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A new documentary follows George Fox alumnus Kent Thornburg on a mission to end chronic disease before it starts By Victoria Payne

Kent Thornburg (B67) never wanted to be a movie star. But the founding director of Oregon Health & Science University’s Moore Institute for Nutrition and Wellness would do almost anything to get his life’s work into the public discourse – including starring in The 100-Year Effect, a new documentary that tells the story of his research.

Now retired, Thornburg has spent over 50 years researching the developmental origins of health and disease, and the news is not good. “For the first time in history, young people today are on track to be the first generation ever in the U.S. to live shorter lives than their parents,” Thornburg says.

The culprit, it turns out, is processed food. Thornburg’s research shows that a person’s risk for chronic disease goes back three generations. “The egg that made me was made in my mother’s ovary when she was a fetus in my grandmother,” Thornburg says. In other words, it’s not just what your mother ate when she was pregnant – it’s what your grandmother ate too.

The 100-Year Effect – directed by Andrew Hinton, the award-winning director of Tashi and the Monk – chronicles Thornburg’s collaboration with Hollywood producer Bill Stuart as Stuart pitched the looming health crisis to film execs. As it turns out, Hollywood wasn’t interested in the thrilling science of epigenetics. As doors closed, the unlikely duo realized they needed more than a movie – they needed a movement.

In part two, Stuart and Thornburg find an eclectic group of helpers. Joining with artists, activists and scientists, they work hard to get the word out. The results vary. Comic Imani Denae tries and fails to make audiences laugh at punchlines reliant on the origins of chronic disease. Children’s folk singer Red Yarn has more luck with a heartfelt, science-backed tune called The Child Within:

“It’s the egg inside the egg inside the egg inside the bird / Or the seed inside the seed inside the seed inside the dirt / All the generations held inside like stacking dolls / So we must nurture every child within the child within us all.”

Momentum moves from grassroots singalongs to world stages. Youth in the United Kingdom present Thornburg’s findings to major food corporations. Even the United Nations gets a call, as Dutch collaborator Dr. Tessa Roseboom brings their cause before the council and sparks international conversation.

Perhaps most significantly, Stuart and Thornburg applied and received approval to establish Future Generations Day. The nationally recognized observance, celebrated every third Friday of March, comes with a platform. Think Earth Day, but for the health of young people and their offspring.

When the film premiered at OHSU on Future Generations Day 2026, Thornburg reluctantly strode the red carpet with his wife Jeanie, smiling for the camera. The documentary spanned three years of his life – and if anything, the film’s completion means he now has more time for his research.

Filmmakers have more showings planned, including its acceptance into the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival and additional screenings in Amsterdam, London and Atlanta in partnership with the CDC Foundation, along with a showing this fall at George Fox.

A longtime George Fox donor, Thornburg has never stopped investing in his alma mater – including establishing a program, funded by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, that places George Fox science students in top research labs at OHSU for the summer. When asked what he hoped George Fox students would take away from his breakout performance, Thornburg offered a correction. “The film is not about me,” he says. “But I do want them to see it – to see that a graduate of George Fox can help change the world, and I want them to know that they can too.”