and to find out what was really going on i had to turn to british and french journalist we have a few people like that. broke and then rehab us certain amount of censorship to not get through the numbers of the dead on either side so i would be quite critical but i am a generalizing and some have done an incredible job

covering problems of the middle east and as an example of someone who was a splendid reporter in the region. >>host: have you written about four previously? >> i have never written about compact the way had here and this is a new subject and it took me many, many interviews what is a way to be a woman soldier in combat and why do do it? then i found out more. >>host: the author of this book "the lonely soldier"

the private war of women serving in iraq" also the author of the novel based on the same research. helen benedict from colombia university. >>host: niara please to be joined by jonathan leader who has won the national book critics circle award. his most recent is long for this world.

who was aubrey? >> aubrey de gray became a computer scientist to develop the idea we might live in essentially forever zero were 10,000 years. and the more time i spent with de gray i found some of his ideas about longevity to take seriously and listen to. he argues a change should be viewed something we can

study or understand and perhaps fight effectively and weekend do more about aging now than we ever could before. that is what the consensus is about although extremely controversial, most people in the field of gerontology aging is something we can control better than we do now that is the news we're looking for her age years and de gray is as good as that as anybody on the

planet. >>host: how have way manipulated our ability? >> the success enjoyed right now we're aging more slowly than appearance or grandparents. that is benefits of overall progress makes sanitation in developed countries to life expectancy vaccines and an end in antibiotics added the enormous amount. now we do better with the elderly people who have better life expectancy than people of the same age and lot of that is in direct to

live a healthy lives and treating diseases making life comfortable. act is in the country's first sanitation has advanced and billions who do not have those benefits. but those of us who are lucky we're living 10 or 20 years more than our ancestors. can use did he 18 head-on with that deterioration? that would give us another 40 years or more? like laing character argues if we could just extend lifo

faster medicine would vance faster than our own deterioration and we will live forever. >>host: at the 20th century life expectancy was 40 years? >> maybe 47 winnow we are up at 80 years over the last century. >>host: how the weak get to 1,000? >> there are two questions. can read or should we are really want to? the technical side is complicated.

the philosophical side are even more complicated and they may be the most difficult. i find myself very deeply conflicted but to talk about the technical side how could we do it? there are broad class of problems that we all run into. and there divided into problems insider sell them between herself in the nucleus and outside and too many sells here and a problem called cross linking with the machinery sticks together to make us more

rigid and why hours scan gets rankled and is not as flexible as a used to be. new can do something cosmetically about the more serious problems the cross links we don't see the wrinkles. >>host: is their work being done? >> yes. there are enzymes that could go through your body but the trouble is those scissors can not necessarily tell the bad from the good so they are not specific enough. if you teach them where you may have useful medical to

wall. >>host: one more example of the technical side, . >>guest: if you look where the energy comes from the moller killer factories are called mitochondria. them mitochondria are scattered with your every cell. most this pact into the nucleus. but there is some dna in the mitochondria. faster than what to is protected.

de gray says what if we could take that to dna and make copies were it is safe so the work of energy production is not to build up and be energetic longer and longer? he has both together interesting research and who knows? maybe that could work some day. again a little far out and he has other ideas farther out. he has a greater radio occur bridge building up as a byproduct help somebody

eliminate the burbage fed is indigestible maybe we could live centuries longer we are the living things that could eat every part of our body is in the graveyards. the bacteria from ancient grave years where he lives are specialist so his ghoulish idea is to cultivate how they could devour the indigestible dust bunnies and use those to clean us out. >>host: diet exercise or

lifestyle? >> those are peripheral? they are essentials. we are really talking to a future wrist. t.a.r.p. pariah exercise and diet they are key and calorie restrictions is the one clearly proven method adding time to all living things. people are trying it but it works for fish and all sorts of species that benefit from

calorie restriction. is it a net gain to cut calorie consumption by a sizable fraction? most of the spoked with their feet to dazed reserve wrote -- folks with our feet. absolutely. chicken in soup recommendations that is still the best bet to. >>host: professor what is the ethical consideration extending life? >> the biggest of the coal concern is the population

explosion is already dangerous. if you add decades or centuries to the human life span uto-aztecan armas environmental problems that could swamp us. what is it good to be healthier longer if the plan it deteriorates? that is a frightening complication of the research program. of the zero aubrey argues we have a population explosion because of our successes they saved so many lives in the 20th century.

that is why the population is expanding. would you go back to tell the inventors stop? everybody once those antibiotics to continue. why should we argue against the anti-aging pioneers? why not continue on the same path? it is a pretty good argument. aubrey is the most difficult guide to argue with even take an these outlandish positions if you have a beer he will have six for every one of yours.

he will say everyone of these logical arguments that come to your mind is deeply flawed and some of his counter arguments are worth taking seriously. most of us feel therein is something about mortality and it gives seriousness of our lives would be rendered less precious or meaningful wide to remade to accomplish anything tomorrow when there

is the next century? most feel if march holiday structures our are at station tire identity. what are you left with? you have a nightmare feeling 1/2 best with the thousand years? his comeback is if you don't like it to then you don't have to take it. anybody that is so attached can die and nobody is forced to live forever but he suspects and reduce if you

had the option the bills were sitting magically the doctor said it looks like it works how many rows it -- would hesitate very long before we took the bill? i have deep ambivalence living for centuries. but yet i have to confess every time i read this story in a technical journal to suggest a bit . has been made to double life expectancy of my ase we found a clue maybe hiss of

then deadly sins of aging i find myself and voluntarily filling with the most irrational hope. maybe he is right and the program can work and we can give ourselves the extra years. the gas and that no run deep. >>host: howling all the is it aubrey? >> and 48. when i met him he was 38. he is aging at about the same rate as has the rest of us. for all of the talk and energy aging is not slowing

down much right now. aubrey argues what he does is not for himself but this is the greatest single contribution and human being can make that 100,000 people die per day because of the tragedy called aging. if he could stop that he would contribute more than the doctor with alzheimer's are diabetes of old age. why do those diseases demerged? what is changing and the body to make us fall verbal?

to get that you contribute more to civilization and the quality of human life fit any one in the history. >>host: who funds his research? >> yes. from governments, the united states have the national list to of aging that funds research on alzheimer's. then there are rich and middle-of-the-road donors with of private foundation. and now he runs

day -- another foundation. they don't sponsor a huge amount but the work is going on. the national institute of aging is the poor stepsister of the national institute of health. there is more money for research on cancer they an aging. another thing that demerged that i have found problematic. the single biggest risk factor is age. what is changing in our bodies to predisposes us like those that are well

funded. aging is the single biggest risk factor we spend more money than we do the five products. we're making a mistake. men named gerontologists say we should try to understand aging. another shock is we do not know what a jane is. we are no better equipped. we swam and away that makes us age are produced consciousness.

if we could understand what we mean then we would take a giant step toward the visionary programs to get younger. whenever the ethical complexities or a fight against aging is at least as important with anything we do now. there is every sen we talk about the questions. the book of genesis. adam and eve and the snake and the garden.

the world's first story is talk about death. canneries stoppage? we are more technically sophisticated. it is likely fail bayless about science fiction and more a concern over the years. >>host: professor for medical and scientific journalism, winning the pulitzer prize about which book? >> evolution in that galapagos island. i have a fond place in my heart for that book. one of the most extraordinary stories. to biologist from princeton

go to darwin's i land every year. since 1973 and they camp on a desert island that darwin never sought and they documented of militiamen inaction by natural selection. they see it and a measure it to with exquisite detail. doing what dar whenever it imagined and thought it would take geological ages. no mortal could but we can. we're watching. i have gone back twice to visit the of galapagos and to visit peter and rosemary.

it is wonderful they still do the research. officially they retired but they are there every year. >>host: and talking to jonathan wiener with his most recent book long for this world. thank you very much. >> it is a pleasure.