Bryan Johnson just marked another birthday, a potential inconvenience for the man who says he wants to live forever.
Last week, the controversial Silicon Valley mogul turned 49.
But according to his Australian girlfriend, Kate Tolo, that number does not fit with Johnson's physical and mental state.
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"He annoyingly feels younger than me!" the 30-year-old tells triple j hack.
Mackay-born Tolo, who has recently joined her boyfriend on his biohacking mission, seeking to become "the world's most measured woman", says she is excited by what is to come.
"In the back of both our minds, female health was always next, and it's such an important and deeply personal issue to me.
"I feel so fortunate."
"Biohacking" refers to the practices of those committed to extreme anti-aging and longevity regimes.
American millionaire Bryan Johnson is the movement's poster boy.
Some of his most notable headline-grabbing endeavours include the multi-generational blood plasma swap he engaged in with his teenage son and father, sharing night-time erection tracking data, and more recently claiming that he had cloned himself.
"I am a very weird person, and that's OK.
"We love the haters."
Rage baiting vs communication
Johnson's announcement last month that he had cloned himself as a newborn to become his own "blood boy", as well as to "test therapies" and "grow organs for transplantation" was immediately challenged by the internet, scientists and the medical establishment.
"Human cloning is not possible," read the community note underneath Johnson's post on the social media platform X.
What Johnson had actually done was create induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), a method to reprogram adult cells back into a versatile stem cell state — a technology scientists admit is exciting, but does not equate to human cloning.
"I actually listed out in great detail exactly what steps we followed," Johnson tells hack.
Asked whether he "rage baits" — intentionally posting provocative material to boost engagement — Johnson pauses for a second.
"So we have a way of communicating things to people that they understand … gets them talking.
"Sometimes we're like, 'are we just over the edge?'
"We're always trying to find that sweet spot because trust and credibility is the number one thing we care about."
'We are artists'
"Don't Die" is the name of the movement started by Johnson, who is still committed to his goal of achieving immortality by 2039.
Earlier this year, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with autoimmune gastritis, a chronic inflammatory condition of the stomach with no cure.
"Points for irony and points for the haters!" he laughs.
While Johnson says it is highly likely he developed the condition long before he started his longevity journey, doctors say that cannot be confirmed conclusively.
Now his focus is on finding a cure.
"The only way we prove ourselves worthy of this mission is if we both get diagnosed with an incurable disease and we have to solve it.
"At heart, we are artists … and [Kate and I] just want to play.
"We think it's really a spectacular time to be alive and we're grateful to exist."
The female Bryan Johnson
Kate Tolo's long journey from north Queensland to the centre of Bryan Johnson's biohacking empire in the United States might surprise many, including herself.
She is now listed as the co-founder of Johnson's brands Blueprint, Don't Die, and Immortals, and featured in the Netflix documentary Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever.
Tolo has now signed up to collect "14 million data points on her menstrual cycle", as part of a protocol that she says involves more than 100 tasks a day and dozens of devices.
"I didn't know how bad the literature was around female health," she tells hack.
"We're measuring every single day … to translate the lived female experience into numbers so that we can all appreciate and respect it and understand it.
"Let's talk about it. Let's get it out there."
Medical experts weigh in on biohacking
Brooke Nickel, a senior research fellow at the University of Sydney's School of Public Health, is cautious when commenting on the methods used by Johnson and Tolo to boost longevity.
"I think there are some genuinely positive things related to the 'biohacking' trends being promoted in terms of prevention and taking an active interest in your health," Dr Nickel says.
"However, much of what is being discussed in these spaces seems to lack robust evidence of benefit and is often accompanied by commercial marketing, particularly when it becomes about 'optimising' or 'hacking' aging.
"So I am sceptical and think we should be careful not to confuse good public health practices with vested interests."
Johnson and Tolo dismiss suggestions that they are trying to make money by capitalising on society's fears around aging and dying, by selling supplements and serums under their brands.
"I think if the goal was for Kate and I to make money, we would not start this business," Johnson says.
"We are genuinely trying to do this to help.
"We don't expect people to believe that."
'I love Australia'
Away from all the headlines, marketing and controversy are ordinary facets of Bryan and Kate's relationship.
He recently visited Australia to meet Kate's family and attend her brother's wedding, which Kate says was one of her favourite moments in life.
"They loved him!" she says.
"He really just, like, integrated with the family."
While Johnson admits the jet lag took its toll (he claimed it increased his biological age by 13 years), he says the long trip was worth it.
"Kate's family is lovely, and I love Australia.
"I did the math, trying to calculate what it would cost to move Australia closer to Los Angeles!"
Asked whether after all of his longevity and biohacking efforts he is worried he will die in a freak accident, Johnson laughs.
"I think I'll probably be taken out by a bus or similar," he says.
Tolo's response is more serious.
"If the chances are that we fail, it doesn't stop us from trying anyway.
"We're enjoying our lives, we love this mission, and it's exciting for us to wake up every day and do it."
