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

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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…


GrandPeople: Human Library

Where can you go to challenge stereotypes and prejudices through dialogue? The library of course. The Human Library to be more specific.

Meet Yoka Brouwer, an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor, and hear her extraordinary story on the latest GrandPeople video. Today, Yoka serves as a “Human Book”, meeting and talking with anyone who wants to learn from her life and experiences. 

The Human Library was launched in Copenhagen in 2000 and now operates in more than 85 countries worldwide, and is internationally known as the “Human Library Organization.” Interested participants can “check out” an individual from the Human Library—in locales from Australia to the United States—to create open, unstigmatized dialogues, dispel harmful stereotypes, and in Yoka’s case, foster intergenerational conversation.


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.


The Longevity Book Club

Looking for the next great book on aging and longevity? Want to learn how to live a longer and healthier life? We’ve got the answers. Well not us, per se, but our fantastic lineup of authors sure do. Join us for The Longevity Book Club, featuring conversations with Dr. Marc Milstein, Margareta Magnusson, Myra Strober and Abby Davisson, with many more to come.

Next up…
A Conversation with Stacy Torres, author of “At Home In The City", February 13th, 2025 @ 12 PM PT/3 PM ET


Three Not-So-Bad Things on Aging and Longevity

A weekly newsletter


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

Click the video to watch Ken Stern and Dean Ornish’s conversation at the Healthy Aging 50+ Conference!


Thank you for joining us at the
2023 Century Summit!


The Century Summit 2022

What are the best predictors [of longevity]? We thought it was going to be their cholesterol level. We thought it was going to be their blood pressure. It turned out to be the quality of their relationships.
— Bob Waldinger at the 2022 Century Summit

Laura Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, chats with Bob Waldinger, Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, at the 2022 Century Summit. Along with Maria Shriver, Senator Tina Smith and others, Waldinger joined the conversation virtually.


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Longevity News