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Age-reversing CEO Bryan Johnson attended Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath’s podcast with a mask and an air purifier. Despite this, he left it midway and blamed it on India’s poor air quality.
Bryan Johnson (left) walked out of Nikhil Kamath’s podcast at AQI 120. (Image: Instagram)
Age-reversing CEO Bryan Johnson recently visited India to promote his book “Don’t Die”. During his time in India, he was invited to a podcast by Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath. Johnson attended the podcast with a mask and an air purifier, but had to leave midway due to the “bad” air quality.
After returning to the US, Johnson shared the reason for leaving his podcast with Kamath midway in a social media post. “Nikhil Kamath 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,” Johnson wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).
He explained, “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.”
‘Air pollution is normalised in India’: Bryan Johnson
Johnson, who stayed in India for six days, said that the air pollution has been largely normalised in the country, with people not wearing masks even at hazardous levels.
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“Air pollution has been so normalised 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,” Johnson expressed.
He emphasised that air quality at such levels should be declared a national emergency. Johnson further stated that improving air quality in India would have a greater impact on public health than even finding a cure for all cancers.
‘Obesity is worse than air pollution’: Johnson
Upon returning to the US, Johnson was struck by how normalised obesity had become. “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. In many contexts, obesity is worse than air pollution in the long term,” Johnson remarked.
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The 47-year-old’s social media post was a response to a journalist’s claim that Johnson walked out of the podcast, held at a five-star hotel in Delhi, due to India’s poor air quality.
“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,” journalist Ravi Prakash Kumar said.
