If you’re wondering what this is about, a world-famous millionaire CEO, who refuses to die and shot to fame (he has a Netflix show) with his claims of ageing in reverse, visited India in December and left a podcast mid-way due to pollution. He also wondered why battling pollution is not our national priority since babies are being exposed to such toxic air since birth. Before some of you start bashing the foreigner for trying to tell us what to do instead of looking inwards, read on.

Credit: Instagram/nikhilkamath

Bryan Johnson, the 47-year old tech giant was here for Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath's podcast that he had to leave due to the poor air quality in the recording room. He stated that he felt a burning sensation in his throat and eyes and experienced rashes on the skin. How bad was it though? The room’s AQI was 130, and PM2.5 levels stood at 75 µg/m³— equivalent to smoking 3.4 cigarettes over 24 hours. As explained by an X user in his tweet, the shoot was taking place at a five-star hotel with air purifiers. In fact, he was wearing a N95 mask, too. And yet, he couldn’t endure it.

Let this sink in

Bryan Johnson visited #India for the first time to record a podcast with Nikhil Kamath. During the shoot, which took place at a five-star hotel with an air purifier, he wore an N95 mask. Despite these, he left midway, unable to endure the room’s AQI, around 120.

— Ravi Prakash Kumar (@RaviPksThakur) February 3, 2025

 Credit: X/RaviPksThakur

Before you take a dig at him for being too sensitive, remember this is science. It does not care about your ethnicity and moreover, it does not care about the resistance or immunity you’ve built over the years against germs or viruses because it’s pollution and you don’t get used to it!

Let’s go back to study more about Bryan Johnson’s experience. Trust me you’d feel what I’m feeling. All this pollution has blurred our vision and we’ve become oblivious to this life-threatening danger that we’re literally inhaling 24*7.

He shares in a tweet on X that he actually had to leave mid-way because the air-purifier he was carrying was rendered ineffective and since it was his third day in India, the pollution had made his skin break out rash and his eyes and throat burn.

Credit: Instagram/bryanjohnson_

“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. Inside, the AQI was 130 and PM2.5 was 75 µg/m³, which is equal to smoking 3.4 cigarettes for 24 hours of exposure. This was my third day in India and the air pollution had made my skin break out in rash and my eyes and throat burn. (sic),” he wrote on X.

He didn’t just share his experience but also opined that cleaning up the air would do more good to the health of our population than curing cancer. He pointed out how air pollution has been noramlised here. Johnson was surprised after knowing India not announcing a “national emergency” over its declining air quality.

Credit: X/bryan_johnson

“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. The evidence shows that India would improve the health of its population more by cleaning up air quality than by curing all cancers. 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.”

Credit: Instagram/bryanjohnson_

Bryan then compares India’s air quality crisis with America’s obesity problem and says that upon his return to the US, he could finally see the problem of obesity which had been normalised to him.

“When I returned to the U.S., my eyes were fresh to see what is normalized to me. I saw obesity everywhere. 42.4% of American are obese and because I was around it all the time, I had been mostly oblivious to it. In many contexts, obesity is worse than air pollution in the long term. Why wouldn't American leaders declare a national emergency on obesity? What interests, money and power keep things the way they are but are really bad for the entire country,” his tweet read.

Credit: Netflix

The 46-year-old is a former Silicon Valley CEO who claimed that he has reversed his epigenetic age by 5.1 years through an anti-ageing regime on which he spends more than $2 million every year. In this episode of WTF is Podcast, Nikhil Kamath, in addition to Brayn Johnson, invited Prashanth Prakash, Founding Partner of Accel Partners, and Jitendra Chouksey, founder of FITTR.