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00:06Oh my. Wow. Wow. Doesn't this land in the backyard of a Colorado household owned by a
00:15woman named Mindy? Mork. Mork and Missy. It's a state-of-the-art sound therapy pod that is using
00:23sound playing in your body. So there's a lot of science-based frequencies to calm your nervous
00:28system at a cellular level. We typically call it an inner and outer body experience. You know those
00:33moments where you suddenly have to ask yourself how did I end up here? This feels like the lamest
00:39crypt in the world and I'm stuck with Kara. Well Emily Ratajkowski was busy. This was one of those.
00:46I was deep inside a concrete basement in New York City about to embark on an auditory journey that
00:52is designed to help my body repair, restore, and transform itself. We're going to take you on a
00:59beautiful sound journey. Sound journey, Scott. All right. My traveling companion was my good friend
01:04and podcast partner, Scott Galloway. I just had a deep inside, Kara. This longevity trend,
01:11hasn't the earth suffered enough? Shouldn't we just die?
01:25One of the things that's really disturbing as usual with the use of social media, with all this
01:30knowledge everywhere, Dr. Google, everyone thinks they're an expert and they are not. When I wake up,
01:36the first thing I do is drink longevity mix. It's packed with CoQ10. I'm going to NAD for the rest
01:42of
01:42my life and I'm never going to age. Social media is flooded with celebrity wellness influencers
01:46hawking breakthrough therapies, claiming they reverse aging, cure chronic diseases,
01:51and crack the code to living longer. They have tools now to get everywhere,
01:56whether it's on TikTok or which is particularly bad, or Instagram. There's so much bad information
02:01that it becomes a toxic stew and the really good information gets drowned. We can slow down the
02:06aging process with a single pill. I got salmon sperm injected into my face.
02:12Have you ever heard of drinking hydrogen peroxide for health?
02:15Certain things we'll find, well, doesn't really hurt, doesn't really help, but it costs a lot of
02:19money. Okay, if you want to do it, knock yourself out. Snails are known to produce collagen.
02:24Certain things are very dangerous. Certain things you should think about doing that you may not have
02:29considered. Certain things we don't know a lot about yet, but we're starting to see really
02:33promising signs. Oh my fucking God. So the real questions are obvious ones no one making money
02:40wants to answer. Keep those feet moving. What longevity trends are grounded in science and what's
02:46just vibes with a subscription fee? And which of these so-called longevity hacks are only for
02:53the ultra wealthy versus anything normal people can afford? I'm Kara Swisher and I'm stoked. I just ran
03:00and worked out and I'm drinking kefir. Yeah, I'm Scott Galloway. I did none of those things.
03:06Scott Galloway spends more money than anyone I know on longevity treatments. I take supplements.
03:11I'm on vitamin D, fish oils, NAD treatments, both intravenous and capsules. I do have a tonal or the
03:17equivalent of a tonal and amp. I am on testosterone therapy and have been for a few years. He's done
03:22just about everything. I'm going to put some shrimp semen lotion on my face. That's what I'm doing.
03:28And I'm going to bring some back for you. But he hasn't done this.
03:42Let your body find the rhythm of the music and the music is going to do the work for you.
03:47Music has never really impacted me in the way it has others. And I've always envy people who it does.
03:52Kara, I wouldn't be worried that you're not that into music. It just means your soul is void of
03:57creativity and joy. But I wouldn't overthink it. Focus on your breathing and I'll see you on the
04:02other side. This space-like bed is called the Sava Sound Pod and it's designed to immerse you in the
04:08music. It features built-in surround sound with four speakers around the head and 10 powerful bass units
04:14beneath the body for deep full body vibration. An app curates a custom playlist with themes like
04:20calm and create. The music is generated from original recordings of nature and ancestral music from
04:28around the world. And it only costs about, cha-ching, $25,000 for your own HomePod.
04:52You want to use this time to reconnect your breath?
04:57I think he's asleep. Finally stopped him talking. Hi, honey. Hi, sweetheart. How are you guys feeling?
05:06I like that. That was cool. The music was quite surrounding, which is sort of like being in one
05:10of those great movie theaters where you don't know sounds behind you. Yeah. Well, the ultimate goal
05:14here was we needed to take you out of your body and take your nervous system from fight or flight
05:19in that kind of sympathetic state and then bringing you down into the parasympathetic state,
05:23which is the rest and recovery state. They say that the state of calm allows the body to repair
05:27tissues, boost immune function, and optimize digestion. Did you notice how the spatial... I didn't
05:33know where it was coming from. Ray Kelly is the inventor of the sound pod and an injury rehab expert.
05:39He calls this vibroacoustic therapy, specific frequencies and vibrations that he claims can heal your brain
05:46and nervous system. I'm not convinced music has that kind of power, even if it definitely
05:53was a stress reliever. All the money you're spending on supplements, all the money you're going to the
05:58gym and doctor, if you're in a state of stress, your body's not going to be able to repair and
06:02you're not
06:02going to be able to perform and it just compounds. Is there any peer review research on the benefits of
06:07sound
06:07therapy? We're working with everyone from like the UFC to U.S. soccer, Ohio State University. We have
06:13research programs underway right now with the U.S. Air Force, specifically studying SARBA for soldiers,
06:19pilots, and people that are under really high levels of stress. And what we've already seen
06:23is that we can change the state of your nervous system within 22 minutes. We've seen papers that
06:29have already shown that chronic aches and pains will diminish for about 60% of test users. When you're
06:34having claims around lowering people's nervous system, you can get caught in the woo-woo basket
06:38very quickly. So it was really important. There's a basket of woo-woo? It's a big basket,
06:41yeah, it's a big one. And so what we wanted to do is make sure that everything that we do
06:45is grounded
06:45in research first, but ultimately balancing scientific knowledge, but with ancestral wisdom.
06:50Every indigenous culture on the planet has used sound and music and song as a way to heal their
06:56communities for generations. While promising, published studies on vibroacoustic sound are based
07:02on small test groups. So more time and research are needed to confirm its true potential.
07:07This feels to me like the gift for the billionaire who has everything. I'm very into this stuff. I
07:14spent a lot of time and an extraordinary amount of money from the industrial complex that's popped
07:20up here to tap into wealthy people who think they're not going to die. I mean, there's a lot of
07:24money in
07:25this. Right. And I fall for all of it. I wouldn't be shocked if I spent less than five or
07:30ten grand a
07:30month on longevity-related stuff. You look marvelous. Yeah, don't I? Not bad for 83.
07:36Scott made his fortune in the tech industry, so he has the resources to spend up to 100 grand per
07:42year
07:42on things like medical treatments, wellness retreats, and nutritional supplements.
07:47Biology is undefeated, and I'm trying to figure out a way not to beat it, but to beat it back.
07:52It's relaxing. So at a minimum, it's a nice way to spend a half an hour.
07:56The bigger question is whether the rest of us can afford to fight biology at all. While I
08:01appreciate and even cheer on Scott's longing to stay young, I need a more skeptical guide to help
08:07navigate this minefield of wellness. What's the craziest one you've heard? Wellness getaway.
08:13The thing that I find craziest are just the sheer volume of colonics. I mean, I got like one colonic
08:20for
08:20the book, and I was like, it's like the longest subway ride of my life. I was like, oh my,
08:26oh God.
08:27Amy LaRocca is an award-winning journalist and author of How to Be Well, the brutally honest
08:32chronicle of subjecting herself to the wildest, weirdest, and occasionally wonderful world of
08:36wellness treatments. Different sectors are just being added to wellness all the time because it is
08:42such an incredibly powerful marketing buzzword. And the word they're using is wellness. It's not
08:47health, it's wellness. If anyone can separate the science from the nonsense, it's her. Especially
08:53after that pricey sound bath, which, if nothing else, clarified how blurry the line has become.
08:59It can be incredibly dangerous for a society to treat health as a luxury item. Using the same
09:06tactics and the same language we use to sell lipstick. A lot of people do want to live forever,
09:19but they don't think of the consequences of what that means for themselves or for anybody
09:25else or for society at large. And that's why, of course, Silicon Valley people love it because
09:29it has total consequences of which they ignore completely. A lot of these guys, and they're
09:34all guys, mostly guys, got interested in life extension because they think everything is
09:39a computer, which it's not. You can hack it. And so they love the idea of body hacking.
09:43They go on about their fasting regimen or Soylent or one more supplement or whatever nonsense
09:49they come up with. But, you know, initially I'm like, oh, the narcissists, of course they're
09:53thinking like this because they're narcissists for the most part. Then there are the people
09:57making money off the obsession. No surprise there either. Mostly men. With the longevity mix,
10:02I take eight pills, which are suitable for all ages and genders. Their customers, though,
10:08are overwhelmingly women. I add the collagen to my matcha every single day, and I also use
10:14their creatine for cognitive function. So what does the consumer side look like? With Amy LaRocca,
10:20I gained access to one of the most exclusive wellness clubs in New York City, the Continuum Club.
10:26Here, the wealthy chase youth through data diagnostics and designer treatments.
10:31Everything's personalized, optimized, and backed, supposedly, by science. That is if you can swing
10:38the 25 to 100 K annual membership and get approval to join. First up, the hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
10:49This is your chamber. Oh, wow. An iron lung. It does look like an iron. It does. The treatment involves
10:56breathing 100% pure oxygen at higher than normal air pressure, allegedly to deliver it into areas with
11:02poor blood flow. Anytime I have something wrong with me, I get in there, I just feel just better.
11:08Joe Rogan swears by it. And of course, Brian Johnson, the tech mogul who's made a career out of trying
11:13to
11:14live forever, has his own souped-up chamber. Oh, my God. You've got, like, a Cadillac of hyperbaric
11:19chambers. How often do you go in this thing? Daily. I mean, what could go wrong?
11:25This is great for wound healing, addressing inflammation. Clinically, this is used as a
11:29treatment for recovery from traumatic brain injury, stroke. Right. I had one of those.
11:35Well, I didn't know. Okay, good. All right. Okay. I'm going to close this. Oh, my fucking God.
11:39You didn't take any fentanyl today, did you? Not today. Oh. I'm turning on that and the
11:44oxygenator, right? Oh, yeah. I feel the ears. We're slowly climbing here. Oh, I can feel the
11:49ears. You got it. So, this level is going to get up to about 25, so that's 1.3 times
11:56current
11:57atmospheric pressure. So, I'm doing, like, a Jeff Bezos, Katy Perry kind of thing, right?
12:01Kind of. Not really. Not quite as ridiculous. Hello, Amy. Thanks for dragging me into this.
12:07So, you did all these things, right? I've done all these things, yeah. But this is, like,
12:12a sort of Rolls Royce. Of a hyperbaric chamber. Yeah, this is nice. Because I'm a classy dame,
12:17but go ahead. Yeah, exactly. How do they measure something like this? Just, I feel okay? Or I feel...
12:23How are you feeling? You feeling better? I feel the same. I don't know. Do you feel smarter?
12:27Because they... We were out there, and they were like, I feel so much sharper when I go in there.
12:30Are you feeling sharper, your answers? Are they getting, like... I think I'm sharp all the time, Amy.
12:36Me?
12:40Nosferatu is emerging to me.
12:43Oh, my God. You look like a child.
12:46You're next. All right, I'm going in. Do you feel different?
12:48Uh, no. I'm going to close this. You're good to go?
12:51I'm good to go.
12:52All right. Maybe.
12:54Oxygen on.
12:57It's a little torture chambering, don't you, Amy?
12:58This is great.
12:59Do you think something like this would lengthen your life if you did it regularly?
13:03Really, what I learned writing this book is we're talking about, like, the cream on the top of the milk
13:09here.
13:09Right.
13:10Healthcare is so fucked in America...
13:12Yes.
13:13...that if you're in a position to be a member of this club, that probably means you have excellent healthcare.
13:19You have an excellent diet.
13:21You have time for leisure in your life.
13:25If you get sick, you can afford the medication.
13:27Right.
13:27So, all of the stuff that we're talking about when we talk about this level of wellness...
13:34Right.
13:34...is not the stuff that's extending your life.
13:36Right.
13:37What's extending your life is the fact that you don't live in a cancer cluster.
13:43Except this cream is trying to even go beyond that.
13:45You know, one of the things...
13:46Sure, it's extra health, right?
13:48Extra health.
13:48It's trying to take you to the next level.
13:50Health span is something I hear from so many.
13:51Health span, that's right.
13:52Really, what we're talking about is what's the quality of those extra years that we've already got.
13:58So, if something like extra oxygen would make 20...
14:01You have no dementia, everyone should do it, right?
14:05Yeah, but I would argue that the changes are on such a more fundamental level that have to do with
14:11privilege already.
14:13Which is wealth.
14:13Which is why the cream are the ones pushing it so hard.
14:16But often, when the wealthy people do things, they do trickle down, right?
14:21For sure.
14:21For sure, you know, it's the Devil Wears products, the Cerulean Blue Sweater.
14:24Yeah.
14:25I mean, if you look at the kind of wellness offerings that are available on the more sort of mall
14:31level, it's kind of astonishing.
14:34Increasingly, wellness has moved beyond the ultra-wealthy and has found its way onto store shelves and into our social
14:39media feeds.
14:40We're all Anne Hathaway wearing our knockoff Cerulean Blue sweaters.
14:46Try a 24-hour cleanse.
14:48If you can't afford good health, you can at least buy the illusion of good health, being peddled by your
14:53lifestyle guru of choice.
14:55Beauty starts with what we eat, how we supplement.
14:58Buy the pill, the powder, the supplement, if you want that youthful glow.
15:03Or so they claim.
15:04Ready to go.
15:05You made the parallel between the wellness industry and the fashion industry, but one of the things you wrote was
15:09it was almost like women were being sold their own bodies back to themselves.
15:13Oh, I think about that all the time.
15:14And one of the things that sort of like keeps me awake at night is trying to identify why.
15:21Ah, shrimp semen, of course.
15:23Yes.
15:25It's branding.
15:26It's branding.
15:27It's branding.
15:27Why, when you smack the wellness label on, ideas about rarity and exclusivity and status being special.
15:35You're in on a secret of a secret.
15:37You know a little something.
15:38And when you start looking to the history of wellness, before we had television, the traveling medical roadshow would come
15:45to town.
15:46And it would promise all sorts of, right, the liver, here's the liver, snake oil, the cocaine.
15:53Yeah, that's an old one.
15:54Even Betty Boop had her own elixir.
15:59The celebrity in the elixir is not new.
16:03Numerous celebs have launched her back wellness companies, selling products from skin care and nutrition to fitness and mental health.
16:11The way that health works in America and the way that health care works in America, you don't get a
16:15lot of time with your doctor.
16:17But you get a lot of time with Oprah.
16:19The Oprah Winfrey Show.
16:21Welcome!
16:21It became a lot of people's stand-in health go-to resource.
16:26She was having doctors on.
16:27Dr. Oz is here to help us.
16:28Giving medical advice.
16:29We know it's very effective in reducing heart disease.
16:32We think it might actually reduce wrinkles.
16:33And I really had my aha moment when I wrote a piece about the marketing of menopause.
16:39Today we're talking about what my friend Maria Shriver and I call the big M.
16:45The big M.
16:46The big M. Menopause.
16:47I was invited to go speak with Oprah.
16:51Stand up, Amy.
16:52Gail and Maria Shriver and Drew Barrymore and a bunch of, you know, menopause-y people.
16:57In addition to a hundred Oprah superfans of menopausal age from the tri-state area.
17:05And the topic was hormone replacement therapy.
17:07The doctors, I said, you need hormones.
17:10You need hormones.
17:11It's going to change your life.
17:12If you had gone into the Hearst Tower that day, you would have just, like, slathered your
17:18body in hormones, HRT, and expected it to, like, drive you home, giving you a massage
17:26and, like, done your dishes.
17:27Menopause isn't just a life stage anymore.
17:30It's a market opportunity.
17:31For women who want to take their health into their own hands.
17:34You still have to Zoom with a medical professional to get HRT, but you don't have to go to your
17:39doctor's office anymore.
17:40I'm on hormone replacement therapy, yes, but you should talk to your doctor about it.
17:44Some of it works for some people, some of it doesn't.
17:47But that's too hard a message for people, right?
17:49That it's complex.
17:50The minute you say it's complex, they can't boil it down to a television show.
17:55And I listen to my doctor and I trust my doctor.
17:57And we debate it.
17:58And she sent me all kinds of studies.
18:00I read them.
18:01I was an informed consumer about the issue.
18:04And what you hope is that people are going to call their doctors and then have meaningful
18:09conversations saying, is this right for me?
18:12How could this work for me?
18:14And to consider you, Cara, and your specific set of issues and needs and set reasonable expectations.
18:23Right.
18:24Figure out really what's going to work for you.
18:27What you don't want is a for-profit entity trying to sell it to you online without ever
18:34meeting you and talking to you.
18:35Which is where it's going.
18:37Which is where it's going.
18:45All right.
18:47What is that?
18:48This is a red light mask.
18:50See?
18:51Look, red lights.
18:52Allegedly will make you look like baby.
18:54They can go anywhere from just 50 bucks or less to thousands of dollars.
19:02I feel ridiculous.
19:06It's weird.
19:07But forget this strange and somewhat scary mask.
19:10I'm going for the full body red light experience with my guide, Amy.
19:15This looks another scary coffin-like situation.
19:18What's with the coffin?
19:20Whoa.
19:21I've got to get my goggles on.
19:23Oh, wow.
19:24We would presumably be naked, but thankfully we're not at this moment.
19:28Yeah, I mean, maybe, like, in your underpants or something.
19:30Are you comfy?
19:31I feel like I'm in a, like, an air fryer, but sure.
19:34Yeah.
19:37So what is this for?
19:38I've heard red light described as a cure for everything.
19:43Everything.
19:43If you don't want a crepey neck, do this.
19:45If you want to improve mitochondrial function.
19:47If you care about aging, aged hands, bald spots, metabolism, et cetera, this is for you.
19:53Inflammation.
19:54Right.
19:55Chronic disease.
19:56Problems with your parents.
19:58Yeah.
19:58Problems with your parents.
19:59Your tax bill.
20:01So popular.
20:02This is popular.
20:02This is super popular.
20:03For fine lines and wrinkles.
20:05Most of the women I know have some form of a red light at home.
20:09Red light, like so many high-priced treatments, is often touted as a miracle anti-aging solution.
20:15Iron out fine lines and wrinkles.
20:19They're weirdly appealing.
20:21You could do your podcast with your mascot.
20:24No, I should.
20:24And people believe in it.
20:26Oh, yeah.
20:27A lot of people, in fact, say to me, well, I know it's all bullshit except for the red light.
20:32Is it actually real that red light helps you?
20:35Really, it's an inflammation question.
20:37Inflammation.
20:37Inflammation is something that comes up a lot.
20:39Yeah.
20:39In wellness.
20:40Inflammation.
20:41They love that word.
20:42Inflammation is bad and reducing inflammation is good.
20:45Inflammation is the body's natural response to injury or infection.
20:49While short-term inflammation causes redness, heat, swelling, and pain to protect and heal tissue,
20:55chronic inflammation can damage cells and is linked to diseases like arthritis, heart disease, and autoimmune conditions.
21:03What's the actual sign?
21:04What is the conceit here?
21:05Is that the waves are getting in there and frying all the bad things?
21:12In the 1990s, NASA originally began experimenting with red light.
21:16It found that it not only stimulated plant growth in space, but also sped up the healing of wounds in
21:23astronauts.
21:23Researchers discovered that red light stimulates mitochondria, energizing cells to repair themselves and calming inflammation throughout the body.
21:32Additional recent studies beyond NASA show that red light therapy has solid evidence for helping thinning hair and improving skin
21:40texture and wrinkles.
21:41However, most other claims, like boosting athletic performance, relieving pain, or curing disease, need more research.
21:49But that doesn't stop people from selling it as a cure for everything.
21:55Look, I don't know, am I reducing my chronic inflammation, my fine lines and wrinkles?
22:01Who knows?
22:02You're just kind of trying to prove a negative, right?
22:05But if it makes you feel like you've kind of planted your stake in the ground and said,
22:10I'm putting up a fight against this thing that's making me feel helpless or hopeless, maybe that's good enough.
22:18So again, inflammation, more fine lines, calming down.
22:23Sometimes I think the biggest benefit of some of these wellness protocols is less the light and it's just the
22:31act of relaxing.
22:34And I would come in here, right, in this nice like toasty machine, just chilling out in the middle of
22:40the day, lying down.
22:41It's like warm, it's quiet.
22:43I don't have my phone.
22:45I don't have a laptop.
22:46The idea that you're unplugged while simultaneously doing something beneficial is just a really relaxing feeling.
22:58It's a very increasingly rare feeling in the modern world.
23:03It's taking a virtuous time out from your phone.
23:05Right, life lengthening.
23:07So how long do we stay in here?
23:09I feel cooked.
23:10Do you feel your fine lines are going?
23:12I mean, we're going to come out here looking like baby.
23:15Really?
23:16Do you feel different?
23:17No.
23:17No.
23:18Oh, we're done.
23:26All the things you did in the book, right?
23:28You said you don't really do them anymore.
23:30Is there one that you really liked and one that you're like, this is bullshit?
23:34I really, really, really am into the whole cult of sleep.
23:39This culture of like a successful person is a well-rested person, which is true from many studies.
23:45Yeah, I'm very pro that.
23:46I'm really not into like the commodification, trying to like sell you your sleep.
23:52Sleep has become another internet marketplace where algorithms reward the loudest claims and everyone's trying to monetize your exhaustion.
24:00Ensure that we're not being blasted with blue light when we do open.
24:03Actually a military proven technique to fall asleep in exactly two minutes.
24:07You've taught cherry juice a try.
24:09Listening to delta binaural beats while you sleep has been shown to increase the amount of time you spend in
24:13deep sleep.
24:14A revolutionary sleep optimization program, Sleep Lab, should be a new era in complete restoration.
24:21The $1,700 a night Equinox Sleep Lab is a prime example of just how far commodification can go.
24:29This just looks like a regular hotel room, but it's just, this is considered, it's just a room, right?
24:34It's sort of all ultra temperature controlled, auto regulated, light regulated.
24:40Bed is thermal regulated.
24:43Then we've got brain stimulation should you want it.
24:46There's steam in the shower to kind of warm you up so you cool down so you fall asleep.
24:51Activity for just sleeping.
24:52Yeah, it is a bit.
24:54Yeah.
24:54Anything else you have here?
24:56Like Xanax in the air?
24:57Yeah.
24:58Spray Xanax.
24:59Dr. Matthew Walker, one of the best known minds in sleep science, partnered with Equinox to design these turbocharged sleep
25:05rooms,
25:06as well as a headband that stimulates your brain for better sleep.
25:10And today, he's the person I happen to find myself in bed with.
25:14This is really where your deep sleep generating regions are.
25:17The future of sleep is all very cutting edge and data driven.
25:20Or, you know, maybe just a very expensive way to take a nap.
25:24Oh, just talk to me.
25:25Sorry, I pushed the button.
25:26Yeah, don't, don't worry.
25:27The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life.
25:30Short sleep predicts all cause mortality.
25:32Many claim that Dr. Walker's work reframed sleep as the key to longevity and eternal youth.
25:38Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression, anxiety, reproductive hormonal health,
25:45immune function decimated by insufficient sleep.
25:49Sleep is probably nature's best efforts yet at immortality.
25:54Dr. Walker is right about the importance of sleep, but something that everyone can do in their home has, of
26:00course, been sold back to you.
26:02This video is for all of my Oura Ring girlies who love checking all of your scores.
26:06Why simply go to sleep when you can stay up and research sleep products like the Oura Ring?
26:11I never look at the Oura.
26:36I dream a lot.
26:38Last night I did a dream that Mark Zuckerberg poisoned me with polonium, but that said, it was a good
26:45dream.
26:45Mark and I spoke about two nights ago and we did actually an Inception moment just to make you...
26:50I still don't understand that movie, but go ahead.
26:52Non-REM is further subdivided into light non-REM and then deep non-REM.
26:58And deep non-REM is where a lot of that restoration of body processes happen.
27:02It's where the brain cleanses itself.
27:04Like a garbage truck.
27:05Like a garbage truck.
27:06And two of the pieces of metabolic detritus that your sleep will wash away from the brain at night, beta
27:12amyloid and tau protein, the culprits of Alzheimer's.
27:15Right.
27:16Only 3% deep sleep.
27:17There's just this little segment appear.
27:19Within the next year, you'll pass away.
27:22So why has sleep become an issue for so many people?
27:25If there is a royal roadblock to good sleep, stress and anxiety.
27:30And we see this at my sleep center all the time.
27:33It's called the tired but wired phenomenon.
27:36Our head hits the pillow and the Rolodex of anxiety begins.
27:40When you start to ruminate, you catastrophize.
27:45You're dead in the water for the next two hours.
27:48Cortisol is high, blood pressure starting to go up.
27:51That feeds back up to the brain and starts to say the body is stressed.
27:58Are fears about sleep overblown, do you think?
28:01Or do you, I don't think you do because you're a sleep scientist.
28:04If you understand how sleep works, especially in Silicon Valley, there was this competitive under-sleeping.
28:10Oh, yeah.
28:10This braggadocio that people would wear their badge of sleep deprivation.
28:14Hustle porn.
28:14Correct, exactly.
28:15Elon Musk.
28:15It was like a sleep machismo attitude.
28:17Yeah, there is, yeah.
28:18In fact, Elon one time was like, I'm sleeping at the office.
28:20I go, there's a hotel next door with a bed.
28:22He's like, yeah, but it shows my commitment.
28:24I said, it shows you're stupid is what I can, I think.
28:28Yeah, the one area that's most sensitive to sleep is the thing that makes us most human.
28:31It's called your prefrontal cortex.
28:33And it takes a nosedive like a dart into the ground when you are underslept.
28:37Empathy.
28:37Empathy, rational decision-making, executive control, regulation of our emotions.
28:43Essentially, without a frontal lobe, you're a two-year-old.
28:45And welcome to that.
28:56You look great.
28:57How are you staying in shape these days?
28:58Well, that's so zimpic.
29:00Oh.
29:01GLP-1s were developed to fight type 2 diabetes.
29:05But a side effect, tremendous weight loss, caught the attention of the rich and famous.
29:10Munjaro.
29:11Yeah.
29:11That's what I used.
29:12One opponent I could not defeat.
29:15Celebs and wealthy people started paying their way to weight loss,
29:18driving up the cost for those who actually needed it.
29:21And it ignited a wider discussion about the ethical and social implication
29:25of using these drugs for appearance rather than medical necessity.
29:29So I sat down with one of the country's leading experts on the matter,
29:33Dr. David Kessler, former FDA head, and himself a GLP-1 user,
29:37and Dr. Supriya Rao, who combines a lifestyle-focused approach with GLP-1 medications.
29:44GLP-1s.
29:45Highly effective.
29:46Landmark medication of our lifetime.
29:48So every doctor I talk to has said this.
29:51It started off as a rich person's thing.
29:53Why was that a bad thing?
29:55Or was it?
29:56Or not?
29:56Because of celebrities, you know, there was lots of joking.
29:59The celebrity thing, unfortunately, gave it a stigma that people didn't want to be on it
30:03because they're like, oh, you're on Ozempic just to lose five pounds
30:06or for cosmetic reasons to fit into a dress for the Met Gala.
30:09Whereas for me, it's like all the other patients who use it for metabolic disease.
30:14Most of the things around weight is thought of as a willpower issue.
30:18I mean, these drugs work through pharmacology.
30:20They work through biology.
30:21So they show us, and this is not about willpower.
30:24Go back thousands of years, our brains evolved in an environment of scarcity.
30:30Your ability to find food was tied to your survival.
30:34And all these circuits just evolved to find that highly caloric density food.
30:40And so those hyperpalatable foods, that fat, that sugar, that salt,
30:44hits those happy receptors in our brain, our dopamine, that makes us happy in that moment.
30:48And all these circuits just evolved so that we would survive when there was no food around.
30:55That worked in an environment of scarcity.
30:57It does not work in an environment of abundance.
31:00We take fat, sugar, and salt, put it on every corner, make it available 24-7.
31:07All of a sudden, that food noise comes into my head.
31:10You're going to seek out that food and find it.
31:13And then if I try to resist, you see this craving.
31:17When I had a study for exams in med school, and I had to stay up to 3 o'clock
31:21at night,
31:21I used food that allowed me to do that.
31:24I would gain my weight, and then I would lose it repeatedly.
31:27You know, I've run government agencies.
31:28I've been deans of med school.
31:29I have discipline.
31:31I couldn't control my weight.
31:32What these medications do, we're kind of artificially allowing food to sit there for a longer time
31:38so you feel fuller longer.
31:39You have the satiety cues completed.
31:41Make you unhungry.
31:42They get you to eat less.
31:45If even Dr. Kessler, with medical training and structure,
31:48found it nearly impossible to manage his weight without GLP-1s,
31:52what chance did the average person ever have?
31:54I did every diet that has been out since 1993,
31:58since I had my kids.
32:00Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, LA Weight Loss.
32:02There was an army diet that was about hot dogs.
32:05Whatever, I did it.
32:06Hot dogs.
32:06Yeah.
32:07It was a yo-yo that kept going on.
32:10Cleo Laughlin, a retired night shift nurse,
32:12spent decades waging her own battle with weight.
32:14I was actually looking for a psychiatrist thinking there was something wrong with me in the head
32:18that was blocking me.
32:20So I made the telephone call.
32:21Next thing I know, I had a nutritionist and she said,
32:24oh, what's that in this new program?
32:25It's basically a plant-based diet and no processed foods.
32:29And then at that point, she also introduced me to the GLP-1s.
32:33Cleo has lost 110 pounds.
32:35In this case, GLP-1s have been effective, but the story isn't so simple.
32:40I wasn't a diabetic, didn't have blood pressure issues,
32:43but I knew I was like a couple of eye blinks away from it.
32:48I didn't want to come out of retirement and be one of those people that dropped dead,
32:52you know, a year later.
32:53To keep the weight off, Cleo spent over $2,800 just last year,
32:58a huge expense for a retired nurse.
33:02You know, when you go and you get a medication that costs $1,000.
33:06And people who have a lot of weight to lose, they just need it.
33:11They just need it.
33:11It's the right thing to do.
33:12It's part of keeping America healthy.
33:15I'm not saying you have to make it free, but make it affordable.
33:18Right.
33:19But I was listening where the insurance company was saying,
33:21this is going to bankrupt us if we support these GLP-1s.
33:25Well, unless we bring the prices down, which you can't.
33:27Well, God forbid they do that.
33:29And a bigger concern is long-term access.
33:31And like many health decisions, it doesn't just affect her,
33:34but the family orbiting around her.
33:37Since I've known Cleo 35 years or so, you know, she never gave up on it.
33:42And I read a little bit about the GLP-1 drugs.
33:45I do think about, you know, having to be on it, you know, permanently.
33:50Yeah.
33:50And what would happen if you stopped taking it?
33:52Right.
33:53Go back to the nightmare two years ago.
33:59Well, we're in big trouble as a country.
34:01Why is that?
34:02You have one industry making billions of dollars, right,
34:06that's making us sick with what we're eating.
34:08And you have another industry that's making equal profits,
34:12trying to treat what that former industry is doing that.
34:16Most people couldn't afford that drug.
34:18Health plans and employers looked at that and said,
34:21I can't afford that.
34:22Even if it's saved on the other end.
34:24Right.
34:24But employers still think of it almost as a cosmetic thing.
34:27Big news, America.
34:28Well, Gobi now comes in a pill.
34:30Recently, there's been a lot of progress in the GLP-1 world.
34:33In early 2026, a pill form was approved that greatly reduced the price.
34:37But access to better medication doesn't automatically solve the deeper public health challenge.
34:43So you've compared it to big tobacco in terms of, and that was defeated.
34:48Tobacco was the great public health success.
34:51Obesity is the great public health failure.
34:53We didn't change the cigarette.
34:54We demonized the industry.
34:56The problem is you can't demonize food.
34:58There is one group that is pushing against what you call ultra-formulated foods, the Maha movement.
35:03The Maha movement, Make America Healthy Again, championed by RFK Jr., is pushing back against GLP-1 drugs by scrapping
35:10plans for Medicare and Medicaid coverage,
35:13insisting that better diet and exercise, especially cutting out ultra-processed foods, are the real keys to America's health crisis.
35:22Are you going to tell me that they're going to get rid of all the McDonald's and all of the
35:25fast food, you know?
35:27You saw the picture of RFK Jr. with McDonald's?
35:28So I'm a little dubious, honestly.
35:31You're working two jobs.
35:32You're trying to make sure your kids get to school.
35:34You're trying to decide what bill you have to pay.
35:36So I think a lot of Americans struggle with being able to hit all these different things in their daily
35:41life.
35:41All this other lifestyle stuff just seems, like, almost impossible.
35:45Maha can't just be for the wealthy.
35:47Improving the quality of our food is important, but it won't matter if the rest of the infrastructure that's around
35:53doesn't help everybody.
35:54Like, trying to get rid of GLP-1s is not the answer.
35:57While promising, the long-term effects of GLP-1 drugs are still largely unknown.
36:02The jury's out on a lot of this stuff.
36:04What's really critically important here with GLP-1s is we conduct studies and we look at the long-term effects
36:09of this,
36:10because every single medical intervention has a downside.
36:14And so it needs to be studied in the population over a long term.
36:18That should be our goal.
36:28Yep. Ampsight. Get it? Get it? Get it?
36:33There are three clear things we need for longevity.
36:36Eat well, good sleep, and, of course, exercise.
36:39Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going.
36:41There you go. Yeah.
36:43Ow.
36:44It's inexpensive and often free, but the industry still finds a way to make a buck.
36:50This makes me slim and girlish, right?
36:52Sure.
36:53I work out three times a week with my trainer, Jay, mostly doing strength training.
36:58But according to the Internet, my current routine isn't going to cut it.
37:01All right, that's enough.
37:03Girl, I done got me a mini step machine, and yes, I am loving it.
37:07I absolutely love to use my vibration plate for is to sit down on my plate.
37:12On the ground, step on.
37:13I can literally do it while watching Netflix.
37:15There have been so many questionable get fit quick products.
37:19What is VO2 max and how do you improve it?
37:22And something called the VO2 max test seems like it might be one of those as well.
37:27Luke, I am your father.
37:28You realize no one can hear you.
37:30This is like your nightmare.
37:31Uh-huh.
37:31No one.
37:32You're not there.
37:33The VO2 max test measures how much oxygen your body can use during intense exercise.
37:39It's a real indicator for your cardiovascular fitness and longevity, not junk science.
37:44You want me to do it on the Apple Watch?
37:45Nah, I think it's a piece of junk.
37:48Everyday wearables like Oura rings, Fitbits, and Apple Watches can provide a VO2 max estimate,
37:53but this uncomfortable test gives you a much more accurate reading.
37:56We're just going to periodically increase the challenge.
38:00There you go.
38:01After we get you your numbers and we set your program up,
38:05we'll be able to retest in six to eight weeks and see how effective our program's been.
38:10If you increase your VO2 max by just one point,
38:13you can decrease on average your risk of dying from anything,
38:16heart disease, stroke, cancer, dementia, by 10 to 25%.
38:21VO2 max testing has been around for a long time,
38:24but there's been a recent renewed interest as influencers and fitness experts publicly praise it for longevity.
38:30The higher your VO2 max, the greater health span you have.
38:35Professional lab tests at sports clinics or high-end gyms run anywhere from $100 to $250 a session.
38:41And if you want to buy your own VO2 max machine, they range from $5,000 to $30,000.
38:47It's one more thing you can spend money on to give yourself a supposed edge.
38:54After two months of running a few times a week, I'm back to see if there is any improvement.
39:00Should there be an improvement?
39:01Oh, yes, definitely.
39:01What if there's not?
39:02Well, I mean, definitely.
39:03No chance.
39:12Just keeping nice, normal breath.
39:16It's like nothing.
39:17It's almost downhill at such a low incline.
39:19Yeah.
39:20I'll be nervous once the fingers stop coming out.
39:24Guess what?
39:25This 62-year-old got younger, at least by VO2 max standards.
39:29Look at all the way down here.
39:30We got some 37s?
39:32An average VO2 max for women my age would be somewhere between 27 and 38.
39:37Now I'm 37.
39:39So the hard work paid off.
39:42Before, your heart rate was 30 beats more a minute to process less oxygen than you can now.
39:49Now you're processing 37 milliliters.
39:52So you're doing, you know, almost a third more work at the same heart rate.
39:56And that's purely because I kept running, because I trained my heart to be more efficient.
39:59You trained your muscles to more efficiently use oxygen.
40:03I see.
40:04You just become a stronger, more efficient animal.
40:06So you're superior.
40:08Say that to me.
40:08According to this laptop, you are superior.
40:10Superior!
40:12Okay.
40:12Yeah.
40:12This is good for me for sure, but is it necessary?
40:16What it is, is expensive and probably not needed for the masses.
40:21Like sleep, people don't need the bells and whistles just to do the activity.
40:26After testing out the latest longevity trends, one thing is clear.
40:30Most are either unproven, marginally useful, or wildly overpriced.
40:36Do you like how you still think people can hear you?
40:38Bo2 max, sleep, and GLP-1 drugs have solid evidence and impact meaningful outcomes.
40:45I just feel good.
40:46My butt is really toasty.
40:48Red light therapy and hyperbaric chambers may help in limited medical contexts, but as
40:53a consumer product, they're mostly a luxury.
40:56Sound or so-called vibe therapies offer relaxation, but there's little proof that they contribute
41:02to longevity as yet.
41:05If something suddenly becomes really hot, if you heard about it on Instagram, they may
41:09not be as accurate as you might want.
41:11If anyone says this is going to change your life, it's not going to change your life.
41:16Others are really promising.
41:18GLP-1s, for example.
41:20Be a savvy consumer.
41:22The bigger story is access.
41:24If a longevity hack only works if you're rich enough to buy it, it's not a breakthrough.
41:29It's a lifestyle brand.
41:31It's, again, branding, exclusivity.
41:33Right.
41:34You're absolutely right.
41:35So I think all of these things come into play.
41:39Is that a satisfying way to try to live longer?
41:43Um...
41:43It feels exhausting.
41:44It feels really tiring, right?
41:46What are we supposed to do?
41:47Plug stuff in that isn't really, like, super tested?
41:52And no matter what you do, you're going to be dead someday.
41:54Yes.
41:55The train has left the station, and we're all on it, and we're just trying to make sense
41:59of it.
41:59Make it a better trip.
42:00Right.
42:01Yeah.
42:02Yeah.
42:03Yeah.
42:04Yeah.
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