In Sedona, Arizona – where ancient wisdom meets cutting-edge neuroscience – our host Méline embarks on an extraordinary journey to explore exactly that.

In this special documentary episode, Méline tests four radically different approaches to altering consciousness. Her quest begins at dawn on Bell Rock, one of Sedona’s mysterious energy vortexes, where yoga takes on an entirely new dimension.

At the waters of Red Rock Crossing, scientist-turned-meditation-guide Michele Mattix reveals how modern research is validating ancient practices, showing how just minutes of meditation can fundamentally rewire our stress response.

Then, when shamanic breathwork specialist Valerie Irons guides Méline through an ancient breathing ritual, something unexpected happens that challenges everything she thought she knew about the mind-body connection. The experience raises a compelling question: what transformations are possible when we combine ancient wisdom with modern technology?

But it’s at the BioCybernaut Institute where science fiction seems to become reality – a $20,000 brain training device promises to compress decades of meditative practice into a week, with some participants reportedly jumping from an IQ of 75 to 120.

In this exciting first for The HumanWare Project, we glimpse a future where we don’t have to choose between time-tested traditions and technological innovation. Instead, we might find our next evolutionary leap in their harmonious integration, opening new pathways to optimise our brain’s remarkable capacity for change.

This is a question that challenges decades of medical practice. While most treatments rely on hormones and painkillers with concerning side effects, few have explored the root cause: our brain’s response to hormonal changes.

In this episode of The HumanWare Project, Emilė Radytė – the founder of Sapphire Neuroscience and an Oxford-trained neuroscientist – explains how she is pioneering this paradigm shift. Born in Lithuania and educated at Harvard before pursuing her PhD at Oxford, Emilė’s journey through emergency medicine revealed a critical gap in healthcare – the overwhelming number of women suffering from mental health issues closely tied to their reproductive cycles. This observation, combined with her expertise in neuroscience and engineering, led her to develop Nettle – the world’s first brain stimulation device specifically designed for PMS and menstrual pain.

In this enlightening conversation, Emilė shares her groundbreaking approach to women’s health through neuroscience. From explaining how transcranial direct current stimulation can rebalance brain activity to discussing the latest research on menstrual cycles’ effects on cognition, she reveals how technology could free women from accepting monthly suffering as inevitable. Through her work, Emilė demonstrates how understanding our brain’s response to hormonal changes could revolutionise women’s healthcare, offering hope for a future where women no longer need to “push through” reproductive health challenges.

For Alina Su, it was deeply personal – the loss of her grandfather before she was born sparked a lifelong quest to give people more time with their loved ones.

In this captivating conversation with Méline, Alina reveals how she went from bringing coffee to a legendary scientist at Berkeley to co-founding Generation Lab, a company at the cutting edge of longevity science. Her journey challenges everything we think we know about ageing – it’s not the steady decline we imagine, but rather more like a car that starts making noise at certain mileages. The exciting part? We might be able to fix it.

Alina takes us into the fascinating world of biological age, explaining how our bodies don’t all age at the same rate – your heart might be younger than your brain, or your immune system might be ageing faster than your muscles. It’s a bit like having different parts of your car wearing down at different speeds. Through Generation Lab’s groundbreaking work, we can now actually measure this, opening up the possibility of targeted interventions before problems arise.

But the real showstopper comes when Alina discusses their therapeutic plasma exchange treatment. Remember those controversial “young blood” stories from Silicon Valley? Alina explains how her team has transformed that concept into something far more sophisticated – a treatment that could potentially wind back our biological clock without needing young donors at all.

Looking ahead, Alina paints an optimistic but grounded picture of human longevity. While living to 120 or even 150 might be possible, she emphasises that the goal isn’t just to live longer – it’s to stay healthy and vibrant throughout those years. Imagine being 100 but feeling like you’re 40, with all your faculties intact and energy to spare.

This episode of The Humanware Project isn’t just about science – it’s about reimagining what it means to age. What would you do differently if you knew you had another 50 healthy years ahead? How would society change if retirement at 65 became a mid-life sabbatical instead of the end of our productive years?

Through Alina’s eyes, we glimpse a future where ageing isn’t something that happens to us, but something we actively manage – not through questionable anti-ageing creams or fad diets, but through precise, scientifically-measured interventions. It’s a future where we might not just live longer, but live better, with more time to pursue our dreams, spend with loved ones, and maybe even make it to Mars.

While most of us think of dental health as just about having a bright smile, pioneering dentist Dr. Sameer Patel reveals it’s actually a window into our overall wellness and longevity.

Dr. Patel, one of London’s leading dentists, shares groundbreaking insights about how our oral health is intimately connected to everything from heart disease to dementia. From his years of experience at the forefront of preventive dentistry, he explains how the mouth acts as an early warning system for serious health conditions, and how simple daily habits can dramatically impact our healthspan.

In his fascinating conversation with Méline, Dr.Patel reveals the truth about common dental misconceptions, from when to really brush your teeth to why removing teeth for braces may be doing more harm than good. He shares practical wisdom about the oral microbiome, the surprising impact of warm versus cold water, and how modern stressors are literally grinding down our teeth. Beyond just dental advice, Dr. Patel illuminates the crucial connection between oral health and whole-body wellness, offering a revolutionary perspective on how taking care of our mouths today could help us live healthier well into our 90s and beyond.

This isn’t science fiction – it’s the vision of Dr Lee Hood, the pioneering scientist who helped map the first human genome and is now leading the charge toward a healthcare revolution.

Dr Hood, co-founder of 17 biotech companies including Amgen and the Institute for Systems Biology, shares his groundbreaking vision for the future of medicine. From his early days helping launch the Human Genome Project to his current work on scientific wellness, Dr Hood reveals how combining genomics, technology, and artificial intelligence could democratise healthcare worldwide.

In this fascinating conversation, Dr Hood explains how our genes are merely the “source code” that determines our potential health trajectories – but it’s our behaviours and choices that determine which path we take. He shares practical insights on optimising brain health, physical fitness, and the microbiome, while painting a compelling picture of a future where personalised, preventive healthcare becomes the norm rather than the exception.