- I don't think I ever became competitive actually until I was 88 (Rich laughing) and I got first place in what they call the single-age running. I'm 22 years older than the average person who dies in this country,
and it's been a pleasure. For my age, I'm practically number one. (both laughing) - Hey everybody. Welcome to the podcast, my podcast, the show where we go deep on a
really wide variety of stuff, stuff that I think matters,
including health, fitness, nutrition, what else? Longevity, what it means to
pursue a life of meaning? Which are all subjects we're
privileged to explore today through the lived
experience of a centenarian, a human who has literally
been walking the Earth for a full 100 years. Which is, of course,
rare, it's really unique and just an amazing privilege to be able to talk to him today. His name is Mike Fremont. Mike is a retired engineer, turned climate activist and athlete who in addition to being
pretty darn with it holds, prepare yourself, get this, just an absolute slew of age group world records in running, including the fastest recorded
marathon for an 88-year-old for a 90-year-old and a 91-year-old, if I got that right. At the ripe young age of 96, Mike set the American one mile record for the 95 to 99 age group. And as a lifelong canoe racer at 99, he was the oldest person to race the Canoe National Championships. And Mike's still out
there every single day, just getting after it. So how does he do it? What is Mike's secret? Well, this conversation is my attempt to extract his testimony and his counsel for younger generations on
what he's learned about life, what he's learned about
longevity, vitality, purpose, fitness, setting
world records and diet. Because for Mike, it's
kind of all about diet, specifically the whole
food plant-based diet that he adopted 30 years ago, something he did in the wake of receiving a colon cancer diagnosis
that he really credits as fueling his training. It's what keeps him spry. It's what informs his climate activism. And in his words, "really is the thing "that has allowed him to thrive decades "beyond social expectations." It's not often you get the
opportunity to spend time with a centenarian. And I really think our
culture fails pretty miserably when it comes to appreciating our elders. So I really loved having him on the show. Shout out to Mike's running
buddy elite ultra-marathoner and friend of the podcast, Harvey Lewis for making this podcast happen. I consider Mike a brand new friend, and I'm just really
proud to share his voice with all of you today. So please hit that subscribe
button and let's do it. This is me and Mike Fremont. Well, Mike, it's a pleasure to meet you. It's an honor to talk to you today. It's a rare thing that anybody gets to
sit down with somebody who has experienced so much life as you and I just can't wait to
hear more about your life. I guess the first obvious
question is, how does it, how are you doing? Like, how do you feel? What is it like to be 100? - These, believe it or not,
are the very best years of my life. No question. - Why is that. - Things that I've
worked for and worked on have blossomed out. I'm still here. I can still run, so to speak. For my age, I'm practically number one. (both laughing)
- Yeah. By sheer process of elimination. But also, I mean, it's amazing
that you still get out there, you're still running,
you're so engaged with life. I have to imagine that's
a big part of the secret, just being engaged with
life and finding purpose in the things that interest you. - Well, it turned out that
I made a wise decision when I was faced with an operation. And I hold that largely
responsible for all the records that I set in old age. No question in my mind. Absolutely, it is diet that
has determined my existence, my continued existence
and my beautiful health. - So tell me more about that. You were 70 when you were
diagnosed with colon cancer - Yeah 69, actually.
- 69. So yeah. Maybe explain that a little bit. - Yeah. I had a polyp, P-O-L-Y-P, in one of my nether parts,
and the doctor I went to sent me to the Cleveland
Clinic for a proper diagnosis. And they put a television
set connection into me, so I could see what was going on, and they said that this
tumor that they saw had metastasized, which means it had taken root
in different parts of my body, the lymphatic system, and that even if they took the tumor out, they would have to go
after those metastases. And at the time I had, by that time received a book
from my son in California, that I'll see probably
tomorrow, (chuckles) who had sent me a book called "The Cancer Prevention
Diet" by Michio Kushi, a Japanese chap who
settled here and was in Becket, Massachusetts with his entourage. And I called him to ask him
why he sent me the book? He said, "You may need it someday." So, of course, I didn't read it until I was diagnosed, at which point I devoured it. And I went cold turkey on what
is now known as a vegan diet. At that time, it was a macrobiotic diet. I think it was even beginning
to be accepted a little bit by people in California. (chuckles) - Sure. So essentially
for the last 30 years you've been eating a very strict whole plant-based diet.
- 100%. 100%, no exceptions, cold turkey. - And what happened to? You get the diagnosis, excuse
me, from the Cleveland Clinic, did they wanna put you in chemotherapy, or did you do chemotherapy
or what happened? - They said, if you're not operated on you have three months to live. That was the other side of
the equation, I thought. So I decided after reading the book, I decided I would try the diet. And I said, I'll check with
you guys from time to time, which I didn't do because I, two weeks after going on the diet, I realized that various
things were happening to me that I hadn't anticipated, such as arthritis in the back of my neck, arthritis in this shoulder, arthritis in these
fingers had disappeared. No explanation, no problem. Furthermore, my hands and
lips used to be chapped from the time I was a little kid. That disappeared.
- Wow. - It disappeared. The only thing I might have had, which by that time I was
old enough to have outgrown was asthma, which is what
kept me out of the military, which had kept me out of
school for a month once. - Was this for, so you were born, I assume you were born in like 1922? - Exactly. Yeah. - So you would've been prime
candidate for World War II? - Exactly. So half of my class was
in uniform at college, In uniform, and they had their educational experience there too, and I regretted I
couldn't be part of them. Anyway, that diet had so much going for it I marvel that big business hasn't
grabbed it and run with it after all these years. People used to look at me
strangely when I'd say, "No, I don't eat meat. "No, I don't drink milk. "No eggs, no eggs." (chuckles) - Yeah. Well, it has, I mean, there is big business now
in that it is much more widely acceptable and adopted.
- It is. - And there are lots of
companies making products for this lifestyle. But you are correct,
and it is interesting. So your arthritis started to disappear, you knew something was
going on inside you, but did you have a sense
that this was helping with your cancer? - I'm no doctor, I can't
get into that science, but several of these diseases that we have are truly associated
with eating certain meats and what other categories there are. - So you had adopted this diet
and you were eating this way for a couple years. And then at some point you had
the tumor surgically removed, am I right?
- It began to bleed again. I knew I had to be operated
for the basic tumor. I was operated by a doctor in Dayton, who'd been in the army. He'd been an army doctor who was specialized in
that kind of operation. And he told Marilyn after the operation that
he'd looked in 35 places for metastasis and found none, none. 35 places. So what I had done by simply changing diet was to kill the metastases that would possibly have killed me. I found out subsequently,
quite a bit subsequently, as a matter of fact, a
matter of months ago, that there are something
like 52,000 people a year who die of colorectal cancer. 90% of them die of the metastases. 90%. - Yeah. That's amazing. And it never, after you
had the tumor removed, there was no, you were in
remission and it never came back. - Well, I feel that I can
counsel, actually counsel people who had this particular
disease. (chuckles) Say, "Try this. Try this." (chuckles) - Right. And where does the running begin? - Running? I was 36, I had three little children, and my first wife, and she
died of my brain hemorrhage when our daughter was two weeks old. And I had started a business a year before and I was all alone and decided, was stressed and I lived on a dam, and I used to run across
that dam, which was level, every day after work. And it was very rewarding, it was better than two martinis. (both laughing) - But not to be competitive at that time? - No thought of it. Then someone said, "Why
don't you get in a race?" And I said, "Me! Like, I'm
50 years old, (chuckles) "36 years old or whatever was it." But I kept running. I enjoyed it. Used to go to the beach,
whenever we went to the beach, which is not in Cincinnati, of course. So running became a
little part of my life. And then they got me in a race and I did, okay. I didn't come in last (laughs) They said, "Are you gonna try for Boston?" I said, "I have to run a
marathon first." (laughs) So I ran a marathon and
didn't qualify for Boston. So I ran a few more
marathons and I qualified. Then I did my first Boston and I thought, "Wow, you can actually run." - Yeah. So it's around 60 where you start getting
competitive though, as I understand, is that correct? - Not really. I don't think I ever became competitive, actually, until I was 88. (both laughing) I ran a marathon when I
was 88 and I got first. First place in history
in what they call the world single-age running category. I brought you some sheets
of that to show you, if you hadn't seen it.
- Sure. Yeah. So at 88 you set the
single-age world record for the marathon. And then at 90 you do it again, the single-age world
record for the marathon. And at 90, you also set
the single-age world record for the half marathon. And at 91, the single-age world record for the half marathon. - That's right. - So you have One, two,
four world records, and you have a whole slew of five-year age group records going, there's too many to even keep track. - I didn't even realize that at the time, there's not much competition out there. There hasn't been because
people don't understand the system, how your system
works and contributes to you being able to do these things. - So talk about that, I wanna hear more about
how to do this thing. So maybe explain how you do it. Like, how are you able
to not just run marathons and half marathons in your late 80s and over the course of your 90s, but also set world records. Like, what is the secret
to longevity here? We talked about diet, but also what is your fitness routine? - The longevity part of it is
the interesting part, I think. And the Japanese are credited with living six years longer
on average than Americans. That's a huge amount.
- Yeah. - But here I've already, I'm 22 years older than
the average person who dies in this country. And it's been a pleasure. And it's simply because of what I eat, which is not that specifically
precision designed to make me an expert. I'm not an expert on it. I know what works for me, and I've never had any question about it. But I just don't do bad things in eating. - Tell me exactly what it is that you eat, like a day in the life of food for you? Like, what are your meals? - Well, tomorrow or today, (chuckles) I had some oatmeal that
had a few blueberries on the top of it, and
then some sweet dollop or syrup or something, little teeny thing. (chuckles) And I had a cup, that was about this high, filled with fruits, actually with berries, strawberries and
blackberries and blueberries. And one other thing might have been a piece
of mango or something. It was $7 at the motel, which is a very high price, of course. - (laughs) Welcome to Los Angeles. - Wouldn't be high price
if it was alcohol. (laughs) - And what would a lunch and
a dinner look like for you? - Oh, I might have something as prosaic as half a can of black beans, or kidney beans or garbanzo beans with a little bit of tamari salty sauce-
- Tamari. - Just a few drops of it, and then I'll put the other
half away in the ice box and eat it the next day. So I try to get beans every day. I might do some broccoli flowers, which I use a little bit of ketchup with to make 'em taste like something. - Yeah. (laughs) Okay. So pretty basic close
to their natural state. Sorry to interrupt the flow. We'll be right back with more awesome. But I wanna snag a moment
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off in annual membership. All right, let's get back to the show. So what about the fitness routine? What is the secret to how
you've been able to continue running into your 90s and now at 100? - I was able to retire at
the age of 88. (laughs) - So low stress, free time. - Stress also kills. And if you can keep
your life from distress, as well as stress, you're very fortunate. But diet and stress are the
two things you can kill. Definitely can kill. - But tell me about your
daily fitness routine and how you've been able
to stay active and running. Like how do you keep it up? - Well, actually, I run in
a place called Sharon Woods, which is a county park
five and a half miles from where I live. And it has hills, and it has a gravel path, and it has blacktop path all together, and one circle is five miles. And the same people come
out there year after year, all the time, you expect to see them, you make friends of 'em. And I do that. My routine had been three times
a week, Monday, not Monday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday I would run 10 miles until I was 98. - Yeah. Wow. - I decided it was taking too
long for me to run 10 miles (laughs) with people I had grown to know over how many years was it? It was about, let me see, we set up a little group in 1979. Yeah, yeah. That's 21 in 40 years. - That's quite a long time. 10 miles, three times a week. 10 miles, three times a week. - That was 30 miles, 10
miles three times a week. - And what is it like now? - It's five miles three times a week. - And do you do any, I know canoeing. I wanna talk about the canoeing, but do you do any other kind of exercises? - Up to this year I've been a canoe racer on a lake that's three miles away and they refused to let the lake be used, the county park lake,
by people who might drown, you know, people self-propelled
canoes or kayaks. They even kept Roland Mullen,
who was a Olympic champion, three times, in canoe
racing in the Olympics. They wouldn't let him practice on it.
- They wouldn't want him, they were worried about him drowning? (both laughing) - What we did was to
scare the park district because that had lawyers
and their insurance people and said, "Don't let people do that, "they'll drown and they'll
sue and you'll have to pay." But we said, "We pay for these parks. "We have a right to use them." So they finally said, "Okay
in 2000, we'll open 'em up." And they did. So I was one of the first guys out there with my racing canoe. And another guy in an
old canoe came up to me, and he says, "What kind of canoe is that?" And I described it and I
said, "You wanna try it?" And he said, "Yeah." So we exchanged canoes and he tried it. The next day he took his
pickup truck and drove it to Western Maryland, bought the same canoe and drove it back the same day. - Oh wow. And he became your canoeing buddy? - He became my canoeing buddy. And then we attracted another guy because we're out there plugging away. And then I said, you know, "We ought to start a group here." He at the time was 13
years younger than me. That was 2000. So I was what, 78? Yeah. He was 13 years younger. He was 65. I said, "You're gonna be the TAPIOCA of this organization. He said, "What the hell is that?" I said, it's the temporary
acting provisional interim orchestrator of coalition activities. (both laughing) - There you go. - That's quite a handle. - It's a lot of pressure. - And he said, "What should
we call this outfit?" I said, "Why don't we
call it the EPA?" (laughs) So he said, "That's the
Elderly Paddlers Association." (both laughing) - There you go. - So we attracted a few more. We probably got about 12 all together, and Marilyn, as one of them
who come out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday,
that's 07:30 in the morning before the motorboats go
out there, before it's early enough to be daylight. I mean, late enough to be daylight. - Right. And are you still doing that now? - Yeah.
- You are. Well, I haven't started this season yet. It's been too cold. - But the EPA lives on. - Oh yeah.
- Okay, good. (both laughing) And where did you meet Harvey? Obviously Harvey Lewis
is our connective tissue, he introduced us. I know that you guys
are really good friends. When did you meet Harvey? - I'm not sure, but it was within the last four years. And I was very taken with him, I thought this is a tremendous athlete and a tremendous person. And he asked me twice
to speak to his class, his high school class. I said, "What are you teaching?" He said, "Well, government
and operation of cities "and that sort of thing." It's the high school kids. I said, "What I wanted to tell them "and this is about the
diet and athletic stuff, "because that would be what
they might be interested in." Harvey asked me every year if I wanna run the Flying Pig Marathon. (laughs) "5K or 10K?" (laughs) I'm not up to a marathon anymore. Unless somebody were to say, "Well, we'll give you $30,000
for charitable purposes." If he had said that, I would say, "I will train for a year to
run a marathon at this age, "if you gimme enough money to fund this "or that or the other." - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Nobody's taken me up on it. - I could see that happening though. Has anybody run a marathon at age 100? I don't think that that's ever occurred. - I don't think so. I really don't think so. I think I could, because I think a marathon, the one I set the world record in was not overly stressing. - It wasn't? - No, I think I could have gone further. - Really? I would imagine somebody
could put together some funds that would go to charity to see
you train and do a marathon. - Well, I would compromise. I would have to make a major
sacrifice in lifestyle. I think. (laughs) - (laughs) Yeah. I would imagine. - It might be possible. Maybe I'd find it wasn't
possible for me to do that. But, I would only do that if my training told me that I could. - Right. But you're doing, like, so recently you've
done five Ks with Harvey. So you're still doing
races, just not marathons? - He runs at my speed. (laughs) - He's an amazing human
being, that Harvey. So did you go and talk to the students? What did you tell them? - I told them about global warming and sustainability of
the world on this planet. And the reason I did that is
I thought through introducing, as best I can, the impact of diet, which translates to
agriculture in general, not completely because
we have to grow cotton and we have to grow trees. And that agriculture at
the time was supposed to be contributing, agriculture
and quotation marks, was supposed to be
contributing 51% of the CO2, the excess that we have in the atmosphere. 41%, not 51%. And we have to reduce that. And somebody who understands
it can help inform the public and make, get the politics
in such a way as to do that. We have not been very
effective doing that. - No, we haven't. - We should have been
much, much more effective. By talking to you so that
other people can hear, is an important move
for me in my small way, and us, we have a little
share, we call it a think tank of four people at home
who meet once a month trying to get this word out. And we've done our own study about the effect of food alone in agriculture of the
total CO2 equivalent, which includes some methane,
some NO2, NO, I mean, and water vapor to a certain extent. Those are the greenhouse gases.. - Sure, sure, sure. Yeah. So climate change, sustainability, the impact of agriculture
on climate change, and also the ability to
be part of this solution by getting people to change their diet. This is something that
is important to you. You've been advocating
for this for a long time. And I know that you've put
a lot of time and energy and resources into restoring and improving Ohio's rivers and streams, right. You've been active in the restoration of the waterways in Ohio over the years? - Oh, that was before
the global warming issue. Yeah. I guess I was a canoe racer. I've been a canoe racer 60 years. I know how to run a canoe. In the early days, we worried about where we
paddled and it was degraded or there were dams in the way, or all sorts of nasty things
being done to the waters of the country. And they passed in 1968, the National Wild and Scenic
Rivers Act as a national thing. And the little Miami River, which goes through Cincinnati
was one of the first 27 rivers in the whole country designated
to become a candidate to be a member of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers system. And so that put a focus
on the little Miami River, which is a beautiful river,
and where I used to practice before I practiced on the lake. I was pretty far away, and
the reason I gave it up for the lake is because
it was not convenient. But I used to practice on that. The State of Ohio had a friendly governor who happened at the time to be a Democrat, and his name was John Gilligan. And he was sympathetic
to what we wanted to do. We wanted to protect Ohio's rivers. As a matter of fact, we
had set up an Ohio river, Ohio scenic river system a year before the federal government did, - The idea, at least the
idea that we had was that the people who really cared
about the rivers should be members of a board of a
statewide river protection group. And that's what we started with, and we were able through that
means to gather larger numbers of people together, get decisions made to
protect these rivers. And interestingly to me, anyway, we decided that the American
people have a way of expressing their interest in things
is measured in dollars. And I think we're internationally
known for that. (laughs) - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And we decided that the
little Miami River was bringing unbelievable returns to
the villages along it, economic returns to the canoe liveries, from the fishing, from the swimming, from the property value appreciation of having this beautiful stream go by, that the little children could play in. And we decided it was bringing
in to the public $100,000 a year, every year reliably, as well as employing these
kids who could hustle canoes in liveries, that would be hard a job to replace. And that meant $10 million a year for the
100 miles of that stream. 100 miles of the little
Miami River would bring in $10 million a year just
because it was there. - Sure. So rather than appealing
to somebody's sensitivity to environmental issues, by focusing on the economic impact and appealing to the incentives of that to keep the rivers clean, that's what moves the needle. That's what actually-
- Exactly. Then we had a governor
whose name was Bob Taft, who was the son of, or
grandson of William Howard Taft of great national fame.
- Sure. - And I went to school with two Taft guys, they're both gone now, and Taft's wife, Hope, and he bought a place on
the Little Miami River to retire in after he was
retired by the voters years ago, And she got really excited
about water quality and the Little Miami River,
the upper 43 miles of it, it's a 100 miles total, and they lived in the upper 43. And with the Taft money and all there was no trouble to
get Ohio State University, which I had worked with for 12 years, to understand the economics
of the Little Miami River. And she got the guy
who was handed the job, after the professor I
worked with retired in 2008, Brent Sohngen his name
is, and they came out with a super, super economic
study, which is very simple. I haven't really had a
chance to study it yet. They were bringing in
something like $233,000 a year, year after year, instead
of $100,000 per mile, per mile of the river. Just economic value. - Right. So the numbers bore it out that it's in everyone's interest
to keep this river clean. And that advocacy led to
that level of preservation. Yeah. That's beautiful. - People spend money on it, you know? The first time we would put somebody that it's got a trail along it, and lots of people use that trail, it goes through different
counties and everything. And they can estimate how much, you put a guy on the trail, "Excuse me, you wanna take a survey, "see how you like the river
and how much you spend, "you spend on gas, you spend on a motel, "you spend on a bicycle,
you spend on skates, "you spend on clothes, you spend on food, "how much do you spend a day?" We figured out that they spend
about $20 a day per person. And I don't know how that's changed, I haven't read this new study yet. It just came out. But it's gonna be a national prize winner of an analysis of how much rivers are really worth in dollars. - Right, right, right, right. Yeah. That's super interesting- - So I'm proud, I'm really proud of that because we started that thing. - When you reflect back on your life, what is it that you, like the wisdom that
you accrue as somebody who's been alive for a long time, like what is the message
that you would like to impart to younger people about what
is important and what isn't? - Well, the conclusion
I came to long, long ago was the real satisfactions
that people can get in their lifetimes and that they consist in helping other people, period. In whatever way, as much as you can. That brings real rewards. - Yeah. Service. - And yes, we're all servants and we should be, it brings the pleasures. It's not the money. If you've got money and
you're happy, good luck. - And so your service comes in the form of your environmental work,
this focus on climate change. What would be another example
of how you channel that service for others that has
given your life meaning? - Well, I think this is
my profession, as it were, the time I can spare
and it's a lot, I read, there's a list of books
I brought here today. I'm desperate to read these things. The latest one is advertised
in the "New York Times" Sunday review of books, and it talks about sustainability. And I need that book, I wanna see it. And the four of us in
our little think tank wanna understand that. The sustainability issue
is an enormous issue because there isn't any way
we can go from a population of close to 2 billion to one that is close to
8 billion in my lifetime, less than my lifetime, I think it was about 2 1/2 billion when I graduated from college in 1943, and now it's 8 billion. How do you do this on a planet is not getting any bigger? You can't farm anymore. You can't farm enough. We can't feed all the people now. It just won't work. We're finding it won't work. We're finding it in hunger. We're finding it in wars
because people get flooded out because the temperature
change is making the ground unavailable to produce food. The oceans are finding it
impossible to produce fish, relatively speaking here and
there, it's totally serious. So the sustainability factor
is every bit as important as the temperature, the world temperature rise. - So you're somebody who, you're
a child of the Depression. You lived through World
War II as a young person. When you kind of look back on your life and reflect upon your peers, I mean, we live in a society
where it is about high stress, it's about accumulation of
material things, but most people by the time they reach around
80 end up in, you know, facilitated living centers,
nursing homes, et cetera. You've been able to opt out of that. So aside from the service
piece and the diet, like what are the other
secrets of longevity that you've relied on that
people should know more about? - Exercise. (laughs)
- Yeah. Breaking world marathon records. - Not necessarily related to diet. - Exercise, being of service, diet. What about friendships, community? - Absolutely. - Relationships.
- Absolutely - [Rich] Talk a little bit about that. - Absolutely. Call it love if you wanna. Well, I guess I'm succeeding
at that without trying. Became 100, I got a box
this big, birthday cards. - Wow. That's amazing. Most people as they get older
they have very few friends, but you have lots and lots of friends. - Well, you find you had friends
and you didn't realize it. I even got a citation
by the governor of Ohio. I didn't vote for him ever. - [Rich] (laughing) Okay. - As a matter of fact, the best governor we ever had married my third wife (laughs) and then he died.
- Okay. - I don't know. I'm very, very, I realize how tremendously
fortunate I happen to be. And it seems like it's
been a simple process, no intellectual adapter, dangerous ventures or anything,
but just grinding along doing the best you can. I've been very happy about it. - But staying engaged with
life with other human beings, having a sense of purpose, right. Like your connection to
climate change issues and sustainability, your love for running, and canoeing, and exercising. I would imagine these are big,
big pieces in what, you know, kind of gets you excited and out of bed in the morning still. - Well, we're all kind of
limited in what we can do because we feel, many of us anyway, that we're under the control of the ultra rich and corporations, and we're threatened in every respect when you come to think of it. And how you handle this,
because the corporations are the key to our financial success, but I leave that for
other people to work on. - (laughing) Yeah. Well, what is your, you know, your message to, like imagine there's
a lot of younger people who are listening to this, they want the wisdom of
somebody who has, you know, lived a life like yours;
service, friendships, purpose, what else do you wanna say to those people about how to live a fulfilling,
meaningful, long life? - Well, I think an approach to young men and a lot of young women now is sports. And the success of vegan
athletes is tremendous. Whole magazines are devoted
to it several times a year. And I see it. It never used to be that way. And you get kidded for eating special, "Who do you think you are?" (laughs) That's why I had some fun talking to Harvey's class. (laughs) - Well, Harvey's such a great ambassador of that as well.
- Yes he is. - So I imagine his students already know that he's a plant-based athlete. They know that he runs these crazy races, but probably receptive
to what you had to say. - I went shopping with him
at a Whole Foods Market in Cincinnati when he was
getting supplies for his Appalachian trail race.
- Oh, Appalachian trail. - And his father would
carry it in their van and cook for him when he came
in, and he's sleeping there, and then he'd go off the next
day and his father's (laughs) hundreds of miles away. (laughs). 49 days to go 2,000 plus miles. The mere fact that a human can do that says that they understood the principles of feeding and resting and
limits to your output as well. And he's got it figure it out. It's beautiful. - Have you heard of the term Blue Zones? The Blue Zones people? Pockets of populations around the world- - Oh, yeah okay.
- Where people live the longest.
- It's coming back. - Yeah, centenarians. And they studied these
populations and they extracted from that certain tenets
or principles of lifestyle that all of these communities shared, among them are diets that are
predominantly plant-based, they aren't exclusively plant-based, but most of these
populations where they have the highest concentration of people living to 100 and beyond are eating
mostly a plant-based diet. But they also are populations
where they're moving all the time, they're not going to the gym or running marathons, but they have- - Seasonal.
- Yeah, movement-oriented lifestyles. And they have rich, rich
relationships within the community. So they have support and
they have connection. They also tend to be
relatively faith-based in different ways, like
faith is a big piece of it. And this idea of purpose,
like what, in Okinawa, they call ikigai, like
feeling like you have a reason for your living. And what I see in you is
an example of all of those principles in your life. - It is admirable what they do. I haven't been exposed to it. I know that they do exist, I
read a little bit about them, but there's always some
limit to what they can do because of this or that
or the other thing, but they do live longer,
they're are happy people. And maybe there are a lot
of ideas that they have that we could use if we
are smart enough to do so. - Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But the fact that you
didn't even kick into your highest gear in running
until you were around 60, and that's when you kind of really found your competitive groove with all of this. Like, it's very inspiring because that's a period
of time where most people would feel like it's time to slow down. And in your example,
that's where I feel like you really started to get
more engaged with your life. - I think, I was in business
long enough to understand that there's a competition that's normal to business in the United States and other countries. And so there's a spirit of competition, that's the way you get things done. And it's not totally compatible with the
lifestyle you would advocate, you might say. That's something I don't
know more about. (laughs) - Yeah. But you said that now
you feel like you're having the best time of your life. Yes? - Well, we had a birthday
party on the beach in Florida. - I saw the video. There's a video on the internet of that, of your birthday party. - I have a nephew who was
the mayor of Vero Beach, which is where we have
relatives and where we, (laughs) and he called up somebody
who used to be manager of the local newspaper, "The
Vero Beach Press Journal" and he came out on the beach
to see me on my birthday and took all our stuff down, and I published it the next day. And Marilyn and I went around
and it fetched 10 copies of the newspapers so we could send it to our families. (laughs) - And you're here in Los Angeles, you have children, grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter
here that you have yet to meet because of the pandemic. Is that right? - I haven't met her because
it's been questionable whether one should fly. - Well, you're here. So you're gonna have a big family reunion? - Yeah, we will. We will. So that's, Marilyn's sister
lives in Lake Arrowhead upper hill in San Bernardino. And she's gonna see us
this afternoon. (chuckles) - Good. Well, I wanna kind of end this on a note of inspiration. Like, again, going back
to looking over the course of your life, you've lived
through so many periods of American history, and, you know, now
we're, as you mentioned, tipping into 8 billion
people on the planet. Like when you reflect back
over the course of your life, like how do you feel about
the future of America and the future of the
planet going forward? - Well, either we face a period of really tremendous
suffering, massive suffering, or we get smart enough
to do some important laws and work on them and understand them so that we can continue to
manage this little bitty planet. We can't, you can talk
about going to Mars, I don't know anybody that'd
be willing to do that. Who's gonna write the newspaper? (both laughing) Who's gonna run the grocery store? Just one of, you know-
- Mars? Are you kidding. - We'll see. We'll see. But yeah, sure, let's save
our planet in the meantime, rather than abandon it
for another, of course. - Oh, I don't know. There may be one out there out
of the billions or trillions of planets that there are. (laughs) - Right. The fact that you have thrived on a plant-based diet over these years, you're an incredible example of the health and robustness of eating this way. And the fact that you've
set these world records eating this way, you're an
early pioneer of this lifestyle. I know that you're friends with a lot of the legendary
doctors in this space, Neal Barnard, and Colin
Campbell, and Caldwell Esselstyn. And I just, I salute you
for being an ambassador and like such a youthful energy exemplar of eating a plant-based diet and being this incredible athlete along the way. And I really do think that
maybe we should try to see if you can get that marathon in. - It's a wonderful thing. It's a quality of life
issues, as a matter of fact, if people are nice to
you when you get old. (both laughing) - Well, it's a privilege to
be able to speak to somebody who has been around for a
while and has wisdom to impart. - Well, yeah, I have been there, I've been through this and
I've been through that, And I'm fortunate, very
fortunate that I survived. My father died of liver
cancer and he had six months of terrible pain and he'd been an athlete, he'd been a gymnast
when he was in college. Diet was standard American. But liver cancer, I'm sure
it was caused by diet. I'm sure of it. - [Rich] Right. - Today we would've fixed him up. But he died at the age of 69 and my mother died of a heart
attack, which was standard, you sort of expect it when
they're in their '70s. Could have probably prevented
that if I'd known then what I know now. - Sure. But your blood work
is good, you're healthy, you're gonna be around for a while. - I hope so. - Everything's good. You go to the doctor,
you get your checkups. Everything is a-okay? - Yes. They called me and asked me to come in to have a regular test. And I did, and I passed it
with flying colors (laughs). - You did. Amazing. (both laughing) Are the doctors surprised
when you come in? Or they know you now,
like, "This is just Mike." - Well, it's only one or two, when you come right down to it. (both laughing) - [Rich] Yeah. - They have to accept it because I can challenge
them too easily. (laughs) - Right. Right, right.
- Anyway- - Thank you for coming
to talk to me today. You are an inspiration and
it is amazing, the fact that you change your diet at 70. - This is probably not a question, it's actually the high point
of what you may call my career, to be interviewed by
you who has interviewed, I got your Volume II,
it's a gorgeous thing. - Oh, you did? Good, good. - It weighs about 20 pounds. - You can use curls. with it.
- It's gorgeous, where did you get the
photography like that? All those people who were so inspiring. (chuckles) That's not my department. - No, I think what you're
doing is incredibly inspiring, and your example, I think, is very uplifting to
everybody who would hear this or see this who's thinking
about their future and what that might look
like as we all get older. And, you know, again, I've said it many times over
the course of our conversation, but the fact that you have
remained so, not only active, but really intentional in
how you're living your life is, I think, a real
inspiration to all of us. And so I guess just in closing, if there's any kind of
final thoughts or wisdom that you would like to impart to anybody who's listening to this. - Well, I'm very grateful
for this opportunity. My gang of four will be very pleased that I was able to express
myself on this and that subject that we work on once a month normally. And that's a major impact I could have is to reach other people
with this message, because I'm saying it
works for me, big time, to be at least 22 years
older than the average person who dies in America. And I feel that's not
long enough yet. (laughs) - Yeah. I think you've got a
lot of life left in you, Mike. Yeah. So you're always welcome here. And I look forward to hanging
out with you for a little bit after we're done here. And I just appreciate you, sir. So thank you. And keep doing what you're doing, I think it's important
and powerful, like I said. And just to be a thriving
example of a plant-based diet, it's a wonderful, wonderful thing. - Thank you.
- Yeah. You're very welcome. - From the bottom of
my heart, I thank you. - Right back at you, my friend. (light outro music)
