Ageless Athlete - Longevity Insights From Adventure Sports Legends

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...

What happens when you mix psychedelics with some of the most fearsome waves on Earth?
 What does it take to stay curious, joyful, and deeply alive—well into your 70s?

In this wide spanning conversation, legendary surfer Jock Sutherland joins Ageless Athlete to talk about the radical experiences, deep values, and spiritual practices that shaped his life—from surfing Pipeline in the 1960s to climbing mango trees and sharing fruit ...

After 60 years in the weight room, Dan John has distilled fitness down to its essence:
Move well. Lift often. Walk every day. Recover deeply.

In this conversation, Dan joins host Kush Khandelwal to share the universal rules for staying strong and mobile through every decade — especially for climbers, runners, and outdoor athletes looking to balance performance and longevity.

They unpack how fit literally means “to knit” — body, ...

Imagine growing up in the conservative Deep South, where young women were expected to play it safe

Now imagine trading that world for Himalayan storms, frozen walls, and a seven-year stretch of living out of a Subaru to chase something bigger.

Kitty Calhoun did exactly that. She became the first North American woman to summit Dhaulagiri and the first woman to climb Makalu’s West Pillar—two of the hardest, highest peaks on Earth. Alon...

Nutrition advice is everywhere — and most of it overcomplicates what should be simple.
 In this replay, EC Synkowski, founder of Optimize Me Nutrition and creator of the 800-Gram Challenge, shares a refreshingly practical approach to fueling performance, recovery, and longevity.

She’s coached CrossFit athletes, corporate teams, and everyday movers — and she’s one of the most grounded, science-based voices in nutrition today.

🧠 W...

At 59, Charlotte Brynn has swum across some of the world’s most punishing channels — in pitch black, in near-freezing water, and even after being bitten by a shark. But her story is more than toughness.

It’s about what happens when you don’t reach your goal — not once, but five times. It’s about staying in the fight for 12 years to complete the English Channel. And it’s about discovering that real strength isn't just physical —...

What does it take to climb into the unknown — when you can’t see the way forward?

Erik Weihenmayer is one of the most accomplished adventure athletes of our time. The first blind person to summit Mount Everest, he has since climbed the Seven Summits, led expeditions around the world, and kayaked the full 277 miles of the Grand Canyon. Now 56, Erik continues to seek awe and discomfort — from the storm-battered granite towers of the B...

What does it look like to age curiously, train smarter, and build a life of meaning—together?

Meet Joan Weisberg-Beyerlein and Doug Beyerlein: partners in life, love, and adventure. At 75, Joan is training for a 10-mile open water swim in Vermont. Doug is still running ultramarathons and logging 3-hour trail runs for fun. Between them, they’ve overcome addiction, burnout, injury, and the daily cultural script that says we should be ...

What does it take to bet everything on a dream? To live out of a van before it was fashionable, to commit to hard lines with no guarantee of success, and to walk away from risk when the stakes are too high?

For Canadian climber Sonnie Trotter, it has always come down to conviction. From iconic ascents like Cobra Crack and The Path to bold multi-pitch routes on El Capitan, Sonnie has built a career — and a life — around the power of ...

What does it take to come back after a body-breaker of an injury—not once, but sixteen times?

Chris Anthony is a legendary ski athlete, filmmaker, and adventurer who has stared down more than his fair share of wipeouts, surgeries, and life-altering setbacks. But instead of fading quietly from the spotlight, Chris rebuilt. Physically. Mentally. Spiritually.

In this episode, we explore what it really means to recover—not just to return...

Last week in Part I, we began our journey with legendary alpinist Jim Donini — exploring his surprise cancer diagnosis, his early days in Yosemite, and the philosophy that has defined his career: “Getting to the top is optional. Getting back down is mandatory.”

In this second part of our conversation, we turn from the mountains themselves to the human side of Jim’s story. At 82, Jim reflects on:

• The partnerships that shaped his g...

For more than five decades, Jim Donini has defined what it means to be an alpinist. Not by chasing the tallest mountains or summit glory, but by seeking out the hardest lines in the world’s most remote ranges — places where storms, hunger, and survival itself are never guaranteed.

Now at 82, Jim is still climbing, still dreaming, and still teaching us what resilience looks like. In this first of a two-part conversation, he opens up ...

At age 49, Susan Marie Conrad paddled 1,200 miles—alone—through the remote, storm-swept waters of the Alaskan Inside Passage.
Twelve years later, at 61, she went back and did it again.

In this powerful conversation, Susan shares what it means to return—not just to the same wild coastline, but as a different person. We unpack what changes when you chase something bold later in life, how nature reshapes your mindset, and what hap...

At 65, Judi Oyama is still lining up at the start gate — not in a “Masters” category, but shoulder-to-shoulder with athletes half, or even a quarter her age. She’s a World Champion slalom skateboarder, a Guiness record holder, a Hall of Fame inductee, and a pioneer who’s been breaking barriers since she first picked up a board in Santa Cruz in the early 1970s.

Back then, women’s divisions barely existed. Prize money was unequal. Med...

Physiotherapist, coach, and lifelong climber Andy McVittie is back for the final chapter of our three-part deep dive into aging well, moving well, and living without fear of injury.

If you haven’t listened to Part I (The Movement Optimist: Knees, Shoulders, Elbows, Hips, Bulletproof Yourself! Never Late to Get Strong!) or Part II (Aging Joints & Grateful Bodies: Elbows, Fingers, Sleep, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves), I highl...

Every few months, I pause to reflect on the conversations that left a mark—ones I keep thinking about long after the recording stops. This episode is a curated collection of those moments from Spring 2025.

You’ll hear stories that go beyond performance. These are reflections on resilience, identity, aging, and the human drive to keep exploring what’s possible—physically and emotionally.

In this episode:

• Sarah Thomas reflects on ch...

In Part II of our deep conversation, Andy Donaldson takes us into the heart of open water swimming—where the body aches, the mind wanders, and sometimes… things go wrong.

We pick up the story after his return to the sport. But this time, it's different. Andy isn’t chasing medals—he’s chasing meaning. And the path leads him through shark-infested waters, swollen throats, and swims so long and cold they push his body toward shutd...

What does it take to walk away from something you’ve trained for your entire life… and then find your way back — stronger, wiser, and with a whole new purpose?

In this two-part conversation, we sit down with world-record-holding swimmer Andy Donaldson. But Part One isn’t about records. It’s about the reset — the season of burnout, career shifts, mental struggle, and the slow, imperfect process of coming home to yourself.

Andy was onc...

Seb Berthe isn't your average elite climber. He doesn’t just send 5.14s—he sails to them. Literally. When he set his sights on the Dawn Wall—the hardest big wall climb in the world—he refused to fly, instead making three ocean crossings by sailboat, living simply and training creatively along the way.

In this deep and wide-ranging conversation, we talk about:

• Why how you chase a goal matters as much as what the goal is
• How li...