Arjun Khemani Podcast

My conversation with Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist, founder of the LEV Foundation, and author of Ending Aging.

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Timestamps

0:00 - SENS vs. the Hallmarks of Aging2:47 - The Robust Mouse Rejuvenation experiment5:48 - Is SENS falsifiable?7:12 - CMLase and extracellular matrix damage10:28 - VEGF and extending lifespan in mice11:37 - Why longevity studies rarely get replicated13:05 - Michael Levin, bioelectricity & aging as information loss15:03 - Is partial reprogramming overhyped?17:32 - The most neglected areas of longevity research18:56 - Longevity escape velocity explained20:28 - Will people alive today live long enough?23:42 - How far are we from dramatically extending mouse lifespan?24:54 - What happens to society if we solve aging?27:20 - How longevity could reshape the global economy28:44 - Does mortality give life meaning?30:00 - Aubrey on the “pro-aging trance”31:34 - What Aubrey would do after solving aging

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.arjunkhemani.com

My conversation with Michael Levin, a biologist at Tufts University whose research explores bioelectricity, regeneration, morphogenesis, and how cells collectively process information to build and repair bodies.Topics we discuss are well captured by the timestamps below.

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Timestamps

0:00 - Causes and downstream effects of aging3:31 - Bioelectric patterns and memory in regeneration9:30 - Cracking the bioelectric code12:10 - The boredom theory of aging23:11 - The germline is ageless25:45 - Bioelectricity and epigenetic reprogramming27:15 - What experiment could falsify Mike’s ideas?29:13 - The role of aging clocks and biological age31:06 - Top-down control in biological systems39:09 - Consciousness and its implications48:25 - Changing human goals and preferences51:30 - The future of medicine

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.arjunkhemani.com

Karl Pfleger is the founder of agingbiotech.info and an investor in several rejuvenation startups.

Topics we discuss are well captured by the timestamps below.

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Timestamps

0:00 - Why lifespan is the wrong metric for aging progress

7:28 - Is the hallmarks of aging expanding a problem?

11:36 - Structures vs. processes: the key distinction in aging targets

16:14 - Why Karl favors divide-and-conquer rejuvenation over slowing aging

22:07 - Whole-body replacement and organ/cell-level rejuvenation

26:56 - Is partial epigenetic reprogramming the kill-shot for aging?

35:24 - CMLase and reversing crosslink damage

40:57 - Can AI just solve aging automatically?

46:57 - Funding misallocation and the case for more aging biotech companies/VC

57:28 - Objections to eliminating aging — and why none hold up

1:01:27 - Karl critiques Bryan Johnson’s “Don’t Die”

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.arjunkhemani.com

David D. Friedman is an anarcho-capitalist economist. He is the author of The Machinery of Freedom, Future Imperfect, and several other books.

Topics we discuss are well captured by the timestamps below.

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Timestamps

0:00 – The economics of longevity

8:05 – Epigenetic reprogramming

12:37 – Overpopulation and the “ultimate resource”

16:33 – Fluid vs. crystallized intelligence, aging and political power

20:46 – Cryonics

24:35 – AI, open source, and the surveillance state

28:29 – Zcash, privacy, and cryptocurrency

41:12 – Taxes, government, and money supply

50:27 – A poem about tyranny and benevolence

56:42 – Education and its resistance to change

1:05:42 – Argentina, Milei, and planning for an uncertain future

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.arjunkhemani.com

Sean Bowe is a core cryptographer and engineer who played a major role in building Zcash’s technology.

Dev Ojha, also a cryptographer, is the founder of Osmosis. He is now working on helping Zcash scale and go post quantum.

Topics we discuss are well captured by the timestamps below.

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Timestamps

0:00 - Why Dev’s working on Zcash

12:24 - AI is surveillance’s ultimate weapon

13:33 - Encrypted money must scale

15:49 - Compliant “privacy” is an oxymoron

19:25 - PIR for scaling Zcash

36:35 - How Tachyon and PIR work hand in hand

43:47 - Quantum recoverability

47:18 - Is quantum the last cryptography problem?

51:41 - Easier coinholder voting process

1:03:15 - Zcash roadmap

1:17:34 - What Zcash looks like at scale

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.arjunkhemani.com

Sean Bowe and Jack Grigg aka str4d are both cryptographic engineers working on the Zcash protocol. Sean’s latest project is Tachyon, intended to bring encrypted money into the hands of 8 billion people.

Topics we discuss are well captured by the timestamps below.

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Timestamps

0:00 - Project Tachyon

10:20 - Privacy can’t be an afterthought for a protocol

15:24 - Encrypted Bitcoin

22:11 - Soundness bug in original sprout pool

30:15 - Sapling

33:00 - A decade of progress

39:04 - Zcash’s anonymity set

51:29 - Using private money as a passthrough doesn’t work

56:04 - The importance of ledger indistinguishability

58:30 - The ultimate privacy stack

1:05:58 - Tachyon removes all cryptographic bottlenecks of encrypted money

1:08:16 - What’s next after Tachyon?

1:15:25 - Weightless blockchains?

1:18:24 - Ragu

1:19:44 - What the next 12 months look like for Jack and Sean

1:31:22 - “Everything worth doing is worth doing on ambitious timelines.” — Sean

1:32:16 - Sean’s advice for young engineers

1:34:18 - What got Sean and Jack into Zcash?

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.arjunkhemani.com

My conversation with Samo Burja, founder of Bismarck Analysis. He chairs the editorial board of Palladium Magazine.

Topics we discuss are well captured by the timestamps below.

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Timestamps

0:00 - Intro

1:18 - Live players

5:41 - Great Founder Theory

11:20 - Our material technology rests on our social interactions

14:23 - Optimism, pessimism, and human agency

23:21 - Operationalized knowledge

25:22 - Lost and dead traditions of knowledge

27:34 - Tradition of criticism

29:36 - The most important piece of knowledge to preserve

32:27 - Common features of declining societies

39:18 - Are the Spartan warriors overrated and just had very good PR?

42:07 - DOGE and bureaucracy in America

45:28 - The machinery of freedom

47:43 - Tech Samo is most excited about over the next 5 years

50:10 - Curtis Yarvin and the orbital authority

55:01 - Samo’s advice for young people

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.arjunkhemani.com

My conversation with Zooko Wilcox and Josh Swihart on unstoppable private money.

Zooko Wilcox is a legendary cypherpunk and one of the founders of Zcash—private, digital money.

Josh Swihart is the CEO of Electric Coin Company, the team behind the Zcash protocol and the Zashi wallet app.

Topics we discuss are well captured by the timestamps below.

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Timestamps

0:00 - Maya Protocol integrates with Zcash

3:52 - Coinbase social engineering attack

7:43 - Private money negates capital controls

14:13 - Privacy comes from money at rest

18:24 - The Zashi effect and future roadmap

25:11 - Project Tachyon

39:10 - Zcash’s anonymity set doesn’t depend on the number of its users

45:37 - Turnstiles in Zcash and the 2018 inflation bug

57:28 - “ZK” has become a marketing stunt among crypto projects

59:48 - On Binance delisting ZEC

1:01:35 - A transition toward using crypto as it was originally intended

1:04:52 - Should exchanges use transparent addresses?

1:17:38 - Coin holder voting in Zcash

1:23:38 - Sci-fi influence

1:28:37 - Gary Gensler

1:29:40 - Why I like Zcash

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.arjunkhemani.com

My conversation with Ethan Thornton, founder of Mach Industries.

Topics we discuss are well captured by the timestamps below.

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Click here to support my work.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro

1:07 - Why Mach needs to exist

3:16 - Early experiments

5:07 - Dropping out of MIT

8:36 - Raising $85 million at 19 years old

11:20 - Decentralized vertical supply chains

13:54 - The most important domain of the next century

15:55 - Betting on hydrogen

18:11 - Overview of Viper and Glide

21:06 - Building feedback loops across teams

25:29 - Facing regulatory hurdles

28:19 - Knowing when to be risk tolerant

29:54 - Time until China invades Taiwan

31:45 - The future of warfare

42:29 - Takeaways from the (unmanned) war in Ukraine

48:23 - Biggest influences on Ethan’s life

49:37 - Mach’s long-term plan

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.arjunkhemani.com

My conversation with philosopher and author Peter Boghossian.

Topics we discuss are well captured by the timestamps below.

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Click here to support my work.

Timestamps

0:00 - The enlightenment

5:51 - The dangers of moral relativism

21:28 - Modern education is failing us

31:14 - What’s worth preserving in the West

37:00 - Is wokeism filling the void left by atheism?

38:04 - The spread of Islamism

45:49 - Speech is not violence

49:11 - Derangements of science

52:48 - The myth of the framework

56:34 - Why you should learn epistemology

58:05 - The instinct to belong trumps what’s true

1:02:44 - Chasing likes versus pursuing truth

1:05:08 - What is Peter most optimistic and most pessimistic about

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.arjunkhemani.com