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[Michael Laufer] He was
a very

controversial figure,
in a lot of ways.

[water dripping]

[Michael Henderson] I
remember he told me that

he didn't like aging,

that the saddest
day of his life

would be to see
his father die.

And so he's going to do
everything in his power

to help extend human life.

[Josiah Zayner] Every single
major figure

in the biohacking world was
working with Aaron,

because he paid
them some money.

[Alex Pearlman] This was a bad
actor within the community

who performed bad science
in a terrible way.

[Rita Traywick] He wanted
to help people.

He was very, very smart.

[Man] I think he was
trying to change the world.

[Gabriel Licina] He was a
snake oil salesman.

[Greg Neimeyer] He clearly
had many of the features

of psychopathy.

[Mac Davis] I never actually
saw Aaron do anything

that was legitimately
unethical or dangerous.

[Josiah Zayner] There's all
these conspiracy theories.

[Tristan Roberts] The more
digging you do,

the more you realize that

a lot of people had
motive behind it.

[Edwina Rogers] I'm not
sad that Aaron

is no longer with us.

It was a matter of time

that he was going
to kill somebody.

[Reporter] Aaron Traywick,

the CEO of the
biohacking company

Ascendance Biomedical,

was found dead Sunday

floating in a sensory
deprivation tank

in a meditation spa in
Washington, D.C.

Reporter: He was what
is a called a biohacker,

and a controversial one.

He claimed his drugs could
cure HIV, AIDS, and Herpes.

He was 28 years old.

[typing]

[typing]

[Josiah Zayner] Aaron,
his number one fault

was he used the C-word
really often,

and the-C word is, he
called things cures.

"This is a cure.
That's a cure."

If he never would have
said those words,

nobody probably would have
ever had problems with him.

[Interviewer] We're
live, so... [laughs]

[indistinct off-screen
dialogue]

[Aaron Traywick] Oh we're
live right now?

[Interviewer] Yes.

Oh my God. Ok so
yeah, I'm good, man.

Uh, I'm not gonna be staring
off into space anymore.

So, I'm Aaron Traywick,

I'm the CEO of Ascendance
Biomedical.

We have three, open access
gene therapy platforms

that are open to researchers,

independent and commercial,
around the world.

These technologies,
these platforms,

are capable of
bringing the cost

of delivering disease
management strategies,

cures, um, and
vaccinations

to members of the
general public

at less than $100 a dose,
per patient,

for what is intended on every
therapy that we develop

to be a one-time use,
one-time cure.

If somebody in their home can
manufacture and produce

everything that their own
family would need

need in terms of their
healthcare, I mean,

that would
be beautiful.

I mean, that's the idea,
the science fiction idea,

of a maker applied to
the area of human life,

where we need it most:
healthcare.

dissonant, pulsing music

[Michael Laufer] So,
Aaron Traywick,

it's always an attention
getter when you

take your pants off and
stab yourself.

Not everybody is going to
have the bandwidth

to be able to sit down
and understand

what you're doing on a
really deep level.

And if you do something
a little showy-

Oh, you want me
to put my pants...

are you sure? [laughs]

[Michael Laufer] -you can catch
the attention of people

who should be
interested and,

and would be, but
otherwise might miss it.

So yeah, good guns to him.

[indistinct chatter]

[Mac Davis] He publicly stated

that the healthcare systems
were failing us.

He suggested and really
believed that the situation

that we were in
as humans today

was so dire that we
needed immediate,

radical improvements
to our lifestyles.

In terms of longevity,
and disease treatment,

he saw that the
things were possible,

and that they
needed to happen

as quickly as possible.

[Michael Henderson] I think
he looked at his self

as being a motivator.

He knew that he was like this
Batman-type character

that folks would
hate him, or love him.

But he needed to, uh,
have this burden to...

to change the world.

I remember he
told me

that he didn't like aging,

that the saddest
day of his life

would be to see
his father die.

And so he's going to do
everything in his power

to help extend human life.

So, it was very
family-based,

his motives and reasons.

dissonant music

[Aaron Traywick] I
am from a firmly-rooted

middle class family
in Alabama.

I was adopted at
7 days old.

My parents raised me
in a very, very small town,

one of the smallest
in Alabama,

right where they
filmed Big Fish,

if you've ever seen
that movie.

My father was a welder
in the National Guard,

and my momma was a,
a nurse at a rehab clinic,

and later worked
for the State, still does.

- [dog barking]
- [birds chirping]

Growing up,
my grandparents

they died pretty
slowly of diabetes

and our family,
we took care of 'em.

And you know, day in, day
out, almost every weekend,

a lot of my childhood
was spent, you know,

caring for my,
my grandparents.

One day, my grandma
was in the hospital

and she was
in the ventilator.

And the doctors come
in and they tell you

there's nothing they
can do for her.

And if you give 'em this
much money every day,

they can keep her alive
as long as you want.

I was disgusted
at the idea

that if I ever was
in that position,

then I would have to be
making financial decisions

based on my own
self-preservation,

at the cost of my
loved one's life.

[birds chirping]

[Kristen Bennett] His
Christmas list, yeah,

was always comic books,

and then what other
books he wanted.

[Kimberly Bennett] He had,
like, t...

was it, how many boxes
did he have, two or three?

[Rita Traywick] Three.

[Kimberly Bennett] They were
like big white boxes

and they were
filled up with comics.

And he would never
let us touch 'em.

That's one thing you
did not mess with

when you went
in his room.

Yeah, if you did,
he had special ones,

and they were
all in a cover,

and you could
only look at those.

[Rita Traywick] He saw one
set of his grandparents

struggle with medical care
and getting medications.

And, um, I think he,

he just wanted to help
people all round.

Then his, his daddy's
got, um, emphysema,

and that was gonna be
one of his things too,

to try and find
something for,

you know, lung diseases.

He wanted to take care
of me and his daddy,

and he always wanted to
take care of these girls.

It didn't matter, they... he
wanted to,

he wanted to be able
to take care of them,

and that was part of
his goal.

If you've got a problem,

he wants to try to figure it
out, help try to solve it,

and try to make
everybody okay.

[traffic sounds]

[Aaron Traywick] I went to a

public liberal arts
university in Alabama.

I just followed my passions.

In the process, I gained an
education out of it.

[Interviewer] Just tell me your
name again

and your
organization.

Aaron Traywick,

Coalition of Alabama Students
for the Environment.

[Aaron Traywick] Then wrote
a thesis for my degree.

And moved on from
there into the world

to continue what is
essentially,

and always will be,
self-directed research.

[birds chirping]

After doing a lot of
community organizing work

and establishing a
decent career for myself

around public health and the
environment in Alabama,

I traveled very frequently
through South America,

trying to understand
a little bit more

about where the
psychological development

and evolution of
humanity was headed.

Life extension,
it seemed to me,

was the real barrier that if
this one was surmounted

in some way, we could be
creating a world

where individuals could feel
safer, and not so shocked,

and cajoled, and tossed
around by the pressures

that come with living an
existence that is perpetually

required to deny

the inevitability
of its own demise.

suspenseful music

[Edwina Rogers] Aaron
Traywick was my first cousin.

This was where he lived
when he was in Washington.

He learned that
lobbyist world

that he had access to
through me.

I did a lot of work
internationally,

uh, lobbying for foreign
governments,

and also for companies.

I got a phone call.

Aaron told me that he was
in Colombia, South America,

working on a microbrewery.

But that gig had ended, and
he needed to find a new job.

First impressions
were interesting,

because we picked him
up at the airport

and he was like
a little ragamuffin.

I mean he was sort of
like a hobo incarnate.

He had the
tattered T-shirt,

he had the long
straggly hair,

and all of his worldly
possessions

in this knapsack, and
dirty tennis shoes.

So, our very first
thought with him

was to get him a haircut and
then go get clothes for him.

[Edwina Rogers] I had
three personal assistants

at that time.

One of them really wasn't
working out,

and I could replace one
personal assistant with him

so that he could come
to Washington

and get a job, and,
and have a career.

We just integrated
him into everything

for the three foundations
that I run.

He spent most of his time
working on projects

for Global Healthspan
Policy Institute.

But he also helped
me start a foundation

for wealthy gentlemen
in Tucson, Arizona

that's all about, uh,
stem research.

[Greg Neimeyer] She
trundled him through

the Senate and the House

and introduced him to
members of Congress,

and got him involved
in the business,

and got him oriented, just
exactly as you would expect

in trying to mentor somebody
into a new kind of business

and industry that he was
completely unfamiliar with.

[Aaron Traywick] I got started
here on Capitol Hill, D.C.

Wanted to find a way to,
uh, really contribute,

you know, to the field,
to aging research,

and particularly the
underlying causes

of aging-related disease.

dissonant music

[Aaron] I would consider
myself a biohacker

only in the sense that
Jonas Salk was a biohacker.

[Announcer] In 1954, a vaccine
to prevent paralytic polio,

developed by Dr. Jonas Salk.

[Man] Who owns the patent
on this vaccine?

[Jonas Salk] Well, the people,
I would say.

There is no patent. This is,
could you patent the sun?

[laughs]

[Aaron] He self-tested
the polio vaccine

on himself and his family,

saving millions of
lives in the process,

and creating open source
information that was then able

to spread freely around the
world and eradicate the disease

in a timeframe that could
never have occurred,

had he not made
all those decisions,

on behalf of himself
and humanity.

It's about not waiting around
for other companies,

other people, other researchers
to come up with the cures

to help my family, my loved
ones, my friends,

my community, the world.

It's about taking it into
your own hands,

doing it yourself,
getting the work done,

and not letting any
delays get in the way.

suspenseful music

[Alex Pearlman] Aaron came
out very secretive.

"I have a ton of money. I'm
gonna be a biohacker.

I'm gonna make
cures for people.

And we're gonna
upend the system."

And had this persona
that I felt

was very, very different than
what biohackers,

who were self-identified
biohackers,

had previously displayed
themselves as.

A big part of hacking and
hacking culture

is working outside of
establishment,

science, academia, research.

[Biohacker] Okay, we're gonna
make an agarose gel

for separating our DNA.

[door shutting]
[beeping]

[Alex Pearlman] Garage or
kitchen culture

is a part of what people
associate with hacking,

and whether that in reality
means a community lab,

or a shared maker space.

[steam hissing]

Just the idea that it's not
part of an institution

is part of hacking.

[Narrator] So how did
we get here?

We have always
been biohackers.

For thousands of years,
humans have been engaged

in the pursuit of knowledge.

We made medical discoveries
by testing on ourselves.

Self-experimentation
and citizen science

were popular during
the Victorian Era.

That's when the Naturalist
Movement emerged,

and standardized
the Scientific Method.

Major discoveries were made
in all branches of science

in the late 1800s:

physics, astronomy,
natural history, and medicine.

And then when science and
technology merged

with the consumer market,

it gave birth to the modern
healthcare economy.

In the early 20th century,

mass production met chemical
engineering, just in time

for World War I and the rise of
the pharmaceutical industry.

Regulatory bodies,
like the FDA,

are then created
to control them.

World War II ushers
in the atomic age,

and cements in place a
military industrial complex

that sees science as
something to be controlled.

Corporations and
the government

then end up monopolizing
the pursuit of science,

and while great leaps
are made,

they're made behind
closed doors.

Big Pharma privatizes
advances in medicine,

and independent
self-experimentation

is seen as more of a
primitive approach.

Leaps in computing power and
the internet bring the promise

of shared knowledge and
open source connectivity.

But as this space is
also corporatized,

the hacker is born.

electronic music

The internet is
fertile ground

for the modern
citizen scientist

because all that
computing power

unlocked the
human genome.

And now, players
in Big Pharma

even want to patent
human DNA.

A breakthrough new technology
with limitless capabilities,

called CRISPR, is discovered.

It's a revolutionary
gene-editing tool

that can permanently edit
any organism's DNA.

CRISPR technology
is disseminated

throughout the
biohacking community

and made accessible
to the masses.

It's happening at a rate

that the powers that be
can't control.

And now, the age of
biohacking is upon us.

- [street noise]
- [sirens]

[Michael Laufer] I feel that
hacking is an ethical concern.

It's a good, and I argue that
it's the greatest good.

What it does is it takes
what's available

and it leverages that in
order to do more

than what's allowed.

The medical community
has not figured this out.

The chemical community
has not figured this out.

The biological community
is starting to figure this out,

which is why we have
coined the term biohacking

and so many people are doing
it, and it's a great blessing.

We are trying to get medicine
and medical technologies

to people who
otherwise

wouldn't have it,
however we can.

EpiPens started failing
left and right.

As if it weren't
insulting enough

that they were overcharging,
and they failed,

and they weren't safe,

and you weren't supposed
to make your own,

it's still $609 for a
pair of EpiPens.

I'm just gonna show you,
this is the set up.

It's the auto injector.

You take the needle
from one syringe,

you plop it on the other
syringe, you load it,

and you're good to go.

Is there anybody here who
suffers from anaphylactic shock?

Who wants this one?

[audience applauding]

When I think of biohacking,
I think of people

who work with the living
organism as a medium.

That's the bio part.

And then the hacking part
is utilizing the... hmm..

the hacker ethic of saying,

"We can make a better
world with technology.

We can utilize
things in ways

for which they were
not designed."

And we don't wait for
permission to do so.

[engine revving]

[motorcycle engine]

[Tim Cannon] If you put a
magnet under your finger,

you could sense these
electromagnetic fields

and it was
like somebody

hit me in the
side of the head.

It was like the revolution
started without me.

"Ah shit. I mean I
gotta catch up."

And so I heard about that
in April, and by May,

there was a magnet
in my finger.

I just was not
waiting anymore.

There is no fucking way
that I would ever pass up

an opportunity to prove the
efficacy of, of this movement.

[typing]

[News Reporter] A microchip
implanted beneath the skin

gives people the
same capabilities

as dozens of cards
and devices.

[Tim Cannon] What's going
to happen is, uh,

I'm going to receive
an incision,

my skin will be lifted,

and separated away
from its fatty tissues.

And the device
will be inserted.

We are not going to be
using any anesthetic.

It's really, really
gonna hurt.

You don't have to
listen to them.

You don't have to
fucking do it their way.

If you build an
alternate institution,

at the end of the day

they will have to conform
to our standard,

if we push hard enough,
because it's better.

And we can do that, 'cause
our proposition is there,

and our talent is there,
and our skill is there.

And we got just the
right amount of

[raises voice] fuck you!

That's it.

[audience applauds and cheers]

[Michael Laufer] There's
no movement

in the history
of the planet

that ever had such
high aspirations.

[indistinct chatter]

If we can say we don't like
the structure of the jungle,

that the strongest survive,
then we can shift that.

You see people who are not
supported by money

or infrastructure,
or materials,

and so they make do with
what they have.

[Man] There we go.

[Michael Laufer] But they
are less afraid to do so.

Man: And so yeah, so
when we're done,

you just stand here in the
corner by the sink.

And if we are like "Oh shit,
run and get, like,

a fuckin', you know, butter
knife quick.",

that would be your role.

[larva rustling]

[water running]

[indistinct chatter]

[Man] You want it to sit
there and get it closed

even before you suture.

[Woman] That's perfect
placement. Thank you.

[Man] No problem.
So, there you go.

[scissor snip]

[Woman] You rock my
world, dude.

electronic music

[Man] Almost more
delicate than a surgery.

[Russ Foxx] There's an
RFID chip in my hand,

and we were
just trying to get

the reader
working again.

[indistinct chatter]

This is the reader here.

[reader beeping]

My RFID transponder I use
to activate my motorcycle.

[engine revving]

[device beeping]

And I use it to access my
safes at home for security.

[device beeping]
[safe clicking open]

We're the ones that are

putting in the
experimentation,

and putting these things
into our own bodies.

We are gonna be
the people

that develop
these technologies

and get them noticed

before they're taken
to the next step.

[Michael Laufer] I often
harken back to the era of

the early alchemists,
because

they were trying
to pursue science

during a time where
doing so

was punishable
by death.

And they did it anyway.

And that's a pretty
heavy risk to take.

Um, a number of people in this
community will do things

that are on the
margins of legality

or are entirely
extra-legal.

[Gabriel Licina] 620
microliters?

[Man] That sounds
about right.

[Ana Kasparian] The
Science for Masses team

has created eyedrops that
allow people to see in detail

when they are in the dark.

The solution is made of
something known as CE6.

They wanted to
test this out

by using the liquid on
Gabriel Licina.

He's a biochemistry
researcher.

I'm going to eat
your soul. [laughs]

[Ana Kasparian] Within
an hour,

Licina said he
could identify shapes

the size of a hand about
30 feet away in the dark.

[Gabriel Licina] I was
answering 100 emails a day,

people who were like,

"My 9 year daughter has
retinos pigmentosa.

RP you know, and
she can't see in the dark."

I'm like, "I am not sending
weird science molecules

for you to test on
your children."

suspenseful music

My name's Gabriel Licina.

Right now you're in
Sci House

which is a 501 C3
nonprofit research

and educational
outreach laboratory.

I graduated from
high school in 1999.

And I went straight
into college,

into the Computer
Science program,

and started rapidly failing
all my classes.

And then kind of got
smitten with science.

I just got really
excited about

how powerful and
foreign biology is.

I was like, "Oh, this
is beautiful."

I was really passionate
about changing the world.

I saw this very powerful
technology

that was capable of doing
something positive.

I was like, "All right, so I
have a background in biology,

I work in a laboratory."

I'm like, "Let's talk
about biohacking."

I ended up having a lot
of text conversations

with this guy named Aaron.

Sometimes I had
phone calls,

and things escalated
really rapidly.

[running water]

He was talking with
everybody else that I knew

from the biohacking
community.

This would be Mac Davies,
this would be David Ishee.

And turns out that
all these people

were also kind of
pulled into this

because it was the
magical money faucet.

So we are on this conference
call with Ascendance.

Aaron's like, "Okay what do
you need to do X, Y, Z?"

I'm like, "Okay, we need a
place for the lab equipment."

He's like, "All right
find a place."

So I find a place.

I'm like, "Somebody needs to
sign the lease on the place."

And he's like, "Okay one time
power of attorney, go."

I'm like, "Okay we need this,
this, this, and this."

He's like, "Find all the links
on Amazon, find it on eBay,

find it on gov deals."

We'd send him a link, boom.

$20,000 worth of hardware
would just show up.

[dog barking]

[dog barking]

[dog barking]

[David Ishee] I was
raised around dogs.

My family's been dog
breeders for a long time.

My great grandfather
bred dogs,

my grandfather,
my father.

My name's David Ishee.

I'm a biohacker
in Mississippi.

Were in my lab.

[puppy barking]

There's a lot of genetics
that goes into it.

Dogs have more
genetic diseases

than any other
species on the planet,

over 600 different unique
genetic diseases.

And for some context, wolves
have seven. [laughs]

So that's hundreds
and hundreds

of genetic diseases
that we made.

And we don't have
the tools to fix them.

And so I say that we do
have the tools to fix them,

we're just not using them.

I originally had the
idea to do

genetic engineering
on dogs,

and to make
genetic engineering

accessible to
dog breeders,

and so was looking to
get a product developed.

dissonant music

Aaron presented Ascendance
as being a biotech company.

Basically he would fund
the development,

which I had been
struggling with,

and in the end he would
have the thing, right.

So I would get to use it,

which is all I
really wanted.

I stepped through what
would be required.

It's like, "Okay, well,
Im gonna need DNA.

Well how do
you get DNA?

Okay well I need bacteria.
How do you get bacteria?"

I needed ampicillin
to grow bacteria

because I needed bacteria
to grow plasmid DNA.

And so I was searching
all over the Internet

and I stumbled onto
this website, The Odin,

that had ampicillin
for like $3 for a gram.

And so I was convinced
at first that it was a scam.

Then I learned more
about Josiah.

So I eventually
called Josiah

and I was like, "Hey, can
I get a little help here? "

So, uh, how's the pregnancy
going right now?

How long does it
actually take?

Sixty-three days.

[laughs] Sixty-three
days. Exactly?

Yeah. So I have
a couple

of kanamycin-based
plasmids.

I was having trouble
getting them to grow.

Send over a list of all
the stuff you need,

and I'm sure we
can get it out.

[Josiah Zayner] Aaron...
I'm really close friends

with all the people who
worked with him,

and I helped him out.

That's one of the
things he didn't know.

Behind the scenes,

I was helping out everybody
at his company.

You know, I was trying to push
them in the correct direction,

so that they didn't do
anything stupid or crazy

or nobody got hurt.

My name is
Josiah Zayner

and I am founder and
CEO of The Odin.

Biohacker-in-Chief, I guess.
That's really lame. [laughs]

I'm also the first
person in the world

to genetically modify
myself with CRISPR.

[indistinct chatter]

I received my
PhD in Biophysics

from the
University of Chicago,

where I did lots of
protein engineering

and genetic engineering.

[on tape] Okay I want to
show you what NASA's like.

[on tape] It is 2:00 p.m.

After that, I received
a job to work at NASA.

[on tape] Nobody in that lab.
No one. No one.

[on tape] In all the
labs, nobody.

[NASA, the hardest-working
people in the government.

I was like, "Enough
of this shit."

I couldn't really get a job

because obviously I don't
work well with others.

[on tape] Okay so this
is my apartment/lab.

So I decided to start
my own company.

I ran a crowd-funding
campaign

for these CRISPR kits.

I thought it would
be an amazing idea

if people could do
CRISPR at home.

This is where we package
and ship out all of our kits.

We send out a shit ton.

This is where we
keep all of our DNA.

This is basically all the
important shit that we have.

What I'm trying to do is

I'm trying to push the
field forward,

by doing cutting edge
experiments

that are well-thought-out,
well-planned.

Safety is well-understood

and the experiments are
well-proposed.

When you look
at your DNA,

that's the ultimate
introspection.

Like, what can we
change there?

What does that mean for
me to change my DNA?

What does that mean for
me as a human being?

When scientists first
discovered CRISPR,

it was used in
bacteria to cut DNA.

But now, what you
can imagine

is if you want
to engineer

any piece of DNA
inside humans,

all you have to do
is you have to know

the RNA that
matches the DNA

and then you could
go in there and cut it.

We're gonna change
one base of DNA.

And that one single base
of DNA that we change,

that's all it takes to
change the function

of a whole organism.

One single base of DNA.

[Woman] Three, two, one.
Cheese. [clapping]

Thank you.

[Alex Perlman] A couple of the
events that have transpired

since I started reporting
on biohackers,

the first major
one was Josiah

on Facebook using
CRISPR on himself.

And I was just
like, "Whoa."

This will modify
my muscle genes

to give me bigger muscles.

[Jane Metcalfe] Josiah is
a committed bio punk.

He injected himself
with a plasmid

containing a CRISPR'd
myostatin knockout

just to see what
would happen.

[typing]

[Josiah Zayner] Ooh.
Hurts a lot more going in.

All right, there we go.

[laughing and clapping]

[Alex Pearlman] This is what
people were really afraid of,

was like, "What if, because
CRISPR is so easy to use,

people just start using
it on themselves?"

And then it was like,
"Well, there it is.

People are gonna use
it on themselves."

The question isn't about
safety necessarily.

The question I think is
more about human lives.

There are so many people

who are suffering and
dying right now

because they can't get the
medical treatments

that they need, because
regulation, the FDA.

[Mac Davis] It's already
possible to contract out genes

to be made for you, and you
can put them in your body.

It's just the way it is.

And, uh, it's gonna
take some time

for people to
understand that.

[glass clinking]

[Walter Patterson] In the
same way that man found

the power within
an atom,

he will start to
change himself.

He will start to rid himself
of the sad situations

we have all been accustomed
to within this life.

Disease, sickness,
feebleness, and old age.

These are all things that
are biological issues.

[Gabriel Licina] The fairy tale
of becoming a better person,

that's the biohacking thing.

You're better, faster,
stronger.

[reverberating sound]

Right?

We want it.
We want that thing.

It doesn't mean that
we're opportunistic

for trying to not
be miserable.

Desperate animals
do desperate shit.

[Tristan Roberts] I think
we really can't wait

for the established players

who are making huge
amounts of money

from treating HIV

to develop an actual
cure for HIV.

[traffic sounds]

[traffic sounds]

I'm Tristan Roberts.

I was a junior
in college

when I tested
positive for HIV.

Conventional
medication for HIV

will run you around
$20,000 per year

in the United States,

which just pretty much
means that you're

beholden to someone
to pay for your stuff,

whether it be having to
stick with your employer,

being terrified
of leaving.

They've got you
by the balls.

It breeds compliance
with those systems.

And it further perpetuates
the problem.

The end goal is to make
this stuff affordable,

where you can buy this
for a few dollars

rather than
thousands of dollars,

and have it be
treated once,

and be good for six months,
rather than a few days.

[Aaron Traywick] What's up,
man?

Nice to meet you
in person. Hey.

- Hey, Aaron.
- How are you?

- [inaudible]
- Traffic was terrible.

[Tristan] The person
who connected me with Aaron

knew that he was working on
some sort of HIV gene therapy.

He knew that I had HIV, and
that I wasn't on medication,

and that my risk
tolerance is a bit higher

than most of
the population.

He spoke of the
success he had had

with the fertility
treatment, Inovium.

[Aaron Traywick] Women
are constantly being told

that they're running
out of time to give birth

with their own eggs.

But realistically and
scientifically,

that's just not the case.

Why look to
donor embryos

when we can use your
own genetic material

to help you give birth
with your own children?

[Tristan Roberts] What really
blew my mind was that

some of them were even
post-menopausal,

and they were able to
conceive of children.

And I was just
fascinated by people

who were, like, not
stuck to the status quo.

Aaron didn't ask why,
he asked why not.

So I was like,

"Yeah, this guy is like
actually onto, like, something."

Tristan Roberts: Do you
have a car?

Aaron Traywick: I do Uber.

[indistinct chatter]

[Tristan] We had a
really good walk and talk.

And I agreed that,
you know,

if they were able to
develop a gene therapy,

I would probably be
down to test it out.

[Mac Davis] I met Tristan.

We really connected on
our sense of spirituality,

our relationship
with activism.

I had been trying to figure
out solutions for society,

knowing that it was
possible for more people

to receive an adequate
standard of care.

Um, He told me,

"I've got a group of people
who also had that idea.

Why don't you join our
weekly discussion?"

And that was the
Ascendance group.

[Aaron Traywick] A lot of
our team branched off

to form this company,
Ascendance Biomedical,

so that we could tackle
breakthrough treatments

that we felt we could
bring to market,

and to the individual
who wanted them,

in a much more
expeditious way

than the standard FDA
clinical trial processes.

[Mac Davis] More than
anything,

I think I wanted to see the
HIV therapy happen.

I talked to Aaron on the phone
about what the plan was,

and he sounded very
committed, very motivated,

very visionary in terms of where
he saw the project going.

If I have HIV,

and I go and I get tested on
a weekly basis for HIV,

and I'm taking HAART,
antiretrovirals,

the common treatment
for HIV,

the insurance provider can
look at my blood test data

and they can say,
"Okay, the HIV level,

the HIV's still there, but
it's at a manageable level."

And we can see that

if the person gets off
the antiretrovirals,

it'll go back up.

So the government will
keep paying the company,

the insurance providers will
keep paying the company,

to keep the patient sick.

And there is no
incentivization structure

set up for cures.

[Walter Patterson] If we
start out with something,

I'm just going to show
you, just a small,

and this is just a small vial of
the N6, um, you know, sample.

[Tristan Roberts] There's
an antibody called N6,

which has been studied by the
National Institute of Health.

It destroys most HIV.

Like 98.5% of all strains
of HIV are destroyed.

[Mac Davis] It was November
of 2016 that the NIH published

the discovery of finding a human
that had the most effective,

broadly neutralizing
antibody,

or naturally-derived
immunity to HIV.

And not only did they
find this person,

but they actually identified
exactly what gene he had

that allowed him
to do that.

Because of that, what we can
do is we can take that gene,

or that information that's
necessary for defeating HIV,

and put it into
another person.

In the circulatory system, you
have the little guard cells.

They kill baddies, like
foreign invaders,

and these are called
white blood cells.

Now, the virus HIV attacks
these white blood cells.

And so eventually
over time,

this causes the
thing called AIDS.

Well, if we inject a
minicircle

with the special
transfection agent,

a magical thing
starts to happen.

The DNA begins to
produce N6.

And N6 will bind to 97%
to 98% of the HIV viruses.

The hope is to kill
off the viral load,

and thereby
eventually allowing

normal function to return,
as the white blood cells

now are able to go
without getting killed off.

[typing]

[Gabriel Licina] Tristan
sends me this paper.

He's like, "Hey, does this
research seem legit?

I need a science person
to look at this."

And I was, "What's up?"

He's like, "Oh,
top-secret project."

It's like, "Cool, top-secret
project, that's fine."

And I was like, "Yeah,
this is pretty legit."

[Mac Davis] What we
did as a team

was developed a
delivery mechanism

for adding that gene
to a persons body.

[dogs barking]

[dogs barking]

[David Ishee] N6 was
built on my system.

I developed a vector and
a protocol for follistatin.

And I developed it
in such a way

that it could be applied
to different things.

So if you wanted to
pull out follistatin

and put in the N6
antibody, you can do that.

I forced Ascendance to do
a lot of careful testing.

Luckily, Aaron
would listen to me.

So it was produced
in a petri dish.

N6 was produced
by the vector,

uh, and then tested
that it binds HIV.

[Tristan Roberts] I got just a
picture of some test tubes

from David Ishee.

No, no caption, it's just,
just test tubes.

And that was his way of
letting me know that,

you know, it's ready.

[Interviewer] You excited?

[Tristan Roberts] Um,
it's been,

I've been waiting for
this for like six months.

So yeah, I'm pretty ready.

Live from Washington, D.C.,

the world's first patient zero
testing of an HIV cure,

using gene therapy technology.

Fill this sucker.
There we go.

[David Ishee] I tested
everything

and I prepped everything
that he used.

We had a long conversation
and I tried to make it clear

what the potential
risks were.

[Aaron Traywick] So you insert
the needle from the side.

Okay, where
it's nice and floofy.

[Aaron] Mm-hmm.

And then once you're,
once you're in there,

you can let go of the skin.
Right?

So you got to pull.

[Mac Davis] Pinch and pull.

[Tristan Roberts] Kinda
right there.

[Mac Davis] Yeah
anywhere in there

[Aaron Traywick] We do
not advise that anyone

watching this video do what
is about to be done here.

Um, these compounds are
not for human consumption.

They are for research
purposes only.

Tristan Roberts is completely
within his rights,

according to the FDA, and
the rule of law in this nation,

to self-experiment
in any way

that he deems
medically appropriate.

[Tristan] So I want to
dedicate this

to all the people
who have died

while not being able to
access treatment,

even though those
treatments were available.

[Interviewer] How are
you feeling?

Pretty jazzed. [laughs]

[all laughing]

[Aaron Traywick] We're just
gonna have to show the world

what radical gene therapy
technology can do

to help people take the
health of their lives

into their own hands.

The N6 will be the frontline
treatment for curing AIDS,

and for ending AIDS.

suspenseful music

[Michael Henderson] I put
him on a pedestal.

I was like, "Oh my God,
this is amazing,

here's a guy who's, like,

using their bodies
as a laboratory."

Tristan's name would come up
in conversations all the time.

We watched
Dallas Buyers Club.

You know, there
were allusions

to the HIV positive
community

that were seeking
alternative treatments

to find a cure,
change their lives.

[Tristan Roberts] Yes, it,
yeah, it was just an hour ago.

Um, I feel a good
sense of relief.

Like, there was a
lot of build-up.

This has been, like,

in planning for, like,
uh, six, six months,

when I first heard that this
was even a possibility.

And it's sometimes hard to
believe that it's real.

Everybody I've met that
this has been explained to

told me, "That was really
courageous."

And Tristan is a little bit
of a hero in their eyes.

He was taking responsibility
for his illness,

not just letting a doctor
handle it, or the government,

or a pharmaceutical company.

Him injecting himself

I see as a statement of
patient empowerment,

and of human
empowerment.

[Tristan Roberts] There was a
wide range of reactions

to that initial injection.

There was definitely a fair
amount of criticism,

and I don't think most
of it was warranted.

But at the same time, people
who are established

in the existing
biomedical paradigm

are, of course, going to
support the system

that butters their bread.

So, nothing too surprising.

[indistinct chatter]

[David Sun Kong] The
question that I think

has been on a lot
of people's minds

which connects to the
New York Times article,

the quote from you
in the article was,

if they're willing to inject
themselves with hormones

to make them, their muscles
bigger, you can imagine

they'd be willing to test more
powerful things.

Anyone who does
synthetic biology

should be
under surveillance,

and anyone who does it without
a license should be suspect.

Yeah.

Again, I wasn't trying to
win a popularity contest.

That was aimed at academia.

I think the academics

are the most dangerous
part of our society.

[general laughter]

[George Church] Yay.

[Woman] Yes. Disgruntled
post-docs. [laughs]

[general laughter]

[George Church] You can't
really protect yourself

by pushing down
the knowledge.

You can't hide
the knowledge.

[laughing]

We have this
little problem

called intellectual
property law.

[George Church] What
you need to do is to have

as large a fraction of the
population as possible

watching out for people

that are talking or
doing something

that they think
is questionable.

If you see something,
say something.

We need to create that
culture of surveillance.

[George Church] It is
technically illegal

to experiment on anybody,
including yourself.

In practice,
it's rarely enforced

unless you're selling
the drug and labeling it,

This will add
years to your life.

I think there's
risks at all levels,

whether it's an individual,
whether it's a small team,

whether it's
in a garage,

or whether it's in a
government facility

that's super secure.

That whole spectrum could
produce a bio-weapon.

And partly, it's more
dangerous than

nuclear weapons because

it's so much easier
and cheaper.

[Edward You] The Weapons of
Mass Destruction Directorate

came into fruition
after the 9/11 attacks.

A month after that
horrible event,

we were actually hit with
then the Anthrax mailings.

And our primary mission
is one of prevention.

So, how do we prevent

not only another 9/11
from happening again,

but in particular, how do
you stop an adversary

or someone acquiring,
developing, or actually using

a weapon of mass destruction?

I oversee programs
looking at biosecurity,

and really trying to
ensure and prevent

the misuse or
exploitation of biology.

[audience applauding]

[Man] Ed, come here
for a second.

Cross your arms,
look serious.

Edward You: All right

[Man] What do you think?
Yes? Yes.

[audience applauding]

So why the FBI? Why
are we here today?

WMD Coordinators
are special agents.

These are men and women
that are trained in chemical,

biological, radiological,
nuclear, and explosive matters.

There's at least one of these
individuals stationed

in each of our 56 field offices
across the U.S.

From the FBI's standpoint,
we look at biology,

and even the
biohacker community,

as very important
areas of innovation,

of new applications.

And with that, we want
to make sure

that we protect that.

We are meeting
our mission

and helping the
biohacker community

do their part in
protecting science

and safeguarding it.

I want you all to think
about this for a second.

So what happens if
you're a professor

or you're a student
working in a laboratory,

and you observe
and see something

that just isn't right?

Now you have somebody
within the FBI.

You're not calling big FBI,
but you're calling,

"Hey Josh. Not for
nothing, but I saw this.

What do you,
what's your take? "

So, it absolutely is
a two-way street.

What we've actually
helped foster

is a neighborhood
watch mentality.

Because if you think about how
the community is growing,

who's best-positioned
to identify

what's going on in
their own community,

but the, the members of
the community themselves.

suspenseful music

suspenseful music

[Patti Zettler] Hey. Hi.
[laughs]

[Tristan Roberts] Hey.

[Patti Zettler] In general,
FDA's authority

and institutional interests

lie in addressing
public health risks.

[indistinct chatter]

One question I had

when I read about his
self-injection is

"What's the relationship
between Tristan

and Ascendance Bio?"

When I read more about what
Tristan had done, I wondered,

"Is this someone
who is

engaging in true
self-experimentation,

"I've made this
thing for myself

and I want to see what
it does to my body."

or is there some tie

to commercialization
or distribution?

The FDA made
an announcement

about the self-administration
of gene therapies.

Any use of gene
therapies in humans

are subject to
FDA jurisdiction,

and the sale of
such products

for editing the
genes of humans

is prohibited without
FDA approval.

Tristan seems to have
strongly-held beliefs

that are driving
his decisions.

This is my data, this
is my identity.

I'm saying that this worked for
me personally.

And my concerns about

people taking ownership
over their health-

[Patti Zettler] One thing that
worries me is

just because something's
dressed up in the terms of

patient empowerment or
consumer empowerment,

and self-experimentation,

does not mean that's
not what it is,

and does not mean
there's not

a commercial interest
behind it.

[Aaron Traywick] We're not
concerned about the FDA.

What we're concerned
about is

the FDA not moving
in on the areas

where it should have
moved in decades ago.

Because it's such an
easy win for them,

and, and such an
easy win for Americans.

- How are you doing?
- Doing all right.

[indistinct chatter]

[Aaron Traywick] We just want
people to have the opportunity

to have access to research
compounds that they can use

for self-guided and
self-directed research.

[Doctor] Deep breath.
That's it.

[ Aaron Traywick] What we
saw initially with Tristan

was a very strong
immune response

for his CD4
and CD8 levels.

A stronger response
indicative of

positive immune health than
he had ever before seen

in the course of his
experience with HIV.

[indistinct chatter]

[Tristan Roberts] As an
activist,

it's like I'm pushing
the envelope.

Why aren't we doing
this, you know?

If, if it does end up working,
then to some degree

like, it would validate this
entire notion

that we should have
been doing this

for the last
two decades.

There's, it's inexcusable
that we've let people suffer

from so many
different diseases.

[water bubbling]

[Aaron Traywick] The vaccine
itself is the first application

of an open access platform
for gene therapy delivery

that we have created.

Each of our platforms
can be characterized,

if not open source,
open access.

We have our infectious
disease platform,

of which HIV is the
first application.

And we have our
genetically-programmed

nanorobotic platform,

of which the herpes vaccine
is the first application.

So, the plan is for us to
test out the herpes vaccine

and to confirm that
it is safe and effective

for use as a vaccination
against herpes.

[train wheels squealing]

electronic music

[bike tires whirring]

[Gabriel Licina] So,
every person

that was working
for Ascendance

had, like, a
different thing

that they were
passionate about.

And then it got kind
of sucked under the

Ascendance magic
money fountain.

And so Andreas was
very passionate about

creating a vaccine
against herpes.

[Andreas Stuermer] I read
a lot about herpes,

how it causes
side effects

that most people
don't know.

Like 90% of the age-related
blindness, spine disease,

it even is involved
in Alzheimer's.

It just seems like a
very scary virus.

My goal was basically

just stopping myself
from getting it.

[Tristan Roberts] [laughing]
We're debating

whether we want to do this

[Gabriel Licina] Yeah
I know, right?

- [Tristan] Ugh.
- [Gabriel] Uh, door. Door.

[door squeaking closed]

Gabriel Licina: So,
right now, we're about

this far down on
our flow, flow chart

of working on the, the
herpes, uh, prophylactic.

[Andreas Stuermer] I
talked to lots of people,

and that guy was referring
me to Ascendance,

he said, "You know,
you have this project,

they have the resources,
they have the money,

so they could fund you.

So between all these things,
then you feel confident

to then move to, like, a stage
one clinical study with us.

Andreas Stuermer: First you
have to test it out,

and then you modify
the protocol,

you see if it works
better, test it.

Yeah, do it, see how it fucks
up. One step at a time, dude.

[Gabriel Licina] Biology
is really small.

So if you say I totally
have a thing and then

you hold up a vial nobody
can really look at that

unless somebody
else tests it.

[Andreas Stuermer] I've
always been very supportive

in giving people
access to stuff.

But it has to
be very honest.

[indistinct chatter]

This is a very
experimental thing,

and not safe
or anything.

All right.

[airplane engine
whirring]

electronic music

[Gabriel Licina] It was
so not ready.

We were in
the beginning

of second
party verification.

So a month before the
BDYHAX conference, I said,

"Look Aaron, we might have
something worth testing,

but don't make a
thing out of it.

We could test it maybe
in the hotel room

with a couple of friends."

And what does he do?

He fucking throws a
huge chunk of cash

and gets his name
on the banner

and sponsors part
of the conference.

Tune in on Sunday

for the first, uh, testing of
the, uh, herpes live vaccine,

3:30 p.m., don't miss it.

[Adam Traywick] If you
have herpes,

you should be
watching this,

'cause this vaccine is just
as applicable as a cure

as it is for a vaccine.

[Gabriel Licina] He's
talking about

how he's going to do a live
test of this thing on stage.

And I'm "Dude, Andreas
doesn't want to do this thing."

[chatter]

[Andreas] Yeah it was
really a big surprise for us.

He said I've got it fixed,
don't worry about it.

And you know, like
he's the boss.

[audience clapping and
cheering]

Thank you.

[applause]

Thank you so much
for joining us today.

So, we are Ascendance
Biomedical.

Uh, my name is
Aaron Traywick, CEO,

Andreas Stuermer,
lead researcher,

Machiavelli Davis,
production specialist,

uh, Walter Patterson,
production specialist

and Gabriel Licina,
laboratory manager.

This will be, uh, you know,
one of the few live testings

in the world of gene
therapy technologies.

The most important
thing to know about this

is that this is just
the first application

of an open access gene
therapy delivery system.

Our genetically-programmed
nanorobotic technology

allows the gene-thetic
immunity to bind-

[Gabriel Licina] He started
talking about nano bots

and then the next
step is curing cancer.

Again, pave the way for
our work in cancer,

which will be the massive
breakthroughs

that we really
wanna see.

So, without further ado,
I'll be taking off my pants.

[audience laughs]

Intramuscular injection

is how this has
to be performed.

[Gabriel Licina] I should
have just walked away.

But nobody else knew how
to handle the materials,

and it was happening
one way or another.

[Aaron] Luckily I
have herpes.

I didn't get this
from my momma.

[quiet laughter]

[Gabriel] At that point, I'm
trying to mitigate stupid.

But the alternative was
somebody not knowing

how to handle
the materials,

also potentially making
it more stupid.

[Aaron] Good to go?

[Gabriel] So, there's only,
like 20 micrograms in there.

So, it's like really, really
freaking small.

So don't, like, bump it.

[Aaron] Yeah don't worry.
I'm a pro.

tense music

[quite audience chatter]

[Mac Davis] I think it's
all the way down here.

tense music

Yeah, yeah. It's down.

Yeah, that was it.

[Gabriel Licina] It's just
such a small amount

Huh.

[Mac] 20 micrograms.

[Gabriel] 20 micrograms,
dude. It's like nothing.

[Mac] Aaron's performance
kind of exemplified

a lot of things that

we as a community
agreed not to do.

It's very clear to people

who have worked in science
for a long time

that even if a project seems
like it's almost done,

sometimes it takes another
couple years.

Wow, science!
Very exciting, people.

[audience applauding]

[tense music]

[Alex Pearlman] When Aaron
injected himself

on stage at BDYHAX,
I was like

"This is not good. "

This was all of a sudden
a bad actor

within the community

who performed bad science,
in a terrible way,

that was sensationalist
and irresponsible.

And I think all of a sudden,
a bunch of heads turned.

[Gabriel Licina] It was all
showmanship.

In fact, he sent a text to
Andreas after the injection,

going "What did I just
inject myself with?"

[Tristan Roberts] It was pretty
clear that he didn't know

what he was putting
into his body.

Informed consent
wasn't there.

And I think that's a crucial
part of self-experimentation,

is like, at the very least
you need to know what,

what you're putting
into your body.

[Josiah Zayner] Literally, as
far as I know,

the injection either didn't
have anything in it,

it was basically
just water,

or the amount of DNA that he
injected was just so minute

and small that there wouldn't
have been any effect

or anything happen anyway.

There's a little drop.
See the drop?

[Andreas Stuermer] Yeah, you
never get everything out of it.

[Josiah] You ask any one of
those guys who were involved,

all the ones on-stage
with him-

All right, well you
already clapped, so.

And we're done here,
everybody go home.

[Josiah Zayner] You ask 'em,

[indistinct chatter]

every single one of them
will give a different answer.

Like, how is this gonna
contribute to science in any way

when you guys don't even know
what he injected himself with?

Aaron: Next week,
tune in Saturday.

We'll be filming live the, uh,
phase two injection

of the HIV therapy phase two.

This will be a 250 to 500 times
higher potency

than the initial safety test.

Um, and following this, we
will be headed to Venezuela,

where we will be able to
deliver this treatment

to individuals who are dying
currently of AIDS and HIV.

[Dave Lee] This is
Aaron Traywick.

Disturbingly, he told us he
plans to bring his drugs

to AIDS patients
in Venezuela.

All we can do is we can
say to these people

we know that you don't have
access to these medications.

You know these people
are desperate.

You know these
people are poor.

And so you say,

"Okay, these are the ideal
people for us to try

our untested, unregulated,
potentially unsafe drug."

There is no reason to
believe that it isn't safe.

Obviously that-

[Dave Lee] There's no reason
to believe that it is.

Just because they're ill, just
because they're dying,

doesn't make them
guinea pigs for your-

We're not talking about
them as guinea pigs.

You can't even test.

There's not even reagents
in that country

to be able to test whether or
not the treatment works.

All we know is if it works,
they don't die.

[insect noises]

[snakes jaw cracking]

[Tristan Roberts] Aaron
had set a deadline

of producing the
second version

of the HIV
gene therapy

for February in 2018.

And the idea was that we
would come together,

do another injection,
produce it for a video.

So he had invited
all these different

documentary crews there,

at the same time

with the hope that
we would be

testing out the
next version.

So not only was
it not ready,

but we were also
dealing with

this organizational meltdown
at the same time.

So it was definitely a
media trash fire.

pulsing music

[Tristan] One of the main things
I wanted to discuss face to face

when we had most of the team
together in Jacksonville

was to nail down
some policies

about open source
and transparency.

[Tristan] Gabriel was also
really concerned

about Aaron's use of
the word "cure".

We need to be very
careful about, like,

what we're calling
these things.

[indistinct chatter]

We set the deadline of:

If you don't talk to
us by the time

when the second injection
is supposed to happen,

then we're going to
have a livestream

and gonna discuss
our dirty laundry.

[Interviewer] The night
before Tristan Roberts

was supposed to
inject himself

with the second round
of HIV therapy,

we met up with the

Ascendance Biomedical
crew for dinner.

[Interviewer] It's like you
want to make the thing

so that everyone owns it and
you want to own the thing.

No, I want to make the thing

so that everybody can
benefit from it.

Whatever gets it to the most
people as quickly as possible

and actually alleviate...

Well you know the best way to
get it to a lot of people?

Give it away for free.

And I don't think we've ever
seen that open source

has been able to do that over
traditional marketing-

[Gabriel Licina] Oh wow,
really?

Do you want to talk
about Linux or-

If you give everyone
in the entire world

access to everything
that you're doing,

then you leave the
door wide open

for unsavory and potentially
negative players

to take that technology

and do things that can
hurt themselves,

and that can hurt
other people,

but ultimately that can
hurt the field.

I personally was, like, really
concerned about, uh,

Aaron's commitment to
being open source.

I was working on the
website and I said,

"All right, well, we
need to say

at what point does it
become open source?"

And he told me, and I quote,

Open source appears to be an
effective marketing strategy.

And that was when I was just
like, "Oh god, like, what?

This guy is just, just, just
making shit up."

Let's say that you,

let's say that your treatment
works, right, for you.

[Tristan] Mm-hmm

Who then has
control over that?

Well, ultimately, it depends
on the clinical development

and how were able to
partner with nonprofits,

NGOs, and hospital
networks around the world.

He's trying to say he does.

The only thing that Im
saying here is that, um,

it requires a lot of
different partnerships

outside of our group. And so...

[Gabriel Licina] [laughs]

[Aaron] Are you going to be
able to distribute it?

Are you going to be the
one who negotiates

with the governments and the
embassies and makes sure

that they can actually go
into the countries?

[Gabriel Licina] I've done
that before. I, I've done that.

But you are assuming
executive control.

I've not heard any offers to get
involved in those processes

by anyone else.

[Gabriel] Just fun story.
Um, I'll just not do lab work.

We're working through it.

He's like, "We're working
things out."

He stands up and he
looks at his phone

and then he just walks
away from the table.

Aaron did not really realize
that we're anarchists

and we don't really
take kindly to

[laughs] that sort
of, like, action.

[Gabriel Licina] So the next
day, I have to go to work.

And I suddenly get, like,

16 text messages from
Justin at the lab.

They're like, "I'm outside,
I'm stuck outside."

Because Aaron was the
signer of the lease,

he showed up,

and then he had someone
come with a power drill,

and change the locks
on all the doors.

[Aaron Traywick] Gabriel, who
served as our lab manager,

and Justin, who served as
the laboratory technician,

have been effectively, um,
kicked out of the lab space,

and the locks have
been changed.

[Tristan Roberts] Yesterday,

when we're supposed to
have the livestream,

he locks us out of the lab.

And this is like a microcosm
of the bigger picture, right,

where, like, the people
who are funding it

have the control over
the locks, you know.

They can just, like, push the
researchers physically out.

[Reporter] A big part of the

mission of Ascendance
Biomedical

is showing that this kind of
research science can happen

outside of the conventional
institutional structures.

I have to be honest, what
we've seen so far this week

doesn't inspire a
ton of confidence.

Well, the only way
that I ever

want the world
to see us

is as a never-ending fight
against these diseases.

[Tristan Roberts] That night,
I asked him, like,

"Hey, do you need help?"

And I'm, like,
helping him, like,

dump all of their personal
stuff outside of the lab.

And he can tell that I'm
trying to be too nice to them,

that I was taking their side.

And that's when we
had this sort of like,

"And you Brutus?" moment,
where he felt hurt.

And he's like,

"Oh, it's because you've been
friends with Gabriel longer.

That's why you're
taking his side."

And that was just infuriating,
for him to not recognize that,

"No, I, I'm mad because
you're not listening.

You're not working through
these problems.

You're just ignoring them."

[ants skittering]

[traffic noises]

[Rita Traywick] I remember
him telling me

something that he had
a company starting,

but I couldn't understand
what it was,

'cause, uh, it was just way
over my head what he was,

what he was saying.

He asked me one time, he said,
Well if you could live longer,

would you, would you
want to do that?"

I said, "Well I don't know,

it all depended on what kind
of health I was in.

Guess if I was in good health
and could do things, yeah."

He always knew that
he was adopted.

I mean he always heard
the word adoption, so he,

he, we always told him.

I went to the hospital
to get him,

it seemed like there was a
nursery full of newborn babies,

and he was kind of in the
middle by himself,

I guess because they knew we
were going to be picking him up.

And he had this jet-black
hair at the time,

so he looked like
a little orangutan.

My mama always said he
looked like a little old man.

Then the older he got, the
younger looking he got, I guess.

Woman: Yeah.

But he was very, very
smart, very smart.

[ Rita Traywick] He was
in the gifted class.

He just liked to learn.

[Kristen Bennett] That's what
set him apart,

that he was so smart that
other kids would pick on that.

If you're smarter than
everybody else,

they don't like it.

[Rita Traywick] He was
bullied at school.

I would go up to the
school and say,

"Hey, you know. Oh no, it's just
a stage he's going through,

everything's okay,
everything's okay."

But looking back, he
definitely was bullied.

And I think that was one of
the things that made him

a little bit different from
everybody else.

He would come home from
school and go in his room,

and read his books, read
his comic books.

And you know, I'm sure he
was depressed, too.

And it just kind of
scared me that he,

that he wasn't going
to make it.

I mean I just,
I don't know,

I felt like something was
gonna happen to him.

dissonant music

[Reporter] Edwina, I want
to hear from you.

[Edwina Rogers] Okay.

Well, I don't know where the
U.S. Government's

gonna get 150 billion dollars
for, and I don't know, he's...

[fades out]

[Aaron Traywick] Edwina Rogers,
a woman with over 25 years

of great experience as a
professional lobbyist.

Through our connections,
we set about finding

the chief luminaries in the
field of aging research

and its underlying causes
and conditions.

Edwina Rogers: Aaron
did a good job

of trying to keep
people separate.

He didn't want us to
all to be in a room

talking to each other.

Because I think he knew if
anybody talked to me,

I would warn them, I would
tell them the truth.

Aaron and I reached out to all
the scientists we could find

that were working on anything
that extended the health span,

or extended life.

He was going around asking
that they pay him on the side,

and that he could, you know,
get them special access.

He had access to
all my emails,

he had access to
all the websites

for the three foundations.

He started taking airline
tickets and invitations

that I would receive
to give speeches.

He would say things like,

"Oh, no, she's not available,

but she asked that I
go in her place."

suspenseful music

This was Aaron's bedroom.

He really liked the
Vishnu here

because he thought that
it was, uh, spiritual.

As we found out later,
he was using drugs.

He had drugs in the house,
uh, mainly cocaine.

People started to complain
about how aggressive he was.

If we were meeting with a
Congressional staffer that said,

"No, we're not interested in
this project, you know,

we don't have any funds
available for that,"

Uh, he would double down and
start, you know, pressing them.

This is the email
explaining to him

that because of all
these problems,

that we have to demote him, and
that we can no longer have him

in the position as a Chief
Operating Officer.

And then immediately
a week later,

we decided that we had
to terminate him.

Because after he got demoted,
then he called the chairman

and said that the problem is
actually Edwina, it's not him.

And he needs to
be able to, uh,

for people to see how
brilliant he is,

and he needs to report
directly to the board.

[Greg Neimeyer] I'm
coming home and

Edwina is sitting in the car
in the cul-de-sac for hours

because she doesn't want
to come into the house,

because she doesn't want
to be ambushed by Aaron,

and be here in the house
alone with him.

Well at that point, it's like

no, no, no, this
dog does not hunt.

We had to move him
out of our house,

get him out of our lives.

It was unfortunate.

He clearly had many of the
features of psychopathy,

a psychopath.

People were a mark,
they were to be used.

He had the, the, the
capacity for charisma

He could turn it on and
be very, uh, disarming

and, uh, and winning, very
apparently capable and genuine.

But beneath it was predation.

So, so, I do have uh, I did have
serious concerns about his,

his mental health.

[Tristan Roberts]
[in background] Yeah I heard

there was, uh, some issues.

[Tristan] We start shaking the
tree and seeing what was there.

And that's when we started
talking to the early investors.

And we found out that they
had been promised equity.

And Aaron was sort of
running a shell game,

where he was giving them
equity in something worthless.

[indistinct chatter]

dissonant music

[Gabriel Licina] He totally
offered me

a consulting contract, which
is the same contract

that he offered David Ishee,
which is the same contract

that he offered Mac, which is
the same contract

that he offered Andreas

And every single one of them
said 30% of the gross profits

from anything that
you consult on.

And that's already
four people,

and there were more
people involved,

but 30% times four is
more than 100%.

[Edwina Rogers] After we
severed our ties,

he was still going
to everybody

that I had
introduced him to,

and he wasn't telling them
what had happened.

For example, there was
a scientist in Greece

that had come up
with some therapy

to rejuvenate women's ovaries,
so that they could possibly

have a child, if they had
already gone into menopause.

And so he went back to
that scientist and said,

"Let me do your marketing
and, you know,

we can do some clinical trials,
and we'll charge $5000."

But he was keeping the
$5000, you know, himself,

and he was using that,
uh, to live on.

It was a very clear pattern.

I had seen Aaron do this so
many times to different people,

including, you know,
back to my girlfriend

who had breast cancer,
who was wealthy.

Give me money and I'll,
I'll try to get you,

you know, this treatment.

[Tristan Roberts] I mean,
it's one thing to, like,

take investor money uh,
and run off with it.

But what was really
saddening was taking people

who have illnesses,
their money, you know.

That is... [exacerbated sigh]

To some degree, it's like,

yeah, he would try to,
like, fund something,

but he didn't have
the bandwidth,

the lab didn't have the
bandwidth to actually be able

to, like, deliver anything in
a lot of these cases.

So, I think that was
scamming, you know,

there's no way around it.

[Aaron Traywick] The
question of false hope?

Well, that's just another
way of saying

the experiment
isn't complete yet.

And we don't know
if it worked or not.

And of course we don't,

'cause that's why
we do experiments.

[Josiah Zayner] I said that
nobody at his company

was, like,
a professional scientist

that he was working with.

He said that was a lie,
and all this stuff.

And I'm like, "Look man, I know
everybody you work with.

I've talked to them all.

I know everybody who did
everything, like..." [laughs]

Aaron was trying to sue me.

I was the only individual
named in the suit,

me and Gizmodo
Media Corporation,

for $250 Million
for libel.

And it says stuff like,
"Mr. Zayner, obviously jealous,

said these things about me

in an interview with The
Atlantic and on Facebook."

That his company wasn't

working with
legitimate scientists

or medical doctors,
which they should.

It was eventually dismissed

because he filed
in federal court,

and there was a bunch
of legal things

that he didn't under...
understand when he filed,

that the judge just threw it
out because of.

[Mac Davis] I saw what
was happening.

And I figured Aaron's
a strong guy,

and he is super committed to
making it through anything.

He had pushed away
most of his friends,

uh, for the sake
of being

completely dedicated
to this business venture.

And he didn't talk to
his family very much.

And the media
portrayal of him,

uh, although he was a
very proud person naturally,

uh, and very confident,

it really destroyed
him on the inside.

[traffic noise]

dissonant music

[water dripping]

[Reporter] Aaron Traywick,

the CEO of the biohacking
company Ascendance Biomedical,

was found dead Sunday

floating in a sensory
deprivation tank

in a meditation spa in
Washington, D.C.

Traywick and his company

developed experimental
gene therapies

that people tested
on themselves,

without approval
from the FDA.

[water bubbling]

[Melanie Traywick Feith] They
actually came to my house,

the police did.

I just remember just feeling
so panicky inside,

like, oh my gosh, but I never
dreamed it was gonna be that.

That he was dead.

Just I'm like, "What?"
You know, like..

[inhales sharply] I just was...

wasn't expecting that at
all,

just you know. It was
just really bad.

[Tristan Roberts] I was
walking my dogs

out behind my family's house
when I heard of Aaron's death.

I got a text message from
someone asking,

"Why is Andreas saying that
Aaron is dead?"

And I hadn't heard anything
at that point.

A lot of us were just
shocked, you know.

I mean he's, like, the
same age as me.

So that rattles your own
mortality on some degree.

At the same time,

I think there was like
a confluence of factors

I think he definitely
was depressed.

As a mutual friend put it,

"We've all been watching Aaron
drown for the past few months."

And I was like, "Uh, yeah, it's
kind of, kind of true."

[Josiah Zayner] The news
spread, you know.

Most biohackers are a
decentralized community

on social media.

And you know, Facebook,
there's all the, and internet,

there's all these
conspiracy theories,

some people linking
it to his injection,

which is not possible at all.

He did the injection, like,
three months ago.

If he was gonna have
an immune reaction,

it would have happened days
or weeks after,

not three months later.

[Michael Laufer] He had been
cut off, or cut himself off

from contact with everybody
for the last four weeks.

And if it was just that what he
was trying to do didn't work,

and he was so depressed,
that killed him,

that's, that's horrific.

On the other far side
of the spectrum,

some people think
it was a hit.

That's similarly scary
and depressing.

He was a very controversial
figure, in a lot of ways.

So the fact that he
wound up dead,

especially after the collapse
of Ascendance Biomedical

under really unfortunate
circumstances,

seemed strangely timed.

[water lapping]

[Mac Davis] Part of me
didn't believe it.

Part of me wondered if he
had been murdered.

Part of me wondered if he had
faked his death and escaped.

[Tristan Roberts] There was
definitely

a lot of media attention
following Aaron's death.

I mean it was pretty
much, like,

straight out of a
Law & Order episode.

This notable figure dies under
mysterious circumstances.

And the more digging you
do, the more you realize

that a lot of people had
motive behind it,

not just big pharma, but also,
like, all the biohackers

that he had, like, misused
their, like, reputations

in order for his
own personal gain.

And then, but ultimately,
it's... it's the mystery.

soft music

[Rita Traywick] Melanie and I
went to D.C.

and we went in this place.

I think it was
just an accident.

I mean we
really don't know.

And it's out there that
he had used ketamine

but they said that there
wasn't enough in his system

for him to have
overdosed on it.

Somebody had said that he
had a bruise on his forehead.

And, uh, we kinda
think maybe he slipped

and fell back into the
floatation spa.

Uh, I don't know.

We saw him April, April 14th.

[sighs]

emotional music

He had his suitcase
with him.

He was going to
the airport

when he was leaving
from Memphis,

and he told his
daddy, he said.

"Everything I own is
in this suitcase."

[sniffling]

He would just pick up that
suitcase and go.

[giggling and sniffling]

[Kristen Bennett] He was
my uncle, but growing up,

we were really like
brother and sister.

Um, like, that's most of my
childhood, is, um, like,

me and him playing
outside and, um,

just me and him
doing stuff.

[emotional music]

I just can't believe
he's gone, really.

[bird calling]

[Mac Davis] I didn't know
when he died

that at the time I was
Aaron's best friend.

Over time, I ended up
being the person

that he talked
to the most.

and going to his funeral,
meeting his family,

giving his eulogy, and being
inducted into the family

was a really, uh, precious
experience

that I was not expecting.

[flowing water]

[door opening]

[Gabriel Licina] A day after
Aaron violated the lease,

I came up to the
landlord, I'm like,

"Hey man, hear you have a
unit that needs to be filled."

So we just, like, stepped right
back into that same building.

And we picked up
the pieces.

Ascendance didn't have
intellectual property

on anything.

So all the people
who did stuff

got together and
they were like,

"Well, that was dumb. Let's,
uh, keep doing our stuff now."

[seabirds calling]

[water crashing]

[Gabriel] We're working on
plastic-eating fungus,

and using directed evolution
to make it so that the fungus

can live in the ocean, so that
it can eat ocean plastic,

like the Pacific
Garbage Patch.

[water splashing]

So this is the ocean water that
we inoculated with Styrofoam,

and the fungus.

It's, like, cloudy,
it's totally growing,

and it's aggressive,
which is good.

Uh, we want it aggressive.

We have aggressive
problems to deal with.

[water lapping]

We're also working
on a project

for accelerating
tree growth,

so that trees, and actually
anything with a cell wall,

can grow twice as
big, twice as fast.

It's like being punk rock.

Staggering around
with needles

and taking your
pants off on stage.

Like you can only get
away with that shit

when you're a kid.

At some point, everybody's
gonna have to grow up.

It doesn't mean that we
all need to become, like,

hardcore adherents of
late stage capitalism,

uh, but, you know,

there is something
to be said

for not being ridiculous
all the fucking time,

and, you know,

trying to do something
that matters.

[Tristan Roberts] We are in
sunny Los Angeles.

Because after a year of going
back to the drawing board,

the next version of the
therapy is ready.

I'm pretty excited.

I'm definitely ready,
but at the same time,

I feel a little bit
more jaded

and wizened since
last time.

How do we pivot?

How do we not just have
this be a sad little note

in biohacking history?

[Tristan] After
Aaron's departure,

there was some
issue of like,

"How do we raise the
funds for this?"

But, we've been able to
secure what we need

to move forward.

[Walter Patterson] These two
get combined.

This is the PI
in 30 microliters.

This is the DNA at one
microgram at 20 microliters.

There you go.
Ooh, yeah perfect.

[Tristan Roberts] Now I'm
testing out this cocktail

of these different
substances.

And once we have that,
then I think we're pretty set.

And we'll have to pursue
clinical testing.

That's 144,
um, microliters.

Yeah.

Right. The last one.

[Tristan] Oh, there
we go.

[Mac Davis] I really wish
Aaron was here to see

how far we've come,

because I know that's what
he would want to see

more than anything.

If we can produce
the cocktail,

and if it shows the results
that we would expect,

then we would know that
the work we were doing

ultimately mattered
and paid off.

And it would be a
functional vaccine for HIV.

[Mac Davis] Did it all
get in there?

[Tristan Roberts] Yes.

[Mac] Awesome.

All in all, I don't think
I'm gonna die from it,

so I'm all right.

I'm gonna,
I'm gonna make it.

Sweet.

pulsing music

[Tristan Roberts] Throughout
human history,

people have been
either the victims

or the beneficiaries
of their genes.

Those genes express and
they create what you are.

So to be able to alter which
genes you're expressing,

whether that be by removing
some or adding to that,

totally changes the game.

It allows you to become
something else that

be it more than what your...
the lottery of life handed you.

pulsing electronic music

[Josiah Zayner] I don't plan
to be a biohacker forever

and just be, like, poor,
injecting myself with shit.

China is really interesting
because the market is huge.

[trunk closing]

Maybe we'll have business here
in ten years, five years.

Start slowly, move
into the culture,

help develop biohacking
as a thing in China.

[slurping]

[Josiah] If anything, Aaron
challenged everybody.

Then people like me
and other people

starting to think
about, like,

"How can we do this safer
and more effective?"

It's easy to look at Aaron and
choose him as a scapegoat

and be like, "Oh man, he's,
he's like the worst

of the biohacking
community."

But in reality,
his only fault

was that he called
things a cure.

Otherwise, the stuff he was
doing was no different

than most of the other
people are doing,

and even probably
far less harmful,

and some of these people are
making millions of dollars.

I have a tattoo on
my arm. It says,

Create something beautiful.

And we were gonna
do all this stuff

because we just wanted
to do beautiful things,

we just wanted to
make beautiful things,

and we were gonna do it
just for the discovery,

for our, our passion.

I think biohackers are
way ahead of their time,

and I think they're
pushing things

almost to a pace
that's just crazy.

I'm sure we'll see a
lot more people

eventually in the future
injecting themselves,

and it actually being
really, really successful.

[powerful music]

[Aaron Traywick] At its
foundation, to me,

it appears as simply freedom,
morphological freedom,

the freedom to be able to
invent the technologies

that can enhance your life,

regardless of the circumstances
you may have been born in,

or the genetics you are
predisposed to.

Um, I mean ultimately
that's, that's what it is,

is self-guided evolution,
self-directed evolution.

And that is something
that every individual

should have the
right to have.

And if every individual
has that right,

then the collective, like
humanity as a whole, benefits.

And our, our culture,
our world, our species

is all the better for it.

[Interviewer] Well thank
you again

for taking the time to
speak with me.

Aaron, stay safe
and best of luck.

[Aaron] Absolutely.
I couldn't agree more,

and, uh, I was
glad to do it.

Thank you so very much
for having me here.