About this episode

The episode explores the obsession with immortality through the story of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, and his quest for eternal life amidst political intrigue and paranoia.

Our species is obsessed with immortality. Given our limited time on this Earth, who can blame us? As such, many great men and women throughout history have sought to halt or postpone death through both supernatural and scientific means. But of them, perhaps none did so quite as intensely as the first emperor of China. Join me this week for a tale of political intrigue, assassination attempts, and paranoia and how one of the most powerful figures in history sought the recipe for the elixir of eternal life!

People in this episode

Host: Chester Sakamoto

Topics covered

• immortality
• Qin Shi Huang
• Chinese history
• political intrigue
• elixir of life
• paranoia
• assassination attempts

Keywords

• immortality
• Qin Shi Huang
• China
• history
• elixir of life
• political intrigue
• assassination
• paranoia

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