Why We Die

The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality

By: Venki Ramakrishnan

Narrated by: John Moraitis

""Utterly fascinating."" —Bill Bryson

""An incredible journey."" —Siddhartha Mukherjee

A groundbreaking exploration of the science of longevity and mortality—from Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Venki Ramakrishnan

The knowledge of death is so terrifying that we live most of our lives in denial of it. One of the most difficult moments of childhood must be when each of us first realizes that not only we but all our loved ones will die—and there is nothing we can do about it.

Or at least, there hasn’t been. Today, we are living through a revolution in biology. Giant strides are being made in understanding why we age—and why some species live longer than others. Could we eventually cheat disease and death and live for a very long time, possibly many times our current lifespan?

Venki Ramakrishnan, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and former president of the Royal Society, takes us on a riveting journey to the frontiers of biology, asking whether we must be mortal. Covering the recent breakthroughs in scientific research, he examines the cutting edge of efforts to extend lifespan by altering our physiology. But might death serve a necessary biological purpose? What are the social and ethical costs of attempting to live forever?

Why We Die is a narrative of uncommon insight and beauty from one of our leading public intellectuals.

©2024 Venki Ramakrishnan (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

informative, thoughtful and kind

Very informative, and calming. Dr. Ramakrishnan offers a sensitive and emotionally generous insight in calm, measured, compassionate words

Good technical overview of current work and many key players, but I question his point of view.

I'm familiar with most of the subjects covered here and certainly know more after finishing the book.

The author does wag his finger at some researchers for their SciFi style bias and hype, which I think was very appropriate. I was however turned off by his own social and political bias, which was most pronounced in the final chapter. His belief that longer lives let the old oppress the young, which makes extended life spans a social injustice, has me question earlier opinions in this book.

The narrator was ok, but this isn't the best subject for him to read.

narrator didn't work for me

the narrator had some difficulties with pronunciation as well as just being generally articulate at times.

Fascinating information about how our cells and body age

So much information in here — I want to listen to it all again! The author does a fabulous job of explaining complex systems and ideas.

Fantastic Exploration of Modern Biological Research and Findings

I highly recommend this book if you want to understand what is going on in lifespan and healthspan research. Easy read, well written. I enjoyed it and learned a lot.

The Final Two Chapters…

… and the last three minutes of this book seemed to encapsulate the sum of wisdom and all issues about aging.

The earlier chapters outlined research details I’m not likely to retain.

Brilliant. The book was fantastic and level headed. I appreciated also the way he criticized Sinclair.

Narrator made no apparent effort (or didn't care) to pronounce scientific terms correctly. Too bad. It wouldn't have taken 10min online to pronounce terms correctly.

Excellent! So glad I found this book

I am so glad I found this timely and informative book! This book summarizes all the major areas of biological aging science, from an evolutionary perspective. There have been such a proliferation of books on aging, often making outsized claims. This book is different, and such a welcome find. It provides a balanced view of many of the claims made in other books with similar titles that have been published in the last few years. This is finally something I can assign in my class to introduce different areas of aging biology. It provides a good level of detail without being dry. I've been reading about some of these topics for years, but Dr. Ramakrishnan connects the dots so logically that I had several of those "oh, that's how that really works" moments! Plus, I finally know why sometimes mTOR is said to be "mammalian target of rapamycin" and sometimes "mechanistic target of rapamycin" and why ubiquitin is called that 🤓 I really enjoyed the mix of history, social observation, and science. And pretty accessible to anyone with semi-solid high school bio (e.g., the parts of a cell will ring a bell). Lots of great analogies that help things click without being contrived or condescending.

I wasn't crazy about the narration (though it isn't bad or anything). I did end up getting the ebook, though I'm glad there is an audiobook option to broaden the book's reach!

Will definitely go back and read Dr. Ramakrishnan's earlier book on ribosomes!

Factful and balanced view

The book provides a factual and very balanced view on the hyped topic of aging in general and anti-aging products in particular. It puts many of the claims made with respect to the topic into perspective..

An well-thought out history and analysis of the field to cut through the hype and to combat snake oil sales

In the presence of big promises by a powerful and vocal minority, an expert weighs in the state of the search for immortality. In a very dispassionate view he presents and weighs the available evidence. Equal parts history, science, commentary on current events, and future speculation. After a long career, I get the impression he hedges his bets more than others, but it serves to temper the fervor expressed by others like Sinclair and DeGrey (whom he explicitly mentions in the book).

A fascinating book by a true expert, expressed with the humility characteristic of a scientist and not the arrogance of a tech mogul. I come away slightly deflated in some ways, but both heartened in others!