BONUS: Enhanced Games, Tech Bros and the World's Most Expensive Mid-Life Crisis

A German biotech billionaire who injects himself daily is funding a sporting event where athletes are paid to take testosterone, Adderall and human growth hormone in pursuit of “superhumanity.”Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr. are on the cap table.Jeff Bezos has invested $100 million in a startup that claims it can identify the brain’s “core algorithm” and replicate it in silicon.Meanwhile, public institutions, scientific research and foreign-aid programs are being hollowed out at the behest of many of the same political and ideological forces.Naturally, I had to talk to the clever hosts of The Atlantic Current podcast about it all.We discuss the Enhanced Games, biohacking billionaires, prescription drugs, consciousness research, regulatory capture, libertarianism, immortality and the increasingly popular idea that being human is a problem technology needs to solve.Also: Andrew Carnegie, Mansa Musa, God, and whether Bryan Johnson is conducting cutting-edge science or simply having the world’s most expensive midlife crisis.The Atlantic Current is hosted by Vince Martin, an economist and writer, and creator of Wall Street and Main, and Tull McAdoo of the Irish Politics Newsletter. It’s a smart, irreverent show and I love every minute chatting with these two.For more, check out my original reporting on America’s prescription drug culture, The Bitter Pill, and my latest essay, Hold My Beer While I Upgrade Humanity. Have something to say? I'm all ears. If this conversation meant something to you, share it — it's still the best way new listeners discover the show.The podcast is free and always will be. If you'd like to support the reporting, essays and interviews behind these conversations, consider becoming a paid subscriber.  Subscribe hereWant more between essays and episodes? Check out Below the Fold —dispatches on the stories worth paying attention to, from the people in my own backyard to those reshaping the wider world.Watch clips and video previews on YouTube Credits:Host: Meredith Ogilvie-ThompsonSound Editing: Dax Krishna and the team at SpeechDocsMusic: Ilya Kuznetsov