A microbiologist explains why we age and die

By Jessica Yung,

Regina G. Barber, Emily Kwong, Rebecca Ramirez

Published October 29, 2024 at 2:43 PM CDT

In his book Why We Die, author Venki Ramakrishnan looks at modern biological research to understand why our bodies age — and eventually die. "It's a peculiar situation because we're a collection of cells and when we're alive, millions of our cells are dying. ... When we die, most of our cells are still alive," says Ramakrishnan. "And so what does it mean to say you die?" — In his book *Why We Die,* author Venki Ramakrishnan looks at modern biological research to understand why our bodies age — and eventually die. "It's a peculiar situation because we're a collection of cells and when we're alive, millions of our cells are dying. ... When we die, most of our cells are still alive," says Ramakrishnan. "And so what does it mean to say you die?"

Humans have seen a significant increase in life expectancy over the past 200 years — but not in overall lifespan. Nobody on record has lived past 122 years. So, for this early Halloween episode, host Regina G. Barber asks: Why do we age and why do we die? Microbiologist Venki Ramakrishnan explains some of the mechanisms inside of our bodies that contribute to our decay — and tells us if it's possible to intervene in the process.

Check out Venki Ramakrishnan's book Why We Die.

Curious about other biology news? Email us at shortwave@npr.org and we might cover your topic on a future episode!

Listen to Short Wave on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

This episode was produced by Jessica Yung and edited by Rebecca Ramirez. The facts were checked by Tyler Jones. The audio engineer was Kwesi Lee.