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Bryan Johnson walks out of Nikhil Kamath’s podcast
Biotech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, known for his ‘age-reversing’ experiments, recently walked out of Nikhil Kamath’s podcast. The reason for his shocking behaviour? India’s air pollution.
Johnson wore a face mask while appearing in the podcast and joked about the air. When a surprised Kamath asked him how bad it was, the “age-reversing” CEO said, “I can’t see you over there.”
And then he walked out of Nikhil Kamath’s podcast surprising everyone in the room.
Johnson tweets why he walked out of Nikhil Kamath’s podcast
Johnson, who had travelled to India, took to social media platform X and explained why he left the recording midway.
“The problem was that the room we were in circulated outside air, which made the air purifier I’d brought with me ineffective,” Johnson reasoned.
According to the American entrepreneur, the recording room’s Air Quality Index (AQI) was 130, with PM2.5 levels at 75 µg/m³ — roughly equivalent to smoking 3.4 cigarettes a day.
“This was my third day in India, and the air pollution had made my skin break out in a rash and my eyes and throat burn,” Johnson said.
When in India, I did end this podcast early due to the bad air quality. @nikhilkamathcio was a gracious host and we were having a great time. The problem was that the room we were in circulated outside air which made the air purifier I'd brought with me ineffective.
— Bryan Johnson /dd (@bryan_johnson) February 3, 2025
Inside,… https://t.co/xTkpW567Xv
“Air pollution has been so normalized in India that no one even notices anymore despite the science of its negative effects being well known. People would be outside running. Babies and small children exposed from birth. No one wore a mask which can significantly decrease exposure. It was so confusing,” he added.
“The evidence shows that India would improve the health of its population more by cleaning up air quality than by curing all cancers,” he shared in his post.
“I am unsure why India’s leaders do not make air quality a national emergency. I don’t know what interests, money, and power keep things the way they are, but it’s really bad for the entire country,” the Biotech entrepreneur added.
Johnson remarked that the experience gave him a fresh perspective. “When I returned to the U.S., my eyes were fresh to see what is normalised to me. I saw obesity everywhere. 42.4% of Americans are obese, and because I was around it all the time, I had been mostly oblivious to it.”
According to the American venture capitalist, the obesity problem in the US is similar to the air pollution issue in India and added that such a crisis deserves urgent attention by national leaders.
Bryan Johnson’s post went viral with over a million views. Netizens have different reactions to his post but most admitted India needs to act immediately to lower the level of air pollution.
One X user commented, “I am glad Bryan is openly talking about this !! The problem is that, instead of acknowledging this elephant in the room and trying to solve for it, Bryan will be labelled as an anti-India propaganda by the west …”
Another individual said, “You could have chosen North East or HP or Kashmir for the podcast. The country has its issues but there are places where AQI is much better.”
While another remarked, “Gun crime in the US is likely going to end your life faster than AQI in India.”