The Immortals – Ep 2. The Experiment

Intrigue

BBC

True Crime, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.6 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2023

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mike and Irina Conboy are a couple of tie-dye clad scientists in the bio-engineering department at the University of Berkeley. When they started researching ageing more than 20 years ago at Stanford, the field was nothing more than a spin-off from geroscience - most of their time at the lab bench was spent documenting signs and signals that our bodies are reaching their ends.

But in 2005, they published an article in Science that suggested there is hope for reversing ageing our tired old bodies. And the best bit of their study was that they proved there’s ample supply of the base material to do it - young blood. Using a revolutionary but ancient technique, their results re-ignited the millennia-old search for life everlasting.

In this series, technology reporter and psychologist Aleks Krotoski explores the frontiers of the extreme longevity pioneers. They've made their money in Silicon Valley. And with their technology solutions - PayPal, Facebook, cryptocurrencies - they've ushered in the world that we live in today, with all its unintended consequences. Some of them now want to solve the "problem" of aging, or even death, and they are making bigger strides than we may think.

Can they? Should they?

A Pillowfort production for BBC Radio 4

New episodes released Mondays. If you're in the UK, listen to the full series of Intrigue: The Immortals first on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3WEQS5W

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Fladiated.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:25.0	searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:35.0	You're about to listen to Intrigue The Immortals.
0:38.7	Episodes will be released weekly, but if you're in the UK, the full series is available now, first on BBC Sounds.
0:46.3	I remember a couple weeks before, I mean his friend came by with the photo of Irena and the
0:52.3	notepad and said, this is my friend Irena's... his friend
0:53.6	I ran and the photo of Irena and the note pad and said this is my friend Irena she's visiting in a couple weeks can you take her out and I was of course at the bench
0:58.4	busy doing pipetting and science stuff and I was I looked over and said yeah okay
1:02.0	she said scribbles scribble okay you're Thursday right petting and science stuff and I was I looked over and said yeah okay
1:02.6	scribble scribble okay you're Thursday right back in the late 1990s Mike
1:07.2	didn't realize that he was about to meet his future wife and become part of a
1:11.7	trailblazing research team.
1:13.4	The Thursday night was Latin night at Narcissus from Boston, so I dressed Swave and picked you up.
1:21.1	So that's basically how we math.
1:25.0	Mike was at Harvard as a biochemistry undergrad.
1:28.0	Irina was visiting from Russia checking out the program
	...

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