Reacting To My Netflix Documentary

In any time of my life, if you would have told me I would be naked in my front room with my co workers present and somebody taking pictures of me, I would not have believed you. So Netflix made a documentary about me. It was filmed by the documentarian Chris Smith. He also made the Tiger King and Fyre Festival. And I'm going to walk you through, I've seen the documentary now and I'm going to walk you through the various scenes, things that weren't included and maybe some context that you may find entertaining. Let's go. My name is Brian Johnson. I've been spending millions of dollars creating an anti aging protocol, two dozen supplements and medicines. So when I look at myself on this screen, I can go back in time and I can see my different evolutions of being on social media. How initially I just wasn't very camera friendly and then I got increasingly more comfortable. So I can see in these clips like whatever stage I was at with my camera friendliness. So I can definitely see my camera skills change. Exercise an hour a day plus high intensity three times a week. This 45 year old millionaire has reversed his age by. So that cut where it showed me on stage speaking there you can see the dramatic difference where that was former me, that was really not healthy at all. If you look at the pictures throughout the doc of me, I've changed. I'm almost unrecognizable every six months throughout the entire dock. It's almost like different people. By five years. His doctors claim he has the heart of a 37 year old, using his life as a science experiment to see just how long he can live. That image there of my face, that was one of the first times where I saw my UV damage on my face. So I was in the sun a lot as a kid and I had no idea, actually my entire life I had no idea the damage. So that image that we saw was like the first terrifying reconciliation that there's really serious damage on my skin. And so these, some of these images that flash on the screen, they're so important but there's no context around it. So when you see it like you just like can't map to what it really is saying, but they're really significant markers about the biology of aging.

Brian, Brian, do we really believe that.

He went from being old to young? I don't.

If I had $400 million, I wouldn't be doing what you're doing.

This is not an accessible met of reversing the effects of aging.

This guy's in his own Fucking world. It's not really reality.

So it's. The reactions that I've gotten are so funny. And that's a pretty good collection where you get people like, crazy out of his mind. He's in his own world. I don't believe the science. It's really a good collection. It's like from my vantage point in the world, the flood of responses have just been everywhere. People don't know how to process this information. So they just give these like, blah emotional responses for like, hate it bad. No. So they're just like making these really like grunts of like. So I had a whole body MRI recently and I'm in the 99th percentile for optimal for both muscle and fat across my entire body. Have you ever been this in shape before? No, never in my life. I've had a problem most my life. Overeating and being overweight. Like, the inability to actually control what I eat. I've always been pretty good at exercising, but I've always ate too much food and the wrong kind of food. And in this moment, I think I'm feeling into this feeling of like, I'm healthy, I'm into it. I have a rhythm and I have strength. Like, I don't feel like I'm just vacillating day to day on knowing whether I'm going to binge or not. Like, really sinking into it. Feels amazing to be in good health. Like, it's just the best.

When I first met Brian, I was not healthy. And we started talking about the philosophy of blueprint. And all of a sudden I was like, okay, when I laugh about not being fit and not being able to exercise and that kind of stuff, I'm kind of laughing in the face of my future self. So it was a huge wake up call for me. Now here I am, like the other person behind this mission.

Kate is like the person behind the scenes that has been a driver of so much of the success of this project. And no one knows about her. I think you all would benefit from getting to know her. She's like the kind of person, we all know these people in our lives, the kind of person that can do anything. She was one who said, hey, we should probably put this online and make this an open experiment and just let people follow along. Like, that's the way we should, like, roll this out into the world. And so Kate is a wonderful human. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with her. The protocols, the measurements, the recipes, the supplements. We published it all on my website. And this journalist I knew, Ashley Vance, saw this and expressed interest in doing a profile on Blueprint.

Brian put all of his stuff online. I was like, all right, this guy's somewhere between off and, like, very interesting.

The night before the article went live on Bloomberg, Ashley had done some fact checking. There were a few things that were uncomfortable in there. For example, like, he had this piece about my father, that my father had some challenges when I was a kid, including drug use and other things, and he wasn't present. I had never been public about that. And so that was just like, this huge thing. Myself with my dad, I'd covered other elements of the story around my. Everything I was doing medically, and I just hadn't been public. I mean, we put these on the website, but not in a publication of that status. And so I just had no idea how the world would view it. And I wondered if this went out, if it was going to be, like, going to crush my reputation and the situation. And so the night before it came out, I was like, what have we done? Like, this is such a bad idea. Like, we should never have gone through a big publication. It's better to kind of be quiet. And so going to bed that night, I thought, I think it's probably bad. Turned out to be great. But it was a really big shift in my thinking of what could be shared, how it could be shared. Like, it changed my. The aperture of how I understood what could be shared. And everything I thought that I was worried about was, like, it worked. So that was like, a big moment for me of encouraging me to be open and even more open with everything you want to share. Even if the energy is bad, you know, negative. It doesn't matter if it's negative or positive. Doesn't matter. Just share and get the energy. And so that was a big turning point for me to build my intuitions, like, how to build this thing. Think a little more. Yeah, I think I just need a little bit of angle. Oh, this scene, the nudes.

Yeah.

So we're doing another test.

I'm in my living room naked.

Wow, that's so shocking.

Yeah. Hopefully it captures a new zeitgeist that we're after. Damage. My poor son, he comes home and he never knows what's gonna be happening here. Like, that is so wacky, you know, like, in any time of my life, if you would have told me I would be naked in my front room with my coworkers present and somebody taking pictures of me, I would not have believed you. That is not in my future. But, like, there I am. And, like, Fully into it. So, like, just the wildness, like, once it went viral and we're just like, let's play. And this goes back to think of, like, what can you say? Like, how far can you push things? We were playing with, you know, like, nudity of, like, we're showing, like, basically, it's like, I'm posting my biomarkers, I'm sharing my data. Like, this is, like, on display. And so my son is there. And, like, in any circumstance, like, I don't know many parents that would imagine a household environment where there's nakedness. But Talmadge, I don't know, he just became cool, and he was like, dad, do you. That's fine. Today is an exciting day because how many schools did you apply to? 15. How many schools have rendered their decisions? 12, not including today. Yeah. So this is the last. And then now you're going to have all the information you need to make a decision on what college you're gonna go to. And you're gonna leave me in five months. Yeah. It was such a heartbreaking situation where I got my son and then I was going to lose my son. And in that moment, part of me cringes about myself because I'm like, I'm talking to Talmadge about his future life, and it's kind of lame for me to bring in my emotions. You know, I want to be focused on his future and his college experience. And instead I'm like, I'm going to be lonely. So, like, part of me is like, come on, man, get your together and focus on your child. I was a cute kid from when he was young.

Brian was a problem solver. When he was in junior high, he knew that we didn't have very much money. And so there's times, like, when Brian would not eat lunch and contribute his lunch money. He was always coming up with something to help the family.

Yeah. The story my mom is talking about here is that we really didn't have any money. We were really poor. My parents were divorced. I don't think my mom was getting child support. She was making my clothes. So I knew this. I was in, like, fourth grade, and I went to the lunch lady and I was like, hey, I'll make you a deal. I'll clean the tables off in the cafeteria in exchange for some leftover food. And that way I didn't have to cash my mom's check, which was for $25 for the month, for the food. So I really felt this deep responsibility to my family to do whatever I could to make sure we had to meet. Like, I. My mom worked very, very hard for the family and I didn't want her to have the pressure of like, undue financial burden. So I was trying to do my part.

At some point, Brian took a job at a sandwich shop, but that was short lived. Brian said that he would never work for anybody ever again. You know, that kind of, I'm going to do it by myself.

We had a lot of conversations about this where my dad was always encouraging me, like, get a job, get a stable income because he's a lawyer. Like, you know, he had like a stable structure where you go out and you bill hours to clients. And I was like, dad, that's just not me. I can't do it. He never. It was such a hard concept for him to understand. So it was a social norm that an entrepreneur would go days without sleeping. And if you told that story, people would be in awe and there would be mythology about you. Like, amazing that they did this. Now I view this as totally foolish. Yeah. What, what's really going on behind the scenes? Also, it was a lack of sleep. Yes. It was also building a startup, which is chaotic. There's just fires all the time. There's always so much happening. Also, I was depressed. Also I was having challenges with my partner. Also I was trying to leave the Mormon church. And so it was like five major emergencies in my life happening at the exact same time. And when you're not well rested, everything feels so much heavier. I was miserable.

I remember one particular visit. He didn't say too much, but at the end I could tell that he. It was a really difficult time for him.

Moms know.

And when he left, I cried.

Yeah. You know, moms have a special power of knowing. I mean, dads too. But I guess with my mom, she just was so in touch with my emotions. And I think my mom felt that it was like a really, really tough time. I would come home from church, I would lay on my bed. My son at the time, who was seven years old, he would sense something was wrong and he came up and he would rub my back and I was not able to even move. Yeah, I, I told my father about this, that when Sundays would happen, I would physically get ill. And then when I would go to church, I would break out into a cold sweat. I was so beat down by the experience. You know, I didn't even know that I had that footage as part of the documentary. Again, this was arm's length. The director shot what they, they told whatever story they wanted they could have done anything. And that was the deal. I had no say. Also, I provided them a whole bunch of footage I had, and somehow this footage was in there, and they saw it, and so I told the story, and I was shocked. I'm so happy I have this. I mean, that really was the moment that captures where I was. I didn't think I had any footage. So that was a really pleasant surprise.

When Brian decided to leave the church, it was very heartbreaking for me, and I had to go through a process.

Of.

Thinking about the person he is and thinking about what he's doing with his life to find peace.

What's happening here is that my mom is pretty impressive. She grew up deeply religious. Our entire lives were revolved around religion. Like, we. Everything you are and do and think about is religion. Like, you're just consumed by it. And so when I left, it was like her life's work was being ruined. And she went through this reconciliation process where she actually became okay with it and carried on as my mom. She didn't hold it against me. She didn't make any snide remarks. She wasn't cynical. She wasn't sarcastic. She was just my wonderful mother.

Family is a fundamental teaching of Mormonism. And when my dad left the religion, it felt like it was violating that teaching and that we couldn't be a family anymore.

When Talmad says this, it resonates because I experienced the same thing. My father and mother got a divorce when I was three years old. My father left the church. He never came back. You lose your father status, like, you can no longer. The child's no longer going to come to you and say, I have this life problem. Can you help me think it through? Like, you're not qualified anymore. You're not the authority in their lives. And so that's what happened. That's why it was so biting and so severe, is I'm this incredibly engaged dad. Like, I'm everywhere with the children every day, and then I leave the church and it's like, it's cut. I no longer have the authority with them. And that is very painful. And, you know, I. I worked very hard for, like, a decade trying to, like, get back into their lives. And Talmadge was the only child of the three that was like, okay, like, I'm open to this.

So prior to moving to California, I was in Mormonism. But ever since I was young, it had never really been my thing. Over the years, me and my siblings would visit my dad periodically, and I started to let my dad in a bit. He just saw me so clearly. He knew the situation I was in.

Talmadge and I always had almost like six sense relationship where we just felt each other in ways that we couldn't quite speak to. This is the moment where we really connected. He was 14 at the time. This is the supplement warehouse.

He's taking hundreds of different interventions and that means it's very, very hard to identify which, if any, of them are working. What you really need to do is a clinical trial where you get thousands of people, not just one, and you give them all the same intervention at the same dose.

Yeah, I mean, this is like part of the. You need to balance out these documentaries to include criticism. And that's one from the scientific community where the first thing you hear from scientists is like, oh, not viable at all. Because like they just want to on it not. We all know from our personal life experiences that when you do blood work and you find you're deficient in vitamin D and you take vitamin D, you can fix your deficiency and that changes how you feel. And so they blow this thing out of proportion. That it's ridiculous and not scientific. We know from our personal life experiences it can be.

A lot of people are clearly very interested in anti aging. We're all aging. We all probably like to know how to slow it down at least a little bit. Brian Johnson, if you look at the media that he's doing himself, he's clearly intending to reach as many people as possible. The real question is, what's his motivation?

What is my motivation? Like, this is such a funny statement of like, people see this and they're like, okay, how can I peg him with like bad intentions? Like, he's a grifter. He just wants attention. He didn't get, like, they go down these paths. I just want to put the world in a better place. Like, I want us to succeed as a species. I have plenty of money. I do not need to be doing this at all. Like this. It's a real pain in the ass. I actually hate the food business. It's like the worst. And I'm doing it. And it is not a grift.

It is my personal opinion that Brian Johnson is a grifter who, regardless of whether or not he actually believes he's going to live forever and is absolutely trying to make a quick buck off of people who are terrified of the idea of death and who have more money than common sense.

Okay, what do I say? It's just really kind of sad, actually. She doesn't know Me, she doesn't understand context. She doesn't understand what is happening. And then she makes these sweeping statements. She has some effect in changing people's opinion, and there's no penalty for doing that. She just says that now, over time, people kind of decide collectively. But we will evolve out of this. We will look back at this time and see that as insane primitiveness like that. A human would just spout off and say all these statements that are not true. And then the damage that's caused by doing that. It happens, of course, everywhere in society. Morning rituals that Talmadge and I have together. It's a big part of our lives. What do you think? But soon Talmad will be doing this in his dorm in Chicago. I will be here by myself. One thing I shared about Talmadj, and so in this scene, we're talking about our routine. And one thing I shared publicly, which Talmadge and I do, which gives more context to. To this, is that in the morning, we don't speak to each other because we both wake up and we've had a great night's sleep, and we're thinking about stuff we want to think about, and we get in deep thought. And the moment you say, good morning, how. How are you doing? It wrecks your train of thought. You have to emotionally then get back and be like, all right, I'm great. Good morning. How are you? And you have this exchange of small talk, and both of you get derailed. And so we called it a truce and said, no talking. We will speak after, like in the early afternoon when we've both had our morning routines and we've gone through our. Our thought processes. So a lot of people feel strain in those kinds of relationships and small talk, and they just never address it where Talmage and I just address it, and it's just beautiful. So we will be in the same space, not interact. Anti aging fanatic who spends more than $2 million per year to retain youth. Can I just say anti aging fanatic. Can it be like the guy who goes to bed on time, eats his vegetables, exercises. He also did some plasma exchange, right? Like, if we just put this into context that a fanatic is someone who has these basic life practices. Just calling this out as, like, cultural awareness.

PSA youth uses TN sun as quote blood boy, Bruh.

His son needs to watch out right now.

His son needs to run. Oh, the diddy mills up. Yeah. Okay. Some of the comments in the Daily Mail. What a weirdo. Disgusting and satanic. What a waste of time. Oh, humanity's so great. So this is the thing that when the hate started pouring in, I never actually engaged with hate. I never had hate in my life. And then this happened, and it went from 0 to 100 overnight. And I don't know why. I just love hate. When I was younger, my father went through some difficult times with professional challenges and drugs.

His mom and I separated and got a divorce.

Just want to say, shout out to my dad for being transparent. That is very hard to do. And when you're at fault in life and you want to cover it up, that's the inclination. Nobody wants their skeletons to be out on display. Good job, dad. He got arrested when I was 22, and I went and saw him in jail, and that was a moment for him.

Guess who came to see his dad? And words of judgment like, God, dad, clean up your act. No, you can do it, dad.

That gets me every time. The first time I saw that, I just broke down and cried. I remember so vividly visiting him in prison. The phone, the, you know, the plexiglass in between us, him and the prison clothes and what he. What he had, how he looked on his face, what he sounded like, what he said to me. It's so clear in my mind. Yeah, my. My father gag. He's messed up. But I suppose if you put yourself in his shoes, everybody kind of evaporated from his life. Like in his moment of biggest need, no one was present. And that must feel awful.

Me being at that point and being at this point, I mean, have Brian holding on to me having Talmadge. What could be a better statement of reconciliation?

Love you, dad.

Love you.

What a great experience. You feel the love.

After this experience, my father mentioned to me that he was okay to die. That he felt such a deep level of reconciliation in doing this, that it had just been building up in him inside, and he'd never had a release valve. Maybe that's in part why he was able to turn his health around so dramatically. He was in a state of very serious cognitive decline. That's why I did it with him, is that he. He was in a bad spot and he was panicking. He knew it. It's now been a year and a half, and he just bounced back so hard.

Ryan is a complicated person, and I remember we had a conversation with some concerns. Am I ever going to find someone that would really fit with me? Realizing that he was quite unique, I.

Guess I just kind of stumbled through social attractions, and my first girlfriend, after getting a divorce, has ended up in a pretty ugly Lawsuit.

Ah, that's a cool headline. Tech mogul Brian Johnson, who spends 2.

Million a year for 18 year old.

Body, cheated and dumped fiance after she got breast cancer.

This is what I'm talking about. So I got extorted for $9 million. And so just so you know, when you're in this situation, the other side can say whatever they want. They don't need to show proof, they don't need to have evidence. They nothing. And then when people say stuff, headlines, pick it up and they publish it. And then people read the headlines and they think, oh, my God. And so this was extraordinarily painful. What do I do? Do I pay the $9 million or do I fight this? And I was on a call with all my attorneys and everybody was like, just pay up. And I said, I'm not going to do it. I know this is going to be complicated and it's going to damage my reputation and people are not going to be able to discern what is true and what is not, but I'm definitely not going to do this. And so I fought it and I spent two years. If you've ever been through any kind of legal proceeding, it is awful. Like the worst. You don't want to do it. It just gets so messy and. But I won. So we just won the entire thing. So it was just a hugely complicated, expensive win. But I won. So it was very painful. And this is like where I've reconsidered dating. It's like, clearly that was the motive, you know, money. And it just took a while for that to come out. I've always been the talmage whisperer. From the moment he came out of the womb, I was the one who could quiet him. I settle him, and it was just my little talmage. And this week, he's ready to go. Hi, mister. Oh, my God. I die. I'm dead. That face, that little tooth that was loose. Oh, man, we've worked on that tooth so hard. Oh, he's the cutest kid. That's like the best life has to offer. Talmadge, Happy college prep day. Do we have a starting plan? Are we going to kitchen stuff first? Are we following you around? Are we engaged in the process? Do you know what you're going to do? I just want to say, like, I'm worthless on, like, these kinds of things. Like is better. I'm not present. I just make things worse. When I'm pulled into that world of, like, needing to be functionally useful, I'm pathetic. And so I think here in this day, I was very pathetic. Probably there for emotional support, but didn't help the cause very much. Why am I crying in Target? That was such a moment. That entire day, I was so filled with emotion, and it was gonna burst out. And I was doing my very best to keep my game face on. We walk by this toy aisle, and all these memories flash back to being out in the yard with Talmadge and playing games and wrestling. And kids are just, like, so spectacular. Like, the moments you share with them, you know, when they're, like, trying to figure out the world and you're their source of truth and helping them understand reality, and then they're just open to play and to, like, just imagine and dream and say the funniest things. And, yeah, it just all came crashing in. And, yeah, I just have so much joy as a father. Hey, what's up, friends? Today is don't die. Hike number four. It was less than two months ago that I messaged out on social media, hey, I'm going on a hike. Join me. And I had 11 people today. There's over 400 people. Oh, my goodness, is a lot of cars. Wow. Wait, there's more people that. This is what? This is crazy. That moment was something else. Because it's, like, one thing for people to talk about something online or for something to go viral or for headlines to be written. It's entirely a different thing for people to go somewhere in life, like, to be present. And showing up that day was the first moment where I was like, this is real. This is big. This has energy. I was so taken back by the number of people there and their enthusiasm and that. Everybody you. You spoke to, there was an amazing person, you know, talented and accomplished and kind and thoughtful. Everybody was saying, like, what. What is. What is this? It was like this new community that was forming, so that was, like, one of the best days ever. And this is also, like, you know, Talmud just off the school. But now I'm, like, back into maniacal land of, like, I see one thing in existence, and it's building this. And so great moment.

I think I see him now almost as like a philosopher. I mean, he's sort of trying to prove a point.

Okay, cool.

It's this, like, don't die thing, which I really thought was sort of a joke as I saw this evolving. But there is some merit, I think, whether you believe in Brian or what he's doing or not. It's an interesting question to ask if society has just taken a wrong turn. I think it drives some people Crazy. And it inspires others.

I think Ashley's. I've known Ashley now for nearly 10 years. And so he has seen me through all the evolutions from building my brain interface company Kernel, through investing in deep tech, through, through starting blueprint and then building Don't Die. And so it's interesting. I hadn't, you know, I wasn't familiar with any of his observations. He had never told me what he thinks. And so to hear him explain the various complicated emotions and observations he's had about me even being as close as he is to me of trying to assess, like, what is this? And is Brian genuine? And it's like he's really trying to tease out, like, what is real. Like, finally I think he sees me like, this is not a bit. I'm not playing around. I really do believe this. And my heart and soul is into it. There's no guile here at all.

You know, people just two lifetimes ago not having an anesthetic or an antibiotic and, you know, we look back and we go, jeez, that's horrendous. When it happens, though, it's completely a product of what we do, how much effort and money and energy we put into this to create a movement of people utterly engaged in keeping people healthy.

As long as possible. Yeah. I mean, with all soberness, that's what I would honestly want each of you to understand is that in any point in time, the future is incomprehensible to people who exist. The whatever is going to happen in 2050 is incomprehensible to our current minds. And the, the speed at which technology is progressing, that's probably true for 2030, just five years from now that we won't even be able to understand our 2025 selves from the perspective of 2030. In the moment when you try to digest don't die and you see these things, you're like, this is weird. It's out of status quo. This guy is like off his rocker. You move through time and it's like, of course that's correct. And that's my thesis.

I have never seen him happier than he is now. And just think about that. When you're content with who you are and you're engaged in a project that is everything that you want to do, doesn't that set up as a happy place?

To hear him say to me, I've never been happier in my life, I think releases me from worry, knowing that he can go on like this.

I'm grateful that I stuck it through that I now am in this situation. I've never legitimately been more fulfilled or more at peace or more okay with existence than I am now. Like, I'm just good under all circumstances. And that has not been the case. Like, life is so wild and it's very painful to be human. Like, so much of the time is so painful for so many reasons. Like, we make our own lives miserable and we sometimes, like, we deal through all the misery and we pop our heads up and we get to experience these moments of joy. But it's just really, really hard all the time. And I, I am genuinely happier than I ever have been in my entire life. So thanks for hanging out with me. I hope again, I hope that it hit for you on different levels. Definitely. Like, I really enjoyed this because it allowed me to revisit these things which I haven't done in quite some time. So.