Putin's plan to live forever
6/8/202627 min
Russia has long been a cradle of modern longevity science, even before its current president started spending billions to extend his life. This episode was produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by David Tatasciore and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King. Russian President Vladimir Putin sunbathing during a vacation in southern Siberia. Photo by Alexey NIKOLSKY / SPUTNIK / AFP via Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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First 90 secondsNoel King· Host0:00
How healthy is Vladimir Putin?
Bojan Pancevski· Guest0:03
Well, you know, he always projects this kind of image of, of a virile, sort of strong man. He, he likes taking his shirt off. He's, he's not, hasn't done it in a while now, but he, he used to have his picture taken shirtless and, and, you know, jumping in ice lakes or, you know, sort of riding horses and whatnot.
Noel King· Host0:21
No one knows.
Bojan Pancevski· Guest0:21
I do investigative journalism, and I speak a lot to Western spooks, you know, the CIA and people like that, and they've always said there's no truth to these claims that he's somehow ill or, you know, decrepit or whatever.
Noel King· Host0:35
But thanks to some new reporting from the Wall Street Journal, we do know that Putin is spending billions of dollars trying to extend his life, maybe even live forever, and that in Russia there's a long and fascinating history of people fiddling with human longevity. That's coming up on Today Explained from Vox.
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