On this episode of Lifespan News, Ryan O’Shea discusses our upcoming interview with Andrew Steele, author of Ageless, and the contents of the book.
Script
Dr. Andrew Steele, the Oxford-trained physicist turned longevity-focused computational biologist who you might recognize from his appearances on Discovery and the BBC, recently sat down with Brent Nally of Lifespan News to discuss his book Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old. We’ll talk about the book, and hear some interesting arguments from Andrew, in this episode of Lifespan News!
Towards the beginning of his book, Andrew explores the historical attitudes towards aging and the moral arguments surrounding it. In this section of the book, he did something that I found quite effective, but I may put a bit of my own spin on it when recollecting it. He asked the reader to imagine living in a world without the negative effects of aging, where health and vitality are maintained. Now, imagine the rise of a pandemic within this world, in which a disease that mimics the effects of aging begins taking over. People grow frail, and weak, and lose their physical abilities and mental capacities. Eventually, they become susceptible to other ailments and ultimately die. What steps might the inhabitants of this previously ageless world take to stop this deadly disease? The answer is anything. Practically everything would be put on hold as the attention of everyone, from nations down to individuals, focuses on getting this problem under control.
There may be some naysayers, or those who believe the disease is natural and therefore good, or God’s will, but would the inhabitants of this imaginary world listen to this, or to the environmental and economic arguments against fighting this aging-like disease? It’s not likely. As Andrew says in the book, “Aging is not a morally acceptable solution to any problem”, and I agree.
In Brent’s interview, Andrew addressed why he made the switch from physics to biology, and why he thinks aging is such a pressing issue.
Andrew then addressed arguments that say aging is inevitable, and that the laws of physics guarantee it.
In a final clip we’ll share with you, Andrew discusses the existence of BOFFFFs, and the role that evolution plays in the biology of aging.
These clips are just scratching the surface and the full interview covers so much more. We’ll be posting all 50 minutes of it on the Lifespan.io YouTube channel, and it’s worth checking out. When it’s live, we’ll have a link in the video description. You can also find Lifespan.io’s review of Ageless on our website, and find Andrew or purchase the book at the links below.
Remember to subscribe because we have much more science content coming. I’m Ryan O’Shea, and we’ll see you next time on Lifespan News!