The Long Way Back to Ourselves

9.5

Life Extension

This episode tests Yuval Noah Harari's thesis that famine, plague, and war have become manageable and reaches a narrower reading: the scourges have changed form, but their return is not ruled out. You hear about an agent, originally developed to suppress the immune system in organ transplants, that let treated mice live a few months longer on average than untreated ones. The case of the researcher who altered the genome of human embryos in 2018 and was condemned worldwide shows how the field draws a clear line between treating disease and altering the germline. The episode separates three often blurred goals and warns against commercial providers whose promises no controlled study backs.