Lina Zeldovich
Appearances
Throughline
History of the Self: Aging
His first wife died of tuberculosis. It's a disease that kills you slowly. You can basically watch your loved one wither away. Day after day, month after month. They traveled to places with better climate, milder winters, sunnier places, and nothing helped, and she eventually died.
Throughline
History of the Self: Aging
His second wife contracted typhoid fever and it looked like she could die. And so he inoculated himself with some kind of a tick-borne disease, thinking that they will die together. But neither one of them died.
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History of the Self: Aging
At the time, the human intestine was viewed as accessible of all sorts of toxins. I guess the proof that all the scientists had was, you know, hey, just look what comes out of your rear end. Any more questions?
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History of the Self: Aging
I mean, I don't even know how many different brands of yogurt we have today, but Danone is still there.
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History of the Self: Aging
So he died from a heart attack. And the moments before he died, he asked his assistant to... carefully look into his intestines and see what's there once he was gone.
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History of the Self: Aging
Nobody likes to die. Nobody likes to see their friends and family die. So we want to extend the lifespan as much as possible. People nowadays want to remain ageless.
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History of the Self: Aging
Nobody likes to die. So we want to extend the lifespan as much as possible and health span as much as possible. Kind of just how Metchnikov envisioned. And with that goal, we keep searching.
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History of the Self: Aging
I'm calling from Austin, Texas, and you are listening to TrueLine NPR.
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History of the Self: Aging
He had a few brothers and sisters, and out of all of them, he was probably the most curious.
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History of the Self: Aging
As a kid, he was always chasing bugs and, you know, looking at what bugs do.
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History of the Self: Aging
Then he would invite all of his siblings and cousins for a lecture in natural history, and he would actually pay them out of his pocket money to come and listen to his lectures.
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History of the Self: Aging
He was like a new cherished name, a big name. A couple of research institutions were named after him. We definitely knew about him growing up.
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History of the Self: Aging
From a very young age, I think he had this desire to alleviate human suffering. And that's how he sort of found his way into biological research.