The multiple New York Times bestselling author of The Blue Zones books and National Geographic Fellow, Dan Buettner, dropped by the show to talk about his world travels, life-saving longevity research, and some fantastic advice for writers. The author is an internationally recognized explorer who discovered five places in the world — called Blue Zones — where humans live the longest and healthiest, and his 2005 National Geographic cover story “The Secrets of Living Longer” was a finalist for a National Magazine Award. Based on his Blue Zones work, Dan founded a company of the same name to share “the world’s best practices in longevity and well-being” and has helped to successfully raise life expectancy in American cities including both Minnesota and Los Angeles. Mr. Buettner has been featured on Real Time with Bill Maher, CNN, the Late Show with David Letterman, Good Morning America, and the TODAY show to discuss his research. His TED talk “How to live to be 100+” has been viewed almost 2.9 million times, and he has given more than 500 keynote speeches over the last 10 years. If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews. In this file Dan Buettner and I discuss: Wise words from the author’s mentor George Plimpton Why good stories are the Trojan Horse to winning over readers How a decade of research and writing became a life-saving blueprint for American cities The coffee shop effect for productive writing One great trick for beating writer’s block Why building your brand is so important for writers The Show Notes If you’re ready to see for yourself why over 194,000 website owners trust StudioPress — the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins — just go to Rainmaker.FM/StudioPress How Award-Winning Sports & Travel Writer Adam Skolnick (Author of ‘One Breath’) Writes: Part One BlueZones.com Dan Buettner books on Amazon National Geographic Explorer – Dan Buettner Dan Buettner’s TED talk ‘How to live to be 100+’ Dan Buettner on Facebook Blue Zones on Twitter Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices