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Could It Though? · Thursday · 5 min

Could we stop ageing?

A microphone got left on at a military parade in Beijing, and the whole world heard Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin chatting about living forever. Meanwhile, Bryan Johnson spends about $2 million a year trying to be 18 again. So could we actually stop ageing? We do the maths on living to 1,000, look at what nature has already cracked (a 400-year-old shark and a jellyfish that turns itself back into a baby), and follow the billions pouring into labs trying to reset old cells. Then the hard part. Young blood, biological age tests, a drug for transplant patients, and a world record nobody has beaten in almost 30 years. And if it works: 935 years of pension, a world that grows twice as fast, and dictators who never get old. Could it? Would it? Should it? I'm Gazza, and this is Could It Though? Numbers in this episode: Hot mic at the Beijing parade, 3 Sept 2025, "live to 150": Al Jazeera, CNN Bryan Johnson, about $2m a year, 100+ pills a day, plasma swap with his son: Fortune, July 2023 At 25, about a 1 in 1,000 chance of dying in a year: US insurance mortality tables (ACLI). Living to about 1,000 is our illustration, not a forecast Global life expectancy about 32 in 1900, about 73 today: Our World in Data (UN WPP 2024) Japan: 99,763 people aged 100+ in 2025, 153 in 1963: Japanese health ministry via Euronews Greenland shark, up to about 400 years, adult at about 150: Nielsen et al., Science, 2016 Turritopsis dohrnii, the "immortal jellyfish" Shinya Yamanaka, Nobel Prize 2012; eyesight restored in old mice: Lu et al., Nature, 2020 First human trial cleared (Life Biosciences ER-100): Longevity.Technology, Jan 2026 Altos Labs $3bn; Sam Altman $180m into Retro Biosciences; Hevolution up to $1bn a year: MIT Technology Review Jeanne Calment, 122: Guinness World Records Biological age tests disagree: Live Science Young blood plasma, $8,000 a litre, FDA warning 2019: CBS News Rapamycin in mice: Harrison et al., Nature, 2009 63m deaths and 132m births a year: UN World Population Prospects 2024 The rich live longer: Chetty et al., JAMA, 2016 Got a hypothetical you want us to run? Send it in. If you're enjoying Could It Though?, hit follow and leave us a five-star rating. It really helps new people find the show. New episode every day.

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A microphone got left on at a military parade in Beijing, and the whole world heard Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin chatting about living forever. Meanwhile, Bryan Johnson spends about $2 million a year trying to be 18 again.

So could we actually stop ageing? We do the maths on living to 1,000, look at what nature has already cracked (a 400-year-old shark and a jellyfish that turns itself back into a baby), and follow the billions pouring into labs trying to reset old cells.

Then the hard part. Young blood, biological age tests, a drug for transplant patients, and a world record nobody has beaten in almost 30 years. And if it works: 935 years of pension, a world that grows twice as fast, and dictators who never get old.

Could it? Would it? Should it? I'm Gazza, and this is Could It Though?

Numbers in this episode:

  • Hot mic at the Beijing parade, 3 Sept 2025, "live to 150": Al Jazeera, CNN
  • Bryan Johnson, about $2m a year, 100+ pills a day, plasma swap with his son: Fortune, July 2023
  • At 25, about a 1 in 1,000 chance of dying in a year: US insurance mortality tables (ACLI). Living to about 1,000 is our illustration, not a forecast
  • Global life expectancy about 32 in 1900, about 73 today: Our World in Data (UN WPP 2024)
  • Japan: 99,763 people aged 100+ in 2025, 153 in 1963: Japanese health ministry via Euronews
  • Greenland shark, up to about 400 years, adult at about 150: Nielsen et al., Science, 2016
  • Turritopsis dohrnii, the "immortal jellyfish"
  • Shinya Yamanaka, Nobel Prize 2012; eyesight restored in old mice: Lu et al., Nature, 2020
  • First human trial cleared (Life Biosciences ER-100): Longevity.Technology, Jan 2026
  • Altos Labs $3bn; Sam Altman $180m into Retro Biosciences; Hevolution up to $1bn a year: MIT Technology Review
  • Jeanne Calment, 122: Guinness World Records
  • Biological age tests disagree: Live Science
  • Young blood plasma, $8,000 a litre, FDA warning 2019: CBS News
  • Rapamycin in mice: Harrison et al., Nature, 2009
  • 63m deaths and 132m births a year: UN World Population Prospects 2024
  • The rich live longer: Chetty et al., JAMA, 2016

Got a hypothetical you want us to run? Send it in.

If you're enjoying Could It Though?, hit follow and leave us a five-star rating. It really helps new people find the show. New episode every day.

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