S5 EP3: Bryan Johnson discusses life-changing psychedelics, superintelligence, and night-time erections

The Louis Theroux Podcast

Spotify Studios

Comedy, Arts, Society & Culture

4.1 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2025

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Louis is joined by tech entrepreneur turned longevity evangelist, Bryan Johnson. Dialling in from his home in Los Angeles, Bryan tells Louis all about his quest to live forever, from the psychedelic experience that changed his life, to the role of superintelligence in the future. Plus, Louis learns the importance of night-time erections. Warnings: Strong language and some adult themes. Links/Attachments: Mind – UK Mental Health Charity https://www.mind.org.uk/ Suicide Prevention UK https://spuk.org.uk/ Book: The Ghost in the Machine, Arthur Koestler (originally published in 1967) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghost-Machine-Arthur-Koestler/dp/1939438349 ‘How to be 18 years old again for Only $2 million a year’ - Bloomberg (2023) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-01-25/anti-aging-techniques-taken-to-extreme-by-bryan-johnson?embedded-checkout=true TV Show: ‘Silicon Valley’ (2014-2019) - HBO https://www.hbo.com/silicon-valley ‘Harvard study, almost 80 years old, has proved that embracing community helps up live longer and be happier’ - The Harvard Gazette (2017) https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/over-nearly-80-years-harvard-study-has-been-showing-how-to-live-a-healthy-and-happy-life/ Credits: Producer: Millie Chu  Assistant Producer: Maan al-Yasiri Production Manager: Francesca Bassett  Music: Miguel D’Oliveira  Audio Mixer: Tom Guest Video Mixer: Scott Edwards Shownotes compiled by Immie Webb Executive Producer: Arron Fellows     A Mindhouse Production for Spotify  www.mindhouse.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	1212. Ready, mic number one.
0:07.6	Hello, Louis Theru here and welcome back to my podcast, the Louis Theru podcast.
0:27.3	Today I'm sitting down with Brian Johnson, the tech entrepreneur turned longevity evangelist.
0:34.8	Brian made his fortune selling his online payments company to PayPal in 2013 for an alleged $800 million.
0:38.8	But you may be more familiar with him from headlines from a few years ago claiming he was getting infusions of his own teenage son's blood and also someone else's
0:45.0	blood, I think, but we talk about that as part of his quest to live forever.
0:49.3	This in turn became don't die, a movement, a philosophy, even a religion, again, more of that to come,
0:57.8	for which Brian is the figurehead. Brian lives and breathes his philosophy, spending every
1:03.2	waking and non-waking hour, dedicating himself to slowing down aging and doing what he calls
1:07.6	biohacking. Other people call it that too. Whether it be a highly restrictive diet,
1:12.5	I mean, when you say restrictive,
1:14.2	that doesn't even do justice to the narrowness of the supplements.
1:18.6	It's kind of like space food, to my mind anyway.
1:22.2	Also, plasma transfusions,
1:24.4	repeated shocks to his penis to increase erections.
1:29.5	Not just for pleasure.
1:31.9	We talk about his exhaustive routine in the chat.
1:36.6	So it's a little different from some LTP episodes that we've had in the past.
1:41.4	It's arguable what branch of show business.
1:45.1	No, we haven't ever really just done show business, but in a sense, Brian is a tech guru.
1:51.1	He's kind of a self-meaming influence of a sort.
1:56.2	So, you know, he obviously has a public profile, but he's also part of the business community.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Spotify Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Spotify Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.