How to Live Forever (or Die Trying)

About this episode

From ‘Blue Zones’ branded food to anti-aging peptides, the marketplace is flooded with products promising to help us live longer and better. On this week’s On the Media, a researcher calls into question the data behind some of the most popular ‘longevity science.’ Plus, why Silicon Valley billionaires are obsessed with the end of the world. [01:00] A new book titled Morbid: Debunking Modern Longevity Science, out this week, alleges that much of the research underpinning longevity science is hot air. Host Micah Loewinger explores the contours of this heated debate within the field, and speaks with the book’s author, Saul Newman, a research fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, about the prevalence of fraudulent 100+ year olds, and his gripes with the popular “Blue Zones” research and the multimillion-dollar business that grew out of it. We also hear from New York Magazine writer Kerry Howley and one of the originators of Blue Zones, demographer Michel Poulain. Plus, the growing grift within the field, and the Silicon Valley tech giants spending millions to try to vanquish death. [31:39] Micah speaks to Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, co-authors of End Times Fascism A