Dan Buettner (born June 18, 1960) is an American National Geographic Fellow and New York Times-bestselling author. He is an explorer, educator, author, producer, storyteller and public speaker. He co-produced an Emmy Award-winning documentary and holds three Guinness records for endurance cycling. Buettner is the founder of Blue Zones, LLC.
Biography
Early life
Dan Buettner was born on June 18, 1960, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. After graduating from the University of St. Thomas in 1983, Buettner took a year to explore Spain before taking a job with National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., to recruit celebrity participation in a fund-raising croquet tournament with journalist George Plimpton.
Education
Buettner graduated from the University of St. Thomas in 1983. Soon thereafter he went to work for The Washington Post columnist Remar Sutton and Paris Review Editor George Plimpton to organize the National Public Radio’s Celebrity Croquet Tournament.
Early expeditions
In 1986, Dan Buettner launched the first of several Guinness World Records for transcontinental cycling. "Americastrek" traversed , from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina; the 1990 "Sovietrek", where Dan was joined by his brother Steve, followed the 45th parallel around the world and covered , as Buettner recounted the trip in his book Sovietrek. In 1992, in "Africatrek", the Buettner brothers team-cycled from Bizerte, Tunisia, to Cape Agulhas, South Africa, with cyclist Dr. Chip Thomas, covering over eight months. Buettner’s book, Africatrek: A Journey by Bicycle through Africa, won the Young Reader Award from Scientific American.
MayaQuest
In February 1995, Buettner developed a genre of exploration that enabled online audiences to direct teams of experts to solve mysteries. His MayaQuest [USA Today CITATION] expedition sought to help solve the mystery of the 9th century Maya Collapse. Carrying laptop computers and a newly demilitarized satellite dish, the expedition interacted with classrooms that helped determine exploration route and findings. Hamline University’s Center for Global Environmental Education created a framework for schools to use the expedition as multi-disciplinary teaching themes. Both Africatrek and MayaQuest were adapted into educational computer games by MECC in the late 1990s.
Businesses
In 1995, Buettner founded Earthtreks, Inc. to manage his expeditions. He sold the company to Classroom Connect in 1997 but continued to lead expeditions until 2002. His team retraced Darwin’s route in the Galapagos and followed Marco Polo’s trail on the Silk Road, explored the collapse of the Anasazi Civilization and traced the origins of Western Civilization.
When Buettner realized that adults were also following his expeditions, he approached National Geographic with the idea to research longevity hotspots and was given support to move forward. He then met with Robert Kane, as of 2016 the Director, Center on Aging, at the University of Minnesota, who introduced him to demographers and scientists at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in Washington, D.C. Buettner was awarded a grant from the National Institute of Aging. Previous research identified the longevity hotspots of Sardinia, Okinawa, and Loma Linda.
In 2003, Buettner began leading trips to these destinations while collaborating with a variety of experts, including anthropologists, historians, dietitians, and geneticists, "to reverse engineer longevity". His early trips focused on Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Monterrey, Nuevo Leon; and Loma Linda, California.
Blue Zones
In 2003, Buettner formed Blue Zones LLC. Buettner reported his findings of communities with increased longevity, identified as blue zones, in his cover story for National Geographic Magazine'''s November 2005 edition, "Secrets of Long Life."
In 2006, under aegis of National Geographic, Buettner collaborated with Michel Poulain and Costa Rican demographer Dr. Luis Rosero-Bixby to identify a fourth longevity hotspot in the Nicoya Peninsula. In 2008, again working with Poulain, he found a fifth longevity hotspot on the Greek Island of Ikaria. In April 2008, Buettner released a book on his findings, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest, through National Geographic Books. It became a New York Times Best Seller and resulted in interviews for Buettner on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Dr. Oz Show, and Anderson Cooper 360, among other national media.