The Death of Aging

Fault Lines looks at what happens when for-profit companies set their sights on helping humans live healthier, longer—and asks if private money should be going after this at all.

Eternal youth. Living for hundreds of years. These ideas currently inhabit the realm of science fiction. 

But many believe that they could be part of the not-so-distant future. The titans of Silicon Valley are building an industry around those ideas. In fact, Google recently announced a spinoff company, Calico, to disrupt aging.

Entrepreneurs are now collaborating with some of the world's leading scientists to try to extend healthy life. But what are the consequences of this research? And does a world where humans live radically longer lives change the meaning of life itself?

Fault Lines travels to Japan to meet a researcher obsessed with immortality and to California to meet scientists who are pushing the boundaries of biotechnology to find out how we might achieve longer, healthier lives—and who will have access to such a future.