Better Sex, Better Hair, Better Sleep: ‘Humanmaxxing’ Is Here

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

New York Times Opinion

Ross Douthat, News, Journalism, Society & Culture, New York Times

4.0 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2026

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We can enhance athletic performance, lose weight with a pill and even take psychedelics to alter consciousness. At what point does all this self-optimization become self-obsession? When does it get in the way of our humanity itself? My guest this week is the German biotech entrepreneur Christian Angermayer, who believes scientific breakthroughs to extend our lives — and even put us in touch with the divine — are close at hand.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So what are you putting in your body?
0:02.6	Testosterone is one thing.
0:03.6	Since my 30s, I'm doing TRT.
0:06.1	I'm taking GOP ones because I'm kind of stress eater.
0:08.8	Like I'm taking DAGA hormone-like substance.
0:11.1	I do one medical drug for sleep, which is called QVivic.
0:13.8	I have not tried any recreational drug except of coffee.
0:18.8	Yeah.
0:19.5	And psychedelics, but that's another topic for later.
0:21.2	We'll get to that in a sec.
0:22.0	Bye.
0:27.3	Christian Angermeyer.
0:28.7	Welcome to interesting times.
0:30.3	Thank you for having me.
0:31.4	So recently, you probably heard about this,
0:33.9	the Pope put out an encyclical,
0:36.2	a big document on artificial intelligence. And one of the
0:40.0	most striking passages in that document was a critique of what the Pope called transhumanism,
0:46.6	which is basically you could define as the idea that a lot of the fundamental constraints
0:51.9	that human beings face, aging, illness, mental suffering,
0:56.9	maybe even mortality itself are things that eventually technology, drugs, science can help
1:02.9	us overcome. And I think that that made me want to talk to you because you're an advocate of
	...

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