Last updated on February 23rd, 2026
Featured image: Why not enjoy that ice cream? Age is all about mindset| Photo by Unai82 on Envato
The newest books on longevity are anchored in science
Curated by JourneyWoman
When it comes to aging, attitude is everything. These books on longevity invite us to dislodge ourselves from the long-accepted myths of aging with practical, science-based information from experts and medical doctors who have spent decades in the field. As we reconsider and redefine what “aging” looks like as a time of activity, health, and social and economic engagement, these books challenge conventional thinking and inspire us to keep our minds and bodies healthy.
What does this have to do with travel? Data on healthy aging shows that travel is a powerful enabler of longevity. According to research from the Global Coalition on Healthy Aging (GCOA) and TransAmerica, regular travel boosts physical health, cognitive resilience and social connections. The GCOA says that “Regular travel has been shown to reduce mortality risk by 36.6% and lower Alzheimer’s risk by up to 47% through culturally enriching activities, like museum visits, attending live music performances and exploring historical landmarks.”
Have a favourite book to suggest? Leave it in the comments below and we’ll add it to the list.
Should you want to purchase one of these books, please use our links for Bookshop.org or Amazon, which will provide us with a small commission at no cost to you, but is much appreciated as it helps support our efforts to inspire travel by book! Please note the excerpts below are drawn from the publishers’ materials, with some of our own commentary.
Six books that reframe aging
1. “Super Agers” by Eric Topol
Super Agers is a detailed guide to a revolution transforming human longevity by one of the most respected medical researchers in the world, Eric Topol. There’s also a cookbook called “T
According to Topol, 96 per cent of Americans over 60 have at least one chronic disease and almost as many have two. He explains new approaches to the worst chronic killers—diabetes/obesity, heart disease, cancer, and neurodegeneration—and how treatments can begin long before middle age, and even long after. In 30 years, we will have five times as many people at least 100 years old and they will be healthier than ever because of the breakthroughs Dr. Topol describes
Topol was recently featured on a Mel Robbins podcast about longevity and spoke extensively about the impact of environmental factors such as air pollution, ultra-processed foods, plastics and chemically covered cooking utensils. Not only is this topic an incentive to rethink what we eat, it felt like an invitation to invest in an air cleaner like this best-selling Conway HEPA filter on Amazon.
2. “Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better with Age” by Chip Conley
The midlife crisis is the butt of so many jokes, but this long-derided life stage has an upside. What if we could reframe our thinking about the natural transition of midlife not as a crisis, but as a chrysalis—a time when something profound awakens in us, as we shed our skin, spread our wings, and pollinate our wisdom to the world?
In Learning to Love Midlife, Modern Elder Academy’s Chip Conley offers an alternative narrative to the way we commonly think of our 40s, 50s and 60s. Drawing on the latest social science research, inspiring stories, and timeless wisdom, he reveals 12 reasons why life gets better with age. No matter where you are in your midlife journey, this perspective‑shifting guide will inspire you to find joy, purpose and success in the years that lie ahead—and how those years can be your best ones yet.
3. “Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimaging Life” by Louise Aronson
For more than 5,000 years, “old” has been defined as beginning between the ages of 60 and 70. That means most people alive today will spend more years in elderhood than in childhood, and many will be elders for 40 years or more. Yet at the very moment that humans are living longer than ever before, we’ve made old age into a disease, a condition to be dreaded, denigrated, neglected, and denied.
Harvard-trained geriatrician Louise Aronson uses stories from her quarter century of caring for patients, and draws from history, science, literature, popular culture, and her own life to weave a vision of old age that’s neither nightmare nor utopian fantasy–a vision full of joy, wonder, frustration, outrage, and hope about aging, medicine, and humanity itself.
Elderhood is for anyone who is, in the author’s own words, “an aging, i.e., still-breathing human being.”
4. “The Midlife Manifesto” by Chip Conley
Chip Conley, legendary entrepreneur, midlife activist, and founder of the Modern Elder Academy (MEA) reveals why the decades from 35 to 75 can be the most transformative of your life. Inside The Midlife Manifesto, you’ll learn to:
- Turn painful life lessons into your greatest wisdom
- Shift from anti-aging obsession to pro-aging purpose
- Move beyond knowledge-gathering to wisdom-cultivating
- Evolve from a consuming caterpillar to a benevolent butterfly
The Midlife Manifesto delivers life-changing insights that will challenge, inspire, and guide you through your most powerful decades. Each page is a stepping stone toward the person you’re meant to become.
5. From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life” by Arthur Brooks
The roadmap for finding purpose, meaning, and success as we age, from bestselling author, Harvard professor, and the Atlantic’s happiness columnist Arthur Brooks. Many of us assume that the more successful we are, the less susceptible we become to the sense of professional and social irrelevance that often accompanies aging. But the truth is, the greater our achievements and our attachment to them, the more we notice our decline, and the more painful it is when it occurs.
Drawing on social science, philosophy, biography, theology, and eastern wisdom, as well as dozens of interviews with everyday men and women, Brooks shows us that true life success is well within our reach.
6. “ROAR into The Second Half of Your Life” by Michael Clinton
ROAR will help you fulfill your dreams before it’s too late. ROAR offers an empowering path for reimaging and embracing your future life through a dynamic process called ROAR: Reimagine yourself; Own who you are; Act on what’s next; Reassess your relationships.
Michael Clinton shows readers how to ROAR into their future. Demonstrated through his own example, along with tips, resources, and true stories from over 40 people who didn’t let their age or other setbacks stop them, readers will aspire to pursue their goals and get back to a life well lived. Prescriptive and inspiring. ROAR will motivate, entertain, and transform readers.
JourneyWoman Staff
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