Four thousand years old, the Epic of Gilgamesh tells the tale of a search for eternal life. It is the oldest surviving literary epic, a thousand years before the Old Testament or Homer. The search for an elixir of youth, a Philosopher's Stone, has echoed through the centuries and across cultures. Chinese emperors died taking such potions, while the English King Charles II and Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf hastened their deaths. But these attempts were widely mocked. Even in the Gilgamesh story, the search for the elixir fails. The winning view has been that the search for immortality is no more than a fantastical goose chase. But many now claim that science can radically extend life. Mouse lifespans have been elongated 40% by removing 'senescent cells'. Some go as far as claiming that death itself could be permanently postponed.

Might ageing be a dIsease we can overcome? Are recent scientific studies evidence that life can be extended indefinitely? Or should we mock such claims as an ancient human desire that is not only impossible, but as Swift argued in Gulliver's Travels, is not even desirable?

Prophet of immortality, joining us from California, Bryan Johnson, longevity pioneer Aubrey de Grey, liberalism's greatest critic John Gray, and multi-NYT bestselling Sarah Wilson debate overcoming death.