Our millennia-long obsession with immortalityOur millennia-long obsession with immortality
All In The Mind
Would you want to live forever? The rich and powerful certainly do. There are numerous examples throughout history of people going to extreme lengths in search of immortality. These days, it's Silicon Valley tech bros, testing out everything from blood transfusions to merging our brains with the cloud. Why are they/we so obsessed with dodging death? What is it about extreme wealth that makes people dream of defying biology? Today, tech journalist and social psychologist Aleks Krotoski takes us into the world of the ‘immortalists’: what they think the future of humanity might look like, and whether the rest of us want to come along for the ride. Guest: Aleks Krotoski Investigative journalist Social psychologist Author, The Immortalists: The Death of Death and the Race for Eternal Life Credits: Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar Producer: Rose Kerr Senior Producer: James Bullen Sound engineer: Tegan Nicholls
32:05•2 May 2026
Forever Young? Tech Dreams, Testicle Tonics and the Trouble with Dodging Death
Episode Overview
- Human attempts to escape death stretch from ancient alchemists and elixirs to early 1900s experiments with animal testicles and semen.
- Modern longevity culture in Silicon Valley leans heavily on data tracking, supplements, fasting and extreme biohacking, typified by Brian Johnson’s costly routines and “don’t die” mantra.
- Transhumanists and singularity believers frame future immortality through merging with technology, brain‑computer interfaces and potential digital existence in the cloud.
- These immortality projects often reflect a narrow, wealthy, predominantly Western viewpoint and carry strong elements of ageism and ableism.
- Framing death and ageing as personal failure risks diverting resources away from people who need support now and ignores wider social and ethical consequences.
“It sets death up as failure. It sets aging up as failure.”
What are the common struggles and victories in addiction recovery? Here, the obsession isn’t booze, but beating death itself. All In The Mind zooms in on humanity’s age‑old fixation with living forever, from ancient alchemists to today’s tech millionaires. Host Sana Kadar chats with social psychologist and tech reporter Alex Kretosky about how far people will go to outrun the inevitable.
Early on, Sana reads out a wonderfully unappealing list: “yogurt enemas”, “juice extracted from a testicle of a dog or a guinea pig”, and transplanted sex glands. Alex notes that these bizarre treatments “have a whiff, just a gentle whiff of science”, showing how easily people can be convinced when fear of death kicks in.
The conversation then shifts to modern “immortalists”, with Silicon Valley figures like Brian Johnson using extreme biohacking, strict routines and even his “blood boy” son’s plasma to try to keep his body at a constant age. His motto? Simply: “don’t die.” Alex explains how this mindset feeds a culture where “it sets death up as failure. It sets aging up as failure,” with serious consequences for how society views older and disabled people.
Things get even stranger as they talk about transhumanists and believers in the technological “singularity”, where brains might be uploaded to servers and people imagine future lives on “server farms on Jupiter”. Alex bluntly calls it “100% religion”, pointing out how this new faith often ignores messy realities like inequality, disability, climate, and who gets left behind.
If you’ve ever wondered why some people will swallow anything, attach anything, or plug into anything rather than accept mortality, this conversation gives you plenty to chew on. It’s a sharp, funny, slightly bonkers tour of our fear of death and the lengths we’ll go to avoid it — leaving you to ask: what does a meaningful life look like if you can’t accept its end?
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