Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:21 Hello and welcome to the Age Reach podcast. I am so excited today because we are joined by Marcus Pierce, who is right smack bang in the middle of <laugh>, everything to Do With Age, which I love. Um, he's a longevity coach and also an author and podcast host of a hundred Knot Out, which is fantastic, and you also do speaking. So welcome.
Speaker 2 00:00:46 Thanks for having me, Scarlet. Yeah. And it's nice to be smack bang in the middle of, uh, aging. Well, I'm 41 years of age. I know I'm having a bad hair day if anyone's watching this. I've got four young children, and some people think, why on earth are you talking about aging? Well, but as I like to remind, uh, everyone, whether you're in your, you know, your teens or your twenties or your thirties or your forties, we're all getting older. Uh, so I think this, um, topic, which again, your smack bang in the middle of as well, is, um, appropriate to every single one of us. Just some get the memo a bit earlier than others.
Speaker 1 00:01:16 You know, people tend to think about aging as they get older, but I think it's really good to have a conversation about it earlier, to kind of have a look at the whole breadth of what it means to, you know, live life and to age well. And it's just really part of life. And, and part of my whole philosophy and thinking about, you know, what age which is about, is that we actually have all sorts of issues come from ageism from every age, every decade. And so it is understanding more about the cycle of life and appreciating and loving who we are at every decade. So, um, firstly, tell us a little bit about what you do.
Speaker 2 00:01:57 Um, well, I think I've been doing longevity type work, uh, for a bit over 12 years. I had probably one of my only epiphanies in life when I was reading a book called Healthy at 100 by a man called John Robbins. Um, John Robbins was the heir to the throne of the Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Corporation, and he decided that, um, growing up in an ice cream shaped swimming pool, having ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, um, and inventing the 32nd flavor of ice cream wasn't his life purpose. And he went on to become a, a major, um, well like the, probably the most respected author in the vegan world. And I was in 2010, a raging vegan, uh, so raging. I was shaving with avocado. I was, uh, off the alcohol. I was a t totalling raging vegan, thought I had pretty much discovered the secret to life.
Speaker 2 00:02:49 Um, and of course reached enlightenment at about 25, 26 years of age. And, um, then I was reading this book by John Robbins and he mentioned a study literally in the, the second page of the introduction. I was reading this book called Healthy at 100 thinking it would reaffirm my veganism, my t totaling lifestyle. And I read a book, I read the A Study page two, and it said, um, over the course of 20 years, 600 people were interviewed and they were asked questions such as, as you age, you become less useful As you age, you realize your best years are behind you. As you age, you realize it's all downhill from here. You become a burden on society and so on. And what this study from Yale found was that the people that had a disempowered view of aging died seven and a half years earlier than people that had an empowered view of aging.
Speaker 2 00:03:38 And this was a mindblower for me because it didn't measure their exercise, their wealth status, their marital status, their social status, uh, their genes. And particularly as someone that was a vegan tito, like it didn't measure their diet. All it did was measure a belief. And this book taught me a hell of a lot around aging well and longevity. And it really was a shiver down the spine moment because it really did open up really my future because I realized how strongly I felt about teaching people of all ages how to design their life around, um, living in a great long life. Because so many people are like, I'm here for a good time, not a long time. But what they don't realize living in Australia is you're pretty much destined to be here for a long time. Uh, so if you don't make it a good time and a long time, then you're pretty much signing up for 12 plus years of morbidity, like chronic disease, nursing homes, increased medications, and so on. Um, and so that's what I've been born into and I've done a lot of that through a podcast, as you mentioned earlier, 100 not out through speaking. I wrote a book on the subject, um, and just do a lot of coaching with people around what it takes to create this great long life that many of us, um, in Australia and really the western world, um, are embarking upon.
Speaker 1 00:04:55 Amazing. So tell me, you know, I mean a big question, but what do you think the, um, issue is around ageism? Why do you think people suffer from it and don't embrace their age or see whereas other cultures do? Do you know what I mean? Like
Speaker 2 00:05:13 What do you think? Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I'm a journalist by profession, so I spent many years in the mainstream media. Um, I was essentially my first career and I, I definitely believe that, um, mainstream media, uh, you know, living in Australia, it's like mainstream media, Hollywood, and then our community, our friendship group, our peer group, whether it's our family, our friends, because we're all consuming this, we are consuming an anti-aging message. If you watch a movie most of the time you're gonna see an older person portrayed as a grumpy old man or woman. Uh, the younger person is portrayed as this selt, sexy, beautiful, you know, Photoshop thin human being. And many of us feel like that's who we're meant to be. We end up getting surgeries and chemical injections and everything in order to be someone that we think we're supposed to be. Um, and typically speaking, many people get into their fifties and sixties and then begin to realize that they actually don't have to be that.
Speaker 2 00:06:12 But there is a percentage of people that are still attempting to grasp that, you know, twenties or thirties. And, uh, you ask, most people actually don't want to be 21 again, you know, in their mind, but some of them want to be 21 again in their body. Um, and I do think that we have been sold a lie, um, when it comes to anti-aging. And I do think we, that ageism that you speak of is kind of fed down our mouths, um, through our exposure to, uh, a lot of mainstream media. And I'm a big believer that we've gotta consume, uh, we've gotta create our own media. We've gotta really work on our own lives rather than knowing the lives of everyone else. There's a great line by, uh, Socrates, I think it was, and it was, um, the unexamined life is not worth living and we don't spend enough time examining our own lives. We spend, so we read, we consume over 10,000 stories a year, <laugh>, it's probably more like 20,000 stories a year and they're about everyone else's lives. But how many stories a year do you consume on your own life? Um, and the answer for a lot of people is none.
Speaker 1 00:07:18 I love that you've turned it around like that because, you know, my whole philosophy also is around the self. You have to start with the self. Everything out there really is our own journey, our own story in what we're kind of living and need to learn. And therefore what we experience in our life is really a reflection of what's going on here in our beliefs. So I love that you said that. I've never seen it or heard it about, you know, telling stories about yourself, which is beautiful. And it's true. It consumes so much media that is detrimental to our own beliefs or value. And I think it comes down to self-value. It's interesting, there is a recent article with Jennifer ans Aniston, you know, around the aging. And look, we are defying age. Look at our bodies, and I just think they promoted ageism. I mean, actually, because regardless of whoever you are, I mean, and, and it's all about how you look and people don't even look like that even when they're younger, you know, like it was just a really distorted message. I'm like, what the hell did that mean? And I think it's really frustrating for all of us because we, as we get older, you begin to see the beauty of who we are and understand ourselves more greatly and have so much more, uh, richer experience and wisdom. And yet that's not valued in the media. It's not valued in the workplace. And so what do you feel would help change this and turn it around?
Speaker 2 00:08:48 Uh, a part of me is, I was talking to someone who turned 50 the other day and they were saying, I don't want to swear on your podcast, but they were just saying how they've realized that the older they get, the less of an f bomb, they actually give about others and the views of others. Um, and so there's a real ownership I think that we have to take as we get older about actually not caring if, um, you know, our behavior is gonna be relevant or taken up by others because it's, if we're looking for external validation of our own behavior, it's gonna become really, um, hard to win. Like you said, you know, Jennifer Aniston knows how to, knows what's gonna be picked up in the media, you know, that that trim fit, um, svet person defying. What many people would say is, um, is, uh, you know, predicted for that age.
Speaker 2 00:09:38 I think if we are trying to get the approval of others, we're going to set ourselves up for a lot of failure. So I think it's really important that we recognize how important it is that we run our own race when it comes to getting older. You know, if you do you want to own a business or be an employee or be a volunteer in your community, you don't have to do F 45 or yoga. You can go for a walk every day on the beach if that's how you love to move your body. You know, you don't have to have hundreds of friends if you're a raging introvert, you just want one, two or three really good quality friends. You don't have to be the life of the party. You don't have to go on the paleo or the keto diet or the vegan diet.
Speaker 2 00:10:11 You don't have to go on a juice cleanse or a cabbage soup diet. You can eat in a way that fulfills you, um, and actually makes you feel like you're alive. I think the big thing is removing the labels that other people want us to buy into and really defining what works for us. It, it's a lot of autonomy, living your own exceptional life. But it does take, as I mentioned, that that quote from Socrates earlier, it does take a lot of examining as to like, what do you want for your life? What's on the script of the, of the movie called Your Exceptional Life, not the script that your parents wrote for you, or your friends or your family, or your boss or your partner or your kids. What's the, what's on the script of your life according to you? Um, and it's really important that we live that script, not the one that everyone else wants us to live.
Speaker 1 00:10:53 I love it. And it's so true. And I think the gift of, as we get older, we begin to see that what we thought was true or what we thought was important isn't. And so there's a freedom that comes. And in that freedom, you know, it's important I think, to take that next step to examine and to do the work on the self, whatever that is for you and, uh, and the journey. Cause it, it's, you know, I believe that when we go through a a, a time where you might lose a job and you think that it's through ageism, that it's in fact that cycle of going the universe and life is making you examine what your next step is. And perhaps it's not staying at the same job that you've been at for 20 years. Maybe it is that turning into something else. And rather than blaming outside is to actually take responsibility, bring your power back, and make a choice from that space. So I, I think it, it's true. I think the examination's really important. I mean, you've traveled to, um, parts of the world examining, uh, the journey and how they've been, uh, as ascertained longevity. Tell us a bit about that.
Speaker 2 00:12:02 Yeah, sure. So there's a little Greek island called <unk>, not, not in Korea, as a lot of people think I'm talking about, not in Korea, in Greece, a little Greek island called iad. If anyone's heard the story of <unk>, they might know iad. It's, uh, very close to the Turkish coast. Uh, but it is one of the National Geographic's top five blue zones. So you've got, uh, IAD in Greece, so DK in Italy, Okinawa in Japan, Noko in Costa Rica, and then, um, seventh Day Memphis community in California called Lama Linda. But this one in Greece is close to my heart because, um, I think growing up, you know, as a, you know, in the west as well, we all have a, a love of Europe and I know I've got, you know, heritage in Europe and so it's really easy as opposed to associate with a European longevity culture, but they just seem to live so beautifully.
Speaker 2 00:12:49 So every year I take a small group of people over to iad, um, not to find them the fountain of youth or the secret pill to actually observe the locals. We live with the locals in this little village called Nas, and we drink with them and we eat with them and we dance with them and we hike with them and we help them on their land and all of these things. Not again, to identify what's special for them, but to actually identify what we can implement and we come back into our own daily lives back here in Australia or wherever our guests are from. So, um, Inad, you know, they have so many little one-liners like why drive when you can walk? They just walk places. It's such a hilly little island. It's really going back in time. It's not like your typical Greek island of whitewash and blue roofs and everything.
Speaker 2 00:13:30 It's so old school, very hilly, a lot of movement. They have a great drop in culture. You know, we tend to, and Covid really kill this off for a lot of Australians, you just would never drop into your neighbor's house. But in <unk> you'd always, you know, get some wine and take some cheese or whatever's in the pantry and you just go over to a neighbor's house and, and if they weren't home, that's fine, you'd just go back home again. It wasn't a big deal. Even if it did take you half an hour to walk there and half an hour to walk home, you'd still have a view of the agency and you'd still be walking along in the beautiful peace and serenity of that island. Um, so they're very social, they move regularly, they laugh. If we went for a jog, they'd be like, where are you running to?
Speaker 2 00:14:09 Or, or who are you running from? They don't actually have like structured exercise time, they just have a very incidental lifestyle. They would walk to the supermarket with a couple of plastic bags and they would walk back with, you know, the bags would be heavy and awkward and they'd be walking up, you know, that typical, um, cobbled pathway with uneven steps. And you can just imagine how good that is for physical health where it's actually quite a challenge. Whereas in Australia where like, you know, Parker's close to the supermarket as possible, buy food that we don't even know if it's in season or not, but if it's on special, we'll buy it popping in a trolley so that we're not having to carry things. And we definitely don't want to actually actually have to carry it to the car. We just pull it out of the trolley into the boot, you know, and then out of the garage, you know, onto the kitchen bench.
Speaker 2 00:14:58 We make our life, you know, in Australia and in many other countries as easy as possible. But that ease is really what creates a lot of this crisis, as I call it in our longevity, where we've got chronic disease and increased meds and we're sitting in front of the TV for 4, 6, 8 hours a day and we're spending so much time on our screens and we are not engaging in real life with people. We've lost the art of like bodily cues and the art of conversation because we're doing so much of it, you know, over a Zoom or Riverside or Skype or you know, messenger. Um, and we're scared to engage. And I think this then trans, uh, transcends our diet because then you go to iad, they would never just eat by themselves. They would never just eat in front of the tv. Uh, they'd be like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 2 00:15:47 They're like, they're getting everyone around a table that, that beautiful European culture of like, you eat around the table with friends and family, you cook a lot of food and you serve it family style, you put it, you know, like on platters and you don't tell everyone what to eat. You just pop it all out and then everyone gets what they want to eat. You know, Scarlet might feel like more carbs that day and I might feel like more protein and someone else wants the avocados or the tiki cuz they want a bit more fats, you know, whatever it is. They actually just, um, honor their own individual needs rather than getting them meat in three veg, you know, served on a plant and said, right, that's what you are eating and you are not leaving the table until it's finished. You know, it's a very different way of life.
Speaker 2 00:16:29 Their family is everything, you know, like they live for their family. Um, you go to Sardinia, we, we are gonna go there, um, uh, in 2023, but we'll do to go there in 2020. And one of the things I was most looking forward to, to going to Sardinia is because they just do not send their parents to nursing homes. <laugh>. Like, they just almost feel, and this is not to judge anyone that does, but they actually almost see it as, um, sacrilegious to send a parent to a nursing home. It's like, so a parent has raised me and, and you know, you know, um, I cleaned my, you changed my nappies and fed me and everything. And then when it comes for, to me repaying the favor to my parent, I just like shipped them off. And again, that might trigger some people watching or listening to this because their parents are in a nursing home.
Speaker 2 00:17:17 I'm not saying you've done the wrong thing or the bad thing or shame on you, not at all. But what I really wanted to observe in, in Sardinia is that that that feeling of family in their culture that just prevents that from even being an option in their mind. Um, in <unk> you know, I think there's two nursing homes on the island and there's about 10 or 12 people in each nursing home. And that might be because the parents, sorry, the children are living in Athens perhaps or living elsewhere. So again, no judgment here. Like I live in New South Wales or my family lives in Victoria, so this is not,
Speaker 1 00:17:51 And that's the thing is that I think it's not just an individual, I mean it is in one way, but it's a societal issue that we don't have that value. And also we're set up that we have to work, you know, like we have to go, we can't care for them. So it's, it's kind of a bigger conversation and I think it's great that you go and you see a culture that actually appreciates and understands that and then it's all supported. When you have it like this, it's hard to make the change because you go, how do I do it? I mean, we had it with her, my mom as well. My sister lived in with her and looked after her until she physically couldn't lift her, like, you know, and so she ended up going to hospital and she passed a week later. But it was like, um, it is, it's very hard because we are not supported in that.
Speaker 1 00:18:37 We don't see a, you know, our elders as valuable and this is why I love about the Europeans is that there's family and the cycle, you understand or you know, anything indigenous as well is like there's a place and a cycle that happens and that's okay. So I think, you know, it's a really hard question. I love that you're taking people for that experience because I guess that's the way the change happens is it's slowly. And also I think seeing, um, you know, the benefits and the detriments that happen as we are an aging population, which we are and it's getting more prevalent is then something will happen. Do you know what I mean? Because, you know, like people have to make the change. Amazing. So what, any last kind of, um, thoughts around, you know, longevity, um, I mean you've shared some fantastic information there. Oh,
Speaker 2 00:19:27 I think a few things. If people looking for some headlines, it's, you know, diet is not the fountain of use. If you're really looking for three ingredients, you know, I teach eight ingredients in what I call an exceptional life blueprint. And the ingredients, uh, not just the order, but the amount of those ingredients if you put into the recipe of your life is really important. So your purpose in life, like doing what you love and loving what you do, whether it's waking up and volunteering at the local church or the canteen or you're the lollipop man or lady, or you're running a multi-million dollar company as an entrepreneur or you're earning a wage as an employee or you're stay-at-home parent, it doesn't matter. But you've just gotta love what you do and do what you love, dot, dot, dot most of the time not expecting this to be a halo of a hundred percent happy all the time and fulfilled all the time.
Speaker 2 00:20:11 Like that's not what it's about. But the majority of your waking hours have to be something of service that you actually love to do. Um, that's ingredient number one for longevity. Ingredient number two is movement. Movement as opposed to exercise. Exercise in my world is a lifestyle chore. Movement is a lifestyle choice. When people move, they love it. It's dancing, it's swimming, it's playing table tennis, bochy, tennis, basketball. They just do it cuz they love it. It's not, oh I better go to the gym and I have to go to that yoga class. The things that you're always late to are the things that are just not things that you really love to do. The things that you can't wait to do are the things you actually kind of get there early because you just love it, you really want to do it. And so movement and then social life, those three ingredients, purpose, movement, and social are the three big ingredients to longevity.
Speaker 2 00:20:59 And then nutrition, family growth and wealth. They actually, um, will not guarantee that you live longer, but they pretty much will guarantee that you'll have a greater quality in your longevity. And again, as an Australian, everyone I know wants quality in their longevity. Most Australians, longevity is gonna happen to them, but quality, longevity happens by us. We have to make our longevity awesome. If we don't, then we will get to 71 or 72 and it actually will all go downhill from there for the next 12 years or so. Um, and the average, the average, um, lifespan at a, at the moment is around 84, 85 years of age. We actually have to take control of that. So, and then I'll just put your spirit around everything. I kind of have a triangle, then I put a big circle around it and that's your spirit. You've gotta put your spirit, enter your purpose, your movement, your social, your nutrition, your family growth and your wealth. Cuz if you don't, life just feels like one big to-do list and you actually lose your identity in the process of attempting to do the right thing. And that's not how to win the game of life. So, um, they're my parting comments, Scarlet, as much as that's a bit of a deep and meaningful, uh, conclusion, they're kind of the ingredients that I like to live by and I like to help others live by as well.
Speaker 1 00:22:12 I love them. They're absolutely right on the money and, um, I couldn't agree more. Amazing. So how can people find you, Marcus?
Speaker 2 00:22:20 Uh, there's a few ways that the, the book's called Your Exceptional Life. Uh, my website, marcus pierce.com.au has most links there. Um, if people are interested in coming to IAD ear or the book or listening to the podcast, 100 not out, that's, you know, apple and Spotify and so on. Um, and then I'm just on the socials at Marcus d Pierce, if people would like to connect that way.
Speaker 1 00:22:43 Fantastic. And we will put all your links on the, um, a podcast as well. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful wisdom and um, I love what you're doing. It's very inspiring.
Speaker 2 00:22:53 Thank you. Thanks for having me, Scarlet. Thank you so much.
