summarize: This book came perilously close to never seeing the light of day. In early
2020, after my book agent and publisher fired me for failing to deliver a
manuscript that was already a year late, I was in no mood to put any
additional effort into it and decided to scrap the whole project. The draft sat
untouched for about nine months until my friend Michael Ovitz asked if he
could read it. A couple of weeks later, Michael called to tell me that he
thought it had great potential and that it needed to be published. He suggested
that my coauthor Bill Gifford and I send a cleaned-up version to his friend,
Diana Baroni, at Penguin Random House. Had Michael not forced the issue,
making the introduction to Diana and consummating the agreement with
Penguin Random House, Outlive might still be a random Google doc seen
only by Bill and me and a handful of others. I’m grateful for Diana’s ability to
see what that somewhat ragged manuscript could become, and, more
importantly, for her guidance in helping us get it there.
Long before that, this book would have died on the vine without Bill’s
help. In mid 2017, after I had written about 30,000 words on my own, my
then publisher said my draft was too technical and lacked any sense of me as
a person and my own journey to understanding the importance of longevity.
They suggested I find a coauthor, and so began a long search that led to Bill. I
had read a story Bill wrote in 2015 about rapamycin, as well as his book
Spring Chicken, and had a hunch that he was the right person to help me
navigate a very delicate task: to convey this complex subject matter accurately
and with attention to nuance and detail, while making it readable and
accessible to a broader audience. As Bill put it, he is my translator. In the
process, Bill also became a close friend and someone who, at times, saw the
worst in me, but I hope also the best.
I cannot imagine having written this book without the help of Bob
Kaplan. Bob was my head of research from 2015 through 2021, and he
played an essential role in not only gathering and poring through all the
studies that went into this book, but also pushing back on ideas and forcing
me to be more rigorous in my thinking. If that wasn’t enough, Bob came out
of retirement in 2022 to take on the Herculean task of organizing the notes.
Bob, along with Vin Miller, also did most of the fact-checking, while Rachel
Harrus, Sam Lipman, and Kathryn Birkenbach helped with some of the
research.
One thing that really surprised me about this process was how generous
people were with their time and expertise. I sent many sections of the
manuscript to experts for feedback. Without a single exception, every person
that I asked said yes. My gratitude to the following people cannot be
overstated: Kellyann Niotis and Richard Isaacson (neurodegenerative
diseases), Matt Walker and Vik Jain (sleep), Lew Cantley and Keith Flaherty
(cancer), Layne Norton, David Allison, and Kevin Bass (nutrition), Steve
Austad (caloric restriction), Nir Barzilai (centenarians), Matt Kaeberlein and
David Sabatini (rapamycin, mTOR), Tom Dayspring (atherosclerosis), and
Beth Lewis, who was immensely helpful as I tried (and tried, and tried) to
write about stability in a way that made sense.
So much of what I’ve written about in this book is rooted in my
interactions with my patients and with my podcast guests. My patients’
experiences comprise the substrate for this book, the raw material, and they
remind me constantly of the need to be continually learning. This is why my
podcast, The Drive, exists: It’s a forcing function that requires me and my
staff to learn at a breakneck pace. The knowledge I gain each week through
interviewing experts has also informed much of what you have just read.
As indebted as I feel to the brilliant scientists and physicians who have
mentored me throughout my career, I feel an equal if not greater debt to Paul
Conti for forcing me to go to the Bridge, and to the therapists who saved my
life: Esther Perel, Terry Real, Lorie Teagno, Katy Powell, Andy White, Jeff
English, and entire team at PCS.
Several friends also read early sections of this book and provided great
feedback: Rosie Kurmaniak, Deb and Hugh Jackman, David Buttaro, Jason
Fried, and Judith Barker.
You might not know this about me (although maybe you do by now), but
I’m kind of a particular guy, so getting the cover just “right” was no easy task.
Thankfully, Rodrigo Corral and his team were able to come in and design a
cover that Bill and I felt really represented the work inside. They remained
incredibly patient with my micromanaging of every detail of this process
without so much as a chirp.
One of the hardest things about writing this book was simply finding time
to work on it. The clinical team at Early Medical worked overtime to enable
me to spend large blocks of time uninterrupted. Lacey Stenson manages
almost every facet of my personal and professional life and executed some
very big lifts to make this book happen. Without Lacey, none of the trains
run on time. Nick Stenson not only manages every aspect of our digital and
podcast content, but he also oversaw the entire launch strategy and execution
for this book, which turned out to be much more involved than he or I ever
expected.
Lastly, and most importantly, I want to thank Jill. She lived through the
highs and lows and never—not one single moment—stopped supporting me,
even when any reasonable person would have been justified in kicking me to
the curb. You never let go of the rope. Olivia, Reese, and Ayrton saw too
much of their daddy in front of a computer screen on nights and weekends
and repeatedly asked that I work less. Now that this book is done, I can finally
give them more of what they rightly deserve.
Bill Gifford
I would like to thank Martha McGraw for her kindness, coaching, and
support throughout this long and sometimes arduous project. I wouldn’t have
made it without you. Thanks also to <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_PERSON> for the massive research
downloads and helping me make sense of many complex topics. And to my
friend Stephen Dark for all the walks.