The world’s largest prize: $101m to extend healthspan

Want a chance to win part of a $101 million prize pot? All you need to do is restore an older person’s function by 10+ years and you could be in with a chance of winning the new XPRIZE Healthspan! I spoke to two of the project leads, Peter H. Diamandis and Jamie Justice, to find out whether we really can move the needle on this, why they made this a prize rather than just handing $101 million to longevity scientists, why more billionaires aren’t doing this, and, most importantly…why one hundred and one million dollars?
Thanks to Peter and Jamie, and @xprize for making this video possible!
You can find out more about XPRIZE Healthspan at www.xprize.org/prizes/healthspan
And you can check out the free chapter of my book on the ethics of aging biology at ageless.link/ethics
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:24 Why $101 million?
02:20 What do you need to do to win?
05:27 What kinds of interventions are you expecting?
09:00 What’s the baseline?
11:26 Where did the money come from?
13:28 Why aren’t billionaires more interested in aging?
17:14 Challenging ethical questions
24:26 Why do this as a prize?
28:20 Questions from social media
32:48 Conclusion
Credits
Cash register sound CC-BY user Benboncan on Freesound freesound.org/people/Benbonca...
And finally…
Follow me on Twitter / statto
Follow me on Instagram / andrewjsteele
Like my page on Facebook / drandrewsteele
Follow me on Mastodon mas.to/@statto
Read my book, Ageless: The new science of getting older without getting old ageless.link/

[@DrAndrewSteele]

I’m afraid I’ve not had time to check the subtitles as thoroughly as normal because I’m off to Davos next week, where I hope to convince some billionaires to invest in aging research… Please accept my apologies for any mistakes in the auto-generated parts (I know how important they are if you’re hard of hearing or watching somewhere quiet!), and I thought I’d use this as an excuse to try an experiment: if you spot any errors, please correct the transcript in this public Google Doc, and I’ll update the subtitles here when I get chance! docs.google.com/document/d/1yzHDMK1Qv9ZSbshUWl4zBWU-CftWTZJINpJ7OnUAb3c/edit Thanks in advance to anyone who spots anything, and hope you enjoy the video. :)

[@squamish4244]

I'm 45. Time passes quickly these days. We all would like more of it. Bring it on.

[@bobbypovah8369]

Hi - I am a 75 yr old grandma who thinks this is hugely beneficial lifespan trajectory. I hope that in 7 years I will be around to test the product out. I spend a good portion of my time working hard on maintaining my body and mind only to see that the aging process is relentless. Hope you will keep us informed Andrew on its progress.

[@DrAndrewSteele]

Thank you, will do!

[@altiarissuralis8535]

Deserves more views. I've shared as much as I could! Keep making content.

[@DrAndrewSteele]

Thanks so much for sharing! It’s the most important thing for a growing channel :)

[@PaulSchwarzer-ou9sw]

Thank you, guys!!

[@keithgarrett4155]

Make that $101 million plus $10. ;)

[@SirTenenbaum]

Like Jamie suggested, please do regular interviews with them after each milestone rather than waiting seven years for another interview!

[@DrAndrewSteele]

Haha yes, a wise suggestion there I think!

[@squamish4244]

@@DrAndrewSteele Are you aware of Yuvan, Harold Katcher and E5? It might be shockingly close to producing an anti-aging breakthrough.

[@Dogo.R]

Ill make a guess or bet now, that if the prize is claimed it will related to negating damage from stress. For example reducing the stress response, reducing damage from stress, educational techniques to change your mental outlook on things to lower stress, ect.

[@WackyGameEngineer]

This Video is underrated!

[@Dogo.R]

Cognitive improvement feels super weird... because neurons effectively never replace themselves. Its not like the rest of your body which is replacing itself over time and seemingly doing a worse job of it over time. I feel like all this research is about making the body replace itself better so that the neurons... you... can be supported by the body for longer and so the neurons (you) have access to a more functional body.

[@Dogo.R]

A good way to put it is I think all cognitive degredation is a result of behavioral choices and the body not being as good at supporting the brain. Nothing that has to do with actual brain inner working. Because again neurons effectively dont replace themselves.

[@squamish4244]

Recent research has shown that neurons can rejuvenate.

[@zlatimirrangelov3352]

Hey Andrew. Can you make a video on CZI? I love your work.

[@kwinvdv]

I wonder if some participants will look into strengthening the skeleton. Because recently I read and article saying that quite a few older people die from complications caused by a broken hip.

[@peterz53]

Wealth/Donation Disconnect: I have worked among a lot of people who have been able to retire comfortably, travel and so on, though not wealthy. They have no problem buying new expensive vehicles or spending many thousands keeping up a larger than needed home, and so on. Many are in terrible physical shape, not even trying to eat well and keep their weight normal. They have the means to improve their health enormously just by eating well and exercising modestly - they are not stupid people. Ten years of healthier life could be added now with what is known about food (and exercise), but most are in the grips of food addiction driven by a corrupt food system which, as a start, needs to be regulated to stop poisoning people.

[@Fehr270]

I know people that just won’t invest money in their health even if they have it. I think especially once you are looking closer at retirement they are worried about running out of money. My observation is that most run out of health before money.

[@squamish4244]

"Billionaires: you still can't take it with you." It's amazing how money is so addictive that these people seem unable to part with some of it in order to continue having money for longer!

[@peterm5554]

Concentrating on an increase in lifespan gets to the core of the ageing problem whereas concentrating on health span might ignore the fundamental ageing process

[@fatboydim.7037]

I think its more a less a dead cert that effective interventions are coming. Moore's law is continuing and the arrival of AGI/ASI and then Quantum computing. I personally believe that cellular reprogramming is likely to be the most potent.

[@atherum]

Maybe? The possibly of Reversing aging is still a Maybe? It has to be 100% possible

[@squamish4244]

It's a maybe until something actually works.

[@andrewchoi5808]

#AntiAging #DefeatAging

[@keithgarrett4155]

The excuse I hear most often is that it is impossible. That aging and its effects are immutable. People have been indoctrinated with this notion from the beginning of learning.

[@SirTenenbaum]

I think you're right. Perhaps the results of this XPrize will help convince more people, and especially high-net-worth individuals, that we can intervene medically in the biology of aging.

[@Fehr270]

101 million is a drop in the bucket of feeding a country as big and wealthy as America but if we want to increase the odds of more people living longer the money could be better spent improving food quality for the poorest Americans….or Canadians, I’m Canadian.

[@SirTenenbaum]

People enjoy eating unhealthy food (myself included) even when there are healthy options, which makes it hard to try and improve health through changes to food/diet/exercise. I'm not against trying to improve food quality, but I absolutely also support medical research targeting the biology of aging. This prize is a great idea, in my opinion.

[@vjr6939]

hmm i take it back, now that i listened to little bit of this, can definitely restore function, no question there, considering how much improves systemically in response to endurance training or muscular fitness, yeah 4 sure, this is very doable, but this is not what people would think of as "reverse aging".

[@dbpook]

I’m hoping Bryan Johnson enters his Blueprint program as a competitor in this race. If his N of 1 experiment produces bio marker improvements in others as good as his it might have a good chance.

[@Mil891]

I foyu check the leader board of the Rejuvenation Olympics you'll find that several people are beating Bryan and reducing their speed of aging slower than him. The funny thing is that most of them do not follow such a strict routine like him. There is one woman who doesn't even take any supplements.

[@Fehr270]

@@Mil891interesting, I think Bryan might just be better at self promotion. He seems too scattered to take much scientific proof from what he’s doing but at least he does recommend for the rest of us to focus on the basics of exercise and nutrition.

[@vjr6939]

lol ez, not possible, can probably cheese some crappy biomarkers, but no, not possible.