Putin's Plan To Live Forever

Since the dawn of civilization, the greatest rulers on the planet have tried -- and, so far, failed -- to extend their lives past the natural limits of humanity. It seems the present day is no different. In tonight's episode, Ben, Matt, and Noel dive into the latest conspiracy surrounding longtime Russian President Vladimir Putin: for several years, he's been pouring billions of dollars into a vast, strange scientific effort to grow and replace organs, to build a vaccine for aging, and much much more. The question on everyone's mind is simple: What happens if he actually succeeds... and what would this mean for everyone else?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, history is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Welcome back to the show. Cheers. My name is Matt.
My name is Noel.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
They called me Ben. We're joined, as always, with our
super producer, Dylan, the Tennessee pal fake. And most importantly,
you are you. You are here. That makes this the
stuff they don't want you to know. Officially, for now,
earthquake free.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
Oh, my God.

Speaker 5 (00:46):
Ben, you weathered the storm. You weathered the tectonic anomaly.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
We were in an earthquake. Thank you, Noel. Everybody, Everybody
is fine. The show continues. And, you know, we often
have a little bit of an inside quote for each
other in our research doc. But here, instead of a quotation,
we just had to share a favorite meme.

Speaker 5 (01:12):
Well, Ben, obviously stuff they don't want you to know
is where fashion sits.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
And we are, in fact... Putin on the Ritz.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Oh, and not long ago, we had a whole conversation
about Ritz crackers and the differences between the product that's
produced in the United States versus the one that's produced
in many parts of Europe, including the United Kingdom.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
Are they less chemically, Matt? I'm guessing they're less chemically.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Much less dangerous for your health in other parts of
the world. I do not know if there is a
Russian version of Ritz crackers.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
It's called Richstrovia.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
So tonight's episode, as you might be able to tell,
is coming from an earlier story we first reported in
our Strange News program a while back. We've also, like
so many people, we have extensively explored the concepts of
life extension or genuine immortality right now as of August 24th, 2026,

(02:11):
as we're recording today. Even the world's most wealthy or
the wealthiest, most socially powerful humans have yet to crack
the code on this. Nobody except for Henrietta Lacks, in
on a technicality, has figured out how to live forever,
but history is just rife with millennia's worth of money, energy,

(02:34):
and conspiracy sunk into the advancement of what they might
call extended longevity, biontology. Dylan, if you could, Give us
a building sound cue, something really cinematic. That's perfect.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
Sinister.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yes. There is one man amid all of the human
world who doesn't just have the money to swing at
this Quixote's windmill of finance and death.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
There is.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
One man who can pull a Dr. Doom and push
the human world into what he sees as a new age.
He also happens to be the president of Russia. Vladimir
Putin wants to live forever.

Speaker 5 (03:18):
He's also got the guns for it, man. You know,
arm wise and, you know, weapon wise.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
As we'll discuss in this episode, he's not the only one.
But boy, howdy, is he at the forefront of all
this stuff.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
And he's also uh one of the 73 year old
men not the only one but he's one of the
guys that i think we all agree could probably take
us in a fight pvp.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Uh you know what at one time not anymore baby
have we.

Speaker 5 (03:47):
Seen him has he but he hasn't really been uh
been been popping out much.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Lately i'm just talking about how much we've all been
pumping iron and getting ready.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Specifically for Putin.

Speaker 5 (03:58):
Well, I just remember he used to be very public
with his shirtless horse riding pics. And I just don't
feel like he's been quite as forward facing with his pectorals.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah. Let's get into it. Here are the facts. Okay.
You know them. You know them. You might love them,
but you probably just know of them. Born in Leningrad
in 1952, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is 73 years old, as

(04:31):
we record today. His birthday is on October 7th, and
this is interesting because him being 73 years old already
puts him several years beyond the typical life expectancy of
your average Russian, which would be 68.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
Yeah, because of all of the fallout, right? Isn't, you know,
it's still hanging around. I'm just, yeah. Unclear.

Speaker 5 (04:53):
I just know that, like, for example, the fantastic Russian
filmmaker Tarkovsky passed away due to contamination from a film
set that was near like a decommissioned nuclear site. I
can't imagine he's the only one catching some strays.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Just a little extra radiation with your day. Enjoy that.
Perhaps it will extend your life. Probably not. I guess, guys,
we'll have to celebrate his birthday while we're out there
on the high seas with Virgin Voyages on October 7th.
What a day!

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Right. Will there be cake?

Speaker 4 (05:30):
I hope so.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
There will be cake. There's a, even a, this is
a true story. There's a thing on your phone when
you're on the cruise that was very dangerous for my
girlfriend where you can just shake your phone and somebody
will show up. with champagne. Do you remember that one, guys?

Speaker 2 (05:45):
I do.

Speaker 5 (05:46):
I don't think I did the shake for champagne. I
imagine you could also program it to shake for cake.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Shake for cake is even cooler because of that rhyme, Noel.
But we won't be going alone. We'll be there with
stuff you should know and our pals Annie and Sam
from Stuff Mom Never Told You. We'd love to hang
out with you. That's one of our favorite parts of
the cruise, honestly. We'll be doing live shows and you
can find us all around the ship. You can find
us Excurring on the shore?

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (06:16):
I think that's an appropriate verb for excursion. Oh, we
buried the lead a little bit, guys. Josh and Chuck
of Stuff You Should Know fame will also be hanging out.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
It's a big deal. They're a big deal, and they'll
be on the ship. And they might even show up
on a glass-bottom boat with you if you're lucky. Who knows?
But it is kind of your last chance. So if
you want to go, search Stuff at Sea and get
your tickets now.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
Early October.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
Set sail.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Right?

Speaker 5 (06:40):
What's the dates?

Speaker 3 (06:41):
October 2nd through the 7th.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
Which is, of course, culminating in Vladimir Putin's birthday. Totally,
totally by design. Because Putin is, in addition to being
an incredibly controversial figure, and I am being quite diplomatic
when I say that, Putin is a huge deal for
a lot of his life, for almost 30 years now,

(07:06):
for like 26 years, since December of 1999.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Right.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
He has been the leader of post-Soviet Russia. There was
one brief period that I think fascinated a lot of
us when he technically wasn't the president. His buddy Medvedev
was the president. And during this time, Putin was the
prime minister. So really all that happened during that brief
period of time was Putin kind of sat in a

(07:34):
different seat.

Speaker 5 (07:35):
Potato, potato, a president by any other name, still pretty
much the president, if you're Vlad. And for pretty much
the entirety of this time, he has been, like you said,
been seen as a deeply controversial and incredibly brutal figure in,
you know, world affairs, international affairs. He's also been the
subject of some intense scrutiny from just about every imaginable angle.

(07:57):
A lot of analysts across the world have dedicated their
entire career to figuring out what makes this guy tick.
What are his big plans for the future of Russia?

Speaker 4 (08:07):
What does he actually want? And how's he doing? Is
he feeling all right? It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
We've talked in the past about how the background in
the KGB really shaped this guy because he was a
high level intelligence officer in the KGB, which, you know,
essentially like the CIA because he was a foreign intelligence
officer only dealing with folks outside of his own country
at the time. And, you know, we always imagine like

(08:35):
that is the core at the core of this person.
the spy craft of it all, the, those games of
smoke and mirrors, Ben, I think is the way we,
we talk about it a lot, but it does feel
like at the very heart of this dude, it really
is just about being alive for as long as you
can be. The man loves life.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Yeah. It's one of those, it's a, it's a very
zero sum equation for Putin, to be quite honest, based
on all the All the analysis from Westerners who are
more plugged in than we are. And we are we're
being very serious when we say you would be startled, folks,
by just how many tea leaves analysts and think tanks

(09:20):
and other world leaders, how much they sift through trying
to speculate. about what this guy really wants, survivability, the
return of a Soviet hegemonic sphere of influence. And there
are entire courses that you can take. They're essentially courses

(09:41):
that delve into Putin's psychology, purported psychological reads, as well
as his health. We've even talked about this in years
past on Strange News. You know, there... There are plenty
of people who are not Western boffins or politicos. who
speculate about this. Uncle G worries about it. And of course,

(10:04):
the most famous guy from Home Alone 2 lost in
New York, President Donald Trump, who did some other stuff.
It's tough, though. It's so tough to tell because, like
you were saying earlier there, Noel, there's a lot of
propaganda coming out. about any post-Soviet leader, right? You don't
have to look far to see bizarre videos. John Oliver

(10:27):
is shouted out from some leaders of the stands. There's
rage-baiting stuff. And up until 2025 in the U.S., and
even now in NATO, people will still, without much investigation,
regularly report rumors on Putin's medical condition. Does he have cancer?

(10:48):
How much plastic surgery has he had? It gets a
little TMZ. Does he have dementia? Does he have Parkinson's? Uh,
how long does the world have before he passes away?

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Dude. And we see that mirrored in the U S right.
Especially with the Biden presidency and now with the Trump
presidency part two, just how much people are thinking about
the health of the leader. And, you know, often seeing
things on a screen, uh, You know, usually a small
screen for all of us regular old citizens, no matter
what country you're in, you just see your leader up

(11:20):
there maybe acting a little strange, moving a little funny,
saying words a little differently. How did you insert that
word instead of the one that should have been there?
You know, these kinds of things. When you think about
the cognitive abilities and the health, the physical abilities, just
attempting to go up an airplane stairway. You're like, oh, yeah,

(11:43):
this isn't good.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
And also, yeah, another one that I think stands out
to all of us is the interesting game. It's almost
like a New York Times daily game like Wordle, where
you try to connect the cognitive dots between the beginning
of a speech and the end point, right? How did
I get to this Z point from this A? Like, oh,

(12:05):
you're here to talk about taxes, or there's like a
new public facility opening, and now... I've learned a lot
about your opinion on the cake at the New York
Times for some reason, right? And how did we get here?
That's the question that happens a lot. And people do.

(12:27):
I think that's a fantastic point past the humor because
people diagram that stuff out and they always try to
define what the real message is because sometimes world leaders,
even when they speak to each other, they speak in innuendo.
You know, it's like the intrigue of courtroom politics from
days of old.

Speaker 5 (12:46):
It's like the way mafia people talk on the phone.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
Hey, yes, yes.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
But often when the cameras are rolling and it's known, right,
it's known there's a camera and a microphone somewhere near you.
The speak, it's, Ben, it makes me think of a
conversation we had before when you talk about people who
are running for campaign, especially here in the U.S. that
we've analyzed in the past, where people Things will be
said out loud that are on a surface level that

(13:14):
are meant to push a campaign forward because it's known
that recording is occurring, right? This will be seen by somebody.
But as soon as those cameras and those mics are
turned off, now you're in a cushy ballroom, a room
at the Hyatt where you're speaking to a bunch of donors.
All of the language completely changes. The tone changes. The
imperative nature of what is doing and what's happening changes.

(13:38):
And it just, it is like a light switch. because
of the nature of politics, right. And, and how things work,
especially if there are voters involved. Yes. When there are
not voters involved, it, it changes a little differently. And
maybe people a little are a little more straightforward on
a mic.

Speaker 4 (13:54):
It's almost like some of these people don't tell the
truth all the time.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
It's so weird.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
It's performative. And folks, uh, lest we be seen as
dogging on politicians, which we absolutely are.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
How could we?

Speaker 3 (14:06):
Which we absolutely are, by the way. What you need
to realize is you can probably see examples of this
in microcosm in your own family dynamics or at your
own place of work because I know we've all been
in situations where you see somebody just rolling a gnat
pointing on diplomacy, right? They're so great. And then you

(14:29):
have You have another call or something, or you hang
out with your boss or your coworker afterwards, and you're like, oh, man,
you guys really click, huh? You get along with him?
And they're like, no, he's a dick, man, but we
need those numbers. The problem exacerbates when we talk about
world leaders, right? It's more than a Zoom call now

(14:52):
because there is a performative aspect, to your point, Matt,
and it's always... You should always be skeptical when something
is presented to you as a leak or as an
accidental piece of information that got rolled out because often
it can't be managed. That's what inspired us in strange news.

(15:14):
There was this military parade not too long ago where
a bunch of foreign powers, many of whom are not
super dupes friendly with the United States, were in China.
Among those people were Daddy V and Uncle Ji, the
leader of current China. They are walking and they are
speaking through interpreters. They're walking up to this big, big

(15:37):
thing called the Tiananmen Rostrum. And there are other foreign
dignitaries in the crew. They're kind of Wu-Tang-ing. You know,
Kim Jong-un is there. He's hanging. He's in the mix.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
And you may remember that, I believe, Ben, this was
the Victory Day Parade, 2025, the same parade?

Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
This is the parade that we made a big deal
of because it was showing the unity that China was
attempting to create with BRICS nations, with all the other
nations that are essentially not the major Western powers and
attempting to bring everybody in and say, hey, look at
how powerful we are. Look at how unified we are.

(16:16):
Look at our, literally our soldiers and how the same
they all are. but in a terrifying way, but in
a great way if they're on your side. Yeah. Right?

Speaker 3 (16:28):
We are more centralized. We are more uniform. We are
more cohesive. We move together better than the Western Bloc.
That's a big part of the message.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
And it was a massive parade.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
I just got to say, it looked cool. I hate
to admit it. It was so cool.

Speaker 4 (16:44):
I mean, I love a parade.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Well, it looked badass. And it's only... In our comparison
to the birthday celebration U.S. parade thing that happened in
honor of the president. But to look at the two together,
especially if you're going clip by clip, watching them back
and forth, you can really compare and contrast them and

(17:08):
just see the actual strength that is present in the
Victory Day parade where... this conversation occurred that we're about
to talk about. Right.

Speaker 5 (17:16):
Like that show of strength only works if you're really,
really dialed in and they absolutely are.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah. And if it's mandatory to go. So if these
folks were not, it's a hell of an assumption and
it's an incorrect assumption to say that everybody showed up
to the victory day parade because they.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
Were legit excited. Yeah. Right.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
The kidnappings will continue until morale improves. So, uh, These
guys are walking, okay? Walking toward this rostrum. This is
not an official part of the parade spectacle. What you're
supposed to be seeing, ostensibly, is B-cam footage of stuff

(17:59):
starting to happen, right? And then you cut from there
to something else and cut from there to a prepared statement.
And it's like, oh, look at all these tanks. What
could go wrong? Here's what went wrong, allegedly.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
Bit of a hot mic.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
Bit of a hot mic. So they're walking.

Speaker 5 (18:14):
They're speaking in.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
Russian and it's getting translated back and forth from Russian
and Mandarin. We can stop it there. You can see

(18:42):
the full clip, which is pretty short, online in many versions.
We played one without the commentary. We think that's the
one you should find. It does have, to be clear,
it does have English subtitles that'll help you if you,
like the majority of the world, don't speak both Mandarin

(19:03):
and Russian, which is, you know, congratulations if you do.
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
Two really good ones to know.

Speaker 5 (19:09):
How to be one of those translators. Can you imagine
the things that the... I would never want to.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
No, I never want to do that. Can you imagine
the pressure?

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, that's exactly.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
What's that old... There was an American... I want to
say it was an American politician, but it may have
been a business tycoon who was at some meeting in
Japan and through a translator tried to break the ice
with a joke This is real personable. I think it
was a business thing. And Jordan Dillon beat me here.

(19:43):
He thought his joke killed because he said the joke,
the translator translated it, and the audience. he was speaking to,
these guys lost their minds. They were like, this was
hooting and hollering, as we would call it in Tennessee.
And it turned out, you know, the guy was interested,
and maybe he was considering a career in stand-up, and
he asked the Japanese interpreter. Yeah, I think it was, yeah, Japan.

(20:07):
He asked the Japanese interpreter, he said, what did you say?
Like that? Was it really that funny? And he says,
I said, the foreign gentleman has made a joke.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
Please laugh.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
That makes so much sense, dude. I keep thinking about the,
the personal life of one of these interpreters, especially one
that works like a lot with a specific, let's say,
I don't know, minorly or majorly authoritarian figure. And I,
I was thinking, you guys have seen No Country for
Old Men, right?

Speaker 3 (20:40):
Yes, of course.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Maybe it's been a while.

Speaker 4 (20:43):
I rewatched it maybe like three months ago. It's one
of my favorites.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
Dude, me too. I'm imagining Josh Brolin's character, I think
his name's Lewin or something like that. Lewin. Lewin. He
goes to a hotel, it's like a seedy hotel when
he's on the run, running away from crazy dude, Javier Bardem,
and he tell, he talks to the guy at the

(21:07):
front of the hotel, right? And he, the bell person
or whatever. And he just, he's like, if anybody comes
by here, let me know. And I just imagine that
being the feeling every time you go back to your
hotel room after being out, let's say in Paris, meeting
with diplomats there with your authoritarian guy and in just
kind of waiting, sitting on the bed and waiting for

(21:27):
somebody to bust in.

Speaker 5 (21:29):
Oh, I mean, no, like one of those, one of
these interpreters would be a high level target, right?

Speaker 4 (21:34):
I mean, yeah, you'd have so much information.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Or what if you heard something you weren't supposed to hear?

Speaker 3 (21:37):
Right. Which is why like your notes get destroyed after
some of these meetings. Also want to recommend a banger
novel called Bel Canto, where one of the main characters
is a polyglot translator. And you can, it's a beautiful book,
but you can see examples of, there of what we're
talking about. So we want to make space, as they

(21:58):
say in modern parlance, for the translators. You folks have
such a stressful job. Be safe out there. You're walking
with President Putin, walking with Uncle Xi Jinping. And as
you can see, these guys appear to be on good terms,
you know, and they get gesturing at each other. It's
kind of like when, um, Noel and Matt in Tennessee

(22:22):
and yours truly are having a good day and we're
walking away from a live show. We're just like, ha,
nice one. That was cool. That's the vibe they have.
And their small talk is Putin basically saying, you know,
70 now, you're a young man. You're still like, you're
a baby now. We can eventually replace human organs. We

(22:47):
can go on further. than humans naturally do. And Uncle Xi, again,
also very casually, speculates that within this century, people might
reach lifespans of 150 years. The official story is this
was a hot mic moment, like you were saying, Noel.

(23:08):
It was broadcast by China's state television, and before they
could pull it, right, or put something else over the audio,
it hit international airwaves and couldn't be redacted. That's the
official story. But then other, you know, we have to
wonder if they purposely leaked to that or if they
were even talking about physical individual life or instead was

(23:31):
this like innuendo to talk about how long they wanted
to continue ruling their empires? Layers and layers and layers
and layers.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
Is it funny to see these two grandpas walking, talking
about their countries and life and longevity and all that
stuff and then you got And then you got Kim Jong-un, who's, what,
30 years younger than them, just kind of trailing on
the side, just like, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
Exactly.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
I was thinking about that, too. I mean, we know
that Putin and Xi have taken explicit steps to ensure
their continued rule. We know, like, in 2020, Russia's constitution changed,
which means that now Vladimir Putin is can legally be
in control as president all the way up to 2036.

(24:19):
If you're playing along at home, that would make him
about 83. And then, you know, Uncle G, a while
back in 2018, got rid of presidential term limits altogether.
These guys are not planning on going anywhere. We think that, well,
I say we, the West thinks that Vladimir Putin is
going to hold on to power until he is physically

(24:41):
incapacitated or until he is overthrown. So retirement is not
on board.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
It's a cold, dead hand system.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
It's a dead hand, all right.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
I get what you're saying. That was intentional, Matt.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
It really is, you guys, because the issue is Putin
has a lot of real enemies. He has a lot
of perceived enemies. From what we can tell, he is
a very paranoid man. And, of course, most people in
that position would be. but he has one unvanquishable foe,
just like Alexander the Great or the ancient Chinese emperor

(25:19):
before him. He is helpless against time, mortality, and the
finality of death.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
That old grim reaper.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
None can that we know of. They're working on it, though.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
Yeah. An Arcadia ego, right? So even in Arcadia, people
have renewed their interest in his health, their morbid interest
in his health, especially over COVID, when we all saw
his increasingly stringent safety protocols. And I know we all

(25:56):
remember it because we joked about it constantly on this
very show, those cartoonishly long tables.

Speaker 5 (26:02):
It's like that dinner scene in Batman with Vicki Vale
and Bruce Wayne.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
At that giant dining room table.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
Well, as long as it's not the Red Wedding yet, right?
I'm imagining those tables. Sorry, now in my head.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
It's a good question.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Isn't it crazy how much has changed? Tennessee Powell wrote
in the chat section here, last time Putin was photographed
shirtless was January 19th, 2018. So just a couple of
years before the pandemic jumped off. And it does make
you wonder like how much did that situation affect accelerates.

Speaker 4 (26:40):
His age to a degree.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Right.

Speaker 4 (26:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Because mentally and physically it's, it had effects on all
of us. Right. Um, just in what we were capable
of doing, allowed to do, I'm assuming if Putin wanted
to do anything, even during the height of the pandemic,
they would just let him do it. Right.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
Well, this is, this is the thing. Uh, we have
to wonder how healthy he was actually. And we also
have to wonder, there's a more speculation that, whether he
had had some sort of close medical call or multiple
situations that remained secret, because it would be able, it

(27:19):
would be possible to tamp those down, right? Their control
over public imagery is, I'll say it, is superior to
the presidential administration's control over public imagery. It'd be tougher
to keep a medical condition a secret as effectively as
Russia can.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
I fully agree and feel you, man. It's interesting how
just through full-on denial, you can kind of control it
here in the U.S. But everybody kind of knows, but
you can still with messaging and just full-stop denial. Like,
what's up with the hand? Oh, nothing. Everything's fine. What's
up with the words and the weird sleepy and all

(28:00):
that stuff? Oh, the cognitive stuff is perfect. Just go away.
Shut up. Oh, you know, just.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Mm-hmm. I don't know. The word that keeps coming to
mind is just full on denial of things versus, as
you're saying, just hide it. He was gone. He was
he's been out of the public eye for a week
because he was on a very important mission doing some stuff.
So shut up.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
But in democracy, even if even if those denials are happening,
which they are in in Western democracy. Typically, the truth
comes out a little bit faster than it would in
an authoritarian government. The thing is, we're on the tip
of turning into an authoritarian government. I always remember the

(28:41):
rap line, it's obvious and evident that I've been clever
ever since back when Ronald Reagan could remember he was president.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Is that the one you wrote? That was in a
battle rap we did with the Culture Kings. I remember that.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
That was. But I bring that up because Ronald Reagan...
was suffering from a serious cognitive decline, and they were
able to hide it for a little bit. But ultimately,
the truth came out.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
Well, the poor guy was just a puppet anyway. He
didn't know what was going on. He had all those
war hawks behind him. Anyway, check it out. Listen to
Ronald Reagan. It's a song. Killer mic. Ben, I was
thinking about Kim Jong-un again, because he's also in this,
but I'm also thinking about all the times that he
has been gone for weeks and months at a time,
and just nobody knows... There's never ever a full answer

(29:28):
of what occurred. And then there's a story, a narrative
in place to let everybody, especially North Koreans, know everything's great.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
He was inspecting a rural mine. Yeah, it was really...
some fascinating stuff from VIP security guards who defected. The
news is out there if you want to learn more
about it, and you can see our previous episodes. But
we have to ask now, what is going on? with
all these strange rumors about Putin having a conspiracy to

(29:58):
push his lifespan past that of normal humans, and most importantly,
could this wild plan actually work? We'll be right back.
Here's where it gets crazy. Okay, the rumors are true.
You always get to say a conspiracy is definitely true.

(30:21):
But in this case, it very much is. For whatever reason,
whether it's political or personal, a mix of both, Putin
has apparently doubled down on his pre-existing fascination with longevity,
like billions of dollars, $ 26 billion, pouring into something called

(30:42):
the New Health Preservation Technologies Program. And this happened in
like 2024, so it's pretty recent. But it seems serious, guys.

Speaker 5 (30:54):
Well, I think what I think that's interesting about this
kind of conspiracy is that it involves this notion that
there is technology or medical procedures or medication that exists
that is being hoarded or kept from mortals like us.
And I just feel like there is so much information
out there about studies and procedures that are done and

(31:16):
replacing organs and transplants and stuff like that. it becomes
less about like, is there some magical secret remedy or
some secret way of accomplishing these kinds of goals? And
is it more just about these types of people having
much more access to experimental treatments and things like that,
that maybe the rest of us would be on waiting
lists for, or just, you know, having access to the highest,

(31:40):
you know, forms of medical care rather than some sort
of magic pill that you take that makes you live forever.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
Right. A conspiracy of suppressed tech or a conspiracy of access, right? Yeah,
it's so nuts because I think we're surprised to find
that back in 2019, Russian scientists were holding secret meetings
in Moscow or with Moscow officials to figure out whether

(32:09):
they should just throw ethics out the window and start
using CRISPR to modify human babies. And they were doing
that because China pulled back. The year prior in 2018,
they had a project to make kids that would naturally
be resistant to HIV. And then someone pulled the ethical

(32:32):
card and said, you got to stop it. And Russia said, well,
I don't know, you got to stop it. You just
maybe don't tell people about it, right?

Speaker 2 (32:41):
We know how important human experimentation has been over the years.
And the horrifying things that have been gleaned via, you know,
mass horrific things.

Speaker 4 (32:53):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
I was just talking with my girlfriend about Unit 731,
you know.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Is it acknowledged? Like, Unit 731? Is it like a known,
acknowledged thing? Or is it part of history that kind
of gets.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
It definitely gets pushed aside. And one of the heartbreaking
things is you'll often hear that somebody in the West
made a devil's bargain, right? Paperclip style with scientists who
were involved in 731. But the issue is that as
far as we can tell, a lot of what they

(33:30):
were calling science wasn't actually that helpful or informative. It
was just... atrocity and torture. I don't know. It's, it's
a story that will ruin your day folks. If you
haven't heard about this before, but, um, Putin and his team,
when they announced this, uh, this weirdly named program, they said, okay, we're, it's,

(33:55):
it's a umbrella term for a bunch of other projects.
The five big ones all have pretty self-explanatory names. Um,
kind of inspirational aspirational stuff, new technology for man, personal
medical assistance, biomedic, uh, biomedical tech, uh, promotion and disease prevention,

(34:18):
production of the most demanded medicines, which feels very like
a snake oil medicine show to me, you know, like
professor Von Fagan's most demanded medicines.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
It's, It's all stuff that we see, especially in the
Silicon Valley area over there, these concepts that we've talked
about in the past that are emerging medical technologies, and
they're being looked at, and there is money in them,
and there's a lot of private investment in these pursuits.

(34:53):
It is interesting to see, because we're talking about government
dollars here, right?

Speaker 3 (34:58):
Yeah, yeah, because it's a state power.

Speaker 4 (35:01):
Right.

Speaker 3 (35:02):
That's what makes it Dr. Doom level. And they're also
like the billionaires who are doing this, the tech bros
and so on, as they're called. They are still private actors.
They've got a lot of juice. They got a lot
of what we call suction in the wire. But they
they don't have some of the superpowers that an actual

(35:24):
country or a country's ruler will have, which is why Dr.
Doom is such an awesome supervillain. I'm getting derailed. But
there's something else that's interesting, right? There's a good example
of this. This is something the billionaires cannot do yet.
Russia is different because for all the programs in this conspiracy,
they want to reach something called, help me out here, Matt,

(35:46):
because I always get this wrong, technological sovereignty.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Is that right?

Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (35:51):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (35:52):
I don't know why I got brainwashed so long ago
to say sovereignty.

Speaker 4 (35:56):
It's so easy to do.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Oh, and I did a Google search for it once, Ben,
because I also was wanting to say it. And I
could only find one cited source where sovereignty is there.
And it's talking about the act of protecting sovereignty. And
I was like, wait, what? But why is that in
my head? And I don't know. I think we've just

(36:19):
said it too many times. Right.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
Well, you know, I'm still learning English. And for years,
I thought you announced it Chimley. It's Chimley.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
What was it?

Speaker 3 (36:29):
I thought it was pronounced Chimley.

Speaker 5 (36:30):
Chimley.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
What is that?

Speaker 4 (36:31):
A poor Chimley sweep.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
It's a bad way to pronounce chimney. So anyways, sovereignty,
technological sovereignty is something that billionaires as private actors cannot
really tackle.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Right?

Speaker 3 (36:46):
You know, your Teals and your Altmans may want to
live forever, but Russia as a state power also wants
to never be reliant on another country for treatments, for vaccines,
for drugs, for so on. That's why all the big
powers were beefing with each other about their own homemade

(37:07):
vaccines during COVID. Everybody wanted to be the faucet. They
wanted to control everything. the flow of health. And I
don't know if that's, I don't think that's necessarily bad
because it makes sense from their perspective, right? You'd never
want to rely on another country for something that important

(37:28):
because as soon as something goes wrong, they got you
by the short and curlies.

Speaker 4 (37:32):
Exactly. It's a pubic hair joke.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
I get it. They will grab on and never let go.
It reminds me of that Tenacious D song, Karate, I
think is what it's called. I don't know if you
guys have ever heard that one.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
I feel like I have.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
With karate, I'll kick your ass. From here to Tiananmen Square.

Speaker 4 (37:54):
Oh, he does say Tiananmen Square.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
Oh, my God. This is crazy.

Speaker 4 (37:59):
Double appropriate.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Oh, but the point I was trying to make, Ben,
just thinking about the technology of those vaccines, especially during
the pandemic, and how they were brand new technologies. It
wasn't just a new vaccine. It was a new way
of administering a vaccine that was being tested in an
emergency rolled out.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
Yeah. M-R-N-A. Drop the beat. So we know that the
public statements about this program, they definitely, like we're saying,
they definitely echo lessons learned from rolling out of COVID vaccines,
which is a whole other bag of badgers, folks. We
get it. You can email us, conspiracyiherradio.com. Check out our

(38:42):
earlier episodes. This thing is being sold to the Russian
public and also to the world as a large win-win
for everybody involved. First, it's to benefit the people of Russia. Second,
it's to benefit Russian businesses and related industries. They're going

(39:04):
to be more competitive as they make these super drugs
or These remote surgery procedures, stuff like that, or they,
you know, they grow cartilage from mice and organs from pigs.
And then they say later this also, hey, guys, it
benefits everybody else alive on the planet.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Right.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
So if we can make new hearts, we can save
you and you don't have to be a Russian scientist.
So why would you have a problem with this? And
Putin's like, it's definitely not about me because I'm definitely fine.
I don't feel like taking my shirt off.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
But that's the thing. Maybe you can just say now,
the push for these kinds of things It's coming from
folks in their 70s and 80s. And if you look
at especially leaders, you know, across history, across time, who
have searched for some kind of life-giving water, you know,

(40:03):
there are all kinds of different versions of it.

Speaker 4 (40:07):
Found of youth type stuff, Matt?

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
All right.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
Straight up housing, Mercury.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
Oh, boy.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
There are people that are cited in The Guardian a
couple other places when we're talking about this. I know
Alexander the Great was one who allegedly wanted to find
the water of life. And I think it was somebody
in China.

Speaker 4 (40:29):
Yeah, it's.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. He's the
guy who was housing Mercury.

Speaker 5 (40:37):
And guys, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't adrenochrome,
the whole idea of extracting that from babies or something,
isn't that like been sort of Venn diagrammed in with
some of this life extension stuff?

Speaker 4 (40:48):
Or is that just to get really high?

Speaker 3 (40:49):
I'd say it's both in the conspiracy.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
I thought it was.

Speaker 4 (40:52):
Yeah, it's related to conspiracy.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
You could get high and live forever.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
Both things can be true.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
Dude, the guy, the person, I can't say the name,
Chin Chi Huang, the first... he was also looking for
a specific place, a mountain that was said to have
a fountain of youth, like elixir, elixir of life thing
like that. So not just the mercury. And just to say, oh,
there's one last thing, a guy from Kazakhstan who was again,

(41:22):
super old. And he's quoted as coming out and trying
to push for these new technologies that would extend life.
And his quote was like, you know, guys, all you
scientists working on this stuff, It's really important, especially for
people of my age, that we do this soon. Like,
I need you guys to do it now.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
Yeah, I think you talk about Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Speaker 4 (41:47):
That's the guy.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
President of Kazakhstan. Yeah, they also made a new research
initiative focusing on gene-based medicines.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
Just the truth and reality of that, as this older person,
you know, really, truly facing mortality in their own death, going... guys,
we really need to get on this technological medical stuff, please.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
Yeah, it's very self-interested, right? And that doesn't make it
necessarily bad, but it also means we have to understand
the ulterior motives in some of the very pretty and, again,
performative political statements. Because, look, if you're a skeptical analyst,
and all analysts should be skeptical, then you will doubtlessly

(42:30):
point out that if any of this works. Vladimir Putin
is going to be the first to directly benefit from
any relevant breakthroughs, not just in terms of the first
guy to get a really good working cellular treatment or
a new organ after the first couple of early adopters.

(42:51):
Shout out to the cosmonauts who got lost. He will
also be one of the first to make a huge
financial windfall for.

Speaker 5 (42:59):
Can we also just point out that we are living
in a time where, I mean, not to be too
health nut about it, where there are a lot of
things that we have access to that can be quite
beneficial for our health that maybe weren't around in the past.
I know people maybe have varying opinions on this, but
this drug metformin apparently has insane cancer risk outcome benefits

(43:25):
and cardiovascular prevention in non-diabetics and various other positive impacts
on human health, longevity, anti-aging, not proven. But there are
studies going into this and other treatments like it, or
even just stuff like taking collagen or, you know, creatine.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
Yeah, peptides.

Speaker 5 (43:46):
I mean, again, not saying you should do this, but
it's something worth looking into. There are a lot of
things that are being studied that do potentially have the
kinds of quote unquote, you know, life extension or health
benefits that a lot of these sort of more shadowy
conspiracies are talking about. So, I mean, again, I think
it is a matter of access more than it is

(44:06):
some magical thing that exists that they're keeping from us.
But I wouldn't put it past them when I say them.
I mean, the stuff they don't want you to know them.
I wouldn't put it past them keeping it from us.
But it just seems like given the nature of research
and the nature of science that it'd be a little
bit hard to like keep that stuff completely, you know, isolated.

Speaker 4 (44:27):
From the public.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Ben, the last point I want to make just before
we jump into like what exactly they're researching and the
specifics that we're about to tackle. Doesn't it feel like the,
even metformin, the things that we're going to talk about here,
doesn't it seem like it's way more beneficial to someone
who is reaching their, let's say thirties, forties, maybe rather
than someone whose body has already aged to the level

(44:50):
of 70 or eight or 80. All of these new
things that these older folks are so excited about, it
feels like, to.

Speaker 4 (44:59):
Me, it's not going to do that.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
They've missed the boat a little bit.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
Well, I don't know, and maybe I'm wrong on that,
but it does feel like the real benefits will be
seen far down the road if any of these technologies
and these new sciences actually come to fruition.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
That's interesting. That's a great setup. As a matter of fact,
I'm going to switch from my blue pill coffee to
the red pill coffee.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
Oh, wait, hold on. Wait, you can't switch pills? Don't
do it, man.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
What happens if you take them both at the same time?
That's what I want to know.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
I don't know, man. We're going to find out as
these things start kicking in at the end of this episode. Yes,
this is an excellent setup because we also have to,
we're going to run just a little bit long on
this one, folks, and we can't thank you enough for
going on this journey with us. We got to tell you,
there's a lot of sketchy stuff about new health preservation technologies.

(45:55):
It's a family business, despite being $ 26 billion in size.
We got to give a shout out to an endocrinologist
named Maria Vorontsova. You might hear her going by some
other names as well. Uh, she is Vladimir Putin's elder daughter,
and she is the co-leader of this, uh, of this initiative. Um,

(46:20):
She is an episode.

Speaker 4 (46:21):
All her own.

Speaker 3 (46:21):
Putin's family is an episode all its own, you know?

Speaker 2 (46:25):
Does it remind you of any other family, major family
that's working right now?

Speaker 3 (46:31):
Let's see. The Trump administration, the royal family, the Thai government.

Speaker 4 (46:37):
Let's see.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
Well, a lot of families, actually.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
But especially ones that, you know, control the reins of
major nuclear-capable powers.

Speaker 3 (46:47):
Yes. that is going to be so weird to explain
as a future historian. Uh, there's another guy, Putin's favorite scientist.
He's often cited this way in places like the guardian
or the wool street journal. His name is Mikhail Kovalchuk.

Speaker 4 (47:04):
Watch out for windows, Mikhail.

Speaker 3 (47:06):
Watch out for the windows, bro. Uh, even if you're
the favorite scientist, you know, that favors change, right? Um,
We got to talk real quick about what they do.
I think we should be honest from the jump. We're
not doctors, like you were saying. We don't understand all
of this, but the four things we know, the four
broad categories that they're really focusing on are AI-driven diagnostics.

(47:31):
That's not a surprise. Every country is doing something like that.
That's like, remember our good friend and coworker, Ben Kiebrick?
Back in the day, he worked with us extensively on stuff. Yeah,
his partner is a surgeon who is pioneering remote access
surgical techniques. And Russia is doing the same thing. They're

(47:55):
also doing something you see a lot of private health
care talking about here in the States, which is using
AI to help with organization, to help with diagnoses and
so on.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
This is the kind of thing that you see on
the Elysium machines. which would be crazy important, right? You
also see it in idiocracy with the little medical diagnosis
with this one goes in your mouth, this one goes
in your butt, this one goes in your ear.

Speaker 4 (48:23):
Get them reversed because that's gross.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
But that thing, that potential thing where you can, you know,
with the flick of a button, you can be diagnosed
with all the internal medicine issues you've got, like all
the things that would require medicines, radiology, or all that stuff. that's,
that's an incredible potential thing. Then how do you start

(48:47):
to fix things?

Speaker 3 (48:48):
Right.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Right.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
That's, that's a great, that's a great point. Yeah. You
start to fix things, uh, through the use of something
called radio pharmaceuticals, uh, that's nuclear powered medicine. So what
could go wrong there? Uh, yeah. All right.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Right.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
Uh, I hope you could see the faces we all
three just made. Uh, There's xenotransplantation. This is what originally
caught our attention, guys. Remember this one? This is genetically
modifying miniature pigs to make organ farms for livers.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
Alien.

Speaker 4 (49:21):
I don't know why. I know why, but yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
There's a specific movie in that franchise where there is
a C-section machine.

Speaker 4 (49:30):
Oh, my God, dude.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Yeah, that's the one I'm thinking about.

Speaker 4 (49:33):
Not great. A lot of those sequel, prequel things, but
that scene is very good.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (49:38):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 (49:39):
And check out our brother in podcast arms, Mangesh Harikotur's
latest season of Skyline Drive, where he specifically dives into
some of the xenotransplantation research in Russia.

Speaker 5 (49:54):
And you may have noticed that exact episode was in
our feed for a bit because we love Mangesh's show
so much. So do go back and listen to the
whole thing because there's a ton of stuff in the
whole series that's definitely aligned with some of the stuff.

Speaker 4 (50:07):
We're talking about.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
And that episode is The Organ Trail, which is just
a brilliant pun, by the way. Sure is. Well done, Mango.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
We've talked about on the U.S. side in the private efforts, Ben,
of companies trying to do this kind of thing, right? Making,
I think they were making, oh, how do they, I
forget how they described it, but they would make the outline,
the skeletal structure essentially of a heart or a liver
or something. And then they would grow, they were attempting
to grow human cells around it. Which is a little

(50:37):
different than this because we've also seen versions where they're
attempting to grow human organs on a creature.

Speaker 4 (50:43):
Yeah, like an ear on lab rats.

Speaker 3 (50:46):
Yeah. You're talking about organ bioprinting. That's the third thing
they're really into. It is literally 3D printing to try
to craft living human tissue. Experimenting with cartilage.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
They're also making.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
Okay, but that helps, right? That helps somebody... Who is
aging and their heart is starting to fail or their
liver is starting to fail. Somebody gets pancreatic cancer. Maybe
you can replace that if it's not too far. That's
cool for an older person, especially. But, you know, the
cartilage thing makes sense. Even in my 40s now, my

(51:22):
knees are, they're like, my knees are starting to, I
don't know what the my dogs are barking thing is,
but for my knees are aching, there's got to be
a saying. They can bark as well.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
You can mark your shin.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Well, I am feeling that in my 40s, and I'm
imagining what someone must be feeling once you get that
far into your 70s, 80s. And then the concept, oh,
I could just get new cartilage instead in my knee
or my elbow and my joints rather than just go
through pain or get a bionic knee or something. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:56):
Yeah, and this leads us to that earlier question of
what the benefits could be for somebody who has already
naturally aged into upper middle age or indeed is becoming elderly.
This brings us to the fourth thing, cellular gene therapy.

Speaker 4 (52:15):
Oh, really quickly.

Speaker 5 (52:16):
I was just going to add, I mean, we already
obviously have things like hip replacements. surgeries, but that is
not exactly something that you get and then go run
a marathon. It's like a, you know, something that you
get so that you can maybe have basic mobility. Uh,
my understanding is once you get a procedure like that, uh,
you have stepped back significantly in terms of like what
you're capable of physically.

Speaker 4 (52:37):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
From experience with folks I know with those kinds of,
you know, hip knee replacements, those kinds of things, the
pain is pretty tremendous. Um, I don't know if that's
the way all the time, you know, but it certainly
seems as though massive amounts of pain are involved with
any kind of replacement surgery currently.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
Yeah, it's super invasive. I have a, and we'll get
to the therapy thing in a sec, but I have
a very close friend who has had two hip replacements,
two different hip replacements. They were both successful, and it
is like you were describing, Noel, it is a matter
of quality of life and mobility, but you pay one
hell of a price on every level to have that

(53:20):
to have such an invasive process occur. They have to
space it out over time because of the trauma your
body experiences during those operations. Gene therapy could be a
little bit different, and this is something that has a
lot of people excited and a lot of people skeptical.
Russian researchers are designing what they're calling an anti-aging vaccine.

(53:44):
This works by combating aging at the cellular level targeting
something called the Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products, or
get this, the RAGE Receptor.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
Whoa.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
Yeah, they actually, depending on who you believe, which we'll
get to, actually may be inventing a vaccine that treats
aging like a disease.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
Wild wow wow first of all we're also wow great
for a 40 year old great for a 30 year
old 40 year old you know because you can then
combat and maybe go back towards prime but just you
know once you're up there it's like how far can
even that how far could that take you back.

Speaker 5 (54:26):
Well i'm gonna be completely transparent like i lived a
lot of my life not taking good care of myself
eating like um drinking too much, not.

Speaker 4 (54:35):
Just not being a particularly good steward of my body.

Speaker 5 (54:38):
And I'm grateful that I kind of put all that
behind me and have started a kind of a new
chapter in my late 30s, early 40s, rather than letting
all that catch up to me in my 50s, where
it would be a hell of a lot harder to
turn back any of that. And I will say with
all the stuff that I am doing, I'm still finding
aspects of what I did previously hard to shake. Um,

(54:58):
you know, in terms of like visceral fat in my
midsection and stuff like that, but I'm just doing the
damn thing and doing the best I can and, uh,
you know, making every day count. Um, but if I
had waited or, you know, put, kick this down the
road further, I don't know that I would have been
able to make any kind of progress. It just seems
to your point, Matt, that like there is somewhat of

(55:19):
a cutoff, but I guess it's different what that cutoff
is for different people, depending on your genes, depending on your, um,
Your family history, various genetic qualities.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
And your past activities, and importantly, whether you are one
of the people who has access to the absolute best
health care of the world.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
100%.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
Which would be Vladimir Putin. Correct.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
Dude, but Ben, now I'm imagining a version of it
where Daddy Vlad gets one of these injections down the
road and actually ages backwards and becomes... you know, the
age he was when he was an operating KGB agent.
Benjamin Buttoning.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
Dude, just out there on a white horse, just going
to the spa.

Speaker 5 (55:59):
Glistening pectorals.

Speaker 4 (56:01):
Sorry, I can't stop picturing it.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
Just trying to get back into the tourism game, right?
My name is Padamir Vooten.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:12):
I've been told I look like some people.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Thank you. I'll have my passport back. So this, we
also want you to know that scientists have claimed they
made human cartilage, so that's on the way. They've also
claimed they made a thyroid gland for a mouse, which
is enormous progress to making something similar, maybe, for other animals,
including humans. I mean, if any of this works, if

(56:37):
any of these things work, and a lot of them
are still aspirational, it could save lives. So people who
are against these programs often aren't mad at the research itself,
They're mad that Russia is doing it because they don't
want to be left behind. We do have to pause
for a word from our sponsors. Okay, two big things

(57:05):
that we have to mention before we wrap. First off,
the question, is this all smoke and mirrors? Is this all,
you know, malarkey? And if so, why? To his credit,
a lot of scientists like Dr. Kovalchuk have said, we
want to manage expectations. It's difficult to discuss immortality, but

(57:27):
the ability to repair man will undoubtedly increase. That's good science, ambitious,
but realistic. But guys, it got me thinking to our
conversation about translators, how stressful it must be directly reporting
to Vladimir Putin That's one guy you never want to disappoint.

(57:47):
And he also doesn't seem like the type of dude
who deals well with over-promising, right? So what if all
these folks who are working in this initiative, including maybe
even Putin's own daughter, what if they're all kind of
telling him what he wants to hear so that they
don't get in trouble? You know what I mean? I

(58:08):
think that's a very real possibility.

Speaker 4 (58:10):
Absolutely. Although....

Speaker 5 (58:13):
What if you were to then get some sort of procedure?
Can you imagine the pressure of operating on Vladimir Putin?

Speaker 3 (58:20):
Even worse, yeah. Because you're going to have spooks who
come in and tell you to kill him on the table.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
Oh, Jesus.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
Oh, geez.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Well, what good is all of this extending life stuff
going to do when we're actively letting the corporations... The
chemical companies, the gas companies just run wild and we're
deregulating everything across the globe right now. It's not just
the U.S.

Speaker 5 (58:48):
Well, Matt, you only get to have these life extension
technologies if you already have all that sorted out in
like a bunker, an underground city made just for you,
ready to go.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
Or you signed up for Citizenship Plus, which we're very
excited about.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
You get to Elysium. I mean, I understand that stuff,
but really, like what good is this stuff if we're
actively you know murdering ourselves long term anyway.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
Yeah I said before I said again this all these
new technologies that civilization is creating they are almost useless
if society itself does not evolve and step with them
you know what I mean like If monarchies were still
the rule of the day, which in practice they kind
of are, then would space exploration matter as much as

(59:38):
it does, right?

Speaker 5 (59:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
It's a dangerous question.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
I should have added bunker on Mars or, you know.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (59:46):
Or whatever.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
A bunker.

Speaker 4 (59:48):
Mars bunker. But it's real.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
How do you get $ 26 billion for this research if
you don't, plunder the world for its resources and exploit everybody.

Speaker 4 (59:58):
That's what I'm saying. These conspiracies go hand in hand.
You can't have one without the other.

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
I think, I mean, Oh, like the, like the married
with children theme song.

Speaker 4 (01:00:07):
You can't have love and marriage. No, I mean, it's true.

Speaker 5 (01:00:11):
We, we do see this increasingly kind of figuring into
that Venn diagram of like evil oligarchs and, you know,
corporate evil doers who are doing all of these horrible
things you're talking about while enriching themselves and their family and,
seemingly not paying any attention to the long-term damage and
horrific effects that their plundering is having on the planet.

Speaker 4 (01:00:33):
It just seems like they've got a backup plan. Otherwise,
it wouldn't make any sense.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
But on the other side of the hemisphere, don't you
have billionaires who, Ben, are attempting to not only create
the Matrix, but to insert themselves into it as a
way of longevity and living forever? It's like, on one side,
I want the physical body. I want the touch. And
the other one, I just want to be able to
think and play video games forever.

Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
Or be a thing that thinks it's me.

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
I want the pattern of my soul to repeat.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
I want everybody else to think it's me or know
that it's me.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
Legacy.

Speaker 3 (01:01:09):
Very interesting court cases about estates after bodies expire. And
they're probably going to happen within your lifetime, folks, as
you're listening to this. So one question we set up
earlier that we have to deliver on. All right, this
sounds crazy. $ 26 billion is a lot of money, and
there's a lot of potential here, but how would we

(01:01:31):
measure success? The stated goals of this initiative are really...
They're ambitious. They're saying we will measure success by saving
175,000 Russian lives by 2030. All their stuff right now
is hinging on the milestone of 2030. We want the

(01:01:52):
average life expectancy of people living in Russia to increase
by a decade, by 2030. So within three years, they
want this program to bring the life expectancy of the
average Russian person up from 68 who 78 years old,
that would be unprecedented. That would be amazing. Uh, that

(01:02:15):
would be something that the U S could definitely use
because the U S life expectancy is round about 76
years right now. So they would be beating the U
S we said, Russia's not alone with this. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
How old did you say Putin is right now?

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
73 is we record.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
So by 2030, He's like getting up towards 80 pretty close.
So they want to extend it by 10. And I'm
assuming how did, is there another goal? Like I'm imagining
by 2040, then we got to extend it at least
another 20.

Speaker 4 (01:02:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
There'll be, there'll be continually reassessing. And we folks look,
if you've been at this game long enough, you know
that those ambitious metrics often don't get met, right? They
often get defined as partial successes. So, I don't know
if even the people in the program think they're going
to hit that 2030 date because 2026 is already almost

(01:03:13):
over and off mic. I had to check with the
guys to make sure it wasn't already 2027, you.

Speaker 5 (01:03:17):
Know, um, Once we got into the 2020s, it all
started just kind of blurring together, not to mention post-pandemic.
And I just really quickly, Ben, wanted to add, I
think it's worth mentioning that during the pandemic, or because
of the pandemic, life expectancy in the United States took
a bit of a dive.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:03:36):
And it has been on a significant upward trajectory in
the past handful of years.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4 (01:03:43):
Just on its own.

Speaker 5 (01:03:45):
Though, of course, when you really drill into that data,
there are significant differences between males and females.

Speaker 4 (01:03:49):
And, of course, ding, ding, ding, socioeconomic strata.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
Weird that that has anything to do with it.

Speaker 5 (01:03:56):
Doesn't it?

Speaker 4 (01:03:57):
Isn't it?

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
Siberian swine. Now these questions.

Speaker 4 (01:04:04):
That's a good insult, Ben. You Siberian swine.

Speaker 3 (01:04:08):
Oh, man. Now these questions, as we're wrapping, become a
little bit trickier. Let's say the initiative does continue. Let's
say it makes serious progress. As we said, who gets
to reap the benefits? And then further, how much progress
is being made? How much is just smoke and mirrors
from people who are desperate not to displease one of

(01:04:28):
the most dangerous guys on the planet? Last question here
as well, which we didn't mention. Could this also be,
if you look at the timeline, could this also be
kind of a distraction from the disastrous quagmire of the
war in Ukraine? You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (01:04:48):
It's increasingly easy to think of a lot of these
kinds of things as distractions, but even that can be
a distraction. Right.

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
It's a lot to think about, right?

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
It's a distraction from... The puppet that's functioning in the
Western world right now.

Speaker 3 (01:05:03):
Krasnov. Yes, have you met my other distractions? So this
is a lot to think about, you know, and thank
you so much for tuning in, folks.

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
Just before we end, Ben, there was something here that
I thought was really interesting. Again, going back to the
KGB of it all with Vladimir Putin, there was a
movie that was mentioned by the New York Post that
I had never heard of before called Dead Season, but...
It's like Mjortivsezon, M-Y-O-R-T-Y-Y-V-S-E-Z-O-N, that came out in 1968, that

(01:05:36):
had to do, it was a spy movie, had to
do with Russia and Nazi Germany working together with human
experimentation to get this specific gas that they wanted to use,
that would If you use it in certain amounts, it
would function like the limitless pill. But if you used
it a little bit too much, then it would make
people basically robots who would work in your factories.

Speaker 4 (01:05:59):
Was that the one where he was limitless?

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:06:02):
Guys, I'm surprised that the Nazi aspect hasn't come up
with all of the crazy human experimentation that they were
doing that seemed to largely be focused on extending the
regime or extending, you.

Speaker 4 (01:06:17):
Know, the master race and all of that stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:06:20):
Not to mention like the, you know, what a death
raise and all of the conspiracies surrounding that kind of stuff.
I think I'm glad that you mentioned it here at
the end, Matt, because that stuff, it feels connected.

Speaker 3 (01:06:29):
Yeah, like 731.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
But the reason I'm mentioning it is because allegedly Putin
was inspired by it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
To join the KGB.

Speaker 3 (01:06:37):
To join the state's career in state security, I think
is how they keep putting it. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Yeah. But it's, it's about spies controlling the world with
chemicals and technology, human experimentation, science, um, I don't know.
It does make me wonder if there's something else to
this thing, especially when it comes to the gene therapy
of it all, the potential exposing of the regular folks, the,

(01:07:05):
you know, us versus the people who will theoretically metaphorically
be on Elysium.

Speaker 4 (01:07:11):
And arguably that's already events.

Speaker 3 (01:07:13):
Arguably it's already happening to some degree, right? We can,
we can definitely say that. I mean, there are basic
things that have been normalized that should not be normalized,
nor should they be accepted. without going on the stilt
box now, this is a valid question. It is on
the table. It is why we had to take such
pains to say a lot of the tea leaf reading

(01:07:36):
about Putin's motivations does become unfounded, and it becomes quickly
a matter of opinion. Even the best Western analysts have
had memos, top-secret memos, by experts who say, well, we
think he's doing it because of this, or we know
he liked this movie, You know what I mean? Or
we know certain Russian generals love foundations of geopolitics, but

(01:08:01):
does that make that text predictive for Russia's actions?

Speaker 5 (01:08:06):
Wasn't the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones, the Nazis were
trying to get it to live forever?

Speaker 3 (01:08:13):
Yes. Yeah. A faction of the Nazis. Also the Ark
of the Covenant being a potentially infinite power supply. Indiana Jones,
not perfect, but they're great watches.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
Guys, I just found out my partner has never seen
a single Indiana Jones movie, which means I get to
go back and watch all of them again.

Speaker 4 (01:08:32):
The original series was pretty fantastic. The crystal skull.

Speaker 5 (01:08:36):
And I didn't see the dial of destiny, but it
didn't really have much use for those, but we named.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
It.

Speaker 3 (01:08:45):
Oh man.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:08:46):
Can't wait to hear, hear back on, uh, how, how
your partner enjoys those. Uh, we, We want to thank
you again for tuning in, folks. Obviously, we would love
your thoughts, especially if you are immortal. Do check out
our preview. episodes. Do check out Mangesh Harikotur's excellent work
on Skyline Drive, along with a lot of other shows

(01:09:06):
on his own network, Kaleidoscope. And also, there's an argument
we've got to leave you with. If someone did discover
super life-extending medicine or true immortality, Face the facts. It
would probably still be the stuff they don't want you
to know. Give us your thoughts. There are many ways
to find us.

Speaker 4 (01:09:27):
Also, guys, boring. I mean, come on.

Speaker 3 (01:09:29):
Like, what are you going to do?

Speaker 4 (01:09:31):
What are you going to do?

Speaker 5 (01:09:32):
Do let us know what you think about the prospect
of living forever. You can hit us up on the
intranet at the Handles Conspiracy Stuff or Conspiracy Stuff show.

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
If you legitimately had forever as you, the person you
are right now, what the heck would you do with it?
Why don't you call our number? It's 1-833-STD-WYTK. Give it
a call. Give yourself a cool nickname and let us
know if we can use your name and message on
the air on one of our listener mail episodes that
hang out in the audio versions of this show. You

(01:10:00):
can find it wherever you get your favorite podcasts and
or shows. If you want to send us an email,
we are.

Speaker 3 (01:10:06):
The entities that read each piece of correspondence we receive.
Be well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void writes back. Folks,
the verdict is in on the coffee. The red can
has way more kick than I thought. So we're going
to be up for a while reading your emails. Conspiracy

(01:10:28):
at iHeartRadio.com.

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
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