Life in India: Air pollution forces anti-aging tech mogul to leave podcast midway

When you hear people complain about Delhi’s air, and you don’t live there yourself, you give yourself a little pat on the back. Well done, you think, for not living in a shroud of toxic air. How clever of you to have unwittingly made choices that led you away.

Sadly, this isn’t really the case. Bad air isn’t a Delhi issue, it’s now an India issue – and an American tech millionaire minced no words. 

Bryan Johnson, who is on a quest to turn the clock back on aging, recently left a podcast interview midway citing physical discomfort. Johnson wasn’t even outdoors – he was wearing a mask inside a studio with an air purifier in Mumbai, with an AQI of 130.

In a lengthy statement on X, Johnson said it was his third day in India and the air pollution “had made my skin break out in rash and my eyes and throat burn”.

The 47-year-old was recording an episode of WTF, a podcast hosted by Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath when he was forced to end the interview prematurely. Johnson said the air quality level inside the studio was equivalent to smoking more than three cigarettes.

Johnson had already been in the news for his trysts with India’s air pollution. In December, he marvelled at a Bengaluru five-star hotel selling “pure air”. He also compared the air in Mumbai to “smoking over 10 cigarettes a day”.

But, as he wrote on X: “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.”

Let’s take a beat. Johnson was struggling with an AQI of 130 – and understandably so. Meanwhile, the AQI in Delhi today is around 293. Crores are forced to go to work outdoors, commute and go about their business, because that’s just life. 

Back to Johnson, who wonders 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.”

We wonder that too. It’s why we wrote a 12-point manifesto for clean air after we discovered that most political parties in Delhi really do not care about air pollution enough to feature them in their manifestos. It’s also why we’re running a year-long campaign called #FightToBreathe, because we think this is a cause that needs attention every single day, not just when the air is so horrifyingly bad that it makes for a good headline.

Will you help? 

Click here to contribute to our campaign. Find other ways to participate here. Remember, unless more people participate, this emergency will never be resolved.  

And while you’re at it, click here to subscribe to Newslaundry. Even as we dedicate resources to #FightToBreathe, we’re still on the ground, bringing you reports, videos, podcasts and more on all the issues that matter.