Aubrey de Grey: How & Why We Must Defeat Aging

“The whole concept of aging itself is just meaningless.” — Dr. Aubrey de Grey “The whole concept of aging itself is just meaningless.”

Tags: Aging

Greetings, SuperFriends!

Today, we are joined by Aubrey de Grey, biomedical gerontologist and Chief Science Officer of the SENS research foundation, and co-author of the book Ending Aging. You might know Aubrey from his appearances on 60 minutes, the BBC, The New York Times, Fortune, the Colbert Report, or his popular TED Talk. If you’ve heard him speak before, you’ll know that he is one of the chief drivers behind the view that medical technology may one day enable people alive today to live… well, forever.

Through his research on regenerative medicine, and what he calls “Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, or SENS,” de Grey has proposed a number of ways to not only slow, but even stop and reverse the effects of age on the human body.

During the episode, we talk about these methods, the effects of aging, and also raise some of the ethical and practical issues surrounding the idea of a-mortality. We talk about learning, and I was just blown away by how much knowledge and expertise my guest has accumulated – and how he has accumulated it. We also have an absolutely fascinating and engaging conversation about the potential of the future, and what humanity may look like in 20 or 30 years. We truly dive into the idea of what it might be to be “superhuman,” and the resulting conversation will definitely blow your mind.

For those of you who really love the heavy, sciencey episodes where we geek out on technical terms, you’re really going to love this episode, and for those of you who don’t, well, you’re going to learn a whole hell of a lot about your body and how it ages, and I’m quite sure you’ll get a kick out of my guest’s combination of jaw dropping wit and dry British humor.

In this episode, we discuss:

How did Dr. Aubrey de Grey become one of the leading thinkers in anti-aging and futurism?

What tactics has used Dr. Aubrey de Grey to learn so much so fast?

Why is aging a “problem” that we need to solve?

Is the goal of SENS' work to become immortal? Amortal?

Should we worry about the environmental impact of people living to the age of 200?

Is there someone living today who will live forever?

Does Aubrey de Grey want to live forever? (The answer may surprise you!)

An in-depth explanation of the 7 different ways that the human body ages Plus, how researchers are working to beat each one of them

Does calorie restriction actually work for extending life expectancy?

What will anti-aging treatments look like in 10 years? 20 years? 50 years?

Is there anything you can do at home to slow or stop your own aging?

What big takeaway would Dr. Aubrey de Grey like you to take away from this episode?

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Favorite Quotes from Aubrey de Grey:

“Everyone must know that aging is the world's most important problem.”

“One of the biggest problems that the world has is that we have to spend most of our time doing things that we wouldn't do if we weren't paid for them.”

“People have in their heads this bizarre idea that there's this thing called ‘aging' itself, which is somehow completely distinct… but that's nonsense.”

“I don't think it's stupid to ask these types of questions… What frustrates me is that people never listen to the answers!”

“You've been watching too many films.”

“Aging is really NOT a phenomenon of biology at all. It's a phenomenon of physics.”

“You see, evolution doesn't care about old people.”

“Magic bullets are a bit of a distraction in aging research.”