Imagine a grandmother, healthy and vibrant at 90, teaching her great-grandchildren to garden—not just passing down seeds, but stories. This future isn’t science fiction—it’s within reach. But it may never come to life unless we build a society that believes it’s possible in the first place.

In a 2013 Pew Research poll, 56% of Americans would reject a pill that could help them live to 120, even if it was safe, proven, and available tomorrow. Not because the science is wrong, but because we’ve yet to earn their trust. This is the $100 billion question no one in longevity is answering: How do we build a movement people actually want to join?

The problem: A cultural bottleneck

The science of longevity is accelerating, but public acceptance lags critically behind (1):

• 56% of Americans would reject treatments extending life to 120+ years.
• Only 9% view such advances as “natural.”
• 66% fear these technologies would be released before being thoroughly tested.
• 66% worry about resource depletion and environmental consequences.
• 66% believe longevity will be restricted to the wealthy
• Just 38% of respondents express interest in radical life extension.

This hesitation carries real consequences—raising innovation costs, creating political resistance, and delaying regulatory approval, even when the science is sound. In an era when other medical innovations are gaining public support and momentum, longevity remains stuck in a cycle of cultural skepticism, misunderstood, and often dismissed as fringe. 

 Support for longevity varies significantly across demographic and cultural lines. For instance, men tend to express greater enthusiasm than women for longevity (1, 2, 3, 4), though each group responds to different narrative styles. Support also varies with age (1, 2). Religious and cultural values further shape perception. In specific communities, a spiritual sense of purpose has been shown to fuel a desire for longer life (3), while in others, concerns about overstepping natural or divine boundaries lead to hesitation (5, 6). These differences underscore the importance of culturally attuned, context-sensitive messaging—not just scientific accuracy. 

Despite remarkable scientific breakthroughs, the field’s potential remains trapped behind a wall of skepticism that pure science and industry alone cannot overcome. 

Yet, there is reason for hope. Support jumps dramatically to 80% when longevity is framed as health improvement rather than life extension, and 72% of Americans support access to healthspan-extending therapies under a “Right to Try” framework (2). A 2024 study found that nearly two-thirds of US adults would prefer a shorter life with good health over a longer life with health challenges—indicating that health status, not duration, is the dominant concern (8). 

These findings reveal that public acceptance isn’t fixed: the longevity movement can transform perception through effective communication and framing without diluting its core vision of extended lifespans for all. 

This transformation from skepticism to support represents the single greatest untapped opportunity in longevity today. What’s missing isn’t more research or funding alone but the systematic understanding and strategic approach needed to build genuine public trust. The longevity field needs a dedicated effort to translate scientific progress into cultural acceptance. 

Our solution: The Cultural Intelligence Engine for Longevity

The Public Longevity Group is building the first data-driven intelligence system that tells us exactly which longevity messages work, which backfire, and why—before we spend millions finding out the hard way. Think of us as the GPS for navigating public opinion: we show you the fastest route to trust. 

We are the missing layer between longevity science and public acceptance—the intelligence infrastructure that helps every organization in our field communicate better with the public and key stakeholders, recruit supporters faster, and avoid million-dollar messaging mistakes.

We help organizations reframe their messaging to reach underrated regional markets, translate scientific advances into language that resonates with specific groups, and ensure treatments aren’t just approved by regulators but understood and welcomed by the communities they aim to serve.

See our detailed slide deck here and preview our alpha dashboard here.

Our early analyses have already revealed crucial insights:

• We have empirically identified five dominant narrative archetypes—Wisdom Seeker, Mind Healer, Medical Strategist, Precision Optimiser, and Body Hacker—drawn from public behavioral data. These archetypes reveal how people make sense of health, aging, and self-optimization. 
  • Despite their surface diversity, all five clusters within a narrow demographic and psychographic profile, helping explain the field’s stalled public adoption and exposing a major gap in its ability to reach broader worldviews.
  • Current public-facing longevity narratives may compete for the same demographic and psychographic space, leading to redundancy rather than complementarity in public messaging.
• Our psychographic analysis reveals strong correlations between specific personality traits and narrative preferences, offering a deeper lens into audience receptivity beyond traditional demographic markers. 
  • The current longevity narrative ecosystem primarily resonates with psychologically open and culturally progressive audiences—leaving more risk-sensitive or institutionally oriented groups under-engaged.
• Longitudinal data from 2020 to 2025 shows scientific and medical longevity narratives are gaining traction, while lifestyle-based messaging is plateauing—signaling growing public readiness for more advanced interventions.
• Our regional analysis reveals unexpected high-interest zones in Colorado, Oregon, Utah, Hawaii, and Arizona—underserved states with promising low-competition high-opportunity regions for localized engagement.

With your support we will:

• Launch the Longevity Cultural Clock — A cultural barometer that maps cultural readiness and resistance across demographics and regions.
• Conduct narrative pilot projects — Partner with leading organizations to expand the field’s reach into the public domain.
• Publish the first longevity public perception dashboard — Show detailed trends in public, investor, and policymaker sentiment.
• Expand our data infrastructure — Proactively identify narrative risks and opportunities.

Why Now?

Until now, advocacy for the longevity movement has relied on intuition rather than evidence. PLG replaces guesswork with precision, enabling clear communication and strategic action. 

The science of aging is accelerating rapidly, and the window to build public trust alongside innovation is now. Without public support, longevity stands to face the same fate as GMOs: scientifically sound but culturally rejected. Help us ensure longevity science becomes more than promising research—help us transform it into a global movement delivering meaningful, measurable change. The breakthrough that unlocks all other breakthroughs is public trust in our longer future.

We transform cultural barriers into strategic opportunities, identifying exactly where and why longevity narratives succeed or fail.

Our intelligence platform monitors six key domains that determine longevity’s future:

• General Public Sentiment — How different demographics perceive longevity concepts, from the 56% who initially reject life extension to the 80% who support healthspan improvement.
• Cultural Influencer Sentiment — How thought leaders, media figures, and content creators shape public narratives about aging and longevity across different platforms and communities.
• Mainstream Biotech/Pharma Sentiment — How established healthcare institutions position themselves on aging interventions, revealing potential integration pathways or resistance points.
• Longevity Community Sentiment — Internal field dynamics detects when scientific messaging misaligns public values.
• Investor Sentiment — Capital movement patterns and funding signals that reveal market confidence.
• Policy & Regulatory Sentiment — Legislative framing and cultural cues in policy discussions that impact approval pathways.

Our precision intelligence system integrates the following:

• Real-time cultural monitoring — We analyze how aging and longevity are discussed across Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, podcasts, news outlets, and public forums—detecting early shifts in public attitudes weeks before they surface in traditional polls.
• Behavioral analytics — Using platforms like Google Trends, Amazon search and purchase behavior, and Goodreads engagement, we identify which messages drive real behavioral change—not just stated opinion.
• Narrative effectiveness testing — Through A/B testing and targeted surveys, we measure how different framings shift audiences from skepticism to support—bridging the current ~38% baseline toward the 80% potential seen under health-centered messaging.
• Regional and demographic opportunity mapping — We synthesize national, state, and city-level search data with social media analytics, news tracking, census figures, and cultural indices. This multi-layered analysis reveals unexpected hotspots—like Colorado, Utah, and Hawaii—where longevity narratives already outperform the national average, offering high-leverage entry points for engagement.
• Psychographic profiling — By integrating personality datasets, moral foundation research, and content consumption patterns, we map the psychological drivers of narrative receptivity—guiding the creation of culturally resonant, trust-building messages.

We provide actionable intelligence that drives cultural legitimacy and public trust in our mission:

• Cultural Sentimarkers — Early indicators of how different communities will likely interpret longevity technologies. These narrative signals are drawn from public sentiment data and cultural cues and inform the development of the Longevity Cultural Clock.
• Longevity Cultural Clock — A dynamic, data-driven map of cultural readiness across regions and demographics. Built from Sentimarkers, it reveals how various groups frame life extension—whether as medical progress, moral risk, spiritual calling, or social threat—enabling targeted engagement and strategic communication.
• Narrative Toolkit — Proven communication frameworks and public engagement strategies that help longevity entities reach beyond their current audience and expand their influence.
• Insight Reports and Whitepapers — Regularly published analyses that synthesize our findings for the public, policymakers, advocates, and innovators—equipping the field with timely, trustworthy intelligence.

We don’t just analyze the landscape—we provide the strategic roadmap to navigate it successfully.

The initial $100,000 for our first year of operations is more than seed funding—it is a launchpad for a public transformation. Without it, the longevity movement risks remaining misunderstood, siloed, and stalled. With it, we will build the cultural intelligence infrastructure needed to earn public trust, shape smarter narratives, and unlock the widespread adoption of aging interventions.

Here’s how we’ll put your support to work—with transparency, efficiency, and maximum impact:

• Launch the Longevity Cultural Clock—A national system mapping cultural adoption, resistance, and opportunity zones for longevity—tracking sentiment across regions, demographics, and narrative styles.
• Deploy Sentimarkers—To measure the alignment of specific longevity messages, campaigns, and policy frames—guiding smarter, more trusted communication strategies.
• Run pilot projects with partner organizations—Including startups, nonprofits, and advocacy groups—testing real-world adoption of narrative strategies and audience-specific framing.
• Release the MVP Cultural Intelligence Dashboard—A public-facing platform visualizing real-time sentiment trends across public, policy, and investor domains.
• Support a lean, expert team—To lead data operations, build tools, run pilots, and coordinate insight across the longevity ecosystem.

At PLG, we believe core cultural insights should be public. That’s why we provide open-access reports (including overviews of our Cultural Clock), high-level dashboards, and narrative toolkits—resources designed to inform the public, empower advocates, and elevate the entire longevity ecosystem.

To stay sustainable and high-impact, we operate on a hybrid model. We reserve advanced analytics, real-time monitoring tools, and customized diagnostics for partners who are actively deploying or funding longevity efforts. These include:

• Detailed Sentimarker scoring for campaigns and messaging.
• Region-specific narrative risk assessments.
• Private strategic briefings and investor-ready cultural intelligence.

By sharing foundational insights widely and offering deeper tools to mission-aligned partners, PLG can remain both a trusted civic voice and a professional intelligence service—ensuring our work delivers public value while powering real-world adoption.

• Campaign ends: October 31, 2025
• Team onboarding & infrastructure setup: November- December 2025
• Tool & dashboard development: December 2025- February 2026
• Initial survey deployment & data gathering: February- April 2026
• Beta dashboard launch: May 2026
• First public insight report: June 2026
• Pilot project rollout: Summer 2026
• Narrative Toolkit release: Fall 2026

While we’re lean and efficient, we’re not rushing insight—we’re building it right from the start. This timeline gives us the space to test carefully, analyze deeply, and deliver lasting value to the field.

Greater impact becomes possible beyond our $100k goal. With core funding secured, every additional dollar helps us expand our work’s scope, speed, and reach.

$125,000 – Pilot Deployment Phase (Year 1 target)

• Run narrative pilot projects with startups, nonprofits, and coalitions.
• Develop audience-specific messaging modules using Sentimarker data.

$150,000 – Real-Time Insight Phase (Year 1-2 target)

• Publish real-time updates on public, political, and investor sentiment.
• Expand geographic coverage beyond U.S. state and city levels into multinational readiness mapping.

$200,000 – System Expansion Phase (Year 2 target)

• Integrate new data sources and automate cultural signal detection.
• Launch automated pipelines for sentiment forecasting and regional narrative scoring.

Your contribution isn’t just a donation: it’s a direct investment in the tools, insights, and infrastructure needed to unlock public trust in longevity. We’ve built a lean, high-leverage operation where every dollar works hard. Here is how we will put the $100,000 to work in Year One:

We’re a small team by design—lean, strategic, and impact-driven. PLG is an initiative of the Lifespan Research Institute, able to partner across the ecosystem: the scientists advancing longevity therapies, the startups bringing them to market, and the advocates fighting for access. This gives us a front-row seat to the field’s evolving needs—and the cultural barriers holding it back. With just two core team members, we maximize every dollar and every hour, delivering high-impact intelligence without bloated overhead. Our structure keeps us agile, transparent, and fully aligned with our mission: to build the cultural infrastructure longevity needs to succeed.

Sho Joseph Ozaki Tan is the founder of the Public Longevity Group and a biomedical researcher focused on the intersection of science, culture, and systems change. Trained at Imperial College London, he has conducted ageing research on Alzheimer’s and reproductive longevity at the Buck Institute and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing and held additional research roles at Stanford and Kyoto University.

Sho brings cross-sector experience in biotech strategy, health tech consulting, and narrative intelligence. He previously worked at Inflection Point Biomedical Advisors in Japan and contributed to the early development of the cultured meat biotech startup Multus. A TIME Fellow, Norn Group Fellow, and Longevity Biotech Fellow, he will lead PLG at the Lifespan Research Institute, building the cultural infrastructure longevity needs to earn public trust.

Dylan Wintle is the Data Science & Infrastructure Lead at Public Longevity Group and the Lead Data Scientist at Aeon Biomarkers. He was an early member of Longevity Xplorers (LongX) and now serves as the Community Director there and the Project Lead on the LongX Longevity Career Roadmap project. He holds a degree in Computer Science from Heriot-Watt University, particularly focused on Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics. Following some early research on designing elderly-friendly Large Language Model user interfaces and MRI synthetic data generation, he developed an interest in the global proliferation of the longevity movement, particularly in the public policy space, a goal he furthers through his work with PLG, Aeon and LongX. He is also a Longevity Biotech Fellowship fellow

In his spare time, Dylan founded the Enkidu Project, a JellyfishDAO-supported game studio where he serves as Game Director on Theriac Coda. He enjoys tutoring children, drumming at his local church, and studying Korean. 

Doyle Lokitiyakul is the Communications Lead at the Public Longevity Group. first began his scientific journey as a summer research assistant at Harvard University, where he investigated how NMN and sirtuins influence mammalian longevity. Over the past decade, he has remained deeply engaged in the longevity field, contributing to research in areas spanning reproductive aging, inflammaging, and age-related macular degeneration. He recently completed his PhD at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, where his work focused on uncovering the molecular mechanisms that enable memory formation and understanding why this process fails in neurodegenerative diseases.  

Outside of research, Doyle has led initiatives to foster scientific talent and broaden public engagement with aging biology. He co-organized the Buck Institute’s student research symposium for multiple years, developed mentorship programs connecting local high school students with research opportunities, and provided talks at retirement homes to make cutting-edge aging research news accessible to older adult communities. 

We believe meaningful contributions deserve meaningful rewards. Instead of merch or gimmicks, our rewards offer tangible, lasting value in the form of early access to our cultural intelligence, strategic insights into public sentiment, and formal recognition for your role in shaping the future of longevity. Your support doesn’t just fund our work—it earns you a seat at the movement’s foundation.

1. Pew Research Center. (2013). Living to 120 and beyond: Americans’ views on aging, medical advances and radical life extension. Pew Research Center.

2. Alliance for Longevity Initiatives, & Public Policy Polling. (2025, March). National survey results.

3. Lifshin, U., Helm, P. J., Greenberg, J., Soenke, M., & Pyszczynski, T. (2019). Women want the heavens, men want the earth: Gender differences in support for life extension technologies. Journal of Individual Differences, 40(3), 156–167.

4. Bowen, C. E., Christiansen, S. G., Emelyanova, A., Golubeva, E., Stonawski, M., & Skirbekk, V. (2020). Living too long or dying too soon? Exploring how long young adult university students in four countries want to live. Journal of Adult Development, 27(2), 157–169.

5. Cicirelli, V. G. (2010). Elders’ attitudes toward extending the healthy life span. Journal of Aging Studies, 24(3), 183–191.

6. Frost, J., Schneider, R. C., Henderson, A. K., & Ecklund, E. H. (2024). Divine purpose? Religion, race, and attitudes toward life extension technology. Sociology of Religion. Advance online publication.

7. Donner, Y., Fortney, K., Calimport, S. R., Pfleger, K., Shah, M., & Betts-LaCroix, J. (2016). Great desire for extended life and health amongst the American public. Frontiers in Genetics, 6, 353.

8. Medtronic. (2024, April 17). Americans favor quality over quantity in pursuit of longevity.