Bryan Johnson, the biotech entrepreneur known as the ‘Age reversing CEO’ or the ‘Anti-ageing influencer’ for his extreme longevity experiments cut short his conservation at a recent podcast with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath. Citing India’s pollution as the reason, he ended the podcast midway. Johnson was wearing a face mask during the podcast, in the meanwhile he even joked about the air, when Kamath asked him how bad it was, he said, “I can’t see you over there.”
Johnson had travelled to India recently. The 1977 born is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. The millionaire is popular on social media for his “Project Blueprint” that aims to hack ageing. As an attempt for longevity, he even underwent through plasma transfusion from his son. Johnson has adopted a very strict lifestyle, all with the objective of reverse ageing.
Taking to X, Johnson explained the reason why he left the recording midway, “The problem was that the room we were in circulated outside air, which made the air purifier I had brought with me ineffective.”
Bryan Johnson said that the room’s Air Quality Index (AQI) was 130, with PM2.5 levels, roughly equivalent to smoking 3.4 cigarettes a day. He added, “This was my third day in India, and the air pollution had made my kin break out in a rash and my eyes and throat burn. Air pollution has been so normalized in India that no one even notices anymore despite the science of its negative effects being well known. People would be outside running. Babies and small children exposed from birth. No one wore a mask which can significantly decrease exposure. It was so confusing.”
Johnson also mentioned about the massive public health implications. He wrote in the post, “The evidence shows that India would improve the health of its population more by cleaning up air quality than by curing all cancers.” Adding further he said, “I am unsure why India’s leaders do not make air quality a national emergency. I don’t know what interests, money, and power keep things the way they are, but it’s really bad for the entire country.”
The entrepreneur said that going back to US gave him a fresh perspective, “When I returned to the US, my eyes were fresh to see what is normalized to me. I saw obesity everywhere. 42.4% of Americans are obese, and because I was around it all the time, I had been mostly oblivious to it.”
Johnson pointed out that just like air pollution in India, obesity in US is a crisis which is not treated with the urgency it deserves.
Bryan Johnson’s post instantly went viral on social media within no time. It garnered over a million views. It was also quick enough to receive reactions from netizens on social media. The post had all sorts of reactions to it, with some calling it an anti-India propaganda, while some users asking out for the ways that can be incorporated to improve the air quality in the country.