Up until the second half of the twentieth century, it was generally accepted that organisms grow old and die “for the good of the species” — an idea … - David A. Sinclair

As the venture capitalist and "very large yacht" owner Nick Hanauer wrote in a memo to "My Fellow Zillionaires" in 2014, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn't eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. . . . We will not be able to predict when, and it will be terrible — for everybody. But especially for us.

On average, Americans consume more than three times the amount of food they need to survive and about 250 times as much water.14 In return, they produce 4.4 pounds of trash each day, recycling or composting only about of a third of it.15 Thanks to things such as cars, planes, big homes, and power-hungry clothes dryers,16 the annual carbon dioxide emissions of an average American are five times as high as the global average. Even the “floor” — below which even monks living in American monasteries typically do not go — is twice the global average.17 It

Like rapamycin, metformin mimics aspects of calorie restriction. But instead of inhibiting TOR, it limits the metabolic reactions in mitochondria, slowing down the process by which our cellular powerhouses convert macronutrients into energy.20 The result is the activation of AMPK, an enzyme known for its ability to respond to low energy levels and restore the function of mitochondria. It also activates SIRT1, one of my lab's favorite proteins. Among other beneficial effects, metformin inhibits cancer cell metabolism, increases mitochondrial activity, and removes misfolded proteins.21