Ageless Athlete - Longevity Insights From Adventure Sports Legends

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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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 s

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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/ 📩
Support the show

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/ 📩
Support the show

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/ 📩
Support the show

This episode brings together moments from conversations recorded across the first half of 2025 — voices from different sports, environments, and stages of life, each describing how they continue to train, move, and stay engaged as conditions change.
These clips span endurance running, climbing, paddling, cycling, swimming, and exploration. What connects them is more than performance level or accomplishment, but also the way each athlete thinks about adaptation — physically, psychologically, and over long stretches of time.
If a particular segment resonates, the full conversations are available in the Ageless Athlete back catalog. Below is a guide to the original episodes featured in this compilation.
Episodes Featured in This Collection 
Ray Zahab (Episode Name and Release Date)
 👉 Full episode: Impossible To Possible: Build That Toughness That Can Help You Overcome Even Cancer
 📅 Jan 7, 2025
Chris Bertish
 👉 Full episode: 93 Days Alone On The Ocean - When There’s Nowhere Else to Go
 📅 Feb 18, 2025
Travis Macy
 👉 Full episode: One Mile at a Time: The Healing Power of Movement and How You Can Fight Mental Decline
 📅 Feb 25, 2025
Ned Overend
 👉 Full episode: Chasing Momentum: How To Train To Win In Your 70s From A World Champio
 📅 Mar 25, 2025
Andy
 👉 Full episode: The Movement Optimist: Knees, Shoulders, Elbows, Hips, Bulletproof Yourself! Never Late to Get Strong!
 📅 April 8, 2025
Jerry Moffatt
 👉 Full episode: Jerry Moffatt’s Revelations: The Power of Obsession, and His Surprising Key to Success
 📅 May 8, 2025
Dean Karnazes
 👉 Full episode: Fighting Fit in Your 60s — Dean Karnazes Keeps Running While Everyone Else Slows Down
 📅 April 15, 2025
Bob Becker
 👉 Full episode: Unstoppable: The 80-Year-Old Who Runs 100+ Mile Ultramarathons—and Reminds Us Why Showing Up Still Matters
 📅 May 8, 2025
Bill Ramsey
 👉 Full episode: The Thinking Climber: What a Philosopher’s Double Life Reveals About Curiosity, Reinvention, and the Long Arc of Mastery
 📅 May 21, 2025
Lisa Smith Batchen
 👉 Full episode: Reversing Time: Aging Is Your Superpower To Break Through Limits
 📅 Feb 11, 2025
Bob Babbitt
 👉 Full episode: Racing Strong at 73: Daily Rituals For Recovery, Energy, and Clarity
 📅 Jun 4, 2025
Sarah Thomas
 👉 Full episode: Four Times Across the English Channel: What One Impossible Swim Can Teach You About Identity, Grit, and Starting Over
 📅 May 28, 2025

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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/ 📩
Support the show