Beyond Longevity explores the science, medicine, technology, business and policy shaping longer, healthier lives. Host Daphna Stern speaks with leading researchers, clinicians, founders and experts about ageing biology, healthspan, preventive medicine, longevity biomarkers, AI in healthcare, nutrition, women’s health and the societal impact of longer lives. Each episode examines the evidence, separates credible science from hype and translates complex research into clear, practical conversations.
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Dr Brendan Khong on Inflammaging, Regenerative Aesthetics and Skin Health
Season 1 · Episode 5
Monday, March 2, 2026 • Duration 46:41
In this episode, I sit down with Dr Brendan Khong, a London-based aesthetic physician and regenerative medicine advocate, for a practical conversation about what it really means to age well, starting with the skin, but quickly expanding into whole-body biology.
The central theme is a shift now reshaping aesthetic medicine: moving away from surface-level fixes and toward addressing the underlying drivers of visible ageing. A key driver, Dr Brendan explains, is inflammaging, a chronic, low-grade inflammation that builds over time and accelerates both skin ageing and broader physiological decline.
He breaks down why some conventional aesthetic approaches can backfire, particularly repeated high-heat energy treatments, which may contribute to fibrosis, uneven pigmentation, and a dull, “waxy” skin texture over time. His approach favours smarter, gentler interventions, including an anti-inflammatory 1064nm Nd:YAG laser, targeted resurfacing that can be safer across a wider range of skin types, and calming injectables such as Meso-Wharton (a peptide product derived from Wharton’s jelly) used in practice to support skin quality, texture and fine lines.
But this is not just a conversation about devices and injectables. Dr Brendan argues that better results start with better assessment and the need to factor in gut health, supplement use, stress load, and cortisol patterns before reaching for a needle or a laser. He is also candid about timelines: collagen remodelling takes time, and unrealistic expectations are one of the biggest problems in aesthetics.
For day-to-day longevity habits that support skin health, he highlights fundamentals that are often overlooked: exercise, stress management, avoiding very hot showers, and finding a retinoid your skin can consistently tolerate.
Longevity Is a Planning Topic: Wealthspan, Risk and Business in a Longer-Life Future with Nadine Esposito
Season 1 · Episode 4
Sunday, February 22, 2026 • Duration 59:46
What happens to your financial plan when you live to 100?
Most pension systems were built around an ~80-year life expectancy. Much of today’s financial advice still follows a linear life-stage model. And many businesses have not yet reckoned with the fact that both their customers and their workforce are ageing in ways that will reshape everything.
In this episode of Beyond Longevity, I am joined by Nadine Esposito, founder of Wellthspan Advisory and a senior risk management professional, to unpack why longer lifespans are not just a medical story — they are a planning and financial one, with major implications for strategy and society.
Nadine’s path into longevity came not through medicine, but through risk, ESG, and a deep interest in the health–wealth connection. She introduces the concept of wealthspan planning: moving away from rigid life stages towards a model that accounts for career pivots, caregiving gaps, health shocks and the very real risk of outliving your money and any affordable care options.
We cover
The health–wealth connection — why “health is wealth” works both ways and how financial stress and poor health reinforce each other over a longer life
What businesses need to wake up to — ageing customer bases are changing consumption patterns across housing, travel, mobility and services
The workforce challenge — flexibility, lifelong learning, the rise of the “sandwich generation,” and why simply raising retirement age misses the point
Risk in longevity startups — data security, AI-driven health apps, sensitive personal data, and income regulations (including EU AI Act transparency obligations around human–AI interaction)
Longevity and inequality — why longer lives may widen the gap without smarte intervention and access
Key takeaways
Professor David Weinkove, Chair of the BSRA, on C.elegans research and evidence-led longevity science
Season 1 · Episode 3
Sunday, February 22, 2026 • Duration 01:03:18
What can a tiny worm tell us about human ageing, and could gut bacteria hold the key to a longer, healthier life?
In this episode of Beyond Longevity, we sit down with Professor David Weinkove: Chair of the British Society for Research on Ageing (BSRA), Professor at Durham University, and Co-founder and CSO of Magnitude Biosciences. David's lab uses the short-lived nematode C. elegans to run fast, rigorous experiments looking for interventions that extend healthspan and lifespan, and the results are pointing in some surprising directions.
We cover how Prof David moved from physics into experimental molecular biology, how his team discovered that bacterial strains and metabolites can dramatically alter how long worms stay active, and what inhibiting bacterial folate synthesis reveals about the biology of ageing. He also explains how worm movement is a practical proxy for healthspan and why that matters for scaling up research.
The conversation gets into the thornier questions, too: when do you need mice, and when might you skip straight to human-relevant models? How do you fund prevention research when the payoff is decades away? And what are the real risks of mandatory folic acid flour fortification, a policy Prof David argues deserves more scrutiny, given potential microbiome effects we don't yet fully understand.
Prof David also unpacks what the BSRA does day-to-day: from connecting researchers and lobbying government to running small grants and building bridges with clinicians and industry, and why he thinks the longevity field's biggest enemy isn't scepticism, it's overpromising.
Plus, we discover the most extreme longevity idea he's ever come across (involving spare parts — we'll leave it there).
Dr Mayoni Gooneratne on Functional Medicine, Perimenopause, and Building Healthspan Through Prevention
Season 1 · Episode 2
Sunday, February 22, 2026 • Duration 01:11:49
What if the conditions we treat in our fifties and sixties which were set in motion decades earlier, would have been spotted, and shifted, far sooner?
In this episode of Beyond Longevity, I sit down with Dr Mayoni Gooneratne, Founder and Medical Director of Human Health and Skin Fit Clinics, and Vice President of the British College of Functional Medicine. After years as an NHS colorectal and pelvic floor surgeon treating advanced disease, she made a decisive pivot into functional and preventative medicine with a sharp focus on women’s midlife health.
Dr Mayoni is frank about what she sees as the fault lines in modern healthcare: too little time to truly listen, a default toward symptom management over root-cause thinking, and a system designed to meet patients at crisis point rather than upstream. Her own definition of “good medicine” is different: deeper connection, individualised biology, and practical tools that help patients protect their own healthspan.
A major thread is perimenopause — why it is still under-recognised in conventional medicine and, surprisingly, even in the longevity conversation. She links this to the long-standing marginalisation of women in medical research, and the real-world consequences that follow. Her solution starts with “body literacy”: tracking patterns, paying attention to symptoms, using health data intelligently, and becoming an active participant in care and not simply waiting for a label.
We get into the specifics of her clinical approach: detailed history-taking and questionnaires, then targeted testing to confirm or disprove a hypothesis. She explains how she uses broad blood marker panels, aiming for optimal, not just “normal” ranges, stool testing to assess gut function, and nutrigenomics to understand how someone interacts with their environment. For anyone sceptical about functional medicine’s reputation for over-testing, her line is clear: testing should have a reason and early markers (like homocysteine and methylation issues) are worth catching before they become disease.
What would healthcare look like if GPs had the time, tools, and data to treat every patient like an elite athlete?
Season 1 · Episode 1
Sunday, February 22, 2026 • Duration 46:46
In this episode of Beyond Longevity, I am joined by Dr Angus Perry, a practising GP, clinical AI builder, and performance-medicine enthusiast with experience supporting Formula One teams and elite athletes. Dr Angus is focused on closing the gap between what preventive medicine can achieve and what is realistic inside a ten-minute GP appointment.
He shares the path that led him here: a childhood ambition to become a GP, an early pull toward technology, and a personal family experience with chronic disease that clarified why the current model is failing both clinicians and patients. We talk candidly about GP burnout, time pressure, and why meaningful lifestyle support is so hard to deliver at scale.
Two data points frame his urgency:
-The Lancet Standing Commission’s 2024 report estimates that around 45% of dementia cases are potentially preventable by addressing 14 modifiable risk factors across the life course.
-A 2018 JAMA Network Open cohort study of 122,007 adults undergoing treadmill testing found cardiorespiratory fitness was inversely associated with long-term all-cause mortality, with a median follow-up of 8.4 years and no observed “upper limit” of benefit.
Dr Angus then walks through the two-part platform he is building:
A clinician-facing tool that helps generate chronic disease and preventive-care plans (including areas such as diabetes, hypertension, and dementia prevention).
-A patient-facing app designed around daily check-ins, habit tracking, nudges, milestones, and adherence dashboards — aiming to “close the accountability loop” between appointments giving clinicians the data they need and whilst keeping patients genuinely engaged with their own health in-between appointments
We also dig into what responsible clinical AI looks like in practice: hallucination risk, governance, compliance, and the line between augmentation and undermining the clinician–patient relationship. And we explore whether tools used in elite sport (including dynamometry for strength and fatigability) could become more relevant in ageing and sarcopenia care — including for patients using GLP-1 medications.
Beyond Longevity - Decoding the Future of Ageing, One Conversation at a Time
Season 1
Saturday, February 14, 2026 • Duration 02:19
Welcome to Beyond Longevity, the podcast that decodes the future of ageing, one conversation at a time. Join host Daphna Stern as she introduces a new podcast exploring the cutting edge of longevity science. Through conversations with leading researchers, clinicians, and innovators, Beyond Longevity unpacks the evidence behind living longer and healthier lives.
Beyond Longevity is a deep-dive podcast exploring the cutting edge of longevity science. Each episode features insightful discussions with leading experts who share their latest findings, innovative studies, and practical applications to enhance our approach to longevity. The show translates complex research into clear, thoughtful discussions, decoding the future of ageing one conversation at a time.
Don't miss future episodes! Follow or subscribe to Beyond Longevity on your preferred podcast player:
Join us in advancing the conversation around ageing. Let's redefine what it means to live longer, healthier
00:00 Welcome to Beyond Longevity: A Podcast About Healthspan
00:13 Beauty in Science: Why Longevity Research Matters Now
00:27 Meet Your Host Daphna Stern & the Mission Behind the Show
00:55 Where Biology Meets Technology: Inside the Longevity Revolution
01:05 Who We Talk To: Pioneers Rewriting What It Means to Age
01:20 From Sci‑Fi to Boom Times: Longevity Goes Mainstream
01:46 Subscribe & Join the Movement: Redefining Longer, Healthier Lives
02:00 Final Invitation: Understanding the Future, One Conversation at a Time
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Why Do We Age? Dr Bradley Elliott on Biomarkers, Muscle, and What Longevity Science Still Doesn’t Know
Season 1 · Episode 6
Monday, March 9, 2026 • Duration 01:05:51
Dr Bradley Elliott — physiologist, university lecturer, and a trustee and Communications Lead at the British Society for Research on Ageing — joins host Daphna for a refreshingly honest conversation about what longevity science actually knows and what we still cannot explain.
This episode cuts through the certainty. We talk about biomarkers and biological age, why many measurements may be tracking effects rather than causes, we discuss extracellular vesicles and the surprising limit of science. Dr Bradley discusses some of his papers and related research, and our conversation challenges much of the conventional wisdom in the longevity space.
What we cover:
-Why we still do not know what fundamentally causes ageing — and why every “root cause” often leads to something deeper
-What biomarkers really measure, what they can and cannot tell you, and which markers are most worth tracking right now
-Biological age vs chronological age: where the concept is useful, and where it gets overclaimed
-Why muscle is one of the most underrated “health organs” in ageing — and what it supports beyond strength
-Exercise for longevity: the evidence-based basics, plus what matters most for consistency and adherence
-“It is not too late”: what studies in very old adults suggest about strength gains later in life
-Extracellular vesicles: the hidden communication system between cells, and why it is getting so much attention
-Wearables: why they can still be useful even when the numbers are not perfectly accurate
This is a fascinating episode with someone who knows how to communicate science and make it relatable
ViVE Bonus: Marc Zemel on Real-Time Hemodynamic Monitoring and Early Deterioration Detection in Critical Care
Season 1 · Episode 11
Friday, April 10, 2026 • Duration 44:44
Recorded at the 2026 VIVE conference in Los Angeles, this Beyond Longevity mini-series episode features Mark Zemel, co-founder and CEO of Retia Medical, discussing the company’s hemodynamic monitoring technology that turns continuous bedside physiological signals into real-time clinical insights for high-risk surgery and critical care.
Marc explains Retia’s aim to detect early deterioration, guide diagnosis and therapy, and avoid the unreliability, invasiveness and complexity of older tools, noting deployment in 75 US hospitals and distribution via Medtronic, plus presence in 18 countries.
He highlights FDA clearance for Argos Infinity enterprise software, which extends insights across the hospital and to clinicians’ phones and laptops, and shares a case where rapid detection of falling stroke volume revealed bleeding during AAA repair. The conversation covers workflow-first design, interoperability, cybersecurity, regulatory strategy, and a future path from ICU to broader wards and ultimately wearables for earlier intervention and preventative care.
00:00 Beyond Longevity Intro
00:44 Meet Mark Zeel
01:40 Rata Medical Mission
02:54 Argos Infinity Launch
03:58 Clinicians Want Real Time
05:19 Surgery Near Miss Story
07:20 Why Accuracy Matters
08:42 Why Algorithms Are Hard
10:08 From ICU To Wearables
12:20 Scaling Distribution Globally
13:22 Plug And Play Integration
15:22 Wearables And Data Overload
18:31 Alerts And Clinical Judgment
20:16 AI As Decision Support
21:56 US Versus Europe Markets
23:09 Wearables Beyond EMRs
Why Longer lives Are Changing Work, Business and Society, with Avivah Wittenberg-Cox
Season 1 · Episode 10
Monday, April 6, 2026 • Duration 58:09
This week’s guest is Avivah Wittenberg-Cox. Avivah advises leaders on gender and generational balance, the future of work, and the longevity economy. She hosts the podcast 4-Quarter Lives, publishes the Substack Elderberries, and writes regularly for Forbes and Harvard Business Review. She is Visiting Faculty at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, co-directs the Longevity Leadership Programme at Católica Lisbon, and has given three TED Talks.
In this episode, Avivah and Daphna explore how longer lives are reshaping work, business, and society. Avivah argues that longevity is not just a health story but a structural shift that is forcing organisations to rethink how they are built, how careers unfold, and how different generations work together.
She explains why the old pyramid model of the workforce is giving way to a more square demographic reality, with far more balance between younger and older generations than most institutions were designed for. That shift brings real pressure, from pensions to healthcare, but also major opportunities for businesses willing to adapt.
The conversation looks at why older workers are still too often overlooked, what businesses lose when they fail to value experience, and why age-inclusive thinking is becoming a strategic advantage rather than a social add-on. More broadly, the episode challenges outdated assumptions about ageing and asks what it would mean to build a society that treats longer lives as a source of possibility, not decline.
This episode is a reminder that longevity is not only changing how long we live, but how we work, lead, learn, and contribute across the course of our lives.
NAD, Precision Health & the Science of Living Better for Longer with Dr Jin-Xiong She
Season 1 · Episode 9
Monday, March 30, 2026 • Duration 52:58
In this episode, Dr Jin-Xiong She, a scientist with more than 400 publications, over 20,000 citations, and more than $100 million in research funding, explains why he left the top tier of academic medicine to pursue something more urgent: finding better ways to detect decline early and protect healthspan before disease takes hold. He shares what nearly 100,000 NAD tests have uncovered and why he believes biomarker baselines could change the way we think about prevention.
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00:00 Welcome to Beyond Longevity + Meet Prof. David Weinkove
02:40 From Physics to Bioscience: Career Origins & Model Organisms
04:29 The Breakthrough: How Bacteria (and Folate) Can Extend Worm Lifespan
09:12 Measuring Healthspan in C. elegans: Movement, Decline & New Tech
10:38 Why C. elegans? Fast Ageing, Whole-Organism Biology & Screening Power
12:19 Worms vs Mice: Similarity to Humans, Ethics, Cost & Experimental Variability
15:35 Translating Worm Findings to Humans: Microbiome Links, Exercise Paper & Next Steps
17:52 Funding the Science: UKRI, MRC vs BBSRC, and the Reality of Grant Constraints
20:52 Why Longevity Research Struggles for Support: Messaging, Hype & Prevention
28:39 BSRA’s Mission & the Five Pillars: Public Engagement, Advocacy, Fundraising, Translation
32:01 Breaking Down Silos: Making Longevity Research Useful (and Public)
34:07 Prevention Mindset: Why “Healthier for Longer” Isn’t Instant Gratification
36:15 When to Start Interventions: Metformin, Timing, and Trial Design Challenges
39:39 Why Magnitude Bioscience Exists: Fast Whole-Organism Ageing Screens
41:12 What Companies Test in Worms: From Candidate Drugs to 1,000-Compound Screens
42:48 Folic Acid Fortification & the Microbiome: A Potential Unintended Consequence
45:55 Should Government Engineer Health? Autonomy, Risk, and Public Policy Trade-offs
52:37 Ageing Demographics & the Case for Prevention-First Healthcare Investment
55:59 Making Longevity Matter to Everyday People + Rapid-Fire Q&A
01:01:47 Final Takeaways, Thanks, and Episode Wrap-Up
Her framework comes through in a powerful case study of a woman in her mid-forties post breast cancer treatment. The plan combined structured nutrition changes, Pilates to support bone health, and journaling to work through stored stress and anger, with measurable improvements in sleep and HRV.
Practical advice runs throughout: build a simple morning routine, prioritise nourishing food, choose “joyful movement” over punishment, reduce blue light and phone use at night, and rebuild real-world community. She also shares what she believes conventional medicine needs more of: stronger grounding in biochemistry and physiology, better nutrition education, and a far more serious commitment to women’s health.
Beyond the clinic, Dr Mayoni is also building infrastructure for the field. Through Human Health Professionals, she trains and mentors clinic owners to deliver longevity and wellness services responsibly. She also leads the Future Patient Congress and publishes Future Patient, quarterly, evidence-based resources magazine, designed to make current research more accessible and usable for clinicians and practitioners.
In the rapid-fire round: her single most important longevity adjustment, what she wishes she had known before leaving surgery, and what it really means to extend healthspan - not just lifespan.
45:18 Five Simple Longevity Adjustments: Morning Routine, Nutrition, Phone, Community
48:47 What Conventional Medicine Could Change Now (Nutrition + Women’s Health Education)
51:23 Why She Left Surgery: The Wake-Up Call on Reactive Healthcare
56:09 Building New Systems: Human Health, Future Patient Congress & Magazine
57:47 Training Clinicians: N=1 Medicine, Critical Appraisal & Practical Protocols
01:06:22 Rapid-Fire Longevity Q&A + Final Takeaways on Healthspan
Dr Angus is clear about where things stand today: the app has had a very promising soft launch, clinician feedback driving iteration, early NHS pilot conversations, and outcomes data still being gathered. The episode closes with a sober assessment of where healthcare may be heading without greater patient empowerment — and a reminder that many of the biggest longevity gains are still driven by environment and lifestyle, not expensive interventions.
Rapid-fire highlights: why passion beats rigid planning, the single habit he prioritises most (sleep), what he would have done if medicine had not worked out, and why a simple daily gratitude practice can have outsized downstream effects.
13:12 — Introducing the platform: clinician tool and patient app for behaviour change
14:07 — Patient activation and empowerment: making people the CEO of their own health
15:57 — How the app works: risk factors, activation scoring, check-ins, and accountability loops 19:26 — Early launch feedback, adoption questions, and the road to NHS pilots
21:05 — What's next: AI agents, EHR integration, and removing workflow friction
22:56 — Clinician concerns about AI: augmentation vs replacement, and can AI extend healthspan? 25:08 — ChatGPT for health: useful, but the doctor–patient bond still matters
26:03 — What responsible AI means in healthcare: governance, risk, and regulation
27:38 — Does technology change how he practises as a GP?
28:20 — From Formula One to primary care: treating patients like elite athletes
31:40 — Performance technology that could reach clinics: muscle testing and the realities of G-force data
33:25 — Dynamometry explained: measuring strength, imbalances, and fatigability
35:41 — Why muscle mass is a longevity cornerstone — and how it declines
38:01 — Where GP and preventive medicine are headed in five years
40:08 — Is longevity medicine only for the wealthy? The 70/15/5 reality
43:28 — Rapid-fire advice and final takeaways on making innovation practical
• Lady V Barrios-Silva et al. — Activin subfamily peptides and prediction of age and physical function (undergraduate-led research, University of Westminster)
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