Skyline Drive Podcast Season Two

We are all fascinated by the unknown. It can be strange, unpredictable, and eye-opening. That’s why I love Skyline Drive, which is an acclaimed narrative documentary podcast hosted by Mangesh Hattikudur. The show explores unconventional and fascinating corners of modern life, starting with a deep dive into astrology and skepticism in its first season, followed by Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever, which investigates the science, biopunks, and business of human immortality, in its second season.

In the first season, creator/host Mangesh Hattikudur tried to decipher why we keep looking to the stars for answers, and what happens when you don’t believe in astrology, but astrology keeps happening to you.

When Mangesh Hattikudur (Part-Time Genius podcast and Humans Growing Stuff) set out to do a big, sweeping show on astrology, he didn’t realize the first interview would change the course of his life. But as he tries to put his world back together, he realizes the incredible ways that astrology presents itself in modern society: from NASA employees who keep their belief in astrology in the closet, to world leaders who’ve used astrologers to guide foreign policy, to moneyball statisticians who use astrology more than statistics to build baseball teams, to a little shop in India where your fortune was written for you centuries ago, and is waiting for you to come claim it. 

In episode one, for example, host Mangesh Hattikudur began his journey into the weird, wonderful world of astrology with a little help from: his mom, a science writer, a famous musician, and one very sneaky author! But when an ominous prediction suddenly comes true, his life turns upside down.

The host, Mangesh Hattikudur, is an American businessman who is the co-founder of the American humor magazine Mental Floss, which he started with Will Pearson when both were students at Duke University. In June 2017, Will and Mangesh Hattikudur began producing the podcast Part Time Genius, a variety-style knowledge show, created in partnership with HowStuffWorks.

Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever released the final full-length episode of its second season last month.

Season two started with a strange premise: an astrological prediction that Mangesh would die at 64. That sent him into the world of longevity science, spending the season with the scientists, biopunks, and entrepreneurs trying to engineer their way out of death. But the further he got into that world, the more he turned inward, questioning whether an infinite life is actually worth living.

One of my favorite episodes in season two is the second one about Mangesh hopping a train to Boston, where he tries on a special suit that turns him into an 80-year-old. Then, he discovers the connection between elderly worms and high-end longevity supplements, and meets a scientist who’s growing brains in petri dishes, and, as a bonus, “What really happened to baseball great Ted Williams’ frozen head?”

Episode five has the scariest scenario. Billionaires living forever! Mangesh explains that “many powerful people — from world leaders to Silicon Valley billionaires — have been whispering about the possibility of living forever via organ replacement. But is their dream a reality, or is it still in the realm of sci-fi?”

Mangesh then learns about Vladimir Putin’s longevity obsession from an exiled Russian journalist, spends an illuminating afternoon with a white-hat hacker, and meets a scientist who’s rebuilding brains, one cell at a time. Finally, he tracks down the co-founder of a mysterious start-up that’s rumored to be doing things no one ever thought possible… until now.”

Putin and Musk alive forever! Please, Mangesh, “Say it ain’t so.”

Check out Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever.