Ageless Athlete - Longevity Insights From Adventure Sports Legends

Which is more dangerous — the most extreme type of climbing or sailing alone around the world?
It’s a topic that sparks real debate in this episode. Alpine climbing in the Himalaya. Ice routes where one mistake can be fatal. Free soloing rock faces. Crossing the Southern Ocean alone, where rescue might be days away. Turning off your phone and removing the last layer of backup.
But this conversation doesn’t stay in the realm of adrenaline.
Jerome Rand has sailed solo around the globe — 271 days and nearly 30,000 miles at sea. He’s also thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, spending months largely alone, learning what prolonged solitude does to a person.
What emerges in this episode isn’t a contest of danger.
It’s a deeper exploration of:
How much risk makes something feel like a “true” adventure
Whether modern technology strengthens or softens that edge
The psychology of immersion when there is no easy bailout
Why the ratio of suffering to joy might be 90/10 — and why that 10% keeps us coming back
Jerome reflects on identity, mentorship, and the subtle tension of aging as an adventurer — when you begin to sense that the horizon you once chased might not be the only measure of a life well-lived.
🔗 Connect with Jerome Rand
Website: https://www.jeromerand.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JeromeRand
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sailingintooblivion/
Jerome's Excellent Podcast: Sailing Into Oblivion

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If something you’ve heard here has stayed with you, made you smile, or helped you keep going, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show. 👉 https://buymeacoffee.com/agelessathlete
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1-2x a month, no spam. We share behind-the-scenes reflections, longevity tips, and athlete wisdom you won’t find anywhere else. You can sign up at https://www.agelessathlete.co/newsletter/ 📩

After years of closed borders, North Korea reopened to a small number of foreign visitors.
Johan Nylander entered as one of the first in years — to run the Pyongyang Marathon.
Johan is an award-winning Asia correspondent and author whose work has appeared in CNN, National Geographic, Forbes, Nikkei Asia, and Sweden’s leading business daily Dagens Industri. He has reported from the frontlines of the US–China trade war and written bestselling books including Shenzhen Superstars, The Epic Split, and The Wolf Economy Awakens. Colleagues have described him as “a guardian of free speech” and one of the most compelling storytellers covering Asia today.
At 52, he chose one of the most restricted starting lines on Earth.
The deeper story begins earlier. After years of high-stress reporting across Asia, Johan found himself physically depleted and mentally stretched thin. Watching the Hong Kong Marathon from the sidelines — barely able to run a kilometer — he made a decision. The following year, he ran his first marathon.
Training became structure.
 Structure became momentum.
Living between the mountains of Hong Kong’s outer islands and one of the world’s densest cities, he rebuilt himself mile by mile.
Then came North Korea.
Running through Pyongyang placed him inside a rare historical moment — moving through a country defined by control, discipline, and spectacle. The experience sharpened his understanding of movement, agency, and freedom.
In this episode, we explore:
Running the Pyongyang Marathon inside North Korea
Becoming one of the first foreign visitors back in the country
Starting endurance sport in his fifties
Rebuilding resilience after burnout
Covering geopolitics while cultivating personal freedom
Johan has spent his career documenting global power.
In North Korea, he stepped onto a different kind of frontline — one measured in miles.

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🚀 Love the show? Here’s how to support it
If something you’ve heard here has stayed with you, made you smile, or helped you keep going, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show. 👉 https://buymeacoffee.com/agelessathlete
📰 Subscribe to the Ageless Athlete newsletter !
1-2x a month, no spam. We share behind-the-scenes reflections, longevity tips, and athlete wisdom you won’t find anywhere else. You can sign up at https://www.agelessathlete.co/newsletter/ 📩

This episode brings together moments from conversations recorded throughout 2025 with athletes who have spent decades working inside uncertainty — in the mountains, on open water, on the road, and in daily training.
What connects these excerpts is more than accomplishment or outcome. It’s how each person has learned to operate when conditions narrow, when simplicity, judgment, and restraint matter more than force.
Every clip comes from a full-length episode in the Ageless Athlete back catalog. Below is a guide to the original conversations featured in this collection.
Episodes Featured
Sonnie Trotter
Breaking large, intimidating goals into something workable through structure, patience, and preparation.
 👉 Full episode: Going All In — Reverse-Engineer the Goals You Will Risk Everything For
📅 September 17, 2025
Judi Oyama
Continuing to show up into her sixties, carrying identity, history, and independence into a sport that never made space easily.
 👉 Full episode: From Teenage Skate Rebel to World Champion at 65 — How Judi Oyama Keeps Winning
📅 August 12, 2025
Andy Donaldson
Staying present in open water when progress disappears and plans dissolve.
 👉 Full episode: The Deep End: Cold Oceans, the Edge of the Map, and the Mind’s Breaking Point
📅 July 24, 2025
Kitty Calhoun
Voluntary simplicity, living out of a car, and learning how focus and endurance feed each other in the mountains.
 👉 Full episode: From the Deep South to the Himalaya — How Discipline Shapes a Life
📅 October 21, 2025
Jamie Whitmore
Rebuilding life and identity through cancer, recovery, and service — choosing who to be again and again.
 👉 Full episode: When a World Champion’s Body Betrayed Her — And What Came Next
📅 July 4, 2025
Andy McVittie
Understanding the body, rebuilding trust, and why longevity starts with clarity rather than intensity.
 👉 Full episode: The Movement Optimist Returns: Strong Hips, Stable Ankles, Happy Feet — Extending Performance and Moving Without Fear
📅 August 6, 2025
Susan Marie Conrad
Extended solitude, judgment, and patience while paddling alone through remote Alaska.
 👉 Full episode: Whales, Bears, and the Will to Return — Lessons in Survival From Two Solo Voyages Through Alaska
📅 August 20, 2025
Jim Donini
Decades of perspective on partnership, restraint, and why coming home matters more than summits.
 👉 Full episode: Survival Is Not Assured: An 82-Year-Old Alpinist Who Chooses The Hardest Lines
📅 August 27, 2025
Joan Beyerlein & Doug Beyerlein
Curiosity, consistency, and staying engaged into their seventies without chasing youth.
 👉 Full episode: Out of the Box at 75 — Doug and Joan Changed Their Story And Kept Winning Races
📅 September 23, 2025
If a particular excerpt stays with you, the complete conversations are available in the Ageless Athlete bac

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🚀 Love the show? Here’s how to support it
If something you’ve heard here has stayed with you, made you smile, or helped you keep going, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show. 👉 https://buymeacoffee.com/agelessathlete
📰 Subscribe to the Ageless Athlete newsletter !
1-2x a month, no spam. We share behind-the-scenes reflections, longevity tips, and athlete wisdom you won’t find anywhere else. You can sign up at https://www.agelessathlete.co/newsletter/ 📩

What if the story you’ve been told about aging joints isn’t the whole story?
In this episode of Ageless Athlete, I speak with orthopedic surgeon and researcher Dr. Kevin Stone about what’s recently changed in orthopedics — especially for athletes over 40 who’ve been told to slow down, live with pain, or prepare for joint replacement.
Dr. Stone shares how modern approaches are shifting from simply removing damaged tissue to repairing, replacing, or regenerating it, and why many people referred for total knee replacement may actually have other options. We talk about cartilage, arthritis, biologic repair, precision surgery, and what long-term outcomes really look like when patients are tracked over decades.
This is not a conversation about miracle cures. It’s about understanding what’s possible today, how to ask better questions, and how athletes can make clearer decisions about longevity, movement, and return to sport.
In this episode:
Why arthritis and “wear and tear” isn’t always the end of the story
When cartilage can be repaired or regrown
Biologic repair vs. partial and total joint replacement
How precision and robotics are changing return-to-sport expectations
How one athlete was able to run across America on repaired knees
Resources:
Play Forever by Dr. Kevin Stone
Stone Clinic & Stone Research — clinical care and long-term outcomes research discussed in the episode
This episode is about expanding the conversation — so aging athletes can keep playing the long game.

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🚀 Love the show? Here’s how to support it
If something you’ve heard here has stayed with you, made you smile, or helped you keep going, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show. 👉 https://buymeacoffee.com/agelessathlete
📰 Subscribe to the Ageless Athlete newsletter !
1-2x a month, no spam. We share behind-the-scenes reflections, longevity tips, and athlete wisdom you won’t find anywhere else. You can sign up at https://www.agelessathlete.co/newsletter/ 📩

At 62, David Green did something radical. He stopped outsourcing his health to protocols and supplements—and started paying closer attention to how his body actually responded.
What followed wasn’t decline. It was clarity.
In this conversation, David shares why stepping away from supplements helped him simplify his training, sharpen his instincts, and ultimately find his best shape—strong enough to run across Europe in his sixties.
David has spent decades in endurance sport and long-form adventure, where consistency matters more than hacks and where the body reveals its truth slowly, over time. Through experimentation and patience, he learned that progress often comes not from adding more, but from removing what no longer serves.
We explore:
Why David chose to step away from supplements—and what changed when he did
How simplifying nutrition helped him train with more clarity and confidence at 62
Why long-form adventures demand trust over optimization
The difference between listening to your body and chasing certainty
How restraint, not intensity, often unlocks longevity
What running across Europe taught him about resilience, recovery, and self-belief
David also reflects on aging, judgment, and decision-making under physical stress—and why the athletes who last longest learn to work with their bodies instead of constantly trying to override them.
This episode isn’t anti-supplement.
 It’s about agency—about knowing what you’re taking, why you’re taking it, and when it might be time to let your own experience lead.
Stay to the end for David’s reflections on intuition, adaptability, and what becomes possible when you stop trying to shortcut the process.
About David Green
David Green is an endurance athlete, retired entrepreneur, and author of Lucky: A True Story, a book I read cover to cover and  strongly recommend. He documents his long-form running projects and writing at davidgreen.run, where he shares trip journals, interviews, and reflections from the road.
Recent supporters for the show via Buy Me A Coffee include: Chits, Himalayanadventurer, Deepak Karnwal, Margit, Geoff Barstow, Someone, Loree Bolin, Mandy Hostetler, Amit Verma, and Bob Becker. Thank you!

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🚀 Love the show? Here’s how to support it
If something you’ve heard here has stayed with you, made you smile, or helped you keep going, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show. 👉 https://buymeacoffee.com/agelessathlete
📰 Subscribe to the Ageless Athlete newsletter !
1-2x a month, no spam. We share behind-the-scenes reflections, longevity tips, and athlete wisdom you won’t find anywhere else. You can sign up at https://www.agelessathlete.co/newsletter/ 📩