What Super Agers Reveal About Preventing Disease

a16z Podcast

a16z

Science, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Culture, Disruption, Software Eating The World, Technology

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

American healthcare is in crisis—but what if we could change the system by preventing disease before it starts? In this episode of the a16z Podcast, general partner Vijay Pande sits down with Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute and one of the most cited researchers in medicine, to explore the cutting edge of preventive healthcare and longevity science. Drawing from his new book Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Path to Longevity, Topol breaks down why understanding the biology of aging—not reversing it—is the key to preventing the “Big Three” age-related diseases: cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative conditions. The conversation spans AI-powered risk prediction, organ clocks, polygenic risk scores, GLP-1s, and the cultural and economic shifts required to move from a “sick care” system to one rooted in precision prevention and extended healthspan. If you’ve ever wondered how data, personalized medicine, and AI can add seven healthy years to your life—and what it will take to bring those benefits to everyone—this episode is for you.

Transcript

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0:00.0	American healthcare is in crisis.
0:04.0	We have a path to preventing disease.
0:07.0	It isn't reversing aging.
0:09.0	It's just preventing the age-related morbidities of the big three.
0:13.0	If we can keep people healthier, healthier people would be much less expensive.
0:18.0	Seven years more of health span free of the major three diseases.
0:23.0	Seven years?
0:23.9	Who wouldn't take seven years?
0:26.5	There's just billions of data points for each person.
0:30.8	There should be a reboot new standard of care based on intelligent partitioning of risk.
0:37.6	We have to do better.
0:40.1	The human obsession with living longer is as old as time.
0:43.9	But in the last 20 years,
0:45.5	we have learned so much more about human health and biology.
0:49.3	So what do we know today about what makes humans live longer?
0:53.2	And do we have real evidence that longevity
0:55.3	is an attackable target? Today, you'll get to hear A16Z general partner Vijay Ponday in
1:01.0	conversation with Eric Topol, who recently released his new book, Super Ager's, an evidence-based
1:06.9	approach to longevity. Eric is, among other things, the founder and director of the Scripps
1:11.8	Research Translational Institute. He's also published over 1,200 peer-reviewed articles with more than
1:17.6	300,000 citations, making him one of the 10 most cited researchers in medicine. That resume puts
1:23.9	Eric in a perfect position to write this book, teasing the signal out from
	...

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