The Man Who Cured Aging

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NPR

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.6 • 16.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2024

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1899, Elie Metchnikoff woke up in Paris to learn that he had defeated old age. At least, that's what the newspaper headlines said. Before long he was inundated with mail from people begging him to help them live forever. The only problem? He didn't know how to do it.

At the time, Metchnikoff was one of the world's most famous scientists. And he believed aging was a disease he could cure. He dedicated his life to that quest, spending his days interviewing centenarians, pulling gray hair out of colleagues and old dogs, and boiling strawberries — all in the pursuit of eternal youth. If you've ever had yogurt for breakfast, you likely have Metchnikoff to thank.

Today on the show: Elie Metchnikoff's quest, his life — and his death

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from SAP Concur, a leading brand for integrated travel expense and invoice management solutions.
0:08.5	With SAP Concur solutions, you'll be ready to take on whatever the market throws at you next.
0:14.0	Learn more at concur.com. Around 200 BC, China's first emperor, Chin-Sha-Hwang feared death so badly that he sent an alchemist on voyages across the sea to search for a magic
0:38.1	elixir that would give him immortality. disappeared at sea. The legend says the emperor took things into his own hands and died after drinking what he thought was a cure.
1:00.0	Around 200 years later, another legend was born.
1:07.0	A holy grail that was thought to hold life restoring powers for anyone who drank from it.
1:18.0	There was the philosopher stone, the fountain of Youth, and then
1:25.0	In late December of 1899,
1:31.0	a scientist named Eli Mechnikoff woke up in Paris to learn that he had done it.
1:37.8	He had found the secret to eternal life.
1:41.7	The French morning newspaper, L Tan carried a huge headline in large block letters all across the front page and it said,
1:51.0	v.
1:52.0	Long live life.
1:54.0	Underneath that headline, it said things like
1:58.0	the elixir of the elexer of eternal use,
2:02.0	the institute of miracles, The Institute of Miracles, Old Age defeated.
2:10.0	None of us should despair to see the year 2000.
2:14.0	We'll reach the age of the Patriots, a Museu Meshnikov
2:18.8	will be damned only by heirs or fortunes.
2:22.5	Eli Mechnikov had captured the world's attention.
2:29.2	For millennia people had tried to evade death seeking cures and things like
2:38.7	mercury gold, powders, liquids, but now they had a new tool. Science. And it was miraculous. There were new vaccines,
	...

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