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50 years of fighting death
LEVITY Podcast episode #15 - with RAADfest creator James Strole
Peter Ottsjö
January 15, 2025
✅ Introduction to episode 15 with James Strole. ✅ The Woodstock of radical life extension. ✅ Detailed show notes. ✅ Longevity activism in the 1970’s. ✅ The rise and rise of RAADfest.
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”There was no one talking about longevity really”
After a certain point, most people just stop doing things. They don't learn new instruments because they're too old. They don't start businesses because they're too old. They can't indulge in childlike pleasures because they're too old. They spend more time revisiting memories than they do dreaming about the future. They seek company in their limitations, gently discouraging others from pursuing new adventures. ”At our age”, they say with a knowing smile, ”we can't do that anymore”.
It’s safe to say James Strole is not one of those people.
At 76, Strole radiates the enthusiasm of someone half his age as he recounts his five-decade journey as a longevity pioneer. ”I wake up now and a lot of times in my expressions, I'm going like, 'wow,' you know, like when you're a kid and everything wows you”, he tells me and Patrick during our conversation.
I'll admit I had some initial hesitation about this episode. RAADfest, the ”Woodstock of radical life extension” that Strole co-founded, sometimes attracts elements of the longevity community that lean more towards the spiritual than the scientific. But what emerged was a fascinating chronicle of a movement, told by someone who was there when hardly anyone dared to challenge death's inevitability.
The story begins in 1968, when an 18-year-old Strole met his future partner Bernadeane Brown. By 1972, they were traveling across America in a massive Buick, pulling a trailer and spreading their message of unlimited lifespans. ”We were these outliers”, he says, remembering how they would meet in people's homes, then hotels, building a community of like-minded individuals who dared to imagine a world without aging.
”There was no one talking about longevity really”, Strole recalls of those early days. ”And we were out there talking about immortality.”
What makes Strole's story particularly poignant is that our conversation comes just months after losing Brown, his partner of over 50 years, to cancer. She was cryopreserved at the Cryonics Institute in Michigan, maintaining their shared commitment to the possibility of future revival. Despite this profound loss, Strole's optimism remains unshakeable.
It would be easy to dismiss this as naive positivity, but Strole's outlook is - after all these years - deeply considered. He speaks of what he calls the ”death program” - the societal conditioning that makes us accept and even find meaning in our inevitable decline. Breaking free from this programming, he argues, isn't just about extending lifespan; it's about maintaining what he calls ”the spirit of immortality” - that childlike sense of wonder and possibility that most people gradually surrender to age.
Today, Strole's once-fringe ideas have found growing acceptance in the mainstream. RAADfest, which started in 2016, has become the largest gathering of longevity enthusiasts in the world. The 2025 event in Las Vegas will mark its 10th anniversary, featuring leading scientists alongside the movement's philosophical pioneers. It’s also, for the first time, a joint venture between Coalition for Radical Life Extension and Aubrey de Grey’s Longevity Escape Velocity Foundation.
What strikes me most about our conversation is how Strole embodies his own philosophy. At an age when many are winding down, he's planning a major rally for longevity rights at the Lincoln Memorial in 2026. He maintains a rigorous health regimen while staying current with the latest longevity research. Most importantly, he retains that sense of wonder - the ability to be excited about tomorrow.
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A detailed overview of the episode