The Longevity Project

The possibility of living for ten or more decades raises a uniquely twenty-first century question: what are we going to do with our longer lives?

Life expectancy has increased at an extraordinary rate over the past 120 years, from roughly 47 years at the beginning of the 20th century in the United States to more than 78 years today. By some estimates, half of the children born today in the developed world will live for 100 years. But with the opportunity for longer life comes the challenge of optimizing our institutions, policies and investments to support a healthier and more prosperous longevity.

Our Mission: Promote Transformation in Support of Longer Life

We foster research and public conversation to build awareness of the implications of longer life, and bring together leaders from business, government and the social sector to plan for transitions in healthcare, retirement planning, caregiving and more. Together with our lead content collaborator, the Stanford Center on Longevity, and other leading universities, think tanks and media organizations, our goal is to cultivate a new awareness of the longevity challenge and support change so that people around the world can live healthy, secure and fulfilled lives.

Recent news from the Longevity Project…

Check out our recent event with SAGE:

“Intergenerational Ties in an Ageist World: LGBTQ+ Community Experiences.”

Season 6 of the award-winning podcast
“Century Lives”:

Century Lives: The Century Club

All of Season 6 is out now!

Global advances in human life expectancy are one of the great achievements of the 20th century. But in the 21st century, lifespans in the US have stalled as our peer nations continue to add healthy years to their lives. A major part of our challenge is that many older Americans spend their years in social isolation: disconnected from others and lacking purpose. In the U.S., this issue remains largely ignored by policymakers and the public at large. 

But other countries have faced the same challenges head-on: as societal problems requiring societal solutions. These nations, the Century Club, are blazing a new path toward longer life that mirrors the healthiest societies on Earth. In Century Lives: The Century Club, Ken crisscrosses the globe to see how other countries tackle loneliness in older age. Join us as we explore the idea of retirement as a career in Japan, the lifelong learning cities of South Korea, the benefits of volunteerism to volunteers in Italy. These governments have established opportunities for social connection that have been adopted as social norms by the general public. This season holds lessons for all of us back home in the U.S., so we can make the second halves of our lives as engaged, productive, and purposeful as the first.

Three Not-So-Bad Things on Aging and Longevity

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July 17, 2024 — A new report from the United Nations reveals that the global population will be significantly less than previously thought by the end of the century.

What does that mean for us? Well, quite a bit, but it includes the need to make investments to ensure that an aging population is able to stay healthy, productive and likely working later into life. It also means that the Transamerica Institute's findings on the increasing number of phased retirement plans is coming at exactly the right time.

Read on to learn more about the UN's report, the growing number of phased retirement plans in companies across the nation, and how turning off your lights at night may benefit your health in more ways than we previously thought.

Thank you for joining us at the first-ever Healthy Aging 50+ conference!

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