The Big 100

Journalist William J. Kole, reluctant but newly minted member of the AARP, explores the looming era of super-aging—incredibly longer lifespans overall, and eight times more centenarians by the year 2050—through the lens of past, present, and future life at ages 50 ,65, 80, and on to 100-plus. What are the keys to longevity, how can we apply them, and what happens to all of us when 65 is merely a life half-lived?





In 25 years, (2050), the world’s centenarian population—those aged 100 or more—will increase eightfold. Half of today’s 5-year-olds can expect to reach the same heights. It’s going to upend everything we know about health care, personal finance, retirement, politics, and more. Whether we’re 18 or 81, this demographic shift will affect us all. 

The Big 100 confronts readers with a fate few of us thought possible. Journalist William Kole guides us on a journey into our future, an optimistic but sometimes fraught exploration of super-aging, and the keys to achieving it,  as the grandson of a centenarian. 

Along the way, there are expert sources, like Dr. Jane Goodall, longevity expert Dr. Thomas Perls, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and even 101-year-old influencer Iris Apfel; there are surprises, including the truth about those so-called “Blue Zones” everyone thinks are centenarian factories. (Spoiler alert: They’re not.) And there’s the troubling truth that those reaching extreme longevity tend to be overwhelmingly white, a product of what experts deem the “weathering theory”: the idea that the health of African Americans begins to deteriorate in early adulthood as a physical consequence of socio-economic disadvantages. 

What is the recipe for living longer? How long can we live? How long should we live? The Big 100 explores the most pressing questions of our super-aging future, and offers glimpses of a reality that awaits us, our children, and our grandchildren.