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A wild and entertaining adventure into the business of eternal life

From the epic of Gilgamesh to the alchemy of the Philosopher’s stone, humanity’s quest for immortality – and its rejuvenation tricks, therapies and tinctures – has always been our most mortal endeavour.

But now the giants of invention and investment are building a Fountain of Youth of their own creation. Death is simply Silicon Valley’s next problem to solve, the latest expression of a hubris which regards humans as appliances to be fixed and machines to be upgraded. By harnessing technology to “cure” ageing and funding cutting-edge—and often controversial—research, today’s immortalists are locked in an arms race to be the first to pocket the profits from Vitality Inc: one they not only engineer, but also own and control.

What was once a wild west of experimentation has found its way into Washington’s corridors of power. Award-winning broadcaster and academic Aleks Krotoski journeys from these cult fringes to the heartlands of government, to meet the moguls, effective altruists, geroscientists and entrepreneurs who are disrupting death. Along the way she encounters radical life extensionists transfusing their teenage son’s blood, transhumanists who want to upload consciousness to the cloud and biohackers flogging AI-powered wellness apps.

This razor-sharp, powerful, and at times chilling investigation empowers us to consider what it truly means to be human, asking: do we really want a handful of billionaires to be the architects of our forever?

© Aleks Krotoski 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025