Updated April 8, 2026, 11:21 a.m. ET
Death comes for all of us. Even the tech bros like Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel. The difference? Some are spending millions of dollars trying to ward off death as long as possible. And plenty of other people purchase product after product peddled to them on social media as they embark on wellness and longevity journeys of their own.
The wellness economy in the United States has ballooned to $2.1 trillion, according to the Global Wellness Institute. But are all these people’s efforts in vain? What does the average person need to know to live as long and healthy a life as possible?
It’s a central question of veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher’s new CNN series “Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever” (premiering April 11 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, airing weekly) in which she tries out different wellness fads and products herself (ketamine, a hyperbaric chamber and red light therapy, to name a few), and chats with subjects like tech bros Sam Altman and Bryan Johnson, scientists like Jennifer Doudna, author and journalist Amy Larocca and her “Pivot” podcast co-host and wellness enthusiast Scott Galloway. Swisher’s father died of a brain aneurysm in his 30s, fueling her interest in the subject; she also had a stroke 15 years ago.
The chief takeaway: Be skeptical, and remember that as much as some wellness innovations sound exciting, they don’t always offer as much tangible information as they claim. CRISPR gene editing, a cure for sickle cell anemia and GLP-1s are the real innovations, not that TikTok ad for a random supplement. Plus, research shows human connection is a major pillar to living a healthy life, even if it isn’t as sexy as slipping on goggles and letting red light therapy dart into your pores.
She advocates for following researched-backed medical advice – like getting vaccinated against the measles – instead of fad treatments that she says are often promoted by “charlatans that are promising us things they can’t deliver.”
‘I’d spend more money on helping people’
Swisher visits longevity enthusiast Johnson’s home in an episode of her series, where he shows her how he spends $2 million a year on a longevity quest. Dozens of daily supplements, an at-home hyperbaric chamber, you name it. Constantly monitoring his health. He’s spending a lot on longevity and attracting wide attention for his “Don’t Die” movement.
“There’s a lot of controversy around him,” she says, but “I find him rather sweet in some ways, like his like search for meaning, essentially, is what’s happening, but his obsession with the measurement.” Johnson sells his “Blueprint” longevity protocols, and Swisher is “always wary of someone who hands you a supplement when they’re giving you a piece of advice,” though she thinks Johnson means well.
That said, “I think he’s spending a lot of time doing something that he might regret later in terms of the time spent, but that’s again, it’s his journey around the sun so he can do it. If I were him, I’d spend more money on helping more people.” But Swisher notes Johnson likely thinks that’s what he’s doing by gathering data about longevity. She notes, however, most of that data is only relevant to him, so she doesn’t believe he’s truly bettering society in the way he says he is.
While tech moguls like Jeff Bezos, Thiel and Zuckerberg aren’t going so far as Johnson, Swisher questions their financial investments in anti-aging and longevity research. “As much as they want to go to Mars, they’re so Earth-bound,” she says in the show. “They’re so desperate, clingy to hang onto life without talking about quality of life and what you do for people.”
‘Confusing data with actual information’
Swisher questions more broadly the emphasis the wellness industry puts on measurement via wearable devices that track our diet, sleep, exercise and how they affect on our bodies. For example, when your phone or watch tells you that you hit your 10,000-step goal, what does that actually tell you?
“It’s meaningless numbers without an actual instruction,” she says. “It’s just a lot of data, and I think that’s they’re confusing data with actual information.” People would be better off consulting with health care professionals to figure out ideal goals for their respective bodies; the goal of hitting 10,000 steps a day, for example, may not actually be an accurate longevity metric. A better longevity goal is 7,500 steps, for example, research shows.
The best part of being alive for Kara Swisher
Swisher, like many, has thought about how she wants to die. She’d like to be aware of what’s happening. She also couldn’t help but think of Steve Jobs, who died in 2011 and looked up at the ceiling and remarked “wow, oh, wow” as he died.
“I thought the other day, I thought I’d like to have everyone around me and look up and go, ‘Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.’ And then die,” she jokes.
Her favorite part of being alive? Her four kids. “Just having them around and thinking about their lives after me, it’s just really very moving.”
Human connection. Something you can’t get from endless measurement on your own.
