The Time Bryan Johnson Snorted Stem Cells, Reversed Aging and Spent $110 Million on a Mind-Reading Helmet

Know Thyself

When I first started reporting this story in 2018, Bryan Johnson and I were both 40 years old. As of this writing, I’m 43, moderately fit and looking forward to spaghetti carbonara for dinner. Johnson, by contrast, has reversed his biological age by about fifteen years, sports possibly the most muscular body you will ever see and will not be eating for the rest of the day. To each his own. I guess. 

Johnson founded a company called Braintree in 2007 and then sold it to PayPal for many, many millions of dollars in 2013. He subsequently put much of his fortune toward a new company called Kernel that is making helmets which peer through the skull and into the brain to see how the organ operates. The helmets could usher in profound breakthroughs around mental health.

In this piece, we find out why and how Johnson built these things, while also exploring his exotic medical practices. Really, though, much of this story is about Johnson’s journey through depression and toward his unique brand of happiness.