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Short Wave

'Zombie' Cells Could Explain Aging — And Help Scientists Slow It

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.76K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s no secret that stress isn’t good for you. But just how bad is it? Well, in the last few decades, scientists have linked psychological stress to changes in our DNA that look a lot like what happens on the molecular level as we age. Today on the show, host Regina G. Barber talks to freelance science journalist Diana Kwon about the latest research on stress and aging, including a new hypothesis for how your brain handles aging — and what science could do about all of it.

Interested in more aging science? Let us know at [email protected].

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Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm Rachel Martin, host of Wildcard from NPR.

0:02.7

I've spent years interviewing all kinds of people, and I've realized there are ideas that we

0:08.4

all think about, but don't talk about very much.

0:11.8

So I made a shortcut, a deck of cards with questions that anyone can answer, questions

0:16.7

that go deep into the experiences that shape us.

0:20.0

Listen to the Wild Card podcast only from NPR.

0:24.0

You're listening to Shortwave, from NPR.

0:28.9

Hey, short wavers.

0:30.7

I love my job, but I'm going to be honest, sometimes it's stressful.

0:35.3

And when I'm stressed, I can definitely feel it in my body, which science journalist

0:39.8

Diana Kwan says makes sense. I've reported a lot of stories in the past about the biological

0:45.5

effects of stress. Stress can really take a physical toll, but I don't think I realize just how

0:50.7

much of a toll until this episode when I called her to discuss the link between stress and aging.

0:56.5

And she told me, yep, Gina, there's a whole body of research on this very topic.

1:02.9

It just kind of made a lot of sense that stress would affect aging as well because, you know, things like various disorders and diseases, you know, these all affect how quickly we age.

1:12.6

She told me about a study researchers did in the early 2000s, looking at stress in 58 biological mothers.

1:18.6

About a third or a bit more than a third who had a healthy child and two-thirds who had a child with a chronic illness

1:25.6

and they kind of reasoned that this latter group

1:28.9

would have higher levels of stress due to having to take care of somebody with an illness.

1:35.4

Part of the study included asking those parents about their stress levels, which were higher

1:39.8

for the caretakers of kids with an illness. But Diana says this study also did something pretty unique.

1:46.0

It was one of the first studies to really bring the stress and aging link to like the molecular level.

...

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