Dr. Jamie Justice is the Executive Director of XPRIZE Healthspan - a $101 million, 7-year global competition to extend human healthspan by developing therapies that restore muscle, cognitive, and immune function by 10 to 20 years in people over 50. She is also a leading geroscientist and Adjunct Professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
In this episode, Jamie breaks down the science of aging, the geroscience hypothesis, what 744 competing teams are building, and why the next few years could fundamentally change how we age.
We discuss:
- Jamie's journey from art scholarship and sports therapy to becoming a leading geroscientist
- The legendary Tom Johnson vs. Lynn Hayflick debate: are aging genes real, or is it all entropy?
- Why aging isn't like an oil tanker wearing out - the role of repair mechanisms and emergent complexity
- Steve Austad's quote: "The number of theories is inversely proportional to our understanding of a thing"
- The hallmarks and pillars of aging - the framework that gave the field testable targets
- Geroscience: targeting aging itself rather than one disease at a time
- Why we keep hitting a ~30% lifespan extension wall in mice
- Rectangularizing the curve: healthspan equals lifespan
- The Austad-Olshansky bet on a 150-year-old human - and why Jamie thinks that person is probably alive today
- Longevity escape velocity: why Jamie doesn't touch that question
- XPRIZE Healthspan: $101M, 744 teams, clinical trials in humans over 50
- The competition structure: semifinalists, finalists in August 2026, winners in 2030
- What's winning: metabolism/nutrient sensing and immune-targeting therapies lead
- The surprise entries: reprogramming teams ready for human trials sooner than expected
- Circadian-based teams, functional food approaches, and one team proposing to study nuns
- The upcoming XPRIZE in ovarian health - why it matters for both sexes
- How population-level shifts require more than individual breakthroughs
Guest: Dr. Jamie Justice, Ph.D.
Executive Director, XPRIZE Healthspan | EVP, Health Domain, XPRIZE Foundation
Adjunct Professor, Wake Forest University School of Medicine
XPRIZE Healthspan: xprize.org/competitions/healthspan
Mentioned in this episode:
- Peter Diamandis - XPRIZE founder
- Steve Austad - The "Dos Equis man of m
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