit: ageist.com/quizThank you to our sponsors: DIVI – Take back control of your hair and scalp health, and do it with Divi's clean, science-backed ingredients. Listeners get 20% off your first Divi order at diviofficial.com/AGEIST or enter code "AGEIST" at checkout.InsideTracker – the dashboard to your Inner Health. Listeners get 20% off on all products at InsideTracker.com/AGEIST.LMNT Electrolytes — our favorite electrolytes for optimal hydration. Listeners receive a free 8-serving sample pack with their purchase at DrinkLMNT.com/AGEIST. “My whole background is walking this fine line between the traditional medical system and the wellness industry. I was a personal trainer for a long time and that was my first foray into health and wellness before becoming a doctor. Now I help bridge the gap between these two sides. I think we have to be humble, the more I learn, the less I know about this stuff. Human health and our biology is very complicated, and yet there’s unfortunately still this imperative to like, make claims and to be bold in order to get people's attention.”“This stuff is nuanced and we hope that people who really take their health seriously also have the responsibility of helping to advance the data and dig into the science.”“How do you push the body into stress right in a way that's adaptive for the body? And that's what cold therapy does, it's what heat therapy does. This is sort of “perturbing” our homeostasis so that the body becomes more adaptive over time, and is able to better regulate itself.”“Entropy is working on us all the time and so you have to push back against that and that's uncomfortable. That means welcoming and inviting discomfort into your life and to your day and that, to your point, is sort of against everything that we're sold right now and what we're taught to believe is best.”Get in Touch with Dr. JosephRestore Hyper Wellnessvim Performance MedicineVital CxNsSay hi to the AGEIST team!

Oct 25, 2023 • 57min
Long Term Knee Health: Staying Nimble and Mobile with Orthopedist Dr. Alan Reznik
This week, we are joined by Alan Reznik, MD.MBA FAAOS, an extremely accomplished orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine who literally wrote the book on knee and shoulder health. Pulling from his work: The Knee and Shoulder Handbook, Dr. Reznik shares his expertise surrounding joint surgery, treatment protocols, long-term care, and more with us– breaking complex concepts down to make them accessible for all of us. For David, this was a great opportunity to get more insight into a surgeon’s thought process and key tips to help speed up his recovery What kind of SuperAger are you? Take our quiz today and find out!Thank you to our sponsors: Timeline Nutrition — our favorite supplement for cell support and mitochondrial function. Listeners receive 10% of your first order of Mitopure with code AGEIST at TimelineNutrition.com/ageist. DIVI – Take back control of your hair and scalp health, and do it with Divi's clean, science-backed ingredients. Listeners get 20% off your first Divi order at diviofficial.com/AGEIST or enter code "AGEIST" at checkout. Ned Mellö Magnesium — essential supplement to improve sleep, reduce stress, increase energy, and more. Use code “AGEIST” for 15% off at helloned.com/AGEISTKey Moments“The knee is very smart. It does two things when it's mad, it makes fluid, or it hurts, or both. In fact, all of your joints are always making a little bit of fluid. When there’s a lot of fluid in the knee, something's typically wrong. That's a tip, if my knees are very swollen, something is off.”“I could take a plug, a round plug of cartilage from someplace else in your knee that you need less and move it to a place where you need it more, just like a hair transplant."“Once you put a metal plate and a plastic liner on the bone, it will wear at a certain rate. Now the newer materials are very, very good and they wear very slowly. The older materials wore much faster. If you don't have a super active lifestyle, you're not a marathon runner and you put it in, it could be good for 20 or 25 years.”Connect with Dr. ReznikThe Knee and Shoulder HandbookConnecticut Orthopedics PageIntro VideoSay hi to the AGEIST team!

Oct 17, 2023 • 39min
Surgery Recovery Techniques: What Worked For Me At Age 64 with David Stewart
This week, David breaks down the ins and outs of his recent knee surgery–from dealing with insurance, to what to ask your surgeon, to the best strategies for choosing a physical therapist. Today, at 7 weeks post-op, he has almost fully returned to physical activity with the help of intensive physical therapy, regular hyperbaric oxygen therapy sessions, a clean diet, and more. Listen in to hear about how recovery modalities align with protein intake, catabolic vs metabolic states, Katsu therapy, vitamin D, along with additional top-level insights. Thank you to our sponsors: LMNT – our favorite electrolytes for optimal hydration. Listeners receive a free 8-serving sample pack with their purchase at DrinkLMNT.com/AGEIST. InsideTracker — the dashboard to your Inner Health. Listeners get 20% off on all products at InsideTracker.com/AGEIST.SRW Labs – Science Research Wellness — improve your cellular health. Listeners receive 20% off all products with code AGEIST20 at SRW.co. Key Moments“He said first order of business, we want to reduce your time in the catabolic state as much as we can, and try to keep you anabolic if possible. How do we do that? Clean diet.”“He says to me this is perceived instability. So your brain thinks the knee is unstable because you have this irritation in your meniscus. But your knee is stable.”“So they reduce the recovery time by 50%. I am not an elite athlete. However, this “cutting down recovery time” sounded really good and so I had maybe an hour-long conversation with Scott about what to do.”Say hi to the AGEIST team!

Oct 10, 2023 • 46min
Discovering A Chronic Pain Reset with Dr. Afton Hasset
Is chronic pain just a function of our brains? If so, how do we change our perception of pain? Today, we speak with licensed clinical psychiatrist and pain researcher Dr. Afton Hasset. Throughout her career, Afton has delved into the connections between the brain, chronic pain, physical activity, and emotion. She remains at the forefront of her field, and in our conversation she shares several of her favorite takeaways from her most recent book with us. Those of us intimately familiar with chronic pain know just how severely it can impact quality of life and happiness. With that in mind, join us to learn new, game-changing pain management strategies and therapies. What kind of SuperAger are you? Take our quiz today and find out!Visit ageist.com/quiz – Dr. Afton is a Fox!Thank you to our sponsors: Ned Mellö Magnesium — essential supplement to improve sleep, reduce stress, increase energy, and more. Use code “AGEIST” for 15% off at helloned.com/AGEISTInsideTracker – the dashboard to your Inner Health. Listeners get 20% off on all products at InsideTracker.com/AGEIST.Timeline Nutrition — our favorite supplement for cell support and mitochondrial function. Listeners receive 10% off your first order of Mitopure with code AGEIST at TimelineNutrition.com/ageist. Key Moments“A little bit of pain is proper. What happens, though, is pain can change from being something like a stimulus response, meaning that you burn your finger and you experience pain. It can turn into something that's not just pain experienced by a burning finger and the brain, sometimes brain actually creates the experience of pain.”“What we see in chronic pain is that the default mode network is talking way too much to another network called the salience network, which is a network that says, hey, pay attention, this is really something big, watch out. And so these two networks are over connected. And so what we look for sometimes in interventions is does the treatment actually start disentangling these two networks?”“So when we define pain, pain is a sensory, it's an emotional and it's a cognitive, for it's a thought derived process. Pain exists because there is this awareness of it. So when people are anesthetized, you don't feel pain.”About Dr. Afton Hasset:Chronic Pain Reset: 30 Days of Activities, Practices, and Skills to Help You ThriveLinkedInBioSay hi to the AGEIST team!

Oct 2, 2023 • 44min
The Arrival of A Revolutionary Brain Test with Elli Kaplan
This week, we welcome Elli Kaplan, co-founder of Neurotrack onto the show. Her company is dedicated to the detection and management of cognitive health. Elli and I chat all about the difference between cognition and IQ exams, highlighting the importance of tests like hers in identifying temporary or long-term cognitive changes ranging from overmedication to age-related mental decline. Bonus: we kick the episode off with AGEIST’s infamous Tinder origin story. What kind of SuperAger are you? Take our quiz today and find out!visit: ageist.com/quizThank you to our sponsors: DIVI – Take back control of your hair and scalp health, and do it with Divi's clean, science-backed ingredients. Listeners get 20% off your first Divi order at diviofficial.com/AGEIST or enter code "AGEIST" at checkout. InsideTracker – the dashboard to your Inner Health. Listeners get 20% off on all products at InsideTracker.com/AGEIST.LMNT – our favorite electrolytes for optimal hydration. Listeners receive a free 8-serving sample pack with their purchase at DrinkLMNT.com/AGEIST. Key Moments“This is not an IQ test, this is a cognitive function test and everybody should want to understand how their brain is functioning and if there are issues that you could then fix–and that may be. As you point out, it may be that someone is on too many medications that are conflicting with each other. It may also be that they are eating fried food seven days a week, are not sleeping, and never exercise.”“You know, historically we haven't had good drugs for, or even good supplements, from a treatment perspective, for cognitive issues. I think that is also starting to change, at least on the lifestyle side. We know that there's a tremendous number of things that you can do to help your brain function.”Get in Touch with Elli Kaplan:NeurotrackLinkedInSay hi to the AGEIST team!
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.