CAN AN ENTIRE CITY BECOME HEALTHIER? In 2009, we set out to do something that had never been done: build a Blue Zone from scratch in America. We chose Albert Lea, Minnesota — and instead of asking people to change their willpower, we changed their surroundings. Over 10 months, 4,000 residents joined in — walking groups, potlucks, purpose workshops, quitting tobacco. What happened still moves me: 📈 Life expectancy went up 🚭 Tobacco-free worksites rose from 4% to 24% 💼 Absenteeism dropped 20% 🤝 95% of people made a new friend And it never stopped. Since then Albert Lea has laid nearly 14 miles of new sidewalks and trails and reinvented its downtown — so that moving naturally became the easy choice, not the hard one. This week they invited me back as Grand Marshal of their 4th of July parade. Riding through town, watching families out on the very trails this sparked, one truth hit me all over again: America’s health problems are reversible. Not through diets or discipline — but ...