Bryan Johnson says he fears dying by bus, not old age, as biohacking focus shifts to women’s health
The Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has built a public brand around living longer, says a bus is more likely to kill him than. Bryan Johnson — full details…
Bryan Johnson, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has built a public brand around living longer, says a bus is more likely to kill him than old age. The 49-year-old made the comment as he and his Australian partner, Kate Tolo, marked a new phase in their biohacking project, with women’s health now moving to the front of the agenda.
Johnson told triple j hack that a sizeable part of the world wants him dead. The remark fits the strange place he occupies in the health-tech conversation: part wellness figure, part provocation, and for supporters, a man trying to push the science of ageing. For critics, he is a very public test case for how far self-optimisation can go before it becomes performance.
A birthday, and a target
Johnson recently turned 49, a milestone that might seem ordinary. Not for someone who says he wants to live forever. His Australian girlfriend, Tolo, said the number does not match how he looks or moves.
“He annoyingly feels younger than me!” the 30-year-old told triple j hack.
She added that while she gets up from the couch with aching knees, Johnson is “springing up and trying to dunk” a basketball.
That contrast is part of the public appeal around the couple’s biohacking story. Johnson has long traded on measurement, routine and discipline. Tolo, who was born in Mackay, has recently joined him in the project and says she wants to become “the world’s most measured woman”.
Women’s health comes next
The pair say the next focus is clear. Female health sits near the top of the list.
“In the back of both our minds, female health was always next, and it's such an important and deeply personal issue to me,” Tolo said.
That shift matters beyond their own experiment. Longevity and biohacking have often centered on male founders, male bodies and male routines, with much of the public debate driven by the same Silicon Valley circles that helped turn wearable tech and personal data tracking into status symbols. Moving attention toward women’s health broadens the discussion, at least in principle, to questions that have often been sidelined in tech culture.
Medical professionals, however, caution against drawing easy lessons from the biohacking boom. They warn people not to confuse sound public health practice with vested interests, a reminder that the language of optimisation can blur into marketing quickly. That concern has only grown as wellness claims spread far beyond niche communities and into mainstream feeds, apps and gadget culture.
For Johnson, though, the message remains unchanged. He is still trying to outpace ageing. And if he is not defeated by time, he says, a bus may do the job first.
