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UnDisciplined: The Journalist And The Geneticist

Lifespanbook.com
David Sinclair is the author of a new book, "Lifespan: Why We Age - and Why We Don't Have To," which he wrote with the host of "UnDisciplined," Matthew LaPlante.

What if aging wasn't inevtiable? What if being 90 felt pretty much the same as being 40, just with a few extra decades of life experience? And what if the science that gets us to that point in human history wasn't the subject of speculative fiction — what if it was real? 

David Sinclair believes all of this — and more — may come to pass in our lifetimes. Before you pass this off as crazy talk, you should know this: Sinclair is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and one of the most cited biological researchers in the world. 

He's also the author of a new book called "Lifespan: Why We Age — and Why We Don't Have To," which he wrote with our host, Matthew LaPlante. So today on UnDisciplined, we're bringing together a journalist and a geneticist for a conversation about aging, science, and how to communicate big ideas to a world that might not be ready. 

Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something donned on him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be brutally depressing all the time. Today, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects by writing books about the intersection of science, human health and society, including the New York Times best-selling Lifespan with geneticist David Sinclair and the Nautilus Award-winning Longevity Plan with cardiologist John Day. His first solo book, Superlative, looks at what scientists are learning by studying organisms that have evolved in record-setting ways, and his is currently at work on another book about embracing the inevitability of human-caused climate change with an optimistic outlook on the future.