Bryan Johnson: Absolutely not a Vampire!
Added 2024-08-11 03:37:28 +0000 UTCIn this life-enhancing episode, Matt and Chris venture into the futuristic world of tech entrepreneur and biohacker Bryan Johnson, clarifying along the way that he’s not the ACDC frontman.
They examine Johnson's Project Blueprint and 'Don't Die' movement—a quest for indefinite lifespan extension through supplements and lifestyle changes—and consider whether their apprehension means they are actually death lovers gorging themselves each day on death burgers and life-draining whiskey.
The decoders analyze his carefully crafted appearance and branding, considering how he presents himself as a revolutionary figure but in reality seems to be peddling some familiar tropes, along with a supplement line and some expensive blueberries.
As usual, they consider the rhetorical moves, parasocial manipulations, and the likelihood for the lofty claims to become a reality.
One thing that is clear by the end: Bryan Johnson is certainly not a modern-day vampire.
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Comments
Great episode, fellas! Little known fact: in one of the earlier episodes you guys covered the guru: Bon "Scott" Adams, who was the previous singer and frontman of AC/DC, before Johnson. After recording the album "highway to Trumpistan" Bon-Scott grew tired of the fame and lifestyle that came with being a world renowned rock star, and he started longing for the leisurely life of a somewhat racist comic book writer instead, so he started the comic strip "Dilbert" which portrays the life of an office worker (a lifestyle of which he knew nothing, but often fantasised about). With multiple platinum winning albums, and grammy's under his belt, he has as of yet not received the Nobel price of literature for his genius social commentary.
Elias Bjaaland
2024-09-20 06:17:11 +0000 UTCI imagine the younger generations would not be too happy.
Linda Sears
2024-08-17 14:07:48 +0000 UTCOh I've seen this Mohawk to! He looks terrible!
Emma
2024-08-17 07:55:23 +0000 UTCI saw a video of him with his girlfriend on a property recently with a mohawk
Lys
2024-08-17 06:45:21 +0000 UTChttps://renuebyscience.com/all-pet-products/
Emma
2024-08-17 05:51:24 +0000 UTCHave you heard of the dog aging project? Also David Sinclair does feed his dogs NMN which I did with my old dog. Actually pet supplements seem to be the new frontier for vitamin companies!
Emma
2024-08-17 05:49:58 +0000 UTCBut he still has some followers on the extreme fringe I think
Emma
2024-08-17 05:45:52 +0000 UTCI keep thinking of the Torchwood series when everyone on earth stops dying. The consequences were horrible.
Lina Neild Robinson
2024-08-16 06:26:22 +0000 UTCYou want an Australian Guru... Pete Evans, although I get the impression cancellation actually made him less popular.
Lys
2024-08-14 07:34:44 +0000 UTCThanks for this fun one, fellas! Nice & concise. Going by lyrics alone, the AC/DC Brian Johnson probably hasn’t much use for longevity protocols
Nancy Hale
2024-08-13 23:48:15 +0000 UTCYou know, I think I have seen it.
Linda Sears
2024-08-12 23:43:39 +0000 UTCNo. I’ll look it up!
Linda Sears
2024-08-12 23:42:25 +0000 UTCChris' butchering of the Bilbo Baggins quote 😂
Alex H
2024-08-12 21:26:52 +0000 UTCNo shame in losing to the best
Andreas Singer
2024-08-12 19:54:08 +0000 UTCThat's a gross over simplification of the role of school lunches, at least in the US.
Trees
2024-08-12 18:59:19 +0000 UTCHypothesis: this whole episode was voiced by an AI replica of Chris
Trees
2024-08-12 18:48:52 +0000 UTCI did a proper double-take at Matt saying Chris is his "erstwhile" co-host of the pod in the introduction there, like "what, did they get in a fight like some second-rate drama queen streamers or something?!"
Dries T.
2024-08-12 15:37:20 +0000 UTCOh, and I don't really like chicken nuggets personally. But I do love fried chicken wings and fillet burgers. So much so that I had to quit for the sake of my health.
Matt
2024-08-12 15:26:35 +0000 UTCI've always wondered where the truth is in regards to chicken nuggets. Obviously, being deep fried, and often not 'fresh', they're going to be fairly nutritionally poor. But, they are an efficient use of the animal. I don't see anything inherently wrong with turning the less desirable bits of a carcass to paste, and making it into a more palatable item. The nutritional value of the non-choice cuts is still going to be high. That said, the hyper-palatability could contribute to overconsumption.
Matt
2024-08-12 15:24:29 +0000 UTCYour direction sounds way more fun.
Linda Sears
2024-08-12 14:54:42 +0000 UTCI think this was an overall weaker critique. The jury is still out on this guy for me. I definately dislike his revolutionary, world changing retoric and the supplement/foods peddling. But the actual stuff hes doing and promoting seems fairly legit. He does try stuff that there isn't great evidence for but he is usually upfront about that fact. Life expectancy in the UK is ~81 years. Its a fascinating hypothetical question: If you took a sample of thousands people and they lived lives perfectly optimised for longevity - i.e. perfect exercise, diet, sleep hygiene, social lives, no drugs/alcohol, some supplements etc.. And they did this consistently their whole lives. What would be the life expectancy difference? Obviously difficult to answer, but something in the range of 15-30 years doesn't seem outside the realm possibility to me. Personally, I am curious to see what this guy looks like in 25 years. Though sadly he is only one datapoint at the end of the day.
jp93k
2024-08-12 11:04:59 +0000 UTCWait till they shout out to pee deedee
Idan Ca
2024-08-12 10:22:50 +0000 UTCJust been trying to resurrect a dead hard drive … Now if he could make THEM live a whole lot longer, hey!! Sign me up!!
Gavin Ryan
2024-08-12 06:40:11 +0000 UTC"Calling it death might be a bit of an overstretch"? If parents don't want their kids to eat bready potatoey oily cheese foods, they can pack a lunch for them instead of paying the schools to feed them.
JustTheWorstEver
2024-08-12 04:29:11 +0000 UTCYeah, what about driving and other forms of transportation? Certainly they add a few microdeaths each.
brianshmrian
2024-08-12 04:14:49 +0000 UTCThis guy is (part of) why those of us who were in San Francisco in the 90s or prior call it the ‘dot bomb’
Monica B.
2024-08-12 02:50:52 +0000 UTCCultish vibes and pseudo-science aside, I don't think I fundamentally disagree with Bryan Johnson's core premise. Whenever I read debates about longevity online, there seems to be a very common opinion that death is somehow essential to the human experience, or that anyone who would want to live twice as long or ten times as long as the current human lifespan has some kind of mental illness. I'm not sure who's crazier, a Bryan Johnson type, or the type of person who denies that any amount of life extension is desirable. I'm also not a fan of the focus on his physical appearance. Our evolved intuitions and cultural norms telling us that something looks "unhealthy" or "creepy" isn't always going to be a good signal of what is actually healthy based on objective measures of health. Maybe in 100 years everyone is going to look like him, or maybe not, but we shouldn't assume that we know what an ideally healthy human looks like.
Erik Fast
2024-08-12 02:39:06 +0000 UTCLady when you go away / I feel like I could die / Not like dye like your hair is dyed / But die like Lady Di / And not like Di like her name is Di / But die like when she died / Ooh, be my princess tonight / But don’t die. Don’t die. No way. — Ricky Gervais singing to Marge Simpson
Mark K
2024-08-12 01:12:36 +0000 UTCFascinating episode! I realize that I am deeply curious about this character, being a bit of a health nut myself, but diametrically opposed to Bryan Johnson. Most of my health practices are related to being outdoors, eating local food, being a friendly neighbour and measuring nothing whatsoever. I truly believe that you can live to 100 years old that way, because my grand-parents did it So, Johnson and I are running in opposite directions towards the same goal.
Jean-François Melançon
2024-08-11 21:44:58 +0000 UTCGod damn you are right!
Christopher Kavanagh
2024-08-11 19:54:25 +0000 UTCOhhh did you see Bad Vegan??!!
Liz Tily
2024-08-11 19:50:01 +0000 UTCWhy does he keep saying school lunch?
Liz Tily
2024-08-11 19:48:47 +0000 UTCLol I finally got my shout out only to be outdone by Deep Dick Chopra
James P.
2024-08-11 19:16:22 +0000 UTCjoin the app and live forever
Dada de Broglie
2024-08-11 18:13:00 +0000 UTCI think you are correct!
Julie
2024-08-11 17:45:53 +0000 UTCI think a new guru for pets living longer would get traction. Given how much I love my dogs, I’d fall for it.
Linda Sears
2024-08-11 17:38:54 +0000 UTCDoes Dr. K work for the death, because listening his podcast reduces my life by 2-3 hours?
commutercomputer
2024-08-11 15:52:51 +0000 UTCIsn't death sticks from attack of the clones... It's a trap!
Rufus Evans
2024-08-11 15:29:55 +0000 UTCThanks, another fun and interesting report from areas of the internet which I don't frequent myself. 😄 The "death sticks" scene in Star Wars must have been Episode 2, released in 2002. So nowhere near the 70s.
Roland Weber
2024-08-11 12:52:52 +0000 UTCBeen waiting for you to talk about this guy 👏🏼
emmajane
2024-08-11 12:02:42 +0000 UTCMaybe he already has. He does have a bit of a Dorian Grey look in some of his more fopish outfits
Emma
2024-08-11 10:27:04 +0000 UTCAs bad as this guy is, his background music choices might be the worst thing about him. I’m picturing he got it from a public domain album called ‘sounds to sell snake oil’
Ben Holland
2024-08-11 09:55:09 +0000 UTCoooor sitting for a supernatural oil painting?
S Alexandra
2024-08-11 09:29:02 +0000 UTCHas he considered living in a bubble to avoid all sources of death? 🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️
S Alexandra
2024-08-11 09:26:23 +0000 UTC‘He looks like butter stretched over too much bread’ - 9/10
john statham
2024-08-11 08:46:43 +0000 UTCWorryingly I work from home 80% of the time, but my mornings are much the same as this. I make a new resolution to become a morning person at least once a month...
Emma
2024-08-11 08:46:14 +0000 UTCI know it’s not a Dr K video, but since you mentioned it at the start, had to express my mild rage
S Alexandra
2024-08-11 07:51:59 +0000 UTCNot sure about this one. Dude's an utter nutjob, don't get me wrong. But shaming schools that feed fries and pizza to our children... Not the worst message. Calling it death or die might be a bit of an overstretch but still. I really wanted to hate this guy but I listening to his interview with Dr Mike (not israetel, the other one) surprised me. Again: still a nutter but not quite as bad as I had expected. Compared to that interview, his views seem to have gotten more extreme though. Maybe another one who just gets increasingly extreme until maybe he totally falls of a cliff.
Chomagerider
2024-08-11 07:50:22 +0000 UTCI read the medical board reprimand for Dr K which is linked from his wikipedia page. Its more irresponsible than i initially assumed, skin-crawling stuff. To think Dr K is claiming he is vindicated - when he has legally consented (acknowledged) he engaged in conduct that undermines public confidence in the medical profession… its just infuriating.
S Alexandra
2024-08-11 07:49:22 +0000 UTCWell that was surprisingly wholesome compared with recent content. A genuine snake oil salesman.
Nina Davies
2024-08-11 07:11:27 +0000 UTCYOU CAN FIND THE SNOOZE BUTTON? Please educate me
Grey Blob
2024-08-11 06:39:19 +0000 UTCThese are my morning protocols: I like to press the snooze button approximately 12 times. I find this provides my mornings with a blood chilling terror as I realise I have over****ingslept again. Then I like to combine making toast with cleaning my teeth, for additional hand to eye co-ordination. I find its important to shave too quickly, and badly. This allows patches of skin to rest from shaving while throughly exfoliating others. I take a miniworkout every morning by sprinting to the station. I do not warm up, and often do this with my shirt buttoned up wrong. This allows my joints to ache all day, and adds more adrenaline on frosty days. At work I ensure to check my email first, that way I start my day both distracted and frustrated.
Ymirsdreams
2024-08-11 05:44:57 +0000 UTCI watched this grifter goo boi for 15 seconds on a YouTube video and was instantly annoyed.
Roscoe 112
2024-08-11 05:40:29 +0000 UTCHe’s definitely a lizard wearing human skin.
Kelley
2024-08-11 04:38:32 +0000 UTC
