CAUTION ADVISED: This podcast contains swearing and themes of an adult nature.

Do you believe that we have control over how we age? Is mental decline inevitable? Or, does how we live now determine our later years?

This week’s guest is Dr. Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist, cognitive psychologist, and best-selling author. His latest book, The Changing Mind, is an enlightening read for anyone who wants to age well, live well, and understand the science behind both.

Dan and I discuss the concept of healthspan versus lifespan – how if you want to live to a ripe old age, you’ll want to be able to enjoy it, too. Amazingly, Dan’s extensive research has led him to conclude that the number one factor that predicts how well we’ll age is not, as you might imagine, genetic – it’s a personality trait. We discuss just what that personality trait is, and Dan goes on to reveal three other important traits that govern our behaviours and how we respond to the world – and therefore how healthy and happy we are at age 8 or 108. The good news is that these traits can be taught, and it’s never too late to start learning. You can start cultivating your personality to be neuroprotective at any age.

Dan is passionate that we can and should keep learning throughout life. He explains why it’s a myth that memory automatically deteriorates and outlines simple and easy changes we can all make that will enhance life right now, as well as promote a healthy and fulfilling old age. This is a really enlightening conversation – I hope it helps you on your way to a long, happy, and healthy life.

Watch the video version of this interview in full below:

Watch the interview on YouTube

Further Learning:

• YouTube – Daniel Levitin: How To Age Well
• Science Focus – Exercise and the brain: why moving your body matters
• NYTimes – Everyone Knows That Memory Fails as You Age. But Everyone is Wrong
• The Guardian – Want to Learn Faster? Stop multitasking and start daydreaming
• The Salk Institute – Elizabeth Blackburn’s work
• Chemical Biology – Telomeres and Telomerase: From Discovery to Clinical Trials
• The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry – Personality and Differential Treatment Response in Major Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy and Pharmacotherapy
• Scott Grafton papers – Embodied Cognition and the Simulation of Action to Understand Others
• Undark – How The Brain and Body Work Together To Create Thinking
• Neuroscience News – Don’t Scan So Close To Me: Scanning Sting’s Musical Brain