Even though it’s undeniably...aesthetic-challenged, the naked mole-rat is the envy of the longevity world. Its risk of death barely changes with time; it shrugs off cancer, stays fertile for decades and seems to skip every hallmark of aging that hobbles the rest of us.
But why? What evolutionary forces gave a mouse-sized, subterranean rodent near-immunity to aging - and what can its biology teach us about extending healthy human life?
Comparative biologist Prof. Rochelle Buffenstein (University of Illinois Chicago) - who has maintained the world’s largest captive colonies and authored 200+ papers - joins LEVITY to dissect the evidence.
In this episode
✅ Rochelle’s journey: from Zimbabwe farm kid to the pre-eminent naked mole-rat researcher.
✅ Eusocial society: queens, worker castes and lethal succession battles.
✅ No Gompertz slope: hard numbers that show mortality risk stays essentially flat for 40 years.
✅ Cancer resistance → high-molecular-weight hyaluronan, unusual immune cell profiles.
✅ Telomere maintenance and DNA-methylation reversal.
✅ Proteostasis on easy-mode: slow translation, durable proteins, super-charged autophagy.
✅ What actually kills a mole-rat?
✅ Translational angles: small-molecule screens, CRISPR edits, and why funding is still an uphill battle.
✅ Other long-lived species worth studying - and how young scientists can break into comparative gerontology.
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LEVITY is co-hosted by Patrick Linden, philosopher and author, and Peter Ottsjö, journalist and author.
00:00 Teaser
02:37 Meet Prof. Rochelle Buffenstein
07:04 Naked mole-rats crash course
10:23 Eusocial life: Queens, workers, death matches
11:46 Extreme underground lifestyle (Low O₂, High CO₂)
18:12 Problems with inbreeding?
26:07 Don’t call them cold-blooded!
29:15 Keeping the world’s largest colony of naked mole-rats
31:45 Eating naked mole-rats
36:01 Lifespan of the naked mole-rat
38:20 Two remarkable papers
50:53 How long can they live?
52:45 Resistance to cancer
57:03 The Hallmarks of aging are no match for this rodent
59:48 Surprising immune defense
01:04:18 What’s the evolutionary rationale?
01:10:08 Translating the research
01:18:51 Other longevity champions
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