Jeanne Calment and the Mystery of Living to 122

Jeanne Calment, born in Arles, France in 1875, is the only verified person in recorded human history to reach 120, ultimately dying at 122 years and 164 days. Her life spanned three centuries, from a teenage encounter with Vincent van Gogh in her uncle's fabric shop to a spoken-word rap CD released at age 121.This episode explores how such a lifespan was biologically possible and why it remains fiercely debated. We examine her privileged, low-stress youth, the famous life-estate deal in which a notary paid her for decades and died first, her surprising daily habits, and the 2018 Russian conspiracy theory claiming her daughter secretly assumed her identity.A family history of long life and freedom from the physical toll of manual laborOutliving her entire immediate family and the psychological pragmatism that may have protected herThe viager contract with notary Andre-Francois Raffray that she outlasted by decadesHer diet of olive oil, chocolate, port wine, and cigarettes, enabled by a rare genetic profileThe autozygous DNA test that could someday definitively settle the identity-swap theory