Ageless Athlete — How to Stay Strong, Curious & Capable for Life

What does it take to stay capable through the years?

Jason Hardrath is one of the most creative endurance athletes in the mountains today.

An ultrarunner, climber, and mountain linkup specialist, Jason is known for massive single-push adventures that combine running, climbing, swimming, biking, and even paragliding. He has completed the Bulger List — the 100 highest peaks in Washington — in record time, along with numerous Fastest Kn...

What happens when the thing that defines you is suddenly taken away?

For legendary American alpinist Jack Tackle, climbing wasn’t just a sport — it was identity.

For more than five decades, Jack has explored remote mountains across Alaska, the Himalaya, and the Karakoram. He spent decades guiding in the Tetons and helping shape an era of bold American alpinism built on patience, partnership, and resilience.

But in the year 2001, every...

It’s March.

The January energy has faded. The motivation posts are quieter. And this is where the real long game begins.

In this sepisode, I lay out 10 non-negotiables for athletes who plan to keep performing — not just this year, but for decades.

This isn’t about hype.
 It isn’t about biohacking.
 And it definitely isn’t about chasing trends.

It’s about durability.

Drawing from over 100 conversations with top athletes, as well ...

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 adrena...

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 best...

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 fr...

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,...

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.

Da...

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 ath...

What does “use it or lose it” actually mean after 60 — when recovery slows, strength is harder to regain, and stopping even briefly can change what’s possible?

Buzz Burrell is one of the quiet architects of modern mountain and trail culture, to talk about consistency — not as motivation, but as survival.

Buzz ran his first ultramarathon nearly six decades ago, long before endurance sports had language, infrastructure, or spectators. ...

What do world-class athletes actually eat — not in theory, not on Instagram, but in real life, day after day?

After more than 100 conversations with elite climbers, ultrarunners, surfers, and endurance athletes, I started noticing a pattern I didn’t expect.

It wasn’t about optimization.
 It wasn’t about trends.
 And it definitely wasn’t about eating something new every day.

It started with breakfast.

On nearly every episode of ...

“When I tell people I started sailing at sixty, they’re shocked. We don’t see our sixties as a place to begin — which is tragic, especially if you’ve invested in your health. What’s the point, if not to do something fantastic?”

In this New Year’s Eve episode of Ageless Athlete, I sit down with Deborah Hammett, a former school principal who did something most people never consider — she learned to sail a...

What does it really take to stay strong into your 70s — physically, mentally, and emotionally?

In this episode, I sit down with Steve Swenson, one of America’s most respected alpinists, to talk about endurance, aging, and the habits that have kept him moving for decades.

Steve has climbed Everest and K2, completed first ascents in the Karakoram, and summited Everest without supplemental oxygen — an experience that strips away ego and...

What really keeps the brain sharp as we age — and what quietly puts it at risk?

In this episode of the Ageless Athlete Podcast, host Kush Khandelwal speaks with Dr. Tommy Wood, neuroscientist, physician, and strength athlete, about the science of cognitive reserve and why long-term brain health depends on challenge, learning, and effort — not comfort or flow.

Flow states feel rewarding, but as Dr. Wood explains, they don’t create the...

This week’s episode is a little different.
Instead of interviewing a legendary athlete or coach, I was invited onto the Adventure Sports Podcast to talk about the questions that many of us — everyday athletes, weekend warriors, late bloomers, and lifelong learners — wrestle with as we get older.

If you come to Ageless Athlete for honest conversations about aging, movement, and staying curious in a changing body, this episode is...

What happens when a life in climbing spans five decades, multiple eras, and some of the most surprising moments in outdoor history?

In this episode, legendary climber Russ Clune takes us inside the world that shaped him: the Shawangunks (“the Gunks”) of the 1970s and 80s — an unlikely counterculture just two hours from Manhattan where artists, dirtbags, misfits, and pioneers built the early soul of American climbing.

Russ shares rare...

What happens after you run for five straight days — 466 miles, 111 hours, two broken ribs, a torn hamstring… and then go right back to teaching high-school civics on Monday?

In this rare, intimate conversation, ultrarunner Harvey Lewis shares a front-row look into his healing journey after Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra — widely considered one of the toughest and strangest endurance races in the world.

This is not just a running episode.

When Loree Bolin was told she’d never run again, she didn’t just defy expectations — she redefined them.

At 70, Loree completed her 11th Ironman triathlon after years of battling knee osteoarthritis. But this isn’t just a story about sport. It’s about service.

A retired dentist and lifelong endurance athlete, Loree sold her practice at 60 to launch a nonprofit bringing medical and dental care to underserved communities across Tanzani...

This quarter on Ageless Athlete brought together some of the most surprising and meaningful stories of the year — from record-setting endurance swimmers to rebel skateboarders, alpinists, paddlers, big-wall climbers, and athletes redefining what’s possible in their 60s and 70s.

Across ten very different conversations, one theme kept surfacing:
 Courage in uncomfortable places.

Not the loud kind — but the quiet courage that appear...