Tech Tonic: Defying death
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How much do we really know about ageing? For decades, scientists have been trying to understand the biology of the ageing process - what happens to our bodies as we get older? And is it possible to slow that process down or even stop it all together?
In this series of Tech Tonic, the FT’s Hannah Kuchler and Michael Peel look into the past, present and future of longevity - the wellness movement focused on extending and bettering your quality of life. Episode 1 follows Hannah as she speaks with UCL professor David Gems about the history of ageing research, and then with longevity researcher Matt Kaeberlein to discuss how the industry has developed - including current drugs that could have anti-ageing effects. Plus, Michael visits the Reviv clinic in London where he experiences, first hand, the growing consumer interest in the longevity craze.
To listen to the rest of the series, find Tech Tonic on your favourite podcast platform by clicking here!
Clips: @DaveAspreyBPR, @drjoshaxe, @HealthCoachKait, Hevolution, Pom, Purina, Garnier, 4G antioxidants, @ChrisWillx, @lexfridman, ABC News, C-Span, CBS, ITV This Morning, Wired UK, The Dissenter, Will Tennyson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey guys, it's Mark. This week, our standard news briefing programming is going to be taking a break. |
| 0:06.1 | Instead, we're going to share a range of shows with you from across the FT podcast network. |
| 0:11.5 | And we're going to start with a new series from the FT's Tectonic podcast. |
| 0:15.6 | It's all about the longevity movement. |
| 0:17.7 | The series looks at all these weird treatments and technologies meant to help people |
| 0:21.3 | live longer, and how that idea of life extension has kind of gone mainstream. The series is |
| 0:27.9 | called Defying Death. We're going to play the first episode for you, and if you like it, |
| 0:31.9 | subscribe to the Tectonic Podcast for more. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. Enjoy. |
| 0:45.6 | Music. podcast for more. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. Enjoy. I am going to put a tourniquet on. I'm going to put it as tight as possible, not too tight, but just so that the vein |
| 0:51.4 | can pop out for me, okay? I'm sitting in a brightly lit private clinic in central London, |
| 0:57.0 | where a nurse is preparing a syringe. |
| 1:00.0 | She swabs an area on my arm, |
| 1:02.0 | and then unwraps a fresh needle in canila |
| 1:05.0 | and pops them on a metal tray. |
| 1:07.0 | And I see two great amazing veins, |
| 1:10.0 | so I'm probably going to go for this one. |
| 1:12.6 | Okay, so you might feel a quick scratch. |
| 1:16.6 | What I'm getting is called a wellness IV drip. |
| 1:20.6 | The canolo in my arm is attached to a transparent plastic bag full of saline solution, |
| 1:25.6 | packed with vitamins and antioxidants that are supposed to help me live a healthier, maybe even a longer life. |
| 1:32.3 | So they both have antioxidants in them. And Hydromax is also going to give you a one-liter bag, so give you hydration, and it has magnesium, so that's really good for like fitness. |
| 1:42.3 | Intravenous drips funnel nutrients directly into your bloodstream and are aimed at fostering healthy |
... |
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