It’s a crossover episode! Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever x Part-Time Genius join forces to take on Blue Zones—like Ikaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan; or Sardinia, Italy—places said to hold the secret of longer, healthier life. But what makes them so special—and why are they blue?!?!?  (Spoiler, it has nothing to do with the ocean.) Is their longevity power real or just a myth? And why did the researchers who started it all have a falling-out that might just last a hundred years, too? 

We’ll be back with a new HTLF episode next Tuesday. In the meantime, subscribe to Part-Time Genius wherever you get your podcasts!

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On a whirlwind trip to the Bay Area, Mangesh reconnects with a childhood friend who’s experimenting with new ways to optimize his health. Then, he heads to the heart of San Francisco to meet the investors, startup founders, tinkerers, and biopunks who are taking longevity science into their own hands. Plus: Skyline Drive’s first-ever musical number, about the bizarre Honduran charter city of Próspera.

• Read more about Próspera from Wired and Bloomberg
• Visit the Frontier Tower website
• Check out Elliot Roth’s work
• Learn more about Illumicell
• Learn more about Muse Bio
• Listen to more of David Nagler’s music
• Check out Allie Oops on Tiktok

Special thanks to Azadi Records and Bliss Samsa for their beautiful tracks, and Botany for the score. 

Episode collage art by Vahini Shori.

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According to “mortality curmudgeon” Dr. Stephen Cave, humans have been inventing stories about immortality since the beginning of time. On a quest to unravel some of these myths, Mangesh finds himself wrestling with a literal fountain of youth in Chicago, playing left-handed tennis with an ambidexterity expert in San Diego, and discovering the Greek way of life with an old friend from last season. Plus: Meet Mr. Wonderful.

• Watch Stephen Cave’s TED Talk and get his book, Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization
• Check out Jim Houliston’s website, AmbiLife, and learn more about Ambidex Fitness 
• Check out George Aivaliotis’s comedy on Instagram

Special thanks to Azadi Records and Bliss Samsa for their beautiful tracks, and Botany for the score. 

Episode collage art by Vahini Shori.

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Mangesh hops a train to Boston, where he tries on a special suit that turns him into an 80-year-old, discovers the connection between elderly worms and high-end longevity supplements, and meets a scientist who’s growing brains in petri dishes (when she’s not throwing dance parties for mice). Plus: What really happened to Ted Williams’ frozen head?

• Learn more about AGNES and Joe Coughlin’s work at the MIT AgeLab
• Learn more about William Mair’s work with the Harvard Healthy Aging Initiative 
• Read Lenny Guarante’s research on SIR2 and the mechanisms of aging
• Watch Li-Huei Tsai’s TED Talk about treating Alzheimer’s with light and sound, and learn more about the MIT Aging Brain Initiative 

Special thanks to Azadi Records and Bliss Samsa for their beautiful tracks, and Botany for the score. 

Episode collage art by Vahini Shori.

CORRECTION FOR THIS WEEK: Lenny was contacted by Sequoia, and a then-Sequoia partner is the co-founder and CEO of Elysium, but Sequoia is not an Elysium investor. The company is backed by other venture capital firms.

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When an astrologer tells Mangesh that he’ll (probably) die early, he takes it in stride. But his family and friends (not to mention all the Don’t Die longevity influencers on his FYP) feel differently… and besides, if science can keep his brain sharp and his tennis game strong for longer, why not take advantage? So he visits Dr. Nir Barzelai, the world’s leading aging researcher, and Dr. Ron Primas, an elite longevity doctor, to figure out what he should do. Plus: A chat with Ken Reid from TV Guidance Counselor about age in pop culture, from the Golden Girls to “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

Disclosure: The experts we spoke with want to be clear that although they have some minor quibbles with Bryan Johnson, they’re grateful for the fact that he’s started the conversation on longevity. Any insinuation that he’s got weird vibes is ours.

• Listen to Ken Reid’s podcast, TV Guidance Counselor
• Learn more about Nir Barzelai’s Longevity Genes Project and his book, Age Later
• Learn more about Ron Primas’s longevity and concierge medicine practice
• Read Cynthia Kenyon’s groundbreaking 1993 study of worm longevity
• Check out the Ray Kurzweil Library

Special thanks to Azadi Records and Bliss Samsa for their beautiful tracks, and Botany for the score. 

Episode collage art by Vahini Shori.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mangesh Hattikudur (Part-Time Genius, Mental_Floss) dives into the booming business of living forever—meeting the scientists, biopunks, and entrepreneurs trying to turn immortality into reality, and framing death as a choice. But the more he learns about an immortal future, the more he finds himself drawn to the people he loves…and wondering if an endless life can be a meaningful one. 

Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever is the follow up to the beloved Skyline Drive (season 1), named a “Series Essential” — an Apple Podcasts honor for top-tier narrative podcasts — and highlighted on several Best of Year lists including NYMag, Guardian, and others.

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What if someone told you that you could skip years of therapy with a few mental tricks? It sounded impossible… until we found Neuro-Linguistic Programming. NLP is a form of hypnosis beloved by everyone from sex cults to the U.S. military to fortune 500 companies–yet almost no one knows it exists. 

Long before she co-founded NXIVM, hypnotist Nancy Salzman encountered NLP as a radical method for reprogramming the mind. Her story leads us to its inventor, Richard Bandler, a volatile, self-made guru. As we dig into how it took hold in so many places, we face an unsettling possibility: NLP might actually work.

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A young radio producer in Afghanistan is given an impossible task: to create a brand new, revolutionary talent show in just two months.

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To purchase original Afghan Star artwork visit www.awastudios.com/afghanstar — proceeds go to support The Noor Initiative, who are on a mission to ensure every Afghan girl has access to education and opportunity.

Music at the end of this episode from Afghan musician Qais Maroof, contestant on The Voice of Afghanistan.

Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram 

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Check out this new podcast from Mangesh's good friend and collaborator Jo Piazza! 

Every family has an origin story – for author Jo Piazza (Under the Influence, Wilder) her family's is a murder mystery. For as long as she can remember the Piazzas have told the story of their Sicilian roots going back over a hundred years ago: one by one the sons and then their father sailed off to America to carve out a better life. Their mother, Lorenza Marsala was supposed to join them – but she never made it. She was murdered by the Sicilian mafia, they said. The truth of what happened has morphed like a game of telephone through the generations. Various versions of the story claim she was killed by the Black Hand, others insisted she was a witch, killed over a bad spell. Now, Jo is determined to untangle the twisted narrative which just might bridge the gap from cinematic mob fantasies to an unexpected reality. Join her in Sicily on a family vacation/fact finding mission in which she goes to the scene of the crime, confronts mafia experts, consults mediums, and tracks down Italian officials, determined to set the record straight on her great, great grandmother’s mysterious disappearance.

Listen here and subscribe to The Sicilian Inheritance on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts!

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They seemed like superheroes. When a group called the Love Commandos leapt into the public eye in India, they pledged to do something that most government agencies and police departments couldn't do: protect and shelter young lovers on the run. Our friends over at NPR's Rough Translation in their final season takes us on a rare look inside that secret shelter with its strange mix of revolutionary ideas, petty grievances and old traditions that die hard. The stories from couples who lived there will make you ask yourself: How much are you willing to sacrifice in the name of love?

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