Category / Interviews
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Jeff Greenberg – Terror Management Theory
Episode 30:
Jeff Greenberg is a Social Psychologist and a Regents Professor at the University of Arizona. He is one of the three developers of Terror Management Theory (TMT) alongside Sheldon Solomon and Tom Pyszczynski. In 2015, they authored The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life. Based on the works of Ernest Becker, TMT aims to explain why we feel death anxiety and how we manage this fear by creating meaning in our day-to-day lives. How do we attempt to deny death?
In this episode, we do a deep dive into TMT and how it has shaped the world around us. Why does history have so much conflict? Why do we defend our worldviews so strongly? How has technology impacted how we cope with death? How honest are we with ourselves about our own motivations? All this and more with Jeff Greenberg.
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Nina Khera – The Role of Youth in Aging
Episode 29:
When did you first care about aging and longevity? For Nina, her passion for the field started at the age of 12.
Join us for a conversation with the brilliant young mind of Nina Khera from when she was 16 (Recorded in 2021) and her journey in the field of Aging. In this episode we begin with a deep dive into Nina’s Career by discussing what garnered her interest in the longevity and aging field, inspirations, being a prominent panel speaker and the generational differences in the focus on aging. We then dig into the age bias in aging, her perspective and experiences in the longevity field, the creation of Biotein and the motivation behind it, the overlap and prioritization of curing diseases, Artificial Intelligence and its applications, and predictions of the aging field by 2050. Finally, we wrap up by asking Nina how her peers and youth in the future can take control of their own aging and get involved.
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Brian Patrick Green – The Ethics of Life Extension
Episode 28:
Brian Patrick Green is the Director of Technology Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Brian’s work on ethics is extensive, covering transhumanism, artificial intelligence, space exploration, corporate ethics, and religion. He has published several articles and resources on ethics and also authored several books including Space Ethics (2021) and Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics (2022).
In this episode, we ask Brian to share his journey into the world of ethics and the issues that face us today with the regulation of rapidly developing technologies like artificial intelligence. We also delve into the ethics of life extension therapies, questions of identity/what it means to be human, and Roman Catholic perspectives on additional life. We may have gone twice as long as the average episode but only for good reason!
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John Davis – Philosophy and Life Extension
Episode 27:
John Davis is a Professor of Philosophy at Cal State Fullerton and is the author of New Methuselahs: The Ethics of Life-Extension. With a book dedicated to answering all the questions about life extension, John Davis is your expert for philosophical and ethical discussion.
We might commonly ask ourselves are all lives equal but John Davis asks a very different question, are all deaths equal? And can life extension make them more or less equal? How will we feel this inequality on a day-to-day basis? We cover this and more including questions of identity, generational connection, and limitations on childbirth.
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Tina Woods – AI and Data Security in Aging and Healthcare
Episode 26:
Tina Woods describes herself as a Healthy Longevity Champion, and after our conversation with her, we cannot help but agree. Founding Collider Health is just the beginning of her experiences with an extensive history working with AI in Healthcare, being a part of multiple collectives and funds surrounding health aging, and focusing on innovation as a whole in the field.
Although recorded earlier, this episode carries just as much relevance in 2023 with us covering topics such as the Open Life Data Project, the NHS and its load on healthcare, food systems and the effects of common habits on our health, and many Worldly perspectives on Ai and public data collection.
Tune in for a great conversation and introspection alongside your favourite hosts!
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Sergey Young – Investing in Longevity
Episode 25:
Sergey Young is the founder of Longevity Vision Fund (LVF), a venture capital fund that invests in technologies that will ultimately help people live longer and healthier. LVF has supported numerous companies including LyGenesis, Cambrian, Juvenescence, and Insilico Medicine. Sergey is also the author of “The Science and Technology of Growing Young” which covers the current longevity landscape and where we are heading in the future.
In this episode, Sergey discusses his process for choosing what technologies to invest in and shares his thoughts on what societal changes are needed for us to live healthy lives. Longevity doesn’t start with a drug, it starts with ourselves and creating movements in our communities.
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Theodora Girgis – Exploring Space and Life Extension
Episode 24:
Theodora Girgis is an Aerospace Engineering Student at the University of Toronto. As one might guess, Theodora is passionate about all things space with experience in astrophysics research at her university and an internship with the Canadian Space Agency. She is also one of the hosts of The Sound of Space, a podcast on space created by the University of Toronto Aerospace Team.
In this episode, Theodora discusses the limitations of space travel, the implications of extended life in space, how life extension might be perceived by peers in her program, whether radically extending lives conflicts with her faith, and much more.
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Jeremy Cohen – Death, Religion, and Technology
Episode 23:
Jeremy Cohen, Co-Founder of TalkDeath and an Assistant Professor at McMaster in the department of Religious Studies focuses on new religious movements seeking radical longevity and immortality, alongside the historical and cultural framework of changing North American relationships to technology and death.
Jeremy describes death across the scopes of religion, life extension, and what exactly a good death is. The conversation dives deep into life extension and immortality in the realms of religion, potential changes to religions with the advent of extended life, transhumanism and our personal opinions on cryonics and much more!
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Judy Ford – Aging: From Cell Biology to Lifestyle
Episode 22:
Judy Ford holds a Ph.D. in Genetics and Cell Biology and has been involved in health research for several decades with extensive work on the interplay between reproduction, genetics, and toxicology. Although retired, Judy now teaches about how lifestyle affects the aging process through her online courses and her book, Why We Age – Solving the Puzzle of Aging.
In terms of biology, Judy describes the contributions of diet and genetics to longevity, as well as the differences in extending life pre and post-menopause. She also veers into the hypothetical with discussions on economic productivity with age, overpopulation, and euthanasia. Finally, Judy also shares some ways to get involved in aging research such as citizen science projects!
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Aisha Musa – Islam and Immortality
Episode 21:
Aisha Musa holds a doctorate of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University with a specialization in Arabic and Islamic Studies. In the context of life extension, she authored the chapter, A Thousand Years, Less Fifty: Toward a Quranic View of Extreme Longevity, in the book, Religion and the Implications of Radical Life Extension.
In this episode, Aisha discusses interpretations of extreme life extension in the Quran, the compatibility between free will and destined death, what Islam teaches about the afterlife, and what Muslims may think of undergoing life-extending therapies.
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