Tracy McCubbin helps others declutter for a living. As we get older, many people find it hard to let go of stuff they've accumulated over the decades. But letting go is often a transformational experience. Tracy, through her Los Angeles-based company, dClutterfly, helps retirees prioritize essential items for the next phase in their lives, and advises the elderly on parting ways with items that simply no longer add value to their days. In her upcoming book, The Clutter Code, Tracy describes the ...
Aug 13, 2018•34 min•Ep. 70
Suzi Grant personifies the art of growing old with purpose and a huge sense of fun. At 68 she is an Instagram star, a successful blogger and poster girl for healthy aging. A formerly hard-drinking, chain-smoking radio and TV journalist, Suzi traded her unhealthy habits for an alternative way of living as a nutritionist and writer. Based in Brighton in the UK, she blogs at Alternative Ageing and is the author of several books. In this LLAMA podcast interview with Peter Bowes, she explains the ins...
Jul 30, 2018•50 min•Ep. 69
Spartan Races have become a worldwide phenomenon. Weekend warriors and elite, endurance athletes go into battle on military-style obstacle courses, mostly just for the fun of it. The Spartan Race is the brainchild of Joe De Sena, a former Wall Street trader who was so bothered by his sedentary lifestyle, that he gave up his lucrative career to spend more time outside. He quickly became addicted to adventure, and activity that worked his body to exhaustion. An entrepreneur from an early age, Joe ...
Jul 16, 2018•43 min•Ep. 68
Monthly menstrual cycles provide hormones a woman’s body needs regularly to stay healthy and keep her immune system strong. But what happens when that process is interrupted? Scientist, author and naturopathic doctor, Lara Briden believes hormonal birth control can have tremendous effects on the body's longterm health and ability regularly to produce hormones like estrogen and progesterone. Halting the body's natural monthly menstrual cycle with hormones is akin to castration, Lara believes. In ...
Jul 11, 2018•35 min•Ep. 67
Dr. Daniel Amen is a polarizing figure. He is hugely popular, with a string of successful clinics, books and TV shows - but derided by some of his professional peers. The founder of mental and physical health centers, Amen Clinics, he believes traditional psychiatry is missing an important component. Dr. Amen says many psychiatrists overlook an extremely important tool of thorough brain analysis. A double board-certified psychiatrist and clinical neuroscientist, he uses single-photon emission co...
Jul 02, 2018•45 min•Ep. 66
Imagine being able to build as much muscle in one 12-minute workout as during four, hour-long sessions; or forgoing months of physical therapy for an injury treatment plan lasting just a few days. Enter the world of biohacking and Bulletproof Labs in Santa Monica, California. The machines inside the futuristic fitness and healthcare center may look like something out of a science fiction film, but they were built, according to CEO Martin Tobias, around the practical concept of becoming as health...
Jun 18, 2018•52 min•Ep. 65
Data, spreadsheets and graphs galore. Those of us with a nerdy obsession for analyzing our own health information have long been searching for a streamlined platform to keep track of our numbers. David Korsunsky appears to have found the solution. When he took his health into his own hands, frustrated by persistent and chronic stress-related issues, he stumbled across a life-changing idea. Believing he needed a more complete picture of his medical health, David pasted lab test results from three...
Jun 11, 2018•34 min•Ep. 64
A new documentary film focusing on the “intimate memories and inspiring personal histories” of some remarkable older adults, recently premiered in California. Lives Well Lived features the stories of forty people who share their wit and wisdom with remarkable candor. Filmmaker Sky Bergman, a professor of photography and video at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, says she was inspired to make the film by her Italian grandmother, who still enjoyed exercising and cooking as a centenarian....
Jun 05, 2018•20 min•Ep. 63
When Phil Riley caught a candid glimpse of himself in a hotel mirror, it was a wake-up call. He says the realization that he was clinically obese was one of his most "unnerving experiences." Health and fitness had never been a top priority for the British broadcast industry executive - but Phil knew he had to change. He had also been hard by the loss of some long-time friends, at a relatively young age. It was the start of a journey that saw Phil delve into the data surrounding premature death a...
May 28, 2018•56 min•Ep. 62
What makes us tick? Our in-built clock - the circadian rhythm - plays a huge role in human longevity. Getting an appropriate amount of sleep while the sun is down has tremendous positive effects on our bodies, according to Dr. Felice Gersh, gynecologist and founder of the Integrative Medical Group of Irvine in Southern California. Sleeping in the dark keeps our body's 24-hour internal clock on track and helps regulate our hormones and metabolism. Still, many people wind up staying up later than ...
May 21, 2018•31 min•Ep. 61
Dr. Larry Senn, an 82-year old businessman, often completes a sprint triathlon on a Saturday, as part of his exercise regime. He took up the sport at the age of 70. The founder of the global culture-shaping firm, Senn Delaney, believes that to be a good leader, you first have to take care of yourself. He practices what he preaches, although Larry shares his wisdom with a twinkle in his eye and is far from preachy in his approach. Sometimes referred to as the Father of Corporate Culture, Larry wo...
May 08, 2018•40 min•Ep. 60
We may not have completely mastered aging just yet, but we might be in the process of truly delaying it, according to Dr. Eileen Crimmins. The AARP Professor of Gerentology at the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology studies health and mortality rates and global aging. After analyzing national health data in the US, Dr. Crimmins and her colleagues concluded something quite inspiring - Americans are biologically younger now than they were 20 years ago. “The biolog...
Apr 30, 2018•35 min•Ep. 59
The world’s oldest people are an endlessly fascinating source of stories, advice and wisdom. To try to gain a better understanding of their longevity, health researcher Jason Prall set out on a global adventure. His goal was to unravel the secrets of the longest-lived and healthiest populations. The result is a 9-part documentary film series featuring some remarkable characters as well as leading scientists scrutinizing the aging process. The Human Longevity Project visited over 50 locations in ...
Apr 23, 2018•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 58
Josh Goldberg was enjoying a successful career as a communications executive when his world imploded. He was overwhelmed by thoughts of suicide, severe anxiety and depression. The road to recovery took an unexpected turn when he started working with veterans. He was helping them, but they ended up saving his life. Josh discovered a new-found appreciation of friendship and mutual support that served to rebuild his life. The co-author of Struggle Well: Thriving in the Aftermath of Trauma , Josh is...
Apr 09, 2018•44 min•Ep. 57
The extraordinary power of fasting evokes many human emotions, from visceral opposition to a religious adherence to the age-old practice. Going without food can be dangerous and could lead to death under certain circumstances. But medically supervised fasting regimes or diets based on calorie restriction and time-restricted feeding, could be helpful in treating common ailments and even chronic diseases. The topic is explored in great depth in ‘Fasting,' a new documentary by Doug Orchard, a filmm...
Mar 26, 2018•43 min•Ep. 56
Fitness after fifty was never something that occurred to veteran financier James P. Owen, during his hectic life in corporate America. But when he turned seventy, the former Wall Street rainmaker and author of the best-selling book, Cowboy Ethics, had an epiphany. He discovered he could move. Jim founded the Center for Cowboy Ethics and Leadership to spread the message that “we can all be heroes in our own lives,” but it was not until relatively late in life that he says he discovered his true p...
Mar 16, 2018•40 min•Ep. 55
Living longer and healthier means embracing a third chapter in life as “fabulously” as possible, says Tricia Cusden, a former management training consultant who has built a successful new business, in her late 60s. When she and her daughters sat down for dinner in Los Angeles last week, they had to pinch themselves, after realizing they were living Tricia’s dream. Five years ago, instead of retiring, she launched Look Fabulous Forever, a makeup brand designed for women aged over-55. It has grown...
Mar 05, 2018•35 min•Ep. 54
There has been a lot of buzz recently surrounding a new supplement that could boost our energy levels as we grow old. It is a recently discovered form of vitamin B3 and has been widely touted as a possible tool to enhance the aging process. We are going to take a deep dive into what it is and how it works. Nicotinamide riboside (NR) is converted by the body into nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) which is an essential molecule found in every living cell and plays a significant role in energ...
Feb 27, 2018•52 min•Ep. 53
The specter of so-called fake news is omnipresent these days. Headlines are scrutinized more than ever. We can never be quite sure that the facts behind them are actual facts or a distorted truth. It is a worrying trend that has plagued the world of health news for some time. Sifting through the plethora of new studies, to find reliable and useful information, can be daunting and demoralizing. Dr. Sara Gorman is a public health and mental health expert, based in New York. Her first book, Denying...
Feb 19, 2018•32 min•Ep. 52
This episode of Live Long and Master Aging is in partnership with the HVMN (pronounced human) Enhancement podcast. LLAMA is re-publishing an interview between host Peter Bowes and HVMN’s Geoffrey Woo, in which they swap stories and share their human longevity goals. In a reversal of roles, Peter is in the hot seat and Geoff poses the questions. HVMN episode description: We all know a healthy diet is essential for all aspects of health, but what if we can further hack our lifespans by controlling...
Feb 12, 2018•56 min•Ep. 51
Harith Rajagopalan is a medical doctor, entrepreneur and co-founder of Fractyl, a biotechnology company based in Lexington, Massachusetts. Fractyl's stated mission is to solve the global epidemic of type 2 diabetes, a disease that stands in the way of a long and healthy life for so many people. Dr. Rajagopalan’s work focuses on a better understanding of the root cause of the disease and how diet-related damage to the inner surface of the small intestine leads to insulin resistance. The company h...
Feb 05, 2018•36 min•Ep. 50
Respect for the elderly knows no bounds, as Jo Schneier, CEO at Cognotion, eloquently explains: "It's so easy to look at people and prejudge them and to think, 'I just see an old person.’ I don't see the child, as she was growing up, or the teenager or the woman who got married or the man who got the job promotion or traveled overseas.” In front of us are people whose lives have been beautifully lived, says Jo, whose work focusses on developing digital education programs to train caregivers for ...
Jan 30, 2018•30 min•Ep. 49
Rangan Chatterjee is a medical doctor, best known in the UK as the star of Doctor in the House, the BBC series that helps restore people to optimal health. After two decades of practicing medicine, Dr Chatterjee is on a mission to replace pills with "lifestyle prescriptions. He believes that people are needlessly suffering and that health care professionals should put more emphasis on preventing chronic, lifestyle-related conditions though behavioral changes. The author of The 4 Pillar Plan says...
Jan 22, 2018•55 min•Ep. 48
When Santino Panico, once a rising sports star, realized that he would never achieve his dream of becoming a big-time American football player, he took a close look at his diet. Poor health had forced him to give up the sport that he loved - including a place on the team for the University of Nebraska - even though he thought he was doing everything right in the kitchen and the gym. Panico went from devouring copious amounts of steak and eggs to a plant-based diet that bemused and confused his I...
Jan 15, 2018•53 min•Ep. 47
Dr. Valter Longo returns to the podcast to talk about his new book, The Longevity Diet . The Italian scientist is professor in Gerontology and Biological Science and director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. The book, already a best-seller in Italy, is the result of decades of research - including laboratory and field studies - into the mechanisms behind the aging process. The diet is based on a low protein and fish-based plan with periodi...
Jan 08, 2018•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 46
For many of us, January means a new start, with fresh energy and vigor to live the best life possible. The first few days of the year come with a sense of purpose that helps put our lives into perspective. Fitness coach Alwyn Cosgrove sees it as a “magical” time, when people can change and create new habits. Alwyn was born in Scotland and initially exposed to fitness training through competitive martial arts. He went on to study Sports Performance at West Lothian College and achived an honors de...
Jan 01, 2018•51 min•Ep. 45
Imagine if we could learn from the experience of every doctor in the world and the data collected from billions of clinical cases. The San Francisco-based company, Enlitic, is using deep learning techniques to harness the collective intelligence of the global medical community. The goal is to make doctors faster, more accurate and efficient at treating diseases. Kevin Lyman, Enlitic's Chief Operating Officer and lead scientist, graduated from the private research university, Rensselaer Polytechn...
Dec 18, 2017•26 min•Ep. 44
There are many life-shortening diseases linked to diabetes, but the problem of slow-healing wounds is often overlooked. Approximately 15 percent of diabetics will develop a foot ulcer at some point and the healing process can be painfully slow. Kevin Lamb is the co-founder and CEO of Advanced Tissue, the US leader in the delivery of wound care supplies. He is also a man on a mission to educate people about health care and spread the word about life-saving interventions that are accessible to eve...
Dec 11, 2017•38 min•Ep. 43
Loneliness is a silent epidemic affecting elderly populations. Social isolation shortens lives and exacerbates the onset of disease in millions of people, around the world. In the UK, The Silver Line, a free and confidential telephone hotline, was established in 2012 to offer information, friendship and advice to older people. Founded by the British television presenter Esther Rantzen, the 24-hour service also offers help to those suffering abuse and neglect. The Silver Line is run by Sophie And...
Dec 04, 2017•29 min•Ep. 42
If there were such as thing as the Fountain of Youth, Dr. James Hamblin , senior editor at The Atlantic , must have been drinking from it all his life. In the real world, the 35-year old doctor-turned-journalist, shrugs off his youthful appearance as a family trait. When asked about his boyish looks, the host of the video series, If Our Bodies Could Talk , responds without hesitation. He is used to answering questions. After training as a radiologist and dabbling in improv comedy, James realized...
Nov 27, 2017•33 min•Ep. 41
