The concept of eternal life has fascinated humans for millennia, and now billionaires are investing in anti-aging research in the hopes of cheating death.

This episode is about a modern medical take of the old school classics, Dracula and Frankenstein, but in this case the “bloodsuckers” are fancy Silicon Valley start-ups promising rejuvenation to seniors via young blood transfusions. If you like our content, please become a patron to two premium bonus episodes per month, as well as our public episodes ad-free.

Peter Thiel who created Pay Pal, Larry Ellison the co-founder or Oracle, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, David Murdock who’s 99 and said he wants to live at least 125 years – all these people donated or invested massive amounts of money, hundreds of millions of dollars, in anti-aging research. 1

We discuss cryonic preservation – freezing one’s dead body in liquid nitrogen to be brought back to life when science evolves enough, downloading one’s consciousness into a digital form and other potential ways of cheating death. 2

We focus in particular on the pseudo scientifical practice of blood / plasma transfusions from young people to seniors – a very dangerous process inspired by parabiosis. Parabiosis means “living beside”, it’s a laboratory technique that involves two organisms which are joined surgically to develop a single, share physiological system.. For example, stitching living mammals together.

There were several companies like Ambrosia who offered plasma transfusions collected from teenagers to old people. Ambrosia’s CEO, Jesse Karmazin, even though a medical doctor who graduated from Sandford, was barred from practicing in Massachusetts and when one of his patients died, he claimed the man faked his own death. 3

These “therapies” are dangerous. In fact the FDA said “patients are being preyed upon by unscrupulous actors touting treatments of plasma from young donors as cures and remedies” and warned that “such treatments have no proven clinical benefits for the uses for which these clinics are advertising them and are potentially harmful.” 4

1. Katie Warren. Millionaires are dropping tens of thousands on 'young blood' transfusions and cryonic preservation. Business Insider. August 2019. ⇤

2. Lindsay Dodgson. A 14-year-old in Britain just won the right to have her body frozen for thousands of dollars — here's the science behind it. Business Insider. November 2016. ⇤

3. Jesselyn Cook. Notorious ‘Young Blood’ Doctor Claims Dead Patient Faked His Own Death. Huffington Post. October 2019. ⇤

4. Erin Brodwin. A controversial startup that charges $8,000 to fill patients’ veins with young blood is opening a clinic in NYC — but researchers whose work inspired it warn it’s dangerous. Business Insider. September 2018. ⇤