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In short
In this episode, hosts Hannah Kuchler and Michael Peel explore the burgeoning industry focused on extending human life through innovative treatments and therapies, as well as genetic manipulation. The hosts investigate the shift of anti-aging efforts from exclusive endeavors of the wealthy to a broader consumer market. They delve into the past, present, and future of the longevity movement, examining the motivations behind this obsession and addressing the ethical and practical issues involved.
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0:01Can technology help humans defy death? Longevity, fighting aging is my passion and mission, and I'm working on that for decades to come, hopefully centuries to come. Tech companies and investors are spending billions on ways to extend human lifespan through novel treatments, therapies, and manipulating our genes. At some point in the future, you will go to bed, you will take a pill just before you go to sleep. As you're sleeping, this medicine is bringing back the age of cells by weeks overnight. I'm Hannah Gushler. And I'm Michael Peel. And in a new series of Tectonic, we're asking if breakthroughs in science and technology can really help us live longer and even stop us aging altogether.
0:47Where has this obsession with longevity come from? People who are very wealthy, you see your power and your money getting greater and greater and you realize that what's going to end it all is your death. Are tech companies really to be trusted with the solutions? It is kind of a Wild West with lots of bad guys running around trying to take advantage of the kind of universal human interest in living longer. And how many of us actually want to live forever? Listen to the latest series of Tectonic from the Financial Times, dropping Wednesday, November 26th.
From the publisher
Investors are spending billions of dollars on novel ways to extend human life through inventive treatments, therapies, and even manipulating our genes. And increasingly, it seems as though anti-ageing efforts have moved from the super rich to a mass market consumer industry. In this series, we’re covering the past, present and future of the longevity movement. We’ll be looking at where the fixation on longevity is coming from, and trying to understand the practical and ethical issues at the heart of this cutting-edge field of research.
From Silicon Valley fantasies, to Singaporean health spas, to Colombian genetic clinics and beyond, the FT’s Hannah Kuchler and Michael Peel ask whether breakthroughs in science and technology can really help us live longer, and even stop us aging altogether.
Free to read:
US ‘wellness’ industry scents opportunity to go mainstream
The quest to make young blood into a drug
This season of Tech Tonic was produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon. The senior producer is Edwin Lane. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Fact checking by Simon Greaves, Lucy Baldwin and Tara Cromie. Original music by Metaphor Music. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.
The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.
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