#28 These rats don't age - here's why | Prof. Rochelle Buffenstein

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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Show notes for this episode will be available soon after this airs. Sign up for the LEVITY newsletter to get them straight to your inbox: reachlevity.com

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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