Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 516 is my conversation with Dr. Mike Simpson, a physician and the author of Honed. Mike took a nontraditional path into medicine, and he brings a blunt message: aging is real, but the gradual surrender most people accept after 40 is a societal default, not a fact of life. We talk about why mindset comes first, why average is a choice, and how to mitigate the effects of aging instead of quietly giving things up.
▶ Watch on YouTube · 🎧 Listen now
Dr. Mike Simpson is a physician and the author of the book Honed. He took a nontraditional path into medicine and an unconventional path in life, growing up in a blue-collar, hunting-oriented small town called Tehachapi, California, after being born in Redondo Beach. He now lives in Central Texas, north of Austin, and focuses on helping people stay physically and mentally sharp as they age.
Honed is built around the idea that aging is real but the decline most people accept is largely a societal construct. Mike argues that we are sold a fake bill of goods — that it is normal and expected to get your first blood pressure medication, slow down, and settle for average. His book pushes back, laying out how mindset and deliberate action can keep a person sharp and capable far longer than the default path allows.
Mindset. Mike says mindset is hugely important and is the first step and continues to be the most important step in everything you do. Before any program of training or nutrition, he argues, you have to reject the societal expectation of average and decline. Without that mental shift, he says, the rest does not stick.
No — Mike is clear that aging is a real thing and its effects are real. His point is not that you can stop aging, but that you can do a lot to mitigate it instead of simply giving up, which is what most people do. He is also realistic about limits, noting you will not see him jumping into a cage or onto a mat to mix it up with people thirty years younger.
Staying honed, in Mike's framing, means refusing the default slide into medication, inactivity, and lowered expectations that society treats as normal after 40. It means using mindset, training, and deliberate habits to remain sharp, capable, and engaged, mitigating the genuine effects of aging rather than accepting decline as inevitable.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 516 with Dr. Mike Simpson is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
I am at the age where the world starts quietly telling you to slow down, take the pill, play golf on the weekend, and accept average. Mike Simpson is a physician who flatly rejects that script, and he can back it up. I wanted him to walk me through the argument in his book Honed — not the fantasy that you can stop aging, but the case that most of the decline we accept is a choice. The part that hit me hardest was how much of it starts in the mind.
Mike's core argument is that we are sold a societal bill of goods — that it is normal to get your first blood pressure medicine, slow down, and settle. He explains why he thinks that expectation is a construct, not a fact. It is a genuinely provocative reframe of what aging has to look like. Press play to hear him make the case.
Before any workout or diet, Mike puts mindset first and says it stays the most important step. He explains why the mental shift has to come before the physical work, and why people who skip it never stick with anything. The way he prioritizes it changed how I think about my own training. Watch the YouTube player above.
Mike does not promise you can stop the clock — he is clear the effects of aging are real. What he offers is a realistic plan to mitigate them instead of surrendering. He gets specific about what that looks like day to day. Hear the practical side in the episode.
▶ Watch the full conversation on YouTube · 🎧 Listen now
Mike took a nontraditional road into medicine, from blue-collar Tehachapi to Central Texas. He talks about that path and how it shaped his refusal to accept the default. It is a good reminder that the people who reject the script usually had to fight for everything. Watch the player above for his story.
The day after talking to Mike, the line I kept hearing was that average is what is expected — and that expecting average is exactly how you get it. He refuses to, and that refusal is the whole book.
What I take from Mike is that staying sharp after 40 is not about chasing your twenties. It is about deciding, on purpose, not to give up the things most people quietly surrender. That decision starts in the mind.
▶ Watch the full conversation on YouTube · 🎧 Listen now
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Dr. Mike Simpson is a physician and the author of Honed, a book that challenges the slow decline most people accept after 40. Raised in the blue-collar town of Tehachapi, California, and now based in Central Texas, he took a nontraditional path into medicine and now focuses on helping people stay physically and mentally sharp through mindset and deliberate action. His message is that aging is real but average is a choice.
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