Forever Young

Your doctor can measure almost everything about your health — blood pressure, cholesterol, bone density. But what about how fast you’re aging? There’s no test for that. Yet. In this video, Dr. Brianna Stubbs of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging explains why our best aging tests fall short — each one captures only a sliver of the picture — and how a Stanford-led coalition called THRIVE is bu...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit foreveryoungfilm.substack.com Most people think of meditation as a stress-reduction tool. Something you do in an app, on a cushion, before a hard day. A nice habit, loosely supported by science. Dr. Thomas Lewis wants to correct that framing entirely. In this video, Dr. Thomas Lewis breaks down the neuroscience of meditation — and why i...

Dr. Eric Verdin is one of the scientists at the heart of our award-winning documentary Forever Young . He’s also president and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. After a private screening of the film, director David Donnelly sat down with Verdin for a live virtual Q&A with the audience. No talking points. Just an hour of unfiltered conversation with one of the most respected minds in...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit foreveryoungfilm.substack.com In this inaugural Forever Young Substack Live, Dr. Thomas Lewis — psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and co-author of A General Theory of Love — spent 45 minutes answering live audience questions on what actually determines how long we live and how well. What emerged was part clinical insight, part cultural crit...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit foreveryoungfilm.substack.com Steve Horvath created the epigenetic clock — the molecular tool that, for the first time, made it possible to measure biological age rather than simply count the years a person has been alive. His 2013 paper is among the most-cited in aging research, and his current work at Altos Labs in Cambridge focuses o...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit foreveryoungfilm.substack.com After a recent screening of Forever Young , director David Donnelly sat down with Dr. Laura Carstensen for a live Q&A with the audience. Our ancestors gave us 30 extra years of life. So what are we doing with it? We’ve kept the same life script — education, then work, then retirement — and just stretched it...

What if we told you there’s an intervention that reduces inflammation, improves cardiovascular function, and costs nothing? No prescription. No side effects. Available to everyone. Here’s what the research tells us about gratitude—and why it matters for longevity: Gratitude is measurable biology, not just a feeling. According to research published in Psychosomatic Medicine , gratitude is associate...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit foreveryoungfilm.substack.com We live in a culture that has mastered the art of avoiding death. We don’t see it, we don’t talk about it, and we certainly don’t allow room for the fear of it — not in polite conversation, not in our friendships, not even in our family lives. But Dr. Thomas Lewis makes something uncomfortably clear:Our sil...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit foreveryoungfilm.substack.com Research by Pankaj Kapahi of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging shows that caloric restriction doesn’t just reduce weight. It reshapes metabolism. When the body takes in fewer calories, it shifts away from burning glucose — a fast but dirty fuel — and begins relying more on fats and lipids. This metab...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit foreveryoungfilm.substack.com Everyone’s talking about extending lifespan — the molecules, the biomarkers, the breakthroughs. Far fewer are talking about what happens after we succeed. Digital sociologist Julie Albright joins us for a provocative exploration of the cultural shockwaves that come when societies suddenly gain decades of ex...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit foreveryoungfilm.substack.com In the West, we live in an age of astonishing comfort. Our refrigerators are full, our homes are climate-controlled, and nearly every need can be met with the tap of a screen. Yet our minds have never been more overwhelmed. In the United States — the most materially abundant society in human history — rates...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit foreveryoungfilm.substack.com Across the tech world, a quiet faith has taken hold. Transhumanism is the conviction that technology can perfect the human condition: that we can outgrow biology, outlive death, and design evolution itself. It’s the animating belief behind Elon Musk’s Neuralink, Peter Thiel’s life-extension ventures, and Ra...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit foreveryoungfilm.substack.com For decades, modern medicine has studied aging through a narrow lens — one that largely excluded the biology of half the human population. Dr. Jennifer Garrison is changing that. At the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Dr. Garrison and her colleagues are leading a scientific effort to understand why th...

What if aging isn’t inevitable — but programmable? Every cell in your body carries a clock, quietly ticking inside your DNA. It doesn’t count minutes or hours; it measures the molecular changes that occur as we live, breathe, and grow older. This clock, composed of tiny chemical tags called  methyl groups , determines which genes turn on and which remain silent. Together, these patterns form what...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit foreveryoungfilm.substack.com Every day, billions of cells in your body reach the end of their natural life. Most die quietly, making room for new, healthy ones. But some refuse to go. These “zombie cells”—or senescent cells —stop dividing yet stubbornly remain alive, releasing inflammatory chemicals that can damage nearby tissue. The b...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit foreveryoungfilm.substack.com “Exercise clearly, with no hesitation, can be said to be the most important, life-prolonging factor that we have within our control.” - Dr. James Johnson As we age, we must adapt our approach to exercise. Watch the video for a sneak peek into one of Dr. Johnson’s workouts. Have a question? We’d love to hear...

Forever Young is a feature-length documentary premiering at the 2025 Mill Valley Film Festival. The completion of the film marks the beginning of our Substack journey, where our team will dig deeper into the topics, questions, and controversies covered in this sweeping documentary that blends science and humanism. Directed by David Donnelly Produced by James B. Johnson, MD, and Thomas B Lewis, MD...