There's about 100 members of the International
Olympic Committee. They're a self -perpetuating
aristocracy filled with European princes and
royalty, and it is a corruption machine. Numerous
members of the IOC are under active criminal
investigation right now. Russia has a long -standing
state -sponsored doping program, so much so that
they've effectively been kicked out of the Olympic
system for over a decade. China had 23 swimmers
who were found to have used banned substances,
yet this was covered up by the World Anti -Doping
Agency. 44 % of elite track and field athletes
admit themselves to using banned substances in
the last year and only one percent get caught
dr aaron de souza thank you for joining our show
Thanks for having me on the show. Of course.
I have a bunch of kids. One of them is a 23 -year
-old young man, and I was telling him about that
you were going to be on our show today, and he
said, wow, I would totally watch that Enhanced
Games, definitely over the Olympics. And everybody's
doping anyway in the first place. It's kind of
a scam. I bet that's a common refrain that you
hear all the time from people. Well, you know,
I like to base my arguments not on personal anecdotes,
but based on scientific evidence. And according
to research commissioned by the International
Olympic Committee and the World Anti -Doping
Agency, 44 % of elite track and field athletes
admit themselves to using banned substances in
the last year, and only 1 % get caught. And according
to World Athletics, up to 99 % of male athletes
have used EPO, which is a banned substance, at
some point in their career. So instead of doing
it in secret, let's do it all out in the open.
We know that. It's like a dirty little secret,
and entire countries are sponsoring doping as
well. Was it Russia and China? Yeah, Russia has
a longstanding state -sponsored doping program,
so much so that they've effectively been kicked
out of the Olympic system for over a decade.
And China had 23 swimmers who were found to have
used banned substances, yet this was covered
up by the World Anti -Doping Agency as not to
offend Chinese sponsors at the last Olympic Games.
So who owns the Olympics? I mean, that's like
one of those institutions that's been around,
we take it for granted, but we don't really ask,
like, who owns this? Is this a private institution?
It is effectively a private institution. So there's
about 100 members of the International Olympic
Committee. And logically, they would be elected
by Olympians. But in fact, they're not. They
are selected by themselves. They're a self -perpetuating
aristocracy filled with European princes and
royalty. And it is a corruption machine. Numerous
members of the IOC are under active criminal
investigation right now. And they make FIFA look
like saints. Here's the question for you. Who's
writing your story? You or some random dude on
the internet? If you're sick of Google, gossip
blogs, or that one angry ex controlling how the
world sees you, it's time to do something about
it. Your future self will thank you. And... I
can understand why they would want to keep the
Enhanced Games from ever seeing the light of
day. So what have they done to prevent you from
having success with your vision? And share your
vision as well. We might as well just share your
vision for those who aren't familiar with you
and the Enhanced Games and what you're trying
to create. Yeah, so we are creating a new version
of the Olympics, but for the future. one that
uses science and technology at its core, in particular
allowing performance enhancements so athletes
can reach new heights. Usain Bolt's 100 -meter
world record is 16 years old. The mile world
record is 25 years old. And I think that is manifestly
disappointing because 25 years ago, we didn't
even have an iPhone. And I think that science
is marching forward. and human performance should
march forward. And so the IOC should have tried
to fight us a bit harder. We announced the concept
almost exactly two years ago today, and we were
a fledgling little startup for a long time there.
And if they fought us then, they would have had
great success. But however, they ignored us,
which is probably a good measure for them. Late
last year, the Trump family invested in the enhanced
games. Donald Trump Jr.'s venture capital fund,
1789, let our series be. And this has created
a political quagmire for the IOC because the
L .A. 28 Olympics are three years away and they
need the support of the U .S. government. And
they're obviously deeply afraid about offending
President Trump and his family. So they tend
not to cause us much difficulty anymore. I personally
believe in doing whatever it takes so you can
be the best version of yourself. I like, I take
supplements, I have peptizers, super hot right
now, I take a couple of those things. I see no
harm in having a competitive athletic event where
people are taking things, as long as there's
safety involved in it to be the best. versus
themselves and outperform others. How do you
keep the safety going though? Like dosages? Let's
be very clear. The system of drug control that
was invented by the International Olympic Committee
is about fairness in competition. And in the
integrity of the competition, it's not about
athlete safety. And our system is about athlete
safety. So what we do... is that every athlete
who competes, whether they're natural or enhanced,
has to have a full system health checkup before
they compete. So that means an echocardiogram,
blood work, an MRI, and they have to have ongoing
clinical supervision. So we have the most comprehensive
scientific apparatus ever assembled in performance
medicine. We have a 38 -member scientific panel
chaired by Professor Dr. Guido Piles, who is
the chief doctor of FIFA. Professor George Church
from Harvard University, the chairman of genetics,
is one of the longest standing members of the
advisory panel. And I always emphasize that this
is a very rigorous scientific project because
ultimately we make money not by selling ticket
sales and media rights like a traditional sports
property. We make money by selling drugs. We
want to bring the next generation of performance
medicines to market. We look at drugs like Ozempic
and the GLP -1s, which have added a trillion
dollars to the market capitalization of their
owners. And we say this is the next big opportunity
in medicine. Why should we have to go to the
gym every day to be strong and healthy? Shouldn't
we be able to supplement that? with high -quality,
rigorous, safe performance medicine. So this
show is all about cancellation. You had this
idea, and at what point did you start to feel
some pressure from outsiders, third parties,
that wanted to make sure that your idea was not
going to be successful? Once you first get a
whiff of that. So for your readers or your listeners,
I should say, who don't know about my background.
So I'm a lawyer by training. I have a PhD in
intellectual property law, and I have a law degree
from the University of Oxford. After Oxford,
I led Peter Thiel's litigation against Gawker
Media involving the wrestler Hulk Hogan, where
we won the largest invasion of privacy judgment
in history. I've built 10 companies, including
some of them. some very successful businesses
in funds management and in venture capital. When
I launched the Enhanced Games, everyone told
me, Aaron, you're going to burn your entire professional
reputation. No one will ever hire you ever again
after announcing something so audacious and so
crazy. But I knew that I was burning my professional
reputation by launching the Enhanced Games. And
I said to my assistant, you know when we were
about to press go on the first press release
that i was torching something that i had worked
so hard to develop for 20 years however the most
instructive conversation i've had in the last
decade is with the nobel peace prize winner maria
russo she is a filipino activist who used social
media to fight the dictator robert duterte and
she said to understand the world you have to
understand just one thing which is social media.
To understand social media, you only need to
understand one fact, which is that controversy
travels nine times faster than truth. The ideas
that go the most viral are those that are controversial,
they're thought -provoking. I knew on the 23rd
of June, 2023, when we launched the concept of
the Enhanced Games, that I was torching my professional
reputation. But within 24 hours, I was validated
because journalists were starting to reach out.
They were starting to ask questions about what
we were doing. And then it went viral. 600 news
articles within a week. Venture capitalists started
lining up to throw money at the project. And
every time someone criticized us, it created
more attention and more attention that drove
more virality and has led to the success that
we have today. Because ultimately, sports is
an attention gathering machine. And the more
attention we can get, the more validation we
have and the more revenue we generate. But they're
coming after you. It's not even the game so much.
They're vilifying you as maybe a dangerous proselytizer
or something like that. They're coming after
you personally. No? Yes, but ultimately, the
reason I picked this market structure to compete
in, you know, I'm a professional entrepreneur.
I built 10 companies is because the opposition
is undefendable. No one can stand up and say,
you know, the International Olympic Committee
are a bunch of really great people. Like they're
really effective at their work. No, there are
a bunch of criminals who have bankrupted country
and city after city. They've exploited athletes
for generation. um and it's deeply problematic
on so many levels so you know it's not like i
was going against um uh you know unicorns or
public libraries right uh these this is a really
bad institution uh and very hard to morally defend
and so you know i think of it's like they're
the taxicabs and we're uber uh they're blockbuster
and we're netflix and yes a lot of people love
blockbuster right But the taxicabs were completely
undefendable, an entrenched monopoly that was
exploitative to the drivers, to citizens, to
users. And Uber created something better. That's
why they're a $200 billion company today. Yeah,
the Uber example is really apropos. You know,
Travis Kovanec, he was probably perfect for the
job. I mean, I know he was a... The way he built
that company was just brass knuckles. And I think
that in hindsight is probably was exactly what
needed to be done. Yeah. And so I've known Travis
for a long time and I was an advisor to Uber
just as they were launching in London. Right.
So this is the first international expansion.
And one thing that was really insightful about
the Uber launch was that they loved getting sued
because every time they got sued, it generated
more attention. which caused more downloads of
the app and also associated the Uber name with
ride sharing. So city council members and corrupt
taxi unionists would come out and say Uber is
the worst thing ever. And that just built their
brand. And it was a user acquisition strategy.
obviously travis didn't admit this to like well
after the ipo uh but you know he was threatened
personally with a 15 000 year prison sentence
by the city of new york and let's think about
this think about how how crazy the idea of uber
is like we take it as for granted today but it
was like you used the internet to call a car
and you would literally get in a stranger's car
instead of getting into a safe government -regulated
yellow taxi cab. Airbnb is an even crazier example.
Instead of staying at a wonderful, nice Ritz
-Carlton hotel, you'll sleep in someone else's
house, maybe even while they're there. The idea
of Airbnb, in particular for women, is an outrageous
concept, and that's how far our culture has shifted.
And so, yes, today it may be controversial. the
idea of human enhancement. But I think in a few
years time, we'll just take it for granted. You
know, you walk down Miami Beach, Rodeo Drive
in Beverly Hills or Fifth Avenue here in New
York. Everyone is enhanced and we are aging differently.
And this is just a cultural change that needs
to be recognized. And it's one that, you know,
of course, I recognize maybe a little bit earlier
than most. And now that. We're building the games.
We're showing that aging is a disease that we
can treat, cure, and eventually solve. I'm totally
on board. My wife and I actually have a 15 ,000
square foot wellness clinic in Miami with all
kinds of alternative modalities and the latest
in stem cells and peptides. And we have a lot
of athletes who are coming in and recovering.
I'm doing rehab and so on. And personally, I
love this stuff. I think I'm the healthiest that
I've ever been in my life. I'm 59, so I'm doing
okay. Yeah, you look great for 59. Yeah, thank
you, buddy. Yeah, appreciate it. You know, I
think it takes a special kind of person to do
what you're doing. I mean, I haven't met Travis,
but I can... Some people are up for the fight.
I'm also a serial entrepreneur as well, but I'm
not cut from the same cloth as you. I'm not a
fighter. You went into this the day that you
launched knowing I'm burning the boats and I
may have to fight and I may be ruining my career,
but I'm up for this. I believe in it so strongly.
I think what you're doing actually requires that
kind of mentality. Yeah, and the only causes
worth believing in are those worth dying for.
And if I, as the leader of this movement, don't
100 % believe in what we are doing, then why
would anyone else follow? And ultimately, the
best companies in the world aren't just businesses
designed to make more money. They're missions.
And I always say, no one is going to write on
their tombstone that they were a product manager
at Microsoft. But there will be lots of people
who will put the enhanced cross on their tombstone
because it is a sign that they believe in human
enhancement, that they are willing to take our
species to the next level. And so what is our
mission? If they even die. Yeah, if we die. Yeah,
we may not. And ultimately, our mission is to
create a world in which everyone has the opportunity
to live enhanced, where we can all become superhuman.
And I think that is comparable to the mission
of... of OpenAI to make artificial general intelligence
or Elon's mission to make humans interplanetary.
This is something that is worth dedicating your
whole life to. I built companies before. No one
is going to dedicate their whole life to building
DocuSign or an enterprise SaaS company. Work
should be meaningful and it should be a joy and
mission is the very core of creating that joy.
So I don't know if it's a flaw or not. The athletes
who are interested in participating in the enhanced
games, correct me if I'm wrong, their career
as a natural athlete is sort of past them, and
so they're past their prime, and then they get
involved with enhanced games in the hopes that
they can not only surpass their previous, personal
best, but actually a world record best. Is that
an issue? No, it's not actually because we've
proven that we can take an athlete who is a little
past their prime and break a world record. So
Christian Golomev of Greece broke the 50 freestyle
world record. It's the most important record
in swimming. He did this as an enhanced athlete
at age 31. That is 10 years past the prime. of
a competitive swimmer and he's not just faster
than his previous personal fast he's faster than
any athlete in human history beating a record
that it stood for 16 years and so i think the
greatest gift that we can give to the world is
not a 21 year old who can run a 10 -second 100
-meter, but it's rather a 40 -year -old or maybe
even a 50 -year -old who can run faster than
Usain Bolt. And imagine what that will do for
our society, because one of the most intractable
issues and the reason why the U .S. government
is in such a financial deficit is because of
entitlement spending in Social Security and Medicare.
We've increased lifespans so dramatically, but
the retirement age has not moved. It's been 65
forever. It's been 65 since Napoleon, an arbitrary
date picked over 300 years ago. And if a 65 -year
-old could run faster than Usain Bolt, what would
that do to our society? It would invite us to
introspect, like, should the idea of being a
senior citizen even be a thing anymore? Like
the Golden Girls, you know, for that TV show
from the 80s? They were in their 50s. I know.
Right? It's crazy to think about how that was
like the end of life. The golden era had begun.
And now we don't even, I won't even consider
50 middle -aged anymore. Yeah. Do you think that
Bobby Kennedy and HHS and his leadership there
is helpful to your cause at all politically?
Oh, yeah. Yes. Secretary Kennedy is a huge supporter
of human enhancement. He himself is an enhanced
human. He takes TRT. And that's why he has, you
know, amazing biceps and can do pull ups and,
you know, his posting videos to his Instagram,
working out shirtless, you know, when Joe Biden
couldn't even walk up a flight of stairs or maybe
not even was a cognizant human. And that's the
promise of performance medicine. Imagine being
in your 70s and maybe even into your 80s and
still being a productive and extraordinary member
of the workforce. And, you know, Secretary Kennedy
does very much recognize that human enhancements
may even become a necessary part of our medical
system because what does the government want?
The government wants citizens who are stronger.
more productive, and can pay taxes for longer.
And the central way to increase productivity
is through human enhancement. He's a friend of
mine, I'm proud to say, and I've been with him
in the gym, and he's my hero in so many ways,
but his physical fitness is, I mean, he just
turned 71, I believe, and he could peel off over
20 fairly clean pull -ups. It's unbelievable.
But at the root of it is hormone optimization.
And I believe that a multi -trillion dollar industry
is going to rise from human enhancement because
healthcare is extractive of all the profits of
capitalism. So basically all the activities of
our society are profit generative, whether it's
banking, technology, or even building schools
and freeways. And so where do those profits go?
They go to making us healthier. And that's why
America, the richest nation in the world, spends
18 % of GDP on healthcare. And eventually, we'll
realize that it's not just about making sick
people less sick. Healthcare should also be about
making ordinary people extraordinary. Because
why should you be old and debilitated at 70?
Or should you be doing 20 pull -ups? Should we
all be able to do 20 pull -ups at 70 like Secretary
Kennedy can? I'm on the same page. I mean, this
is like the hottest topic amongst my community
is, hey, have you looked at the peptides? Have
you looked at the stem cells? You know, it's
like where we're talking about all the time.
It's fun. Like this is like right now. It's happening
right now. Your timing couldn't be better probably
to talk about peak human performance. Yeah, I
think the... the convolution of social media.
Like we would not have been able to pull this
off without social media and that distribution
mechanism, the Trump administration, the optimism
about human enhancement technologies. And in
a few years time, we will all be faster and stronger
and younger for longer because there's been Because
of the enhanced games. And we will say, why did
it take so long? And it will be because there
was this corrupt group of Swiss bureaucrats who
were using drug control as a way of holding on
to their hundred billion dollar monopoly. You
know, the corrupt, supposedly corrupt institutions
like big pharma, big oil, big food, big telco,
just big sport in a way as well, you know. They're
huge. I imagine they're huge, international.
To go up against Big Pharma, for example, it's
like, you know, forget about it. They're so institutionalized.
How are you going to go against the IOC? They're
going to get in the way. They're going to cockblock
you probably, I assume, with network coverage.
in every which way. What's your plan to, you
can only almost predict the tactics that they
might use to make sure the Hentz games never
is successful? Well, we've politically checkmated
them, you know, with the Trump presidency and
the fact that the Trump family is investors of
ours, that has significantly curtailed one of
their strongest levers, which is political. I
would say the Olympics are powerful not because
they have all the athletes, it's because they
have all the politicians. And now we've aligned
the most important political family in the world
to our cause. So that's one element of it. Another
element is that their success is based on a legacy
business model, broadcast television. Our success
is based on social media. and i expect that by
the end of 2026 we will in fact generate more
revenue than the international olympic committee
uh just because we have a better business model
and we're run by smarter people uh in a new structure
you know you come to my office you will see you
know young graduates from mit and berkeley right
it's their first jobs it's a tech startup it
is not a legacy old politicized broken system
yes they're very powerful but it's you know ask
the question why has no one else done this before
it's a very simple idea there are lots of very
smart people who proposed an enhanced games most
notably most notably the oxford professor julian
saporescu he's a notable bioethicist but why
did no one turn it into a reality because at
the end of the day everyone who would have done
so probably was in the sports world They were
some kind of sports bureaucrat. That would be
the logical kind of person who would start a
competitor to the Olympics. I'm not in the sports
world at all. I'm an entrepreneur and investor.
And I just saw a broken market structure, just
as Travis saw with the taxi cabs or Brian Chesky
saw with hotels. And, you know, it's entirely
possible to build something better because we
live in the era of disruption. I agree. And,
you know, I was thinking, you know, so you're
going to focus on when you launch. It's in Las
Vegas next year. Yeah, May 2026. May 2026. It's
going to be swimming, weightlifting. What else?
Track. And track. In my opinion, what it's worth.
The weightlifting, I think that's a great area
to exploit because I kind of sense that. People
who do weightlifting might have already had a
lot of experience with performance enhancing
stuff in the first place. Yeah, the powerlifters
in particular are all enhanced. They love us.
There's no hiding that. And it's really fun to
watch a world record in weightlifting. So tell
us about your stable of athletes that have already
signed up or expressed interest. How are things
shipping up? Well, the average Olympian in the
United States only earns about $30 ,000 a year.
Yet the IOC president flies around the world
in a private jet and literally lives in a palace.
And so it's a highly unequal system. And that's
one of those things, one of the market structure
reasons why I thought it was so compelling to
disrupt. And so we're offering six -figure base
salaries to athletes. a million dollars for breaking
a major world record and so the economics are
really really compelling for the athletes and
so they're lining up uh you know we've signed
the current a world record holder in the 50 butterfly
we have olympic medalists world champions um
and they see this as a new opportunity to get
on the ground floor of of changing the world
and changing humanity writ large because this
isn't about creating the next version of the
olympics this is about creating the next version
of mankind right we're going to create humans
2 .0 and don't you want to be one the you know
original apollo astronauts the first to to land
on the moon, right? No one wants to be the hundredth
man who climbed Everest, right? You want to be
the first. And it takes that kind of heroic mindset.
If I'm going to die, I'm going to die on horseback
with a sword in my hand in the midst of battle,
right? Because that is a bold and honorable way
to go. And for all of human history, we have...
taking great risks to climb mountains, go to
the stars, explore the depths of the ocean. Why?
Because it shows us that humans are even greater
than we could have ever expected. And for athletes,
breaking world records is so important. And I
would point to the fact that no one watches Formula
2. Everyone watches F1. No one watches minor
league ball. Everyone watches major league ball.
Why is that? Because human beings were hardwired
to want to see only the best compete. And from
1896 until 1992, amateur athletes were the only
ones allowed to compete at the Olympics. Professionals
were banned. It was seen as ungentlemanly, against
the spirit of sport, etc. But it turned out that
professional athletes were just a lot better
than amateur athletes. And I think the same is
going to happen here. We want to see the very
best of human competition. Enhanced athletes?
are going to have longer careers they're going
to be faster they're going to be stronger they're
going to be higher performing and who's going
to want to then watch the old slow olympics and
athletes certainly want to won't want to come
compete in a second tier competition no one no
one has ever woken up and said you know my dream
in life is to be a formula 2 driver everyone
wants to be a formula one driver Right. And no
one's going to say, oh, yeah, I want to compete
at the natural Olympics. No, I just want to be
the fastest human that has ever existed. You
know, I remember I don't remember what year it
was, but the Olympics basketball, we the U .S.
assembled a dream team like 1992 Barcelona. And
it was like beating up a bunch of babies. Right.
It was like it wasn't even close, you know. Well,
so 1992 in Barcelona was the first year that
professional athletes were allowed to compete.
And that's why the US had the Dream Team, because
that's where all the professional basketball
players were. And they just wiped the floor with
absolutely everyone. It was a joke. And it changed
the entire structure of sports. And the fact
that the NCAA college athletes today are allowed
to be professional with NIL rights is a direct
consequence of the Dream Team in 1992. So along
the way, did you... Lose any friends or family.
Did you ever second -guess yourself like maybe
I've made a wrong decision here, you know Well,
you know building a startup is hard and You know
some days you wake up and you say wow I've had
to sacrifice a lot for this But you know it is
there have been some immense sacrifices along
the way. I had a very successful career as a
venture capitalist. I had a beautiful house in
London, a Ferrari in the garage, and I probably
should be there enjoying the fruits of many decades
of work. Instead, I'm working 14 hours a day
doing four or five media interviews and building
a whole new organization. But why am I doing
this? It's because I don't want to be old, feeble,
and disabled. I don't want to... age suffer and
die and i think i'm better placed to create the
market structure where we can significantly cure
aging than anyone else and so if i don't do this
and one day i will be old and i will regret not
not pursuing this because it will have a direct
benefit to myself and my long -term health and
so all the sacrifices that i have to make today
i think are justified for um uh for the future
for the future of me right i don't do this for
or you know young aaron i do this for 70 80 90
year old aaron and and the and the potential
of human enhancement technology I think you're
telling yourself, sure, I'm planning on living
to 450. That's my goal, half -jokingly. I don't
see why not, and I'm trying to convince my wife
to go along, but she says she's only down for
125. Well, I think we're going to pose some very
interesting philosophical questions. I'm sitting
here in my library in New York City, and all
the books that surround me are about philosophy.
and we're going to ask an important question
is what is living because right now that that
is a biological definition but very soon there
will be brain computer interfaces artificial
intelligence uh and you know you and i have generated
so much video content that we could train an
llm to imitate our personalities will we live
through some kind of online avatar Or will we
constantly upgrade our bodies and become some
kind of cybernetic transhumanist? And what we
are doing at the Enhance Games is not just creating
a sporting event. We're also laying the regulatory
and ethical framework for human enhancement.
And I would recommend your listeners go to enhance
.com and read the Declaration on Human Enhancement,
which is our governing document and a set of
principles outlining what... how human enhancement
can be ethically brought to life. And I think
this then poses a very interesting question about
what is the next age of mankind? So it is said
today that we live in the information age, but
that feels very outdated to me. It feels like
Bill Gates, 1980s, a PC on every desk, the information
superhighway. And so then I ask the question,
what should the next age of mankind be? And I
think there are only two options. There's the
artificial intelligence age, where the machines
become superior to the humans and eventually
us humans become irrelevant and disposable. Or
we could live in the enhanced age, an age where
technology's sole purpose is to enhance the human
condition, to make us physically stronger. mentally
more resilient, intellectually super intelligent,
and so forth. And I will do everything in my
power to make sure that we live in an enhanced
age, not an artificial age. I think about, let's
say I do accomplish my goals and I live to 150,
200, and so on. Like, what am I going to do every
day? Am I going to work out? I can obtain maximum
peak performance. What is my role in life? I
think there's going to be a bloodbath on the
street with AI, by the way. I think people are
going to be laid off by the droves. What's everybody
going to do? Is it going to be a universal basic
income? Is nobody going to be working? Are we
just going to be going through life, being the
best peak physical performance versions of ourselves?
Do you have any thoughts on that? Well, I think
this set of philosophical questions has been
asked many times. There was the thesis of the
Luddites in the Victorian era who were afraid
that the machines are going to take all the agricultural
jobs, which they did. You know, in 1850, I'd
say 60 % of Americans worked in agriculture.
Today, less than 1 % do. But we generate so much
more. food and could feed the entire world. Why
is that? Because technology has made us more
productive. And for us knowledge economy workers,
we effectively spend 30 years in training from
school to university to early career apprenticeships.
But we only really work for like 20, 25 years.
And then we're retired for about 30 years. And
so The economic productivity benefits of adding
just one or two years, not to the front end of
our careers, but to the back end is immense.
That's where we have our highest income earning
capabilities, particularly as knowledge workers.
And so I don't have a dystopian view of the future.
I have quite a utopian one. Because if we look
at the U .S. federal budget right now. And I
don't know the deficit numbers off my head because
they're about to change. But we're talking about,
you know, more than a trillion dollars a year
in federal deficits. But if our society became
more productive through human enhancement, pushed
out the retirement age by just a few years, we
could have a sustainable federal budget. We could
have a sustainable European style welfare state.
We could be a society where everyone is rich.
And no one is poor. And that can be possible
by making us as humans physically more productive
for longer. So this criticism that the Enhanced
Games is a clown show, you don't have a moment
where it sounds like you believe you're doing
a service to mankind. Is there ever a moment
where you second guess yourself at all? You know,
the job is hard. And sometimes I think, you know,
maybe I should be retired and enjoying the fruits
of my life. But that's generally when I'm like
jet lagged and having to, you know, go to four
cities in three days or something. But no, I
never doubt myself. And, you know, my critics
don't have a robust argument. I've invited the
president of the International Olympic Committee,
the World Ended Doping Agency and others to debate
me live in person. I'll go anywhere in the world,
but they never do. because they can't stand the
marketplace of ideas. And this is, you know,
the sign of our success. Every day they refuse
to debate me is another day we gain traction,
we generate more revenue, and eventually we will
supplant them. And it will just be like Uber,
right? Why would we ever take an old -fashioned,
outdated... broken taxicab when there isn't a
better, more efficient option in front of us.
I'm rooting for you in a big way. I really want
to see May 2026 happen in a very successful way.
Where do you stand right now and what obstacles
do you need to overcome in order to have a successful
launch between now and then? I think we're pretty
well set up. You know, we are backed by the biggest
investors in the world. Peter Thiel led our Series
A, the Trump family led our Series B. We have
support from the scientific community. 74 % of
the Olympics' own doctors say that they will
treat an enhanced athlete, according to recent
research published in the Journal of Sports Medicine.
And I'd like to always, you know, it's not my
line, it's actually my assistant Thomas' line.
The enhanced games are inevitable. Now that we've
laid out the business model, that we've done
this, if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, it will
still happen. And I do worry at times for my
personal safety. I recognize that we're taking
on a super corrupt incumbent monopoly, and they've
turned to dirty tricks before. But ultimately,
the movement doesn't rely upon me. I've laid
the groundwork. We have an amazing team of 30
professionals who go to work every day to make
this happen. And so if someone killed me, the
movement would still happen. We will still succeed.
Have you had any kind of threats against yourself
that you need to... Oh, they're crazy people
all the time, right? A lot of people say very
nasty things about me personally on the internet.
But it's hard for trolls to get out of their
parents' basement and actually take action. So
I don't worry at all. I live quite a normal life.
And I enjoy the sacrifice that is necessary to
build something great. And I think that is an
essential criteria of a great entrepreneur. You
have to enjoy making sacrifice because you lose
a little bit in the short term, but you gain
a lot in the long term. I'm sure you're familiar
with that old famous New York Magazine comic
where there's a dog in front of the computer
and it says on the Internet, nobody knows you're
a dog. The Internet brings out the worst in people.
What is maybe some of the worst things that you've
heard directed towards you on the Internet? Are
you able to share? You know, I just don't think
they're very good. There's nothing worth repeating.
And, you know, I've been through the ringer before.
You know, I fought big litigation. You know,
I'm a fighter from day one. You know, from the
day I graduated from university, I have been
fighting. I fought some of the most corrupt and
dysfunctional institutions in the world. And
I enjoy it because at the end. justice always
prevails and i believe in science like science
is truly the greatest uh leveler it's the greatest
driver of productivity it's the greatest creator
of happiness that has ever existed in human history
and you should never you should never bet against
science and that's what the olympics has have
done for 50 years now they have been openly anti
-science, anti -technology, and it would be like
universities banning the typewriter, right? If
we couldn't use the typewriter, we wouldn't have
computers. If we didn't have computers, we wouldn't
have artificial intelligence. And right now,
a lot of universities are anti -AI, and they're
going to go the way of the dodo because AI is
going to become central to our society. And,
you know, I've seen the rise of, you know, companies
like OpenAI firsthand. um and uh you know we
can build the future and you know maybe a concluding
thought is that the future everything that exists
today was built by someone the best example i
can give is eleanor roosevelt 1947 she invented
the idea of human rights right like she invented
the phrase and now we consider that such a a
touchstone of what it means to be human And so
to your listeners out there, you can build the
future. No one is stopping you. It just takes
courage and conviction. And the things that take
the most courage are the most valuable. Well,
I appreciate you spending time with us, Dr. Aaron
D'Souza. On that note, courage and conviction.
I am counting on an invitation in May of 2026.
I want to be there. I want to be there. I want
to enjoy it and root for some world records,
a whole basket of them. And I encourage you to
keep going, keep fighting. And I wish you a lot
of success. Thank you very much. And we look
forward to having you at the first games. Thanks
so much.