I'm standing in a drafty room with several hundred people in London's Truman Brewery, all of us shaking our hands above our heads, woo-wooing our way to the end of another day at SXSW.
I won't lie –– I'd hoped something like this would happen at some point during the week. Weird, offbeat moments such as this really separate a fun conference from a boring one. This particular moment is a mini taste of a "longevity rave" –– an event style that's popping up around the world, run by those who believe music, movement and connection can impact our health and happiness in the long term.
"Genetics is a very small determinant of health –– other factors are more important," Tina Brown, a social entrepreneur and systems architect who co-founded Longevity Rave, told us just minutes earlier. "The joy of living is a really powerful motivator."
The idea of living longer, healthier lives is nothing new, but the science of aging is now better understood than ever, and methods to reduce the often substantial gap between our lifespans and the length of time we're able to stay healthy (known as health spans) are becoming more accessible. I've long been skeptical about the idea of investing significant time and money into trying to live longer –– but perhaps that's because I just assumed it wasn't for people like me.
Back in 2017, I interviewed billionaire tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson about his mission to level up everyone, including himself, by implanting chips in our brains so that we could compete with AI. This conversation has haunted me over the years. Even though I've dabbled in biohacking myself (I have a chip in my hand to do basic smartphone-related tasks), I'd advocate for a cautious approach.
Entrepreneur Bryan Johnson talks about taking extreme measures in the name of longevity. Hubert Vestil/SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty Images
Since then, Johnson's name has become synonymous with taking extreme measures to reverse aging and extend his life — among them, injecting the blood of his 17-year-old son into his 47-year-old body (he has since ceased this practice in favor of "total plasma exchange"). The quest for longevity is often associated with Silicon Valley billionaire biohacker boys like Johnson and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, which makes it feel alienating and inaccessible.
That's why at SXSW London, I was curious to see not one but two all-female panels discussing reverse aging and extending our health spans. The panels didn't indulge in the kind of anti-aging rhetoric I've grown up with, which demands that women do everything in their power to remain young and beautiful. Even though, as Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan joked during one of the panels, women should avoid stress by staying single, as "it makes you ugly, being married to a loser."
The new science of aging
Ryan hosts a podcast called What's My Age Again?, in which she interviews celebrities who have undergone testing to determine their biological age as a jumping-off point for discussing their own relationship to aging.
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