Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever

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.

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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.

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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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Miles and the team learn how Vassilis and his gang pulled off the biggest bank robbery in Greek history without firing a single shot.

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When music promoter and DJ Jean-Claude Olivier is shot outside a club in Miami, Little Haiti wonders – how much further is this going to go?

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Skyline Drive has been selected as an Apple Podcasts Series Essential! 

In this final episode, Mangesh makes some trips to an old family home, a seaside town in South Goa,  and visits with a Tantric astrologer (it's not what you think!), as he tries to get closure. 

We made you a mixtape. Listen to Sounds from Skyline Drive Vol 1 and Vol 2. 

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Skyline Drive has been selected as an Apple Podcasts Series Essential! 

Mangesh travels to India to find a horoscope written about him centuries ago and waiting for him in a shop in rural Tamil Nadu... but it isn't long before everything starts going wrong! 

Listen to the Skyline Drive mixtape Vol 1 and Vol 2. 

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