Dan Buettner
About Dan Buettner
Speech topics
The Making of A Healthy City
In 2009, Albert Lea, Minnesota, a statistically average American city, completed a one year community health experiment that raised life expectancy by three years, trimmed a collective 12,000 pounds off waistlines and dropped healthcare costs of city workers by some 40%. USA Today, Good Morning America, AARP, ABC Nightline, CNN and U.S. News and World Report all covered the story. Harvard's Dr. Walter Willett, writing in Newsweek magazine called the results stunning. Dan Buettner, founder and director of the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project created a perfect storm of health that transformed a city. He tells the fascinating story of how one typically obese American city of 18,000 reversed the trend and also got happier. Dan's presentation takes audiences on the year long journey as this town adopts 28 evidence based ways to change their environment to live longer and better. They got healthier without thinking about it.
Speaking videos
Books by Dan Buettner
“The Blue Zones Kitchen One Pot Meals: 100 Recipes to Live to 100” (2025)
The Blue Zones Kitchen One Pot Meals: 100 Recipes to Live to 100
“The Blue Zones Secrets for Living Longer: Lessons From the Healthiest Places on Earth” (2023)
The creator of National Geographic's popular Blue Zones—now a documentary on Netflix—brings readers a beautifully illustrated and informative guide to the places on Earth where people live the longest—including lessons learned, top longevity foods, and the behaviors to help you live to 100—plus a surprising new blue zone. National Geographic Explorer and best-selling author Dan Buettner has traveled the globe to uncover the best strategies for longevity, which he found in the blue zones: places around the world where higher percentages of people enjoy remarkably long, full lives. In The Blue Zones Secrets for Living Longer, Buettner returns to Sardinia, Italy; Ikaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan; Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula; and Loma Linda, California to check in on the super-agers living in the blue zones and interprets the not-so-secret sauce of purpose, faith, community, down-time, natural movement, and plant-based eating that has powered as many as 10 additional years of healthy living in these regions. And Buettner reveals an all-new blue zone—the first man-made blue zone yet explored. Throughout his two decades of research, Buettner has worked with some of National Geographic's top photographers—including David McLain and Gianluca Cola—to document the healthy habits of the world's longest living communities. In this informative collection, their work punctuates Buettner's lively text, offering a beautiful tour of the blue zones.
“The Blue Zones of Happiness: Lessons From the World's Happiest People” (2017)
New York Times best-selling author Dan Buettner reveals the surprising secrets of what makes the world's happiest places—and shows you how to apply these lessons to your own life. In this inspiring guide, you’ll find game-changing tools drawn from global research and expert insights for achieving maximum fulfillment. Along the way, you'll: • Discover the three strands of happiness—pleasure, purpose, and pride—that feature prominently in the world's happiest places. • Take the specially designed Blue Zones Happiness Test to pinpoint areas in your life where you could cultivate greater joy, deeper meaning, and increased satisfaction. • Meet the world's Happiness All-Stars: inspiring individuals from Denmark to the United States who reveal dynamic, practical ways to improve day-to-day living. • Discover specific, science-based strategies for setting up a “life radius” of community, work, home, and self to create healthier, happiness-boosting habits for the long-term.
“Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way” (2011)
What makes us happy? It's not wealth, youth, beauty, or intelligence, says Dan Buettner. In fact, most of us have the keys within our grasp. Circling the globe to study the world's happiest populations, Buettner has spotted several common principles that can unlock the doors to true contentment with our lives. Working with leading researchers, Buettner identifies the happiest region on each of four continents. He explores why these populations say they are happier than anyone else, and what they can teach the rest of us about finding contentment. His conclusions debunk some commonly believed myths: Are people who have children happier than those who don't? Not necessarily--in Western societies, parenthood actually makes the happiness level drop. Is gender equality a factor? Are the world's happiest places to be found on tropical islands with beautiful beaches? You may be surprised at what Buettner's research indicates. Unraveling the story of each "hotspot" like a good mystery, Buettner reveals how he discovered each location and then travels to meet folks who embody each particular brand of happiness. He introduces content, thriving people in Denmark, in Singapore, in northeastern Mexico, and in a composite "happiest place in America." In addition, he interviews economists, psychologists, sociologists, politicians, writers, and other experts to get at what contributes to each region's happiness, from the Danish concept of hygge, which translates to creating a feeling of coziness, to the Mexican love of a good joke. Buettner's findings result in a credible, cross-cultural formula and a practical plan to help us stack the deck for happiness and get more satisfaction out of life. According to Buettner's advisory team, the average person can control about forty percent of his or her individual happiness by optimizing life choices. These aren't unreasonable demands on a person's lifestyle, and they often require only slight changes. They fall into three categories that make up the way we live our lives: the food we eat, the way we exercise, and the social networks we foster. It's all about nourishing the body and the spirit. Heeding the secrets of the world's happiness all-stars can help us make the right choices to find more contentment in our own lives and learn how to thrive.
“The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest” (2010)
In this expanded paperback edition of his New York Times bestseller, longevity expert Dan Buettner draws on his research from extraordinarily long-lived communities--Blue Zones--around the globe to highlight the lifestyle, diet, outlook, and stress-coping practices that will add years to your life and life to your years. A long healthy life is no accident. It begins with good genes, but it also depends on good habits. If you adopt the right lifestyle, experts say, chances are you may live up to a decade longer. So what's the formula for success? National Geographic Explorer Dan Buettner has lead teams of researchers across the globe to uncover the secrets of Blue Zones--geographic regions where high percentages of centenarians are enjoying remarkably long, full lives. The recipe for longevity, Buettner has found, is deeply intertwined with community, lifestyle, and spirituality. You won't find longevity in a bottle of diet pills or with hormone therapy. You'll find it by embracing a few simple but powerful habits, and by creating the right community around yourself. In The Blue Zone, Buettner has blended his lifestyle formula with the latest longevity research to inspire lasting behavioral change and add years to your life.
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At a glanceDan Buettner
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