Jacob Kimmel on Dwarkesh Patel: Why Evolution Ignored Aging

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

August 21, 2025

Duration

1h 45m

Channel

Dwarkesh Podcast

Watch on YouTube

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📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Jacob Kimmel thinks he can find the transcription factors to reverse aging. We do a deep dive on why this might be plausible and why evolution hasn’t already optimized for longevity. We also talk about why drug discovery has been getting exponentially harder, and what a new platform for biological understanding to speed up progress would look like. As a bonus, we get into the nitty gritty of gene delivery and Jacob’s controversial takes on CAR-T cells. For full disclosure, I am an angel investor in NewLimit. This did not impact my decision to interview Jacob, nor the questions I asked him. 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒

• Transcript: https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/jacob-kimmel
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-evolution-designed-us-to-die-fast-how-we-can-change/id1516093381?i=1000722975425
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3xUwUYLpjGI3bxsEM114jq?si=mo4FBuI4RoG42PUYYCFUDw

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒

• Hudson River Trading uses deep learning to tackle one of the world's most complex systems: global capital allocation. They have a massive in-house GPU cluster, and they’re constantly adding new racks of B200s to ensure their researchers are never constrained by compute. Explore opportunities at https://hudsonrivertrading.com/dwarkesh

• Google’s Gemini CLI turns ideas into working applications FAST, no coding required. It built a complete podcast post-production tool in 10 minutes, including fully functional backend logic, and the entire build used less than 10% of Gemini’s session context. Check it out on Github now: https://goo.gle/4mw9BNg To sponsor a future episode, visit https://www.dwarkesh.com/advertise 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 00:00:00 – Three reasons evolution didn't optimize for longevity 00:12:48 – Why didn't humans evolve their own antibiotics? 00:26:08 – De-aging cells via epigenetic reprogramming 00:45:24 – Viral vectors and other delivery mechanisms 01:07:03 – Synthetic transcription factors 01:10:13 – Can virtual cells break Eroom's Law? 01:32:13 – Economic models for pharma

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Jacob Kimmel

  guest

• Dwarkesh Patel

  host

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Dwarkesh Podcast, featuring Jacob Kimmel and Dwarkesh Patel, Jacob Kimmel on Dwarkesh Patel: Why Evolution Ignored Aging explores why Evolution Neglected Longevity And How Epigenetics May Fix It Dwarkesh Patel interviews Jacob Kimmel, president and co‑founder of NewLimit, about why evolution did not optimize humans for long, healthy lifespans and how epigenetic reprogramming could partially reverse cellular aging.

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