WEBVTT - A Life Supreme 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:14.680 He asked them. 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:20.800 Very lastic, don't get so much to get money gets 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:21.919 see us. 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:43.159 Prelude. The first time I heard A Love Supreme, I 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:47.199 was fifteen. I'd ordered it from BMG because my two 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:51.320 older cousins, these vinyl heads, said they like Coltrane, so 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:53.319 I put it in the mix on one of those 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:58.840 eight CDs for the price of one deals. I've listened 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.840 to it so many times since, over so many parts 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:05.520 of my life. Sometimes it's background, sometimes with focus, but 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:10.840 it always takes me back to high school. That's what 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:14.640 I'm remembering now, a sunny afternoon, lying on my bed. 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:22.120 The saxophone feels like this quiet call to prayer. The 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.600 rolling bass and piano and drums build this haze for 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.720 the horn to cut through. The notes aren't perfect, they 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.520 stretch across spaces that feel like they're grading, reaching for 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.959 something higher, and then falling and working their way back up. 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:42.240 The musicians start chanting A Love Supreme over and over, 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.120 adding to that haze, and you welcome being called into 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:50.040 that trance. I remember staring at the back of the album, 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:52.960 holding in my hands as I listened, reading over the 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:56.680 set list again and again, trying to puzzle out the 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:15.400 meaning for myself. Acknowledge resolution pursuance PSALM acknowledgment, resolution, pursuance, acknowledgment, resolution, 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:28.519 pursuance SI. I'm not religious, but something about that structure 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:41.280 always felt right. Chapter one Acknowledgment. 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:48.000 The Gentleman in the elevator now is a Candid Star. 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.960 Decades ago, on a nineteen sixty two episode of Candid Camera, 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.480 the show ran an experiment illustrating group thing. These folks 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:57.160 who are entering. 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.520 The man with a white shirt, the lady with a trench. 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:03.480 Coat, as an unsuspecting man stands inside an elevator. Three 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:06.960 people step in one after another, but instead of turning 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:10.799 towards the doors, they all face the back like that's 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:11.720 a normal thing to do. 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.240 And you'll see how this man. 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:16.280 In the trench part. 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.000 I used to maintain this individuality. 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:25.800 But a little by little. 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:32.520 He looks at his watch, but. 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.440 He's really making an excuse for turning. 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:36.880 Just a little bit more. 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:39.000 To the wall. 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:41.800 By the end of the scene, the mark is folded 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.560 to the pure pressure and is fully facing the back 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:50.800 of the elevator. And it happens so quickly. Of course, 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:54.560 Candid Camera played the experiment for laughs, but It's based 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:58.080 on real studies designed by a Polish born Jewish psychologist 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:02.560 named Solomon Ash in the nineteen fifties. Ash's groundbreaking work 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.600 showed how pressure from a unanimous group can cause people 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:13.360 to conform to things they don't actually believe. I've been 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:17.160 thinking about that a lot recently, because at the beginning 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.159 of the show I was told that a significantly longer 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:21.280 life was possible. 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:27.920 I believe it's easy for all of us, without much intervention, 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:31.000 to get over the age of ninety. If you get 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:33.160 to the age of ninety, I think, then in the 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:36.920 middle I'll find things that could extend me beyond ninety. 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:40.680 Then I slipped into a world where seemingly everyone I 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:45.080 talked to thought of death as this outdated assumption something 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:47.760 humans before as had only accepted because we lacked the 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.000 tools or imagination to challenge it. 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:51.960 We want to make death optional. 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:55.680 Death is something we've been taught never to question, and 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:58.680 we don't know what a post death future is going 0:04:58.720 --> 0:04:59.120 to look like. 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:00.360 Years. 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:03.920 I believe that when you're twenty years old, you would 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.360 go to a longevity clinic and you'll get an infusion, 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:10.520 and basically it'll stunt your aging and you'll come every 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:15.080 year or so for another treatment. This the Peter Pan scenario. 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.159 You'll stay young, forever young. 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:26.040 Before long, I was questioning my position, wondering if I 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:30.080 was missing something like is radical life extension something I 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:32.960 should be working towards? Could life at one hundred twenty 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:36.760 five or one hundred and fifty be satisfying? What about longer? 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:42.159 But there's another part of Ash's psychology work that's perhaps 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:47.200 more important. If even one person breaks with that lockstep majority, 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:54.160 the pressure to conform decreases dramatically. And that's how I 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.240 felt like a man standing in an elevator full of 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.320 death denials, starting to question if I was facing the 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:05.920 right way. When the doors opened and in walked Ailea Arthur. 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.920 I want to die at sunset. I want to watch 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:13.520 the sky change and turn orange and pink and purple 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:15.680 as they dive in tonight. 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:18.960 I first heard Aloa through her ted talk, and I 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.600 was struck by the specificity of it, the way she 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:23.560 imagined the room where her life would end. 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:26.760 I want to hear the wind fluttering through the leaves 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:31.200 and smell very faintly, not Tampa amber incense, but very faintly, 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.239 because scent can be tough on a dying body. 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:37.680 But it wasn't just that Ailoa accepts her mortality that 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.760 felt radical to me. It was that she expects to 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.840 see direct her final moments, just like she encourages others 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:46.920 to do in her role as a death duela and 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:48.719 the founder of Going with Grace. 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:52.280 An end of life planning training and support organization, and 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:56.440 we exist to support people as they consider their mortality, 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:58.160 no matter what they may need along the way. 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.600 Aila Arthur is tall and composed. She's got a warm 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.720 smile with a gap between her front teeth that's disarming, 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.400 and she's stylish. In her ted talk, she wears this 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:15.120 beautifully structured, bright orange dress. Today on this video call, 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.600 she's a little more casual. Can you tell us a 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.120 little bit about how you got into this work? 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:25.320 About twelve years ago, I was practicing law and it 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.320 was not a good fit for me, and I took 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:30.320 a leave of absence where I ended up in Cuba. 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.360 And in Cuba, I met a fellow traveler who had 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:37.240 uterine cancer and we talked a lot about her life 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:39.400 and I started asking her questions about her death. 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:42.640 At that point, Aloa was in what she calls a 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.880 deep depression, and she was trying to find a way forward. 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:50.000 I'd felt, you know, hints of joy again. I could 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.720 feel like sunshine on my skin again. I'd done some dancing, 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:54.920 you know. I was starting to feel like myself a 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:55.480 little bit. 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:56.240 Yeah. 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:01.600 And I was also still deeply searching for answer about 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:05.080 this big question about life that I thought everybody else 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:10.680 had figured out. And what I found was mortality. I'd 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:15.120 never even properly considered mortality in any real way. I've 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:19.080 never made the connection between people die and I will die, 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:20.520 and what do I want to do with my life 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:21.320 because I will die? 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:24.960 So many people I talked to said they hated this 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:27.680 fairy tale. They told me, you don't need death to 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:31.680 give life meaning. But Alou is saying something slightly different. 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.920 Recognizing that she would die someday brought her life into focus, 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:38.760 and it pushed her to reconsider what she wants from 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.040 her remaining years. It's a phenomena she sees with the 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:46.679 planners and the terminally ill patience she cares for. Your 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.680 missstatement at going with Grace is that you will support 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.839 people to answer a question, what must I do to 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.480 be at peace with myself so that I may live 0:08:55.600 --> 0:09:01.360 presently and die gracefully. Have you had really interesting answers 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:04.120 about how people want to live. 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.880 Yeah, there's a bunch of really juicy ones, but they 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.240 all fall in the authenticity bucket, like what do I 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:11.120 need to do nor to be myself right now? 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:12.280 To be fully myself? 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.120 Sometimes it's about quitting jobs or leaving relationships or entering 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:20.760 into relationships, or coming out or moving or having a kid, 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.600 or talking about the regrets about having a kid, which 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:26.760 is so taboo that you're never supposed to say, but 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:29.240 people say it when talking about the immortality. 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.719 You're always getting tea. I'll tell you what, this is 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:35.400 the most tea job. 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:38.240 I think, maybe even more than a therapist. 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.760 But I'm curious, like, how would our own society be 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:46.160 different if death were accepted as a natural or even 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:48.959 beautiful part of life. Do you feel like there's a 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:52.120 reluctance to accept death majorly? 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:54.240 I think that we live still in like a death 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:58.760 phobic and death avoidant culture. I also live in Los Angeles, 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:00.640 and so it's maybe a little bit easier for me 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:05.679 to see. But our obsession with beauty and youth, and 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:10.439 also this obsession with longevity, I'll play into that I 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:14.520 think to be human also is to be fallible, to weaken, 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:19.319 to come apart, to not be this diamond strong substance. 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:24.960 My body is fragile and vulnerable, and that is one 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:30.280 of the capital t truths that folks either deny or 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:33.560 make them too uncomfortable to think about, and so they 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.679 try to fix with all types of hacks that just 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:44.320 don't really do anything about it. Yeah, death, death is period, 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:49.280 but also death is built into my body. 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:59.920 I think about my dad's body, the way it unravels 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.200 and halted to a stop in just a few weeks, 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.319 the cruel and specific way death was built into it. 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.320 But what if your body didn't break down? What if 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:13.120 science came up with a way that you could live 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:17.040 a longer life and keep your health. I was curious 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:18.160 what Ailoa would say. 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.120 If I could live long and healthy till nine hundred. 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:25.400 I wouldn't want that. That doesn't seem like a good time. 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:30.920 And so when folks are really obsessed with longevity, I 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:35.760 would also be really interested in watching them eat an 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:38.559 orange if they knew that it was going to be 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:41.959 the last time that they ate the orange. You know, 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.120 you bring so much more intention and pleasure to it, 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:47.320 knowing that this is finite, that. 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:47.839 This is it. 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.480 Then if you thought you had a million more to eat. 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.720 In her ted talk, Aloa offers this image of her death. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.079 I want to die with all of my affairs in 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.319 order loved ones have nothing to worry about but their 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:06.480 grief after I die, I want to die empty, devoid 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.040 of all of the skill, gift, talent and light that 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:13.599 I carry in this body, and satiated, full of the 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.280 richness of this one unique human ribe. And when my 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.959 loved ones notice that I have released my last breath, 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.200 I want them to clap. I want them to clap 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.080 because I died well. But I died well only because 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:27.760 I lived well. 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.640 I picture a boxer who's put every ounce of energy 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.600 and effort into trading blows, only to collapse with nothing 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:41.480 more to give. And I want that. I want to 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:44.959 give to my family, fully, to my work, to savor 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.760 the oranges in between, and be present for all of it. 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.320 And if I have a legacy, it isn't just about 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:56.480 shows or books or whatever. Because I'm forty seven, I've 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:58.559 had more salt than pepper in my hair for more 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.679 than a decade, but I still don't feel like a 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:05.320 grown up in our family. But that's why I want 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:07.800 to be someone who lifts the next generation of my 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:11.640 nephews and nieces up and champions their work, someone who 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:14.520 models that same generous behavior. I've been so lucky to 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:19.280 receive it from generations before me, a link in the chain. 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:30.640 After the whirlwind of San Francisco and hearing the ways 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:33.880 people expect to push off their death, talking to Aloa 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:39.080 makes me feel sane, or at least less alone, because 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:41.520 it's not that she's saying death is good or that 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.360 we should be grateful for it. She's saying there's an 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:48.839 ending coming, and if you want to die happy, it 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:53.520 helps to live with purpose, to spill every ounce of 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:57.240 yourself into this world. Until you've shared so much, there's 0:13:57.320 --> 0:13:59.920 nothing left to do except be sated by the fact 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:06.720 that you've given everything. I have to keep reminding myself 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:38.280 to live like accounts and I can't waste time. Part 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:47.280 two resolution. Last week, as I was wrestling with my 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:50.200 thoughts about the show, Lizzy pointed out something obvious. 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.360 What is the one thing that you haven't done since 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:56.240 all these ones? 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:01.280 I don't know what, come on, I. 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:03.640 Wasn't explaining a. 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.840 Quiz, Oh you haven't even gone to your doctor your GP. 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.120 Yeah, Oh my gosh. 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:21.320 It's true, and also so humiliating to admit, like I've 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.480 done blood tests and run them against biological clocks. I've 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:27.720 gone all the way to India to do hyperbaric oxygen therapy. 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:32.120 I've down supplements and green Morning potions, which who knows 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.640 if they do anything. And I've visited so many labs 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:41.440 and learned so many secrets. But I haven't gone to 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:46.600 my doctor despite my incredibly high blood pressure, something every practitioner, 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:50.320 from doctor primus to my dentist to my cousin's sonal flagged. 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.480 The saddest part is it isn't that I haven't tried. 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.400 After a decade of hunting for a doctor in New 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:01.080 York who I actually connected with, who is caring and 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:05.480 listens and spends time with you, the irony is other 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:10.040 people found him too, so he's always booked. When we 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:13.040 last communicated, he told me to take my blood pressure 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:15.280 every day for a month so we could have a 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:19.280 baseline to discuss and prescribe a dosage against. But when 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.240 I finally collected that data and snagged an appointment that 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.920 worked for his calendar, two months down the road. I 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:28.240 ended up having to travel for work on that day, 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:35.320 and then going to India, and then one thing after another. 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:40.560 It turns out making a show about taking care of 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.560 your body is not the same thing as taking care 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:49.480 of it. Often it's the opposite. Here's a list of 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.080 times I turned in drafts for the show. Episode one 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:56.280 eight thirty six am, an all nighter, Episode two two, 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:59.880 twenty four am, Episode three, three point fifty am, Episode 0:16:59.880 --> 0:17:03.480 one four three twenty four am, Episode five five twenty 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.240 eight am. Those are all weekdays, so I was working 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:11.040 regular hours the next day. Just to show you health wise, 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.360 what happened. Four months into making the show, I'd lost 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:18.679 twenty pounds. In the last two months, I've gained back twelve. 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.200 My tennis friends are wondering where I got to or 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.240 why have stopped texting to hit. Maybe it all comes 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:29.280 down to a question I've been scared to address. Once 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.439 you admit your body is vulnerable, what do you actually 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:32.840 have to do? 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.920 I have frozen blood samples, here's the magnet, and here's 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:39.480 a one hundred dollars bill, And he said, I. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.919 Do try to optimize everything within my power. 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:44.760 I absolutely believe that's in my control. 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:47.080 And I believe that over the past nine months, I've 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:51.320 met so many young longe evonauts, brilliant young people with huge, 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.280 ambitious ideas, and each one of them seems to have 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.240 a different answer for what to do with a vulnerable body. 0:17:58.200 --> 0:17:59.600 So I've been listening. 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:01.960 From twenty two to twenty five. 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.760 I have frozen blood samples, and I have data of 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.600 how my plasma proteins have changed and also how my 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:10.200 immune cells have changed. 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:14.879 That's Rob Squoian, founder of a Vita's House, the Longevity 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:17.760 bio Hacking House in San Francisco that NICOA. Poe had 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:22.600 lived in. Rob someone I adored, partially because he's such 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.480 a sincere guy, Like when he was in college he 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.760 spent time volunteering and assisted living homes just because he 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:32.800 liked spending time with seniors and had a real impact 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:33.200 on him. 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.960 A lot of these people were still very sharp in 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:41.440 many ways, like their minds were indistinguishable from like kind 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.639 of the vitality and energy of a lot of my peers, 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.760 but there was this sort of very tragic discrepancy between 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:52.800 these things they were thinking about and exploring and their 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:53.640 physical health. 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:58.480 Rob understands just how vulnerable the body is, so he's 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:02.760 making sure his as well documented. Every few months, he 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.280 collects and stores his blood at a facility north of 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:08.639 San Francisco, where it sits in a liquid nitrogen tank, 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:11.800 waiting for tests that don't yet exist. 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:15.240 There's currently not a lot available that you can do 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:20.080 for your longevity. So having this sort of personal biobank 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.119 of my own blood, I can get a lot more 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:25.040 information from the tests that are going to be around 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:26.160 in five to ten years. 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:30.879 It's a message to his future self, reminding him this 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.399 is who we were. See if it helps. 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:43.000 There's a lot of things I cannot control within my environment, 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:46.040 so I try to control everything I put inside my body. 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:50.000 Chloe Mango is also twenty five and worried about getting older. 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:54.879 She's a super curious fashion stylist and self described longevity 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:58.680 nerd who runs the Substack Chloe's Lab notes, and in it, 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:02.480 she illustrates everything by hand, a little bit of analog 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:05.800 in a world of health hacks and peptides. She lives 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:09.760 in New York, surrounded by exhaust, cigarette smoke, noise, stress, 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.080 and she's trying to figure out how to combat that 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:14.280 while pulling your family into the journey. 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:19.960 I'm half Congalse and then half Russian. My family doesn't 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:25.600 come from science or medicine, so they understand, but they 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:30.680 don't fully get it. So they'll be like, eat this, 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:32.600 and I'm like, does it have any oil? 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:37.400 Did you fry it? For Chloe, everything is about policing 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:39.159 the inputs I do. 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:43.040 Try to optimize everything that I do within my power, 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:44.000 within my control. 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:46.800 And while she doesn't have the money to live the 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.040 way she wants doing the two million dollars a year 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:54.520 Brian Johnson treatments, she's doing what she can and starting 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:55.560 young in. 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:59.080 Your twenties, that's what matters the most, because that's when 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:03.520 you're body starts accumulating oxidative stress, and your body starts 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:08.600 accumulating those years and years and years of you know, 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.080 negative things that you do to your body, whether that's smoking, drinking, 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:15.200 et cetera, so that when you get to forty, you 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:17.800 won't be in the position as Brian Johnson is. And 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:20.520 you know, imagine if you started when he was twenty, 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:24.480 what would he look like and how even better would 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:25.040 his body be. 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:29.320 Her philosophy is control what you can control. But not 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:32.399 everyone I met was trying to preserve the body. Some 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:34.119 were trying to add to it. 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:37.320 Met up with this guy and said, here's the magnet 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:39.120 and here's a one hundred dollar bill, and he said, great, 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:39.760 come on back. 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:43.880 Owen ZOI is another one of these young futurists who 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:47.040 just left me smiling. We spend the afternoon and an 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:50.320 evening together walking around the Brooklyn Navy Yards, where he 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:51.320 showed me his office. 0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:56.000 I run a company called Starsuit. We make skin tight 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.960 compression garments for spacesuits and medical device. 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:00.960 Yeah. 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:02.800 I've been working on this problem for about nine years. 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:07.040 Wait nine years. How old are you? I'm twenty three. 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:13.440 Owen's been working on making a better space suit since 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:17.639 he was fourteen. It started as a class project because 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:19.439 spacesuits are really bulky. 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:21.800 It's like being inside of a bike tire, is what 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:26.200 it's usually compared to. Getting injuries from working inside spacesuits 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:30.080 is pretty common, and they're just heavy. Dude, these are 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:32.639 not the space suits that we were like meant to 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:34.160 bring into the Cosmos. 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:38.760 Also, Owen is trying to feel as much as he can. 0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:42.920 He wants to amplify the experience of being alive, so 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:45.120 he put a magnet in his hand. 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:49.280 I could like feel all of my nerves growing around 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:54.000 the magnet and like watch my brain, like learn to 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:55.399 interpret it as a new sense. 0:22:56.359 --> 0:22:58.520 I wonder if I'm too quick to turn down things 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:02.160 that seem unnatural as my body continues to wear down, 0:23:02.880 --> 0:23:13.560 I think I need to stay open. And then there's 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:14.639 Beshoi Padros. 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:18.160 Coaches would always say he's too slow. 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:23.280 Bishoi had leukemia as a child. Chemo saved his life, 0:23:24.400 --> 0:23:26.000 but it also changed his body. 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:29.359 The reason, and it's really hard to explain this to 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:32.440 a child, was really the chemo, you know, and it 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:35.400 crushed me. It killed me because again I was doing 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:39.080 everything right, but I was always the last guy on 0:23:39.200 --> 0:23:39.840 those lines. 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:44.160 But he was determined. He realized he had nothing to lose, 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:46.879 that he'd already been through the worst, and so he 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:48.840 started out at the back of the pack and a 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:52.879 spin class and just slowly worked his way up the leaderboard, 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:57.359 learning from all the better athletes around him, and years 0:23:57.440 --> 0:24:01.639 later he became the first Egyptian to complete all seven 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:03.360 World marathon majors. 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:06.080 I do know there are certain things that are outside 0:24:06.080 --> 0:24:10.840 of my control, But do I believe that I can 0:24:11.440 --> 0:24:14.119 take care of myself in a way where I'll be 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:18.719 able to preserve lifespan. I absolutely believe that's in my control. 0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:22.760 He show's way of dealing with that vulnerability has been 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:26.400 to push his body until it sings a different song. 0:24:36.600 --> 0:24:39.320 So I have answers, role models younger than me, people 0:24:39.320 --> 0:24:43.840 who have suggested ways forward, some obvious, some less. Can 0:24:43.880 --> 0:24:47.479 storing my blood today help me tomorrow? I mean, if 0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:49.280 you can take a skin cell from a monkey and 0:24:49.640 --> 0:24:53.359 theoretically clone it, maybe taking ten minutes to collect my 0:24:53.560 --> 0:24:56.520 forty seven year old blood can be helpful to a 0:24:56.560 --> 0:25:00.000 future me. I don't know. I'm willing to throw space 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:02.720 Getty at the wall and away. I just wasn't nine 0:25:02.760 --> 0:25:06.480 months ago. I loved the cry of therapy, frozen arm, 0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:08.960 hair and all, and I've changed the way I eat. 0:25:09.480 --> 0:25:11.960 I even started seeing a therapist to deal with stress. 0:25:13.119 --> 0:25:17.560 But also, I don't really have to solve aging. I 0:25:17.720 --> 0:25:20.600 just have to treat my body with more care and 0:25:20.720 --> 0:25:22.760 be sure. I offered a reason that felt more useful 0:25:22.800 --> 0:25:26.760 to me than optimization for its own sake. Another one 0:25:26.800 --> 0:25:30.600