Bryan Johnson says he's unlocking the secrets of eternal youth.
The tech CEO sold his company, Braintree Venmo, to PayPal for $800 million in 2013. Now, the 45-year-old says he's devoted his entire life to "neutralize" the aging process with his company Blueprint.
Johnson spoke with Fortune Editor in Chief Alyson Shontell at our Brainstorm Health conference in Deer Valley, Utah.
In an extensive interview, he discussed his grueling daily routine and results he's seen.
Watch the video interview or read the transcript below.
Bryan Johnson: I started Braintree when I was 27 years old, I bootstrapped the company for the first four years. And we were profitable every month. And then I raised money, and we sold it for $800 million. And then I made $300 million of that. At the age of 34, I thought it's time to try to do something meaningful on that kind of multi-decade timescale.
My objective with Blueprint is to demonstrate aging escape velocity, using the best science, trying to do all the appropriate interventions to neutralize my aging process.
A few things have distinguished what I've done to date. As far as I know, I'm the only person that has publicly posted my data. So I'm not saying here's my protocol, and believe me. I'm saying, here's my protocol. Here's all my data. And here's what I'm experimenting with next. And here's where I've made mistakes. And here's where I'm trying to fix it. It's really a stacked process of maybe 100 different things I do, because you have to think about the body in its entirety.
How the heart ages is different than how the lungs age and how the lungs age is different in the how the brain ages, you have to really think about it from a holistic perspective. So it's the common things like diet, and exercise, but it's also a much broader consideration. So I have a team of doctors that I work with. And we just go through this rigorous process of measurement, gold standard science, implementation, measurement has produced near perfect health for me. No matter how extreme I've had to be, no matter how eccentric people perceive me to be, because I'm outside the norms, demonstrating that age can be arrested would change everything.
Alyson Shontell: All right, Bryan, we have so much to talk about. You have had a busy two years. And as you mentioned in the video, first off, thank you for being with us today. But as you mentioned in the video, we just shared with our audience here at Brainstorm Tech you founded Braintree, sold that for a ton of money. And now you are spending a lot of money trying to figure out how to be 18 in full body and mind. Take us from that moment to now. When you left Braintrees exit you came out self-described as depressed, overweight, and borderline suicidal. How did you go through this mental transformation and full body transformation?
Bryan Johnson: I think the key innovation for Blueprint is that previously, my mind was was in charge of me, it would decide what I wanted to eat, I could decide what I wanted to eat from a menu or go to the grocery store and shop. And it wasn't a reliable form of authority, my mind was always a rascal and doing things that were self destructive in nature. I flipped it and I said I'm going to put my body in charge of me. My liver and my heart and lungs, and pancreas, I'm going to inquire what they think and give them decision authority to manage me. And so I think the really the most important thing that Blueprint’s accomplished is we built an algorithm that takes better care of me than I can myself.
Alyson Shontell: And you know, one of the things you reference is this Evening Bryan character who would be really hungry late at night, make really bad decisions. And you just one day you were like enough Evening Bryan, I'm gonna master you. I'm gonna have this routine. So take me through your day in the life of being Bryan Johnson. From the moment you wake up, what do you eat, show me everything.
Bryan Johnson: It's about 100 or so protocols at any given day that I complete. So I wake up around five or six in the morning. Really the day begins when I go to bed at 8:30 the night before. I've structured my entire life around sleep. There's nothing I do in my life that influences my conscious existence more than my sleep. And so everything is built around that. But then in the morning, I'll wake up, do a few therapies, I'll take100 pills, er 61 pills, work out for an hour. I eat some vegetables for breakfast, 70 pounds per month. I'll then I'll get to work. And I'll do some protocol in the afternoon. But my entire life is basically structured with, uh, we've referenced over 2000 scientific publications and over 100 protocols. It's entirely based upon evidence and data.
Alyson Shontell: Is it fun, it doesn't look fun. It doesn't sound fun. I don't think I could do it, I definitely could not do it. Can you travel? Do you get a cheat day? Any of that?
Bryan Johnson: Yeah, it's funny. When people look a Blueprint, there are immediate reactions like they, I've had this conversation so many times now. I know with almost 99% accuracy what people are going to say. And it's typically the same things every time. And everyone assumes I'm miserable, they assume that this must be some sort of prison, they come up with a line of like, you're gonna hit get hit by a bus lol. So it's like all these same things again and again. And I would say this, I have never in my entire life been happier, more fulfilled or had a more expanded consciousness. I pity the previous version of me that was on this roller coaster searching for his next hit all the time.
Alyson Shontell: So your doctor, Dr. Zalman is 29 years old, studied at Cambridge. How did you pick him? And how are you guys deciding what to try ,what to do next?
Bryan Johnson: I guess, maybe it's worth reflecting that if you were to take five anti-aging scientists and give them the same papers, and then ask them to design you a anti-aging protocol, you would get five different protocols. And that's just the state of where the science is. And so we said, health and wellness is a lot like religion, currently, where you know, the King James version of the Bible supports 100 denominations that all claimed their God’s one and true. And so the same thing is true with health and wellness with charismatic leaders claiming their certainty. And we said, we're going to punch through the noise, we're going to look at data only. And that's when we started trying to measure every organ in my body, publishing the data publicly and going forward with scientific protocols. And so what we're trying to do is, I say tongue in cheek, Blueprint is the best health protocol developed in history. Prove me wrong with your data.
Alyson Shontell: I mean, some of health and longevity cannot be measured with data. I mean, you know, this right, like stress, health of our relationships, that all has an impact on our genetics even. How are you taking into account the things that you cannot measure?
Bryan Johnson: I mean, we we can measure some pretty amazing things from gravitational waves, to metabolic processes. And I would say, I don't know if there's many things about the human condition that we cannot measure, including our relationships, including stress responses, and you know, epigenetics and gene expression. So I'd say measurement is really the thing that is, I think, most revolutionary about Blueprint is - I love history, I love reading biographies. And I look back through time, I really admire people who, in their time and place, were able to see and do something impossibly hard, something invisible. And if we were to say, what is that moment right now, I'd say, throughout history, the human mind has been the best technology in existence to achieve objectives. That just changed. Artificial intelligence is now the superior technology, emergent technology, in achieving these objectives. And so, if we are wise as a species, we will decide where our storytelling minds excel, and whether these other algorithmic data approaches are going to excel. And what I'm suggesting with Blueprint is, as it relates to my health and wellness, an algorithm is better at doing that than I can.
Alyson Shontell: Alright, what is the deal with Project Blueprint? Are you monetizing this? Is this a business for you? You have a rabid Twitter following I would say, and just a following in general, and they're eating up what you're saying and what you're selling. So you know, that comes with a lot of responsibility.
Bryan Johnson: And the objective a Blueprint was I mean, I thought about this for a decade. I mean, I really started this when I was 21 years old. I said, I want to spend my life trying to do something useful for the human race. And I went out to try to make money to enable myself doing this. And after thinking about this for all the time, all this time, it was in 2023, what is the most sober assessment we could muster? And I'd say there's four things. Don't die. Don't kill each other. Don't destroy the planet. And don't underestimate aligning with A.I. That is the only thing on our to-do list. Nothing else matters. After 13 billion years in the universe and four billion years on evolutionary history of the planet, we are steps away from super intelligence, and I want a ticket to this future.
Alyson Shontell: How does A.I. relate to this? Like when you talk about super intelligence and A.I. and your mission? How do you see that all playing hand in hand?
Bryan Johnson: It's what I call zero principle thinking. We are accustomed to first principle thinking where you assume the fewest number of things in a certain timeframe. Zero principle thinking is thinking from another dimension. So another way of saying it, talent hits the target no one else can; genius hits the target no one else can see. When A.I. has been applied to human problems, whether it be the game Go or whether it be protein folding, it has been able to introduce genius level advancement. As we apply A.I. to every domain of society, we're going to see a number of zeros principle like ideas at a rate faster than we ever had before. And it's going to create a it's going to bend our reality just like special relativity did and germ theory did, these ideas - zeros typically came along once every couple centuries, and now they're just landing at a much faster pace.
Alyson Shontell: So let's talk about the results. Is this actually working? It seems to me like some people have achieved better results doing much less. We recently interviewed a Harvard professor who said he cut his biological age by 10 years by like cutting alcohol and exercising. So your own doctor has also told Bloomberg, we haven't achieved any remarkable results. And what you're seeing is to be expected.
Bryan Johnson: Yeah, I think what's interesting about Blueprint is the extensiveness of the measurement. So if you're looking to I'll give you a few markers that are interesting. One, we've slowed my speed of aging by the equivalent of 31 years. So that means I now accumulate aging damage slower than the average 10 year-old. That's how fast damage my body's accumulating. I have a VO2 max, my body's ability to use oxygen, on the par of the top 1.5% of 18 year-olds. So if you look at 50, perfect clinical biomarkers, and I have dozens of these measurements. So no matter what you look at, the data all says the same thing. I'm in pretty good health. And so when someone makes a comment about you know what they've reduced their health by blank by doing blank, they're looking at one marker. What you have with me is you've got thousands of markers that use MRI, and ultrasound, and blood and stool and saliva and devices and fitness tests. I'm the most measured person in human history. And so when you you can take any one marker and discount it or emphasize it, but you take it as the entirety, it's a pretty interesting story to say, Can you do something today to meaningfully change the speed someone's aging? I think the answer is yes. I think we've proved that.
Alyson Shontell: So Bryan, you know, do you view this as a selfless act for humanity? Where does it go too far? I think a lot of people looked at the multigenerational blood plasma transfusion you did with your father and your son as a "What the f--k?" I'm sorry to say it like that. But you know, I mean, you took your minor child and had him give you his own blood, for no real results, as you said recently on Twitter. So like, that's not too far?
Bryan Johnson: You know, it's really funny. You and I live in a previous generation’s crazy. And every generation falls for the same trap, we create these boundary conditions. And we label things as normal. And we label other things as crazy. And we try to create these sacred spaces where things can't be touched, but it's a trap in time and place. And so it's really, when we use these words to try to label certain things, we're just showing a mirror to ourselves of what the status quo is, and society has never thrived on status quo. It's always gone forward blazing new trails. And if this triggers a non-normal, so be it. But that's the entirety of this project. And the human race is not going to move forward as comfortably sitting in the status quo. We all know this. We revere people in history who broke that.
Alyson Shontell: But it's one thing for you to decide to be a guinea pig for yourself for science, but to bring other people into it. I mean, did Talmage’s mom have an opinion on the blood transfusion?
Bryan Johnson: I mean if you're talking about social and moral ethics about this thing, it just started, my father, who's 70 years-old, started reporting to me his cognitive decline. And he's a lawyer, he would do anything to keep his mental acuity. And so we put him on Blueprint. And he came back and he said Bryan, I have to tell you, when you start losing your mind, you don't know like when it comes back, then you become aware of what you've lost. And so I said, Dad, I'll do anything to help you keep your mind like I understand you're losing your existence. And in that moment, I said, if these plasma infusions are potentially a helpful thing for you, I'd be more than willing to do it. My son overheard my father and I talking, he's like, Dad, I'll do it, too. I'm in. He’s fully on Blueprint. He's been on Blueprint for multiple years, his friends are on Blueprint. They get it, they want it. So people presuppose so many things about Blueprint, they assume so many things without catching themselves, that these are ideas they have in their mind and zero knowledge of anything going on inside of my world. And so it just, it's a good reminder that we have these default thought processes, but they really paint a picture different than reality.
Alyson Shontell: So what's your end goal here? And will you ever stop? Is this going to be the rest of your life, being surrounded by 30 doctors, $2 million spent a year retrieving the body of an 18 year-old in all ways. Or, you know, do you at some point plan to like go off into the sunset and eat a burger?
Bryan Johnson: I mean, no, I don't desire cheat days. This is the thing everyone presupposes to that I somehow desire a pizza or doughnut. I don't. It makes me sick to think about it. But I'd say the - if this is a question of like, what is the meaning of life? Like, is the meaning of life to cheat and get these cheap thrills of doughnuts? To me, lucky us, we exist. Everything we do on top of that is a benefit. And this is why I go back on the humanities to-do list. Don't die, don't kill each other, don't destroy the Earth and align with A.I. We have a specific set of objectives to achieve right now. And if we squander this opportunity it could be ... we have the potential of existing in the most extraordinary existence in the history of the galaxy potentially. If we sober up and see this moment for what it is, we may behave very differently.
Alyson Shontell: Bryan, thank you so much for sharing your plan and insights with us. We appreciate your time here today.
