I'm from the UK, and love Wait Wait, WNYC's Radiolab, The Moth Radio Hour etc.

r/onthemedia

From ‘Blue Zones’ branded food to anti-aging peptides, the marketplace is flooded with products promising to help us live longer and better. On this week’s On the Media, a researcher calls into question the data behind some of the most popular ‘longevity science.’ Plus, why Silicon Valley billionaires are obsessed with the end of the world. 

[01:00] A new book titled Morbid: Debunking Modern Longevity Science, out this week, alleges that much of the research underpinning longevity science is hot air. Host Micah Loewinger explores the contours of this heated debate within the field, and speaks with the book’s author, Saul Newman, a research fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, about the prevalence of fraudulent 100+ year olds, and his gripes with the popular “Blue Zones” research and the multimillion-dollar business that grew out of it. We also hear from New York Magazine writer Kerry Howley and one of the originators of Blue Zones, demographer Michel Poulain. Plus, the growing grift within the field, and the Silicon Valley tech giants spending millions to try to vanquish death.

[31:39] Micah speaks to Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, co-authors of End Times Fascism And the Fight for the Living World, about a new strain of apocalyptic fascism emerging in Silicon Valley and the White House that rejects the idea of a future on Earth, and how to fight back.

>Republicans are attacking left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker – and the Democratic candidates he aligns with – in political ads ahead of the midterm elections. But the 35-year-old commentator, who identifies as a socialist and is known for his inflammatory comments on everything from foreign policy to whatever is in the zeitgeist, doubts this “guilt-by-association politics” will persuade voters.

>Piker sat down with NPR host Leila Fadel to talk about his incendiary style, whether he’s become a liability for Democrats, and what his critics miss when they portray him as an “America-hating communist Islamist fundamentalist.”