The Better Show
Secrets to living a longer life
Episode Summary
We talk about strategies for living the longest, healthiest life possible. We explore strategies for staying safe, avoiding disease, and keeping your body in great condition. We also compare the philosophies of being an 'immortalist' vs. a 'healthspanner'.
Episode Notes
We talk about strategies for living the longest, healthiest life possible. We explore strategies for staying safe, avoiding disease, and keeping your body in great condition. We also compare the philosophies of being an 'immortalist' vs. a 'healthspanner'.
Show Notes
- 1:45— March opens up the discussion by distinguishing between life span and health span.
- 2:50— The two camps of people when it comes to life extension — the immortalists and the health spanners.
- 4:25— Ian asks each of us the big question: are we immortalists or health-spanners?
- 4:32— Darren describes his perspective as a health-spanner who appreciates the finite-ness of life.
- 5:45— Ian, too, is a health-spanner focused more on being healthy and living a quality life throughout the duration of his life.
- 7:50— March explains his philosophy on life and death and how death is, in some ways, the natural state of being and life is a unique abnormality.
- 9:31 —March explains how his outlook on life causes him to fall into both the immoratalist and health-spanner categories.
- 11:17— We discuss what it means to die of “natural causes”
- 14:00— March shares a surprising fact that the leading cause of death in most developed countries is accidents and shares some statistics about the likelihood of being in a car accident in one’s lifetime.
- 16:10— We discuss how everyday decisions are indirect micro-decisions about how long we are choosing to live.
- 16:41— Nevertheless, Darren does not regret his mild addiction to chocolate chip cookies.
- 18:08— March shares statistics on the longest living humans and other vertebrates.
- 19:12— We discuss some amazing examples of sealife (notably, jellyfish) that actually never die.
- 20:45 —Ian shares the perspective of a famous biohacker featured on Kevin Rose’s podcast.
- 24:34— We discuss the rate of change of technology and the expectation that we’ll see revolutionary advancements in medicine and techniques to prolong life.
- 26:43— We FINALLY get around to mentioning the move Highlander.
- 27:14— Ian insults the entire movie-going population by confusing Highlander with Zoolander. 🤣
- 28:09— March shares his outlook on longevity and how he maximizes his quality and quantity of life.
- 30:05— Ian describes how he began to feel his age and how that led to a greater awareness of his health and a desire to be proactive in developing healthy habits.
- 32:37— Ian and Darren discuss the balance between living a quality life and a long life.
- 33:40— Darren describes his family’s culture of living life to its fullest and shares a poem written by his grandfather that characterizes his perspective on life.
- 34:05— Darren reads a poem his grandfather wrote titled “A Lesson for Today” that encapsulates his view on attempting to live a fulfilling life.
- 35:56— Ian wants to become the banana man.
- 37:25 —March shares the #1 cause of death among people aged 10–44 and we ask “are you wearing your seat belt?”
- 38:56— March shares that the #2 cause of death in the developed world is communicable disease and Ian recalls a tip from Episode 18 on how to reduce your risk of getting sick when you travel.
- 40:52 —March shares that another leading cause of death is metabolic disease.
- 42:53— We learn that 2 out of ever 7 people on the planet are iron deficient and that vitamin D deficiency is also extremely common among those who live in northern latitudes.
- 45:07— We talk about Dr. Rhonda Patrick’s research on longevity and the effects of cold and heat therapy.
- 48:28— Ian talks about the importance of being resilient to mental stress.
- 48:56 —Darren is blown away when March shares that suicide is actually the 10th most common cause of death in the US and we talk about the ways to care for your mental wellness.
- 50:27— Darren cites Ian’s philosophy of sleep being a “force multiplier” for his health.
- 51:32— Ian notes how comparing oneself to others via social media and pop culture can be damaging to one’s mental and emotional well-being and how that is a characteristic of more economically developed cultures.
- 54:10— Ian discusses Dr. Longo’s ProLon “fast mimicking” diet and he and Darren decide to try it out.
- 1:00:58— Darren and March discuss some of the publicity stunts in the biohacking community
- 1:02:27— Ian brings up the research on the positive effects of small amounts of lithium and suggests a sparkling water that includes a small naturally occurring amount of lithium.
- 1:07:24— March shares research on which geographies have ground water with naturally occurring amounts of lithium.
- 1:07:59 —Ian shares a fascinating bit of history about the soft drink 7-Up.
- 1:10:44— We share this episode’s Better Next Step: if you want to extend your life, the thing we recommend starting with is improving your sleep.
- 1:12:10— Darren extols the virtues of lavender oil as a sleep agent and March reminds the audience to check out the deep dive we did on sleep in episode 2 of The Better Show.
- 1:13:32— March offers his favorite tip this week: the 4–7–8 breathing technique.
- 1:14:20— March decides to try out cold and heat therapy and Ian offers him some tips.
- 1:16:14— Ian decides to test out lithium microdoses by drinking Gerolsteiner sparkling water.
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