The State We're In, 25 June 2011. A British scientist explains how we can be "cured" of death. A palliative caregiver explains how confronting death can make us more joyful. A clergyman conducts a funeral that nearly gets him killed and a sculptor wants his creations to outlive him.
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Ageing, schmaging
Aubrey de Grey in Cambridge, England believes that ageing is a medical problem that we should solve, and not an existential condition we should see as inevitable. His controversial work has attracted worldwide attention, but as he tells sceptical show host Jonathan Groubert, the technology to eliminate the ageing process may well be within reach.
Link - Aubrey is Chief Science Officer at the SENS Foundation.
Video - Aubrey speaking at TEDMED 2009:
If I could live my life over
Australian palliative caregiver Bronnie Ware has helped many people in the final stages of their lives. She noticed a pattern in the regrets people expressed as their time was running out. She tells Jonathan how listening to the regrets of the dying can help make living more joyful.
Bronnie’s first blog posting Regrets of the Dying went viral, attracting over three million viewers from around the world. You can read it here.
Link - for more information about Bronnie’s music, visit her website.
The white light
Louise Russo was caught in the crossfire of a gangland shooting. She tells Jonathan about her near-death experience and the choice she made when faced with... eternity.
Link - Louise's charity is Working Against Violence Everyday.
Essay - Grave importance
Anglican priest Phelan Scanlon once conducted the funeral of an 11-year-old girl who’d been terminally ill in Toronto, Canada. Her father had been released from jail on the very day of the service and threatened to go and kill the mother. Phelan got police help and he was stopped. But months later, the father walks into Phelan’s office, points a gun at him and asks: where is my daughter’s grave?
Sculpting immortality
Dutch artist Theo Jansen (pictured above) makes moving sculptures, or as he calls them strandbeesten - literally "beach animals" – named because his multi-legged creatures roam the coasts of Holland, all powered by wind. His aim: to have his sculptures outlive him.
Lead photo courtesy Loek van der Klis (more photos at bottom of page).
Link - for more photos and videos, visit the Strandbeest website
Link - Theo Jansen speaks at TEDTALKS.
Video - One of the beasts in action on a very windy beach, Kijkduin, Netherlands:
(filmed/edited by Diana Steenbergen)
Click image for slideshow
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Great show!
Mr. Groubert treated Dr. de Grey like a crackpot scientist, which begs the question: why invite him at all?
Please stay away from scientific subjects as it's evident that you do not have the training nor the desire to approach the subject with the respect it deserves. I laughed out loud when you thought Dr. de Grey's already clear explanation needed a clearer one, and proceeded to make an analogy of your own, something about a car and whatnot.
Leave science to science shows and stick to what you do best--shows about people and the way we treat each other. It's because I love your show that it irritates me so to see you act as an intellectual man-child treating science as an opinion among many by equating the research of a biologist with the musings of a new-age nut-job.
Oh yes, death is mysterious to you. I hope you do not delve into quantum mechanics lest your head explodes.
Sorry, Victor. Jonathan never pretended to know better than Aubrey. He was just representing the listener. Let's face it: achieving immortality, virtual or absolute, has never been done, so some gentle skeptism was in our view perfectly in order. Aubrey had plenty of room to make his case, and it's a fascinating one. But let's be clear: Jonathan at no point asserted a superior point of view. Aubrey has plenty of critics, some vitriolic, in the scientific community. We thought he made for compelling storytelling, and it looks as though we were right. Greg Kelly, Editor TSWI
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my message. You cannot deny that the editing, the use of frivolous music and Mr. Groubert's overall tone was meant to trivialize Dr. de Grey's contention. So effective was this approach of entertainment over education that people who listened to the segment will not have even the remotest idea what he was talking about.
Achieving immortality is but the narrowest of takes on Dr. de Grey's work. His main argument is that we can intervene and repair the damage that causes aging at the cellular and molecular level. Laboratories all over the world are proving this approach on mice as they prolong life by activating the sirtuins with calorie restriction diet or chemical compounds such as resveratrol.
That we can significantly prolong life is no laughing matter. That there is no inherent ceiling to how much we can live(no evolutionary ceiling that is) has also been proven with experiments conducted on fruit flies. Why we die is not a concern of priests, new age quasi-philosophers or supercilious radio interviewers, but of science: evolution cared only about our genes, not us. The opponents of Dr. de Grey's thesis disagree with the time frame in which we will achieve this goal, not the science that backs up the core of his claims.
I insist that you leave scientists out of future shows.
Hi VH: you clearly feel deeply that we gave short-shrift to Aubrey de Grey. But we see it differently: we gave him air time not to belittle him but to stimualte some thinking about what it would mean to live substantially longer lives -- immortal or virtually immortal. The fact we used fun music doesn't mean we were making fun of him, any more than it means we were making fun of our own host. The two men were enjoying the disagreement they had. There was, at least to our ear, something of a playful element to it, so we underscored the sparring tone with some music. Serious issues can be addressed in lighter tones -- there's nothing ironizing or dismissive necessarily about them. As for your insistence that we leave all scientists out of future programs, too late! We just aired an interview with a brain researcher whose work focuses on why narratives, stories are so powerful from a neurological point of view. I appreciate your engagement with the subject and with our show, even if this espisode got under your skin. All the best, Greg (Editor TSWI)
Just heard the show late at night in Vancouver on CBC. Very good! Aubrey du Gray is so prickley! :)
I also liked the near-death lady. Her description of her near death experience are definitely similar to reports of entheogenic drug use. In particular drugs like DMT have very similar reported effects in many cases to the experiences she had. More specifically, and not to incriminate myself, but my experience with using a drug called 2cb contained many of the elements that she described in her story.
It was also great to hear Theo Jansen talk about his Strandbeests. I had seen the videos on YouTube before but never heard him interviewed.
The pallitive care lady made me really think about my life, and am I doing what I really want?
Altogether it was fascinating radio, and a very good listen. Thank you for a very entertaining and thought-provoking hour.
THank you both for your kind -- and interesting -- thoughts. THere's certainly lots more to be said on the subject, and we'll likely try to tap into some of that. Cheers, Greg (Editor TSWI)
Excellant Show...heard in the middle of the night when I couldn't fall back to sleep. Please do more on this subject...death.
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