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#244 Victor Vescovo – Solo Dive to the Titanic, Cloning Humans & Reviving Extinct Animals

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Oct 13, 2025

Guest

Victor Vescovo

Victor Vescovo is a retired U.S. Navy Reserve Commander and extreme explorer known for his deep-sea dives, including to the Titanic. He shares insights about the ethical implications of de-extinction, discussing technologies like Colossal, and the potential effects of human cloning and artificial wombs. Victor reflects on his exploration priorities, the logistics of warfare, and his investments in groundbreaking technologies. He also reveals his thrilling experiences discovering deep shipwrecks and new species thriving at ocean depths, along with future plans for ocean mapping.

02:25:35

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ANECDOTE

Trusted Timepiece On Every Expedition

Victor wore a titanium Omega Seamaster on every deep dive and even took it to space.
He treats an analog chronometer as critical survival equipment for submersibles in case electronics fail.

volunteer_activism

ADVICE

Accept Trade-offs, Prioritize Deliberately

Prioritize responsibilities because time is finite and choices have consequences.
Victor admits he prioritized career, military service, and exploration, and accepts trade-offs with family life.

insights

INSIGHT

Tooling Trumps The Trophy Animal

De-extinction's core value lies in the genetic tools developed, not the headline animals.
Those tools can conserve endangered species and enable large DNA edits across mammals.

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Victor's Signature Dive Watch and Survival Gear

01:08 • 4min

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How Exploration Shaped His Priorities

05:25 • 5min

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What Drives an Explorer?

10:35 • 2min

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Why He Invests in Tool-Building Ventures

12:27 • 2min

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Will We Ever De-Extinct Species Like Mammoths?

14:02 • 5min

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How Much Will De-Extincted Animals Resemble Originals?

18:37 • 5min

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Could Human Cloning and Artificial Wombs Happen?

23:12 • 2min

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From Stanford to Naval Intelligence: Educational Path

25:06 • 5min

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What Is War-Gaming and Its Insights?

30:12 • 2min

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What Determines Success in Warfare Beyond Pilots?

32:35 • 6min

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How His Investment Focus Evolved

39:01 • 3min

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Can Asteroid Mining and Shipbuilding Automation Scale?

41:39 • 3min

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How Stratospheric Airships Could Bridge Coverage Gaps

44:14 • 4min

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Why He Built and Sold a Deep Submersible

48:24 • 54sec

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Why Victor Opposes Deep-Sea Nodule Mining

49:18 • 12min

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Why Dive the Titanic?

01:01:06 • 14min

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What Was the Solo Titanic Dive Like?

01:14:42 • 7min

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What Went Wrong with the Titan Submersible?

01:21:19 • 2min

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How He Discovered the Deepest Shipwrecks

01:23:03 • 5min

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Why Reach the Deepest Points of All Oceans?

01:28:26 • 2min

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What New Species Live at Trench Depths?

01:30:44 • 12min

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What Are Brine Lakes Underwater Like?

01:43:12 • 5min

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How He Shared Deep-Sea Access with Scientists

01:47:44 • 2min

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Could We Find Atlantis or UAP Evidence Underwater?

01:49:18 • 4min

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How the Grand Slam and Polar Expeditions Compare

01:53:10 • 9min

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What Is Spaceflight Like Compared to Other Adventures?

02:02:17 • 5min

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What Does He Believe About Death and Spirituality?

02:06:50 • 4min

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How Flying and Military Service Shaped His Approach

02:11:02 • 1min

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What’s Next: Ocean Mapping Vessel and New Submersibles

• Mentioned in 32 episodes

2001

A Space Odyssey

Arthur C. Clarke

2001: A Space Odyssey is a seminal science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke, developed in collaboration with Stanley Kubrick's film version. The story spans millions of years, from the influence of aliens on early human ancestors to a mission to Saturn, exploring themes of technological advancement, human evolution, and existential questions about humanity's place in the universe.

#54

• Mentioned in 174 episodes

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

Written in 1931 and published in 1932, 'Brave New World' is a dystopian novel set in a futuristic World State where humans are bred in vitro and predestined into a rigid social hierarchy. The novel explores themes of technological advancement, social conditioning, and the loss of individuality and freedom. The story revolves around characters such as Bernard Marx, an Alpha who questions the society, Mustapha Mond, the World Controller, and John, a 'Savage' from a reservation who introduces elements of emotion and individuality into the highly controlled World State. The novel critiques the optimism of technological progress and its potential to create a society that values stability and happiness over humanity and freedom.

Victor L. Vescovo is a private investor with over thirty years of experience in a variety of complex business situations. He co-founded private equity firm Insight Equity in 2002 with his business partner, Ted Beneski and raised over $1.5 billion in equity capital across four funds. In 2023, he departed Insight in order to focus on his own investments with new capabilities to support industrial startups, life sciences, and other areas of venture capital and special situations.

Victor received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, a Master’s Degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and received an MBA from Harvard Business School where he graduated as a Baker Scholar. Additionally, Victor served 20 years in the U.S. Navy Reserve as an intelligence and targeting officer, retiring in 2013 as a Commander.

In 2017, Victor completed the “Explorer’s Grand Slam” which requires climbing the highest peak on all seven of the world’s continents including Mt. Everest and skiing at least 100 kilometers to the North and South Poles. He piloted the first repeated dives to the ocean’s deepest point, Challenger Deep, in the Pacific’s Mariana Trench - now fifteen times, and in August 2019 became the first person to visit “The Five Deeps,” the deepest point in all five of the world’s oceans. Victor has now personally explored the bottom of seventeen deep ocean trenches and has made three dives to the Titanic including the only solo dive ever made there. He and his team also discovered and surveyed the two deepest shipwrecks in the world: the USS Johnston in 2021 and the deepest, the USS Samuel B. Roberts at 22,600 feet, in 2022. In 2025, the US Navy announced that T-AGOS 26, a new ocean surveillance vessel of the Explorer class, would be named after him.

He is also a commercially rated, multi-engine jet, glider, seaplane, and helicopter pilot, a certified submersible test pilot, and recently flew into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, becoming the first person in history to climb Mount Everest, dive to the bottom of the ocean, and visit space.

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