"The Axios Show": Inside Bryan Johnson's quest to make 300 the new 70

Bryan Johnson, the face of the longevity movement, wants to make staying alive more important than making money.The famous/infamous biohacker spends over $2 million a year on his health, talks about living forever and publicly tracks everything from his erections to his sperm strength.Why it matters: As Johnson fights to "live forever," he's doing so with a wink to his 8 million social media followers, a link to his business in his bio and a knack for drawing attention to himself.What they're saying: In his interview with The Axios Show, he offered some advice for Elon Musk, said he'd love to help President Trump with his health and revealed his ultimate goal."Will the 25th century ... be like, 'thank you' in 500 years? Will they give me a head nod? That's the goal," he said.Zoom out: His big picture focus: change the focus of society to health, not wealth. "Society says making money... is the greatest trophy one can get...we are at this inflection moment as a species where we are transitioning to 'Don't Die,'" Johnson said, referring to the title of his longevity movement. "What creates status and power and prestige is going to be different. And as crazy as it sounds, it may be your nighttime erections...It may be your ability to dunk a basketball at age 49," he said.Johnson, 49, is currently trying to dunk.Zoom out: That focus is what drives some of his more extreme experiments and interventions. In 2023, Johnson injected his teenage son's plasma, which he found to be a helpful regimen for his dad but not for himself, saying his own biomarkers are already "pretty similar to my 18-year-old." Through the help of wearables, tests and a concierge team, Johnson has gathered over 4.2 billion data points about his own body and health, and he relies on AI tools to help parse takeaways from that data. He has an in-home medical lab of sorts where he can do continuous testing, monitoring and procedures. Zoom in: Perhaps his most extreme act is his online presence, which Johnson called "performance art" in our conversation.When talking about humans dramatically increasing lifespans through scientific methods, "no one cares," he said. But "if you talk about it in performance art where it has a vibe and an energy to it, people will engage."The intrigue: Still, even Johnson recommends many of the basics for health: sleep, healthy diet and exercise. For those who want to go further, he recommends a blood draw or MRI, sitting in a sauna several times a week and testing out psychedelics. When asked which longevity treatments feel like snake oil, Johnson said "Basically everything on social media." When I pointed out that includes Bryan, he said, "you're right. I've done this for years. Most things don't work." Reality check: Johnson has multiple longevity businesses that he calls successful, though the financials of the companies are not public.Blueprint, his consumer products business, sells "the most tested healthy longevity protocols," per the company: protei