The Chaser Report - Welcome, to Longevity Park

Episode Date: October 19, 2025

Planning your next holiday for somewhere to relax, refresh, and restore your cells to their prime? Dom may just have the perfect island in one of Honduras' Economic Development Zones for you! Come for the experimental de-aging treatments, stay for the rest of your unnaturally extended life. ---Order the 2025 CHASER ANNUAL: https://chasershop.com/products/the-chaser-and-the-shovel-annual-2025-preorderListen AD FREE: https://thechaserreport.supercast.com/ Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] CEO’s Super-yacht upgrade Fund: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our country was in deep trouble. Well, I didn't fall, Istanbul. Every week, the world falls apart, and I put it back together again with duct tape, sarcasm, and a swear jar that's long since overflowed. Hi, I'm Sammy Shaw, comedian and journalist and journalist and comedian, and welcome to Newsweekly, the podcast where I punch the news in the headlines, Weekly. I break down the weak stories, so you don't have to doomscroll alone. Subscribe to Newsweekly wherever you get your podcast. The Chaser Report is recorded on Gadigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report.

Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Charles, I've got some exciting holiday plans. I want to share with you. Just to be clear, what I'm about to tell you is not legal to do it in Australia. It's not legal to do it in America. Dom. It's not legal to do it in most of Honduras, but not all of Honduras. and it means that I'm going to live forever.

Oh, okay. I'll explain more after the ads. And frankly, because I'm going to live forever, I may as well listen to them two or three times. Hey friends, it's Nikaela from the podcast Side Hustle Pro. I'm always looking for ways to keep my kids entertained without screens. And the Yoto Mini has been a total lifesaver. My kids are obsessed.

Yoto is a screen-free audio player where kids just pop in a card and listen. hours of stories, music, podcasts, and more, and no screens or ads. With hundreds of options for ages zero to 12, it's the perfect gift they'll go back to again and again. Check it out at yotoplay.com, y-o-t-o-p-l-a-y-com. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe, but this time, why not look a little further to Dubai, a city that everyone talks about, and has absolutely everything you could want from a vacation destination. from world-class hotels, record-breaking skyscrapers and epic desert adventures to museums that showcase the future, not just the past.

Choose from 14 flights per week between Canada and Dubai. Book on emirates.ca. today. So Charles, there's a bit of Honduras, it turns out, on the island of Roatan. Oh, yes. which is a popular place for cruise ships to stop. And it's called the Prospera ZEDE. It's a special economic and employment development zone in Honduras. They actually carved out a bit of the Constitution

so you can have these special zones. A bit like the special economic zones in China where they had different rules. Where the rules don't apply, where laws don't apply. Well, in China they had a system where there were, you know, more, it was obviously more capitalist in Shenzhen and places like that. Right, okay. So there's tax.

Especially economic zone and all that kind of stuff. There's a few of these things around the world. But this is, this goes further. Yeah. Yeah, this is a place where really no laws apply. So why didn't Jeffrey Epstein move his island to Honduras? We probably would have if he was still around.

So corporations, this is according to, there's a great article about this in popular mechanics. Corporations registering in Prospera can develop their own legal and regulatory frameworks. Right. So this is, so. Wait a minute. This is how we do Jurassic Park. This is how we make Jurassic Park become a thing. Exactly right.

Under your own legal and regulatory frameworks. What could possibly go wrong, Charles, with a company. Well, have you not seen Jurassic Park, the documentary? Determining its own rules. A company is going, okay, there's no regulation. So we will decide what the right thing to do is without reference to any external rules. That's how you get a Jurassic Park. Mind you, I feel like that that's most of America nowadays.

That's sort of his late-stage capitalism, isn't it? Like, how does that differ from what Facebook and Google do every day? Exactly. So, but what Facebook and Google are not able to do in America, at least not yet, give them time, is advanced medical research. And this is what happens in Prospera. The whole thing was set up by a venture capitalist as a hub for entrepreneurship, research and innovation.

And in particular, this is a company called Mini Circle. And MiniCircle is what we're going to talk about today. They say that in the US, there's too much. tape and, you know, rules and you've got to go through approvals and do the drugs work and so on, which means that medical breakthroughs, they say, come through too slowly. And in particular, the venture capitalists who are funding this want to solve aging and they want to do it now because they're getting older and older and older. What they want to try and do is actually change our genes so that we don't get older.

And, Charles, you've just turned 50. I mean, I know you said it was a 40th, but you could actually make a genuine 40th. Right. With this technology. And so I just remember when we were studying biology at school, Dom, one of the overriding principles was that there's no such thing as a free lunch. Yeah. But essentially, yes, you can sort of make something go faster,

but in doing so you use more energy or you can make something live longer, but in doing so they'll become slower and more the lethargy. So like that everything has a cost. There's a balance. And that essentially it's a constant. constant balancing act about what what you're trying to achieve with your body. Well, as we know, how does that work? Venture capitalists reject that way of thinking.

They like to be entirely unfettered by anything, regulation, rules, nature, whatever you like. They're just trying to buy the way through all of it. So they heard this sort of scientific, you know, guideline, which is that, you know, there are no free lunches and went, that's just, that's a nice idea, but. I'm going to get a free lunch. Yeah, we're just going to find a free lunch. So it's gene therapy.

You're changing your genes. And in particular, look, basically, I'll try and explain it. You're changing your genes? I'll try and change what it does, okay? So mini circles treatments, I'm quoting here, target specific proteins created by human cells. And obviously, the genetic code dictates what proteins we make in our body, right? Yeah, of course.

As we get older, we create fewer critical proteins, and that causes things to start breaking down. And the absence of these proteins means that some of the aging diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's happen. And the concept here is that if you stimulate your cells, if you tell yourselves to produce more of the proteins that we would need, you could move things backwards. You can produce a particular protein. And the one that mini-circle is looking at is called folostatin. They say that it's increased lifespan in mice by 30%. It's not at all clear whether this work, but they say that rheumatoid arthritis, fibriomyalgia,

they have fewer issues with pain and inflammation. It can improve muscle competition and decrease body fat. But doesn't this just mean we're going to end up with a whole lot of very old mice? Yeah, probably. So the hope is... Why do they always solve problems for mice? Why don't they solve problems for humans? Well, they are.

They've already given these treatments to 500 people already. Oh, okay. They've paid to actually inject these in themselves. They don't call themselves experimental. They call themselves investigational. So wait a minute. Who pays who? Like,

Oh, you pay a fortune to get this trial. To be part of the experimental trial. And you'll be pleased to know, some of the people who are actually behind this company mini circle. Oh, yeah, great. Sam Altman from Open AI. Not even at all.

Not even at all. You know, when T ever been involved in anything nefarious? This is, no, this is the whole thing that they do. They all think that they should be immortal because. They think that they sort of aren't, they're sort of post-human. Didn't Peter Till make that whole thing about that actually billionaires exist in a sort of different category of human being? Yes, that's right.

They think they're different. So the article in Popular Mechanics focuses on a guy called Brian Johnson, who is. Oh, yes, he's famous. He's a TikToker. Yes, he's 46 years old. Yes. He's a longevity influencer. This is a new thing you can be.

Oh, yes. My son's all into longevity. And he has paid $25,000. for this treatment. So that's what it cost him. There's two little jabs to go at the Garm Clinic, the private stem cell and gene research facility. It's not approved by the FDA.

And their flagship treatment is exactly this. The pholostatin producing plasmid, it's called, and it's easy to inject. And you put this plasmid in and you can add any gene you want to the human body. That's the idea, basically. But I've got a question. Yeah.

Is he happy? Seems very happy. So we made videos about all this stuff. Well, we can get to the more philosophical aspect of this, but he, six months after the treatment, he reported that his body weight had increased by 5% and his muscle mass was up by 7%. And his speed of aging, which is a particular measure, I don't know if it's fall in or not, but they say that speed of aging had reduced considerably, partly due to the pholostatin. So he reckons it works, but obviously it's too early to know.

The other question, of course, is does it have side effects? Does it do terrible things to you? We just don't know yet, but they're conducting these experiments on rich longevity influences. And some might say, Charles, who better? Yes, it's people to work out what happens. Hey, friends, it's Nikaela from the podcast Side Hustle Pro. I'm always looking for ways to keep my kids entertained without screens. And the Yoto Mini has been a total lifesaver.

My kids are obsessed. Yoto is a screen-free audio player where kids just pop in a card and listen. Hours of stories, music, podcasts, and more, and no screens or ads. With hundreds of options for ages 0 to 12, it's the perfect gift they'll go back to again and again. Check it out at yotoplay.com, y-o-t-o-p-l-a-y-com. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe, but this time, why not look a little further to Dubai, a city that everyone talks about and has absolutely everything you could want from a vacation destination. From world-class hotels, record-breaking skyscrapers and epic desert adventures

to museums that showcase the future, not just the past. Choose from 14 flights per week between Canada and Dubai. Book on emirates.ca. Today. None of the medical advice contained in the Chaser Report should legally be considered medical advice. The Chaser Report. But if it does work, then doesn't that mean that all these rich, extremely excruciating people

are going to just be clogging our social media feeds forever? Yes. Like there's a sort of... Imagine how smug, a 150-year-old longevity influencer would be. Yes. So, I mean, look, there are other approaches to longevity. And so do you think people like Jeff Bezos and those sorts of people that take you?

Well, I mean, Peter Thiel. Jeff Bezos looks so young. Like, I don't know how old he is, but he looks like he's in his early 60s. Well, you might be very happy if you... Oh, wait a minute. He is 61 years old. Yeah, yeah, okay.

He looks his age. That's amazing. But you can imagine if these things are validated, of course. I mean, it's the one thing you can't buy. Does Rupert Murdoch take it? See, that's where you sort of go, there's actual ethical problems, right? Jeff Bezos is a biohacker. Oh, he is a biohacker.

So, well, he's invested in... So there's a few things that he does. So Jeff Bezos is an interesting case in point. He's funded a rejuvenation research firm called Altos Labs. And he gets eight hours asleep, which is the one thing I never managed to do that I actually really need to sort out. It's getting eight hours sleep. And he has screen free mornings, which is interesting.

And he has this whole idea of, yeah, he's essentially, he's not as extreme as some, but he's definitely doing some biohacking, I'd say. Larry Page from Google, same thing. And Mark Zuckerberg is doing it. The person who's not doing it is Elon Musk, interesting. not interested in it. Not interested in it. Well, that's good news.

That's very good news. But he's younger than all the others, so. Ah, yeah, yeah. So, and so what does Honduras think of this? So this is where things get more complicated, and this is something you were looking at earlier, is that all may not be well in the uniquely constraint-free legal zone of Prospera. Because weren't you saying before that there are some legal problems?

shattered with these special economic zones that, in fact, the court in Honduras intervened. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, yeah. So, well, this is my information on it, which is Honduras has realized that they made a terrible mistake in abolishing the laws of their country. In order to get investment from rich people. And the government sort of took the idea to court, and the Supreme Court of Honduras ruled that they're called, what are they called, ZEDEs?

The sort of strange zones are illegal and unconstitutional, but the existing zones have not been declared, like they don't quite know what they're going to do with the existing zones because Prospera has basically gone, well, you can't just rug pull us from, you know, having to now obey your laws after we set up here, you know, specifically to not obey your laws. And so they've sued in this international court called the ICSID, which I think is the International Court of something, for $10 billion. And Honduras doesn't have that sort of money. And so they've decided that they're going to try and get out of being part of that court before it actually – it's the World Bank arbitration body. They're going to just try and unaffiliate from that thing before it happens. Otherwise, they may end up owing prosperity. $10 billion. Well, the good news, too, is that Prospera, that particular entity is now looking at expanding

into other territories. And in particular, it says here, there's a prospect that Donald Trump wants to set up so-called freedom cities in the US. Oh, okay. Same way. Yeah, I mean, it could do states or whatever. There's actually a documentary, by the way, about Brian Johnson on Netflix called Don't Die, the man who wants to live forever.

And he sells merch, which says, don't die on it. And he apparently wants to spend more than 100 years with his son. Isn't that sweet? I just feel like it would be very dreary if your whole life was spent trying to stay alive. Well, that's the irony of the whole thing. And the article touches on that too is why they were so afraid of dying. And isn't the whole point? This is what Nietzsche told us, that the whole beauty of life is its end.

It's finite nature. That's why we strive. Like if you had this idea that life could go on forever, there's no point in doing anything. Because you can do everything. When you win at capitalism, you win forever. But Charles, here's the interesting thing, too, is it isn't a zero-some game in that these people are putting vast amounts of, obviously, money, but also time, which is actually, in a sense, the most precious resource we all have. They're putting huge amounts of time, and you go to Honduras and doing all this stuff and spending time trying to solve this thing. So they're investing a lot of their remaining energy and time on earth in this biohacking.

So if it doesn't go anywhere, what a total waste of effort. Much safer, I think, to just not try. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do. It doesn't take much time. So that's certainly one option there. Nevertheless, look, if they'll solve it, as long as we're sufficiently younger than these guys, and I think we are Charles.

I mean, we're, what, 15 years younger than a lot of these people, then we can take advantage of their breakthroughs. If they actually solve aging and we decided we want to live forever, and just in the interest of continuing the podcast, really, yeah, we can take advantage of it. That sounds fantastic. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's right.

Let them do it all. Yes, that's right. And then when it turns into Jurassic Park, We just watched the documentary about how it all went wrong. Or, on the off chance, it actually does work. In the unlikely event that they actually solve it, yeah. We just buy, you know, whatever sort of parasitomol-style pill that they end up putting it in. It does, though.

It does suggest that there will be a period where the only people who are living forever are annoying venture capitalist billionaire types. Oh, God. Why does even tech breakthroughs now just have this depressing edge where you go, going, yes, but even the best thing, you know, like, if you told me 15 years ago, oh, maybe one day people could live forever, you'd sort of go, oh, wow, that could be amazing. We could all, you know, colonise the rest of the universe, you know, we could just all have fun,

you know. But instead. We used to be, tech brands used to be cool and admirable. Yeah. Like, you're a bit weird, like Bill Gates, a little bit nerdy, but they did amazing stuff, right? Like, they actually had breakthroughs. I mean, I really admired Steve Jobs in many ways, but the current iteration. But now it's just like, oh great, they'll be around when the iPhone 527,517 is introduced.

And it is very me, me, me, isn't it? Yeah. Okay, well, see you in a couple hundred years, Charles. Yeah, see you. We're part of the iconic class network. Catch you tomorrow or whenever. Hey friends, it's Nikaela from the podcast Side Hustle Pro. I'm always looking for ways to keep my kids entertained without screens.

And the Yoto Mini has been a total lifesaver. My kids are obsessed. Yoto is a screen-free audio player where kids just pop in a card and listen. Hours of stories, music, podcasts, and more. And no screens or ads. With hundreds of options for ages zero to 12, it's the perfect gift they'll go back to again and again. Check it out at yotoplay.com. Y-O-T-O-P-L-A-Y.com. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe. But this time, why not look a little further to Dubai? To Dubai. a city that everyone talks about and has absolutely everything you could want from a vacation destination. From world-class hotels, record-breaking skyscrapers,

and epic desert adventures, to museums that showcase the future, not just the past. Choose from 14 flights per week between Canada and Dubai. Book on emirates.ca. Today.