Can we cheat death?

Today, Explained

This episode explores the growing movement to extend human lifespan, examining both the science and the personal motivations behind the quest to live longer. It features insights from longevity advocates, researchers, and individuals reflecting on aging, health, and meaning in later life.

Key takeaways

• Longevity seekers prioritize healthspan over lifespan
• The shingles vaccine may reduce dementia risk
• Social connection and strength training are key longevity habits

Transcript preview

Are you feeling stuck? I'm Rappin Apesone, VP and head instructor at Peloton. I've watched literally millions of people try to transform their lives and I have heard the same five sentences hold people back. So this week on Project Swagger, we're doing a self-talk audit. I am going to name each of these destructive sentences and tell you what it's costing you and give you the reframe, the swap you need to unlock your true potential. Let's go. Follow Project now, wherever you get your podcast. Support for today explained comes from fetch. Fetch is pet insurance if you hadn't figured it out. Do you have a pet? According to a study from a pet insurance company from a few years ago, every six seconds a pet owner in the US gets hit with a vet bill over a thousand dollars and it almost never comes at a convenient time. So check out fetch you get paid up to 90% of vet bills. You can use fetch for any vet. in the US and Canada every vet is in network go to fetch pet.com right now for your free quote that's fetch pet.com slash save. I don't see it being worth living to a hundred that sounds way too long look forward to seeing a rose bloom to see the sunrise you should always be in awe about everything but inevitably if you outlive your family and your friends My grandmother lived to be 97. She was active in church, had long friendships with her sorority sisters, and saw all six of her grandchildren go off to college. And by the time she passed, she'd done just about everything she wanted to do. With those genes, I feel like I've got a good chance of living long too. But I'm also exercising, trying to do. eat right, resting, doing all the things to stack the deck in my favor. There's an entire movement of people who are working to extend their lives, and some of them are going to extremes. I'm John Helen Hill, and this week on Explain It To Me from Vox, the quest to live forever. Or at least to 150. And recently she went to the burning man of the longevity movement. This was called Vitalist Bay. It takes place in Berkeley, California, and this was just its second year of being in existence. It's an outgrowth of a movement of people who call themselves Vitalists, and their focus is on beating death. At Vitalist Bay, you'll experience the healthiest, most productive time of your life. It's a combination of people who are general longevity enthusiasts, as well as people who are general longevity enthusiasts, as well as well as people who are. investing in companies working on different drugs, researchers, you know, people from sort of all all cross sections of the longevity world. Join us at Vitalist Bay and let's make aging history. You know, when I think of people who are trying to live forever, I think of a very certain type of bro billionaire. Who did you meet at this conference? What were the people like? Was it all billionaires? something that took me by surprise. You know, I had the same idea. We think of Brian Johnson, the rich guy who, you know, transfuses the blood of his first-born son. And I thought it would be pretty epic if my son, my father and I completed the world's first multi-generational plasma exchange. Actually, I don't think he does that anymore, but he used to for longevity reasons. But the people at this conference, you know, I would certainly say there were people who are people who are doing well for themselves you know a fair amount of people who work in tech that kind of thing but they were not rich in the way that billionaires are rich and it was also a more diverse group than I had been expecting there were a fair amount of women and people of color there so that was really interesting to see. A lot of people were very outspoken about the idea that they're not afraid of death per se. They are more aware of death, I would say, than a lot of people in our average lives. But the people who I spoke with about this, a lot of them said what they really wanted out of longevity was to have enough time to do all the things that they wanted to do in life. They're worried that the average lifespan isn't long enough. And they were also really concerned not just about lifespan, but about health span, you know, the idea, you know, the idea of the idea of the idea of being the idea of being the idea of being, healthy well into your old age into your 80s and 90s and beyond. A lot of folks had relatives with Alzheimer's or dementia, you know, what people want when it comes to the health of the mind and the brain, they want to remain themselves for as long as they can. There was one company that had a booth called Neuroage. Their idea is that you can measure the biological age of your brain. And with that data, which they draw from a combination of MRI scans and blood tests, they say, maybe we can help you figure out how to address certain things. The founder I spoke with said that she had grown her hippocampus by 1.5% or something like that. This is not clinically validated with lots and lots of human trials. This is a business, but it's certainly an area that a lot of companies are looking to get into. What were some of the more out there ideas you heard about? Okay, so there were some really interesting ones. One that I hadn't heard about before going is the concept of bodyoids. I take you, it's me, your bodyhood. So this is an idea. There were two people from different startups that are working on this right now of producing basically headless sacks of organs that you would then harvest in order to replace other failing organs. I don't have a brain, but if you need a heart, a liver, a kidney, a kidney, a kidney, a kidney, I got you. Oh okay well one that sounds creepy and upsetting also it's giving like ship of Theseus like at some point is this is no longer me if it's not my original like I don't know everything totally that that's a hundred percent a concern and you know I spoke with somebody one of the other conference attendees who said basically that he was like if you're replacing these organs even if it's not your brain itself you know what are you doing to your consciousness and to your personality it's still you. Come on, you're still you, Jake, you. Just a little fresher. And you know, understandably, there's a lot of sort of like people who find the idea of doing this in humans to be quite creepy. Right now the startups that are working on this are not focused on humans. They're looking at doing this in animals like pigs and monkeys. And there are you know some interesting implications not just for you know the longevity movement but we do have a consistent problem with a lack of supply of organs for people who need or you know who need a new kidney so that's one really interesting idea and the idea of organ replacement overall is really popular one person one speaker there outlined this idea of injecting bone marrow in your 40s your kidney in your 50s your heart in your 60s and and so on and then potentially a whole body transplant by the time that you were 90 so that you would be in a whole new body and be biologically 18 years old. and far off. Is there a timeline for this and some of the other technology they talked about? You know, I think that a lot of people predict like maybe 10 years, 20 years, but nobody really knows right when all this stuff is going