|  | Dave Asprey: has spent $2m trying to reverse the ageing process. Men's Health |
| Ice baths, enemas and the quest to live forever | "I am not remotely interested in living much beyond 100," says Jo Ellison in the FT. As my grandmother would say: "What's the point of living on for decades if all your friends are dead?" But I've recently found myself transfixed by the "wellness wackadoodles". Tech executive Dave Asprey, "one of the internet's favourite biohackers", has spent $2m trying to reverse the ageing process. He experiments with unregulated ingredients and flies around the world to get treatments banned in the US, like gene therapy. He loves ice baths and enemas, and "geeks out" over mitochondria. He boasts about his 6% body fat, and encourages young people to donate their plasma for the "somewhat vampiric" practice of "blood washing". All of this has given him the appearance of "a living Ken doll" – he turns 51 this year but claims his biological age is just 39. | Even so, Asprey admits that "a lot of what he has done has ultimately been bunkum". The things that have actually made a difference were "quite gentle": regular meditation, walking, even ice baths. I myself have recently been seduced by the idea of making tiny changes to my lifestyle in return for big health improvements, like cutting down on drinking and binge-watching TV late at night. None of these suggestions are revolutionary: health advocates have been championing things like a balanced diet, better sleep and exercise for nearly a century. Ultimately, the longevity mantra "boils down to a lot of granny wisdom" – and it won't cost you $2m, because most things that truly help are free. | | | | The hotel
Set on the southern tip of the Outer Hebrides, this award-winning hotel has come up for sale. It has panoramic views of the coastline of Barra, known as Scotland's "jewel island". Perched between craggy peaks and a sweeping white sand beach, three flowing buildings house 39 guest rooms and airy communal spaces with dramatic views. There are also three self-contained apartments, a wild meadow garden and stables. Barra airport is a 14-minute drive, with flights to Glasgow in 75 minutes. 1.5m. |
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| | |  | Bruce McCandless, flying free. Nasa |
| The first man to walk alone in space | On 7 February 1984, says Adam Higginbotham in Smithsonian Magazine, Captain Bruce McCandless stepped into the airlock of the Challenger space shuttle for a momentous mission: testing the so-called "Manned Maneuvering Unit", the nitrogen-powered jetpack that would allow astronauts to "float free in space for the first time in history". Firing the thrusters, McCandless slowly rose from the cargo bay and flew clear of the spacecraft. As he made sure the controls were working – "pitch down, pitch up, roll left, roll right" – the backpack trembled and shuddered "like a nervous pony". Despite the bitter cold, the navy veteran prickled with sweat and his heart quickened. "It may have been a small step for Neil," he told mission control, "but it's a heck of a big leap for me." | Moving slowly backward, about one foot per second, McCandless watched as the gulf separating him from the Challenger slowly expanded. Back on board, mission specialist Ronald McNair was poised by the controls of the spacecraft's robotic arm, ready to snatch his colleague to safety if something went wrong. Eventually, McCandless came to a halt at his planned destination: "some 320 feet out in space, 170 miles above the Atlantic". As he saw the planet rotating beneath his feet, he momentarily lost his composure. "Looks like Florida… it is Florida!" he exclaimed. "It really is beautiful." McCandless spent more than six hours performing tests: heading back to the Challenger and then out again; even turning somersaults. Perhaps understandably, the one planned manoeuvre he couldn't bring himself to do was turn his back on the shuttle and "face out into the void". | | | | | | | An invitation from The Knowledge | As a reader of The Knowledge you will be aware that we live in uncertain times. Getting a good return on your investments, without excessive risk, is hard. This is why on 6 June The Knowledge is delighted to host a special free webinar with Netwealth, one of the UK's most innovative and successful wealth management firms. | Please do join me with Charlotte Ransom, CEO of Netwealth, and Gerard Lyons, Chief Economic Strategist, for an enjoyable and informative conversation. We will consider how a wide range of political and economic events could impact your investments, from a Labour victory in Britain to Donald Trump returning to the White House. You can also ask questions in advance when you sign up. | | I look forward to you joining us on 6 June at 1pm. | Jon Connell
Editor-in-chief |
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| | |  | Green Wing |
| Green Wing: Resuscitated
Channel 4's gloriously weird hospital comedy Green Wing has been rebooted in podcast form, says The Daily Telegraph. The star-studded cast – including Olivia Colman, Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan – are all back. And it's the same as ever: "a confluence of puerile workplace banter, grotesque power-playing and psycho-sexual obsession", unrivalled in its "joyful oddness". 6 episodes | The Sacklers: Getting away with it
The Sackler family made billions from the painkiller OxyContin, which unleashed an opioid epidemic that continues to kill tens of thousands of people in America every year. Will they ever be held accountable? In this episode of the Slow Newscast, Tortoise journalist David Taylor investigates the Sacklers, and meets people whose lives have been torn apart by the drug they created. 45m | The crocodile, the twins and the bond that saved them
In 2021, British twins Georgia and Melissa Laurie were swimming in a lagoon in Mexico when a crocodile attacked Melissa and dragged her underwater. Georgia managed to save her sister by repeatedly punching the animal in the face – an act that earned her the King's Gallantry Medal for bravery last week. For this episode of the BBC show Life Changing, the pair tell Sian Williams how the experience shaped them and their love for each other. 28m | 🎧 Audiobook: Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad by Daniel Finkelstein
Conservative peer and journalist Daniel Finkelstein narrates his "remarkable family memoir" documenting the lives of his parents and grandparents under Hitler and Stalin, says The Guardian. His account of their efforts to evade death and protect their children "unfolds like a wartime thriller" – from his mother's family's time in the Dutch holding camp Westerbork to his paternal grandfather's incarceration in a gulag. It's a "poignant and gripping tale of endurance" about how, as Finkelstein puts it, "the great forces of history crashed down in a terrible wave on two happy families; how it tossed them and turned them, and finally returned what was left to dry land". 12hr 12m | As election season gets going, listen to the seasoned political observer Michael Cockerell telling us about his favourite books here. | | | | | | Enjoying The Knowledge? Click below to share | | |
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| | |  | Benji Waterhouse |
| The "hilarious" memoir of an NHS psychiatrist | On his first weekend on call as a junior doctor specialising in psychiatry, Benji Waterhouse meets Barbara, says Alice O'Keeffe in The Times. She's a middle-aged woman "who has just arrived in London on a transatlantic flight, dressed in a bridal gown", under the impression she's due to marry Harry Styles at 3pm in St Paul's Cathedral. Barbara "is only one of a cast of characters" in You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here, Waterhouse's "hilarious, shocking and urgent memoir of life as an NHS psychiatrist". There is Graham, convinced that he is Jesus, "who is sectioned after trying to walk on water in his local swimming pool", and Femi, "who believes he is a werewolf and demands a hospital diet of raw meat". | The book shares its mix of "mordant wit, lurid vignettes and closet softness" with This Is Going to Hurt, Adam Kay's "wildly successful" memoir about being a junior doctor, says Rachel Clarke in The Guardian. With a TV adaptation already in the works, Waterhouse's publishers must be hoping he delivers "a gazillion book sales" just like Kay did. But unlike Kay, Waterhouse is still a practising doctor, and his humour is "gentler and kinder". We find ourselves wincing as this young idealist "discovers the wretched inadequacy of NHS mental health services": on night shifts, Waterhouse is one of only five psychiatrists for three London boroughs with a population of over one million. So while his book is hilarious, it is also humane and eye-opening – "and deserves to be widely read". | You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here by Benji Waterhouse is available to buy here. | | | | | "All of us invent ourselves. Some of us just have more imagination than others."
Cher |
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