What if age is just a state of mind? | Bruce Grierson | TEDxPSU

Why do some people age more slowly than others? The usual suspects are genetic good fortune and lifestyle interventions like diet, sleep and exercise. But one factor that has been vastly overlooked: the thoughts we think. In this talk, social-science writer Bruce Grierson draws on cutting-edge research and the example of a nonagenarian athlete named Olga Kotelko, whose age-defying exploits almost beggar belief. Bruce Grierson was born and raised in Edmonton, Canada, and started on a pre-med stream before switching into the social undergrad, he took a year to clear his head. He planted 50,000 or so evergreen trees in the mosquito-infested wilds of northern Alberta, tended sheep on a farm in Norway, spent time alone on a Greek Island. Somewhere during that year he remembered that what he always wanted to do most was write. Grierson started doing some journalism, which evolved into a specialty in long-form creative nonfiction. His work has been published in The New York Times magazine, Psychology Today, Popular Science, Discover, Scientific American, Eighteen Bridges, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Guardian, and the Globe and Mail. He has collaborated with Kalle Lasn on the book Culture Jam, and has since written two more books, U-Turn and most recently What Makes Olga Run? This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at