Everyone wants to live a long and healthy life. No one wants to die. The oldest scam in history is the longevity lie.
One of the first pieces of writing, recorded on Sumerian clay tablets, recounts the story of Gilgamesh’s failed quest to bring his friend back from the dead. The immutable fact of mortality has dogged human kind since its very beginning. And yet every age has brought with it its own crop of magicians, alchemists and scientists promising eternal life. Their pitch is always the same: everyone who came before them was a charlatan, but they have the secret sauce.
The most famous longevity grifter of our age is no different. If you’ve ever heard a news story about a glass of red wine might make you live longer, it was because of David Sinclair’s groundbreaking research. The Harvard geneticist is one of the most decorated scientists on the planet. He’s listed as an author on more than 500 papers, his work has been cited more than 96,000 times and he holds 50 patents. He was the editor of the journal Aging.
Resume aside, David Sinclair never set himself apart from any other grifter throughout the ages. Great fortunes have been squandered in pursuit of his “science.” In this week’s video I dive into his 25 year history of scientific mistakes, lies and fraud. I show how he used disproven research on the chemical “resveratrol” to sell a best book and, ultimately, a company to the pharmaceutical drug maker GlaxoSmithKlein for $720,000,000. Two years after the sale, the research turns out not work, and Sinclair became one of the richest scientists in America. Now, ten years after that work fell apart, Sinclair is at it again selling the idea of a new immortality molecule called NMN.
This video took me three weeks to put together, but it was worth the wait.
In other news: I’m happy to report that premium subscribers to Magnetic North now have access to the chat feature where they can connect to other people in this community. I’ll be logged in off and on most days, so send me a note and say hi!
The True Story of David Sinclair's Longevity Lie