Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever

The game’s afoot! Many powerful people—from world leaders to Silicon Valley billionaires—have been whispering about the possibility of living forever via organ replacement. But is their dream a reality, or is it still in the realm of sci-fi? Mangesh learns about Vladimir Putin’s longevity obsession from an exiled Russian journalist, spends an illuminating afternoon with a white-hat hacker, and meets a scientist who’s rebuilding brains, one cell at a time. Finally, he tracks down the co-founder of a mysterious start-up that’s rumored to be doing things no one ever thought possible… until now.
Read Proekt’s coverage of Putin’s health, and Foreign Policy on death rates for Russian soldiers
Read Nakoa Po’s Sundial Therapeutics Substack
Support your local library
Visit R3 Bio’s website, and read coverage in Wired and MIT Technology Review
Special thanks to Azadi Records and Bliss Samsa for their beautiful tracks, and Botany for the score.
Episode collage art by Vahini Shori.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s a crossover episode! Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever x Part-Time Genius join forces to take on Blue Zones—like Ikaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan; or Sardinia, Italy—places said to hold the secret of longer, healthier life. But what makes them so special—and why are they blue?!?!? (Spoiler, it has nothing to do with the ocean.) Is their longevity power real or just a myth? And why did the researchers who started it all have a falling-out that might just last a hundred years, too?
We’ll be back with a new HTLF episode next Tuesday. In the meantime, subscribe to Part-Time Genius wherever you get your podcasts!
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On a whirlwind trip to the Bay Area, Mangesh reconnects with a childhood friend who’s experimenting with new ways to optimize his health. Then, he heads to the heart of San Francisco to meet the investors, startup founders, tinkerers, and biopunks who are taking longevity science into their own hands. Plus: Skyline Drive’s first-ever musical number, about the bizarre Honduran charter city of Próspera.
Read more about Próspera from Wired and Bloomberg
Visit the Frontier Tower website
Check out Elliot Roth’s work
Learn more about Illumicell
Learn more about Muse Bio
Listen to more of David Nagler’s music
Check out Allie Oops on Tiktok
Special thanks to Azadi Records and Bliss Samsa for their beautiful tracks, and Botany for the score.
Episode collage art by Vahini Shori.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

According to “mortality curmudgeon” Dr. Stephen Cave, humans have been inventing stories about immortality since the beginning of time. On a quest to unravel some of these myths, Mangesh finds himself wrestling with a literal fountain of youth in Chicago, playing left-handed tennis with an ambidexterity expert in San Diego, and discovering the Greek way of life with an old friend from last season. Plus: Meet Mr. Wonderful.

Watch Stephen Cave’s TED Talk and get his book, Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization
Check out Jim Houliston’s website, AmbiLife, and learn more about Ambidex Fitness
Check out George Aivaliotis’s comedy on Instagram

Special thanks to Azadi Records and Bliss Samsa for their beautiful tracks, and Botany for the score.
Episode collage art by Vahini Shori.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mangesh hops a train to Boston, where he tries on a special suit that turns him into an 80-year-old, discovers the connection between elderly worms and high-end longevity supplements, and meets a scientist who’s growing brains in petri dishes (when she’s not throwing dance parties for mice). Plus: What really happened to Ted Williams’ frozen head?
Learn more about AGNES and Joe Coughlin’s work at the MIT AgeLab
Learn more about William Mair’s work with the Harvard Healthy Aging Initiative
Read Lenny Guarante’s research on SIR2 and the mechanisms of aging
Watch Li-Huei Tsai’s TED Talk about treating Alzheimer’s with light and sound, and learn more about the MIT Aging Brain Initiative
Special thanks to Azadi Records and Bliss Samsa for their beautiful tracks, and Botany for the score.
Episode collage art by Vahini Shori.
CORRECTION FOR THIS WEEK: Lenny was contacted by Sequoia, and a then-Sequoia partner is the co-founder and CEO of Elysium, but Sequoia is not an Elysium investor. The company is backed by other venture capital firms.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.