Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever (2026) s01e05 Episode Script
Fun! Fun! Fun! Death
1
[bells ringing]
[mysterious music]
- I'll tell you
Korea has better AI than we do.
Ours would be a Dunkin' Donuts.
- Tell me about how
to stop Scott Galloway
from doing dick jokes.
- Let me try it again.
So what can Americans learn
from Korea
and its approach to living?
♪
I spent the past few months
traveling across the U.S.,
talking
with longevity scientists,
health-tech millionaires,
and everyday Americans
chasing dreams
of longer and healthier lives.
But the awkward truth is that,
despite spending two times
more on health care than
other industrialized nations,
Americans are living shorter
and less healthy lives
than people
in other developed countries.
So maybe it's time
for a second opinion.
- [speaking Korean]
- Enter South Korea.
[upbeat music]
You may have heard of it.
- "Parasite" makes history.
- "Squid Game" number one
in 90 different countries.
- I love Korea.
I love the food.
I love the energy.
I used to come for technology
'cause I covered Samsung and LG.
I haven't been to Korea
in about ten years.
I'm excited to see, you know,
the various things
around longevity.
I'm back in Korea
because the numbers don't lie.
When it comes
to health-care performance,
South Korea consistently ranks
among the world's top
performers year after year.
And all this is pretty recent.
In just a few decades,
life expectancy in Korea
surged from an average
of 53 to 78 years,
surpassing the U.S. by 2004.
And a recent Lancet report
projected South Koreans,
and specifically South Korean
women born in 2030,
will soon be
the longest-living population
in the world.
So what propelled Korea
toward the top
of the global health outcomes?
And what exactly
is America missing?
And are there downsides
of getting there?
[car horn honks]
[upbeat music]
♪
Where are we right now?
- We're in Gangnam.
I guess it would be
the Times Square
but much more younger.
- Uh-huh.
[electronic music]
♪
There's doctors everywhere, too.
- There's doctors everywhere.
- Like, how many are there here?
- You really cannot count.
- You cannot.
- In Korea
- Right.
- You need to be proactive
about your body.
If you have a sniffle,
you have to go to the hospital.
Unlike the U.S.,
where it's very expensive
and limited to the rich,
here it's really affordable,
accessible.
It's, like,
kind of part of life.
- Hieun Shin is a journalist
and the Korean correspondent
for AFP.
Her reporting covers
the culture, politics,
and social undercurrents that
define life here in Korea.
So how often do Koreans go
to the pharmacy, to the doctor?
- Anything you want
If your back hurts, you can
just go to the chiropractor.
You don't need a referral
to a general hospital.
You just go there.
- Right.
- Whenever my grandparents
or people around you ask,
how are you, you don't ask
them, how are you?
- Yeah.
- You ask them, how's your body?
- Uh-huh.
- That's how you say it here.
- Oh.
Oh, how do you say that?
- [speaking Korean]
- [speaking Korean]
- [speaking Korean]
- I'm not gonna be able
to do it.
There was a prediction that
Korean women would live longer,
and now they are.
- Right.
- So why do you think that is?
- I think it's
that whole survivalist mode
that still exists
in South Korea.
It goes back
decades and decades.
If you look at the generations
right before me,
we have that generation
going through poverty,
war, rapid industrialization.
- Mm-hmm.
But that same momentum
accelerated improvements
in health care.
Many who have lived
through the Korean War,
now 75 or older,
are now enjoying medical care
they could've hardly imagined,
while their grandchildren
take a long, healthy life
as the norm
A testament
to the speedy improvements
focused on preventative
health care.
- It's called
"the ppalli-ppalli culture."
- Okay. Right.
- "Ppalli" means "quick."
- And so it's
about how South Korean people
need to have everything
quick as possible.
And that whole
constant adaptation
to do everything so quickly,
so fast, it is exhausting.
- Yeah.
- But at the same time,
that whole preventive
health-care system
really does attribute
to that really long lifespan.
- That health span, really.
- Yeah.
- In just over 12 years, Korea
went from voluntary insurance
to full-on universal coverage.
And by 2000, it had become
a single-payer system,
where people see their doctors
an average of 16 times a year,
not because they're sicker.
They go because they can.
Every citizen is entitled
to a routine screening
every other year.
And a routine screening
includes dozens of tests
Advanced imaging, like MRIs,
PET and CT scans,
heart and lung checks,
tumor markers,
body-composition analysis,
just to name a few.
Meanwhile, in the U.S.,
to get these same screenings
in a day,
you'd have to have a membership
to concierge medicine
that costs a fortune.
But in Korea, it's done
in a couple of hours,
all on one floor, door to door
Efficient, affordable, thorough.
You should have
an annual health-care check
with your doctor
that is rigorous, right?
Every year
everybody should have that.
And so you could look
and monitor,
whether it's weight,
whether it's diabetes.
We live in a society
where we do sick care.
We don't do health care.
We do sick care.
In Korea, it seems
like most people
get the base level health care
that they need to stay healthy.
- If you ask
a lot of South Koreans,
would you like to live in
the U.S. or in South Korea
- Right.
- A lot of them would say
South Korea
because of the medical care.
- 'Cause of the medical care.
- I'm currently pregnant,
and I can really get scans
every week if I want to.
- It's off your plate.
That's a huge worry
in the United States.
- It's a huge thing.
- What do you hope
for your child?
- I know this country
is just constantly moving.
- Right.
- But I hope that he kind
of finds his own pace
and just doesn't compare
himself to others
- Right.
- When it comes to his value
and happiness.
- Mm-hmm.
- It's really hard to do here.
- My younger kids they
don't eat enough vegetables.
And they call them
revenge-tables,
which I'm really
not pleased with.
[school bell ringing]
And in Korea, they've decided
it's a priority
for their kids to learn
how to eat properly
from an early age.
Talk about the importance
of good nutrition for kids,
because it sort of sets you up
for life, for longevity,
for health and weight
and every other disease
that comes with bad food.
- Inviting me today
is Yeonju Kim,
the nutritionist
at Mullae Elementary School.
And, yes, in Korea,
every school gets its own.
Yeonju plans the daily meals
for the hundreds of kids,
from first through sixth grade,
because in a country
where people are living longer
than almost anywhere else,
preventative health doesn't
start in the doctor's office.
It starts on the lunch tray.
- Also joining us is
Tina Choi, a food scientist,
recipe developer,
and content creator,
sharing Korean dishes
with her millions of fans
as Doobydobap.
- I do a lot
of meal prep, actually,
especially
for the U.S. audience,
of how to incorporate
more vegetables
into your everyday eating.
- Having gone through the
Korean school system herself,
she knows her way
around these silver trays.
- You get handed a menu.
- Uh-huh.
- And the day that you receive
that, you know, I remember,
like, highlighting
the ones that I liked
- I did that, too.
- You know, like katsu.
You know, I always looked
forward to lunchtime.
- Talk about kimchi
and the importance
of fermented foods,
because it's a key element
of food, essentially, here.
- I think it was just something
so normalized for us
that it's not something
that we think are like,
oh, this is great for us.
- Right.
- Oh, it's just kimchi.
- So what's on the menu today?
- Hi. Hi.
How you doing?
Nice to meet you.
Wow, a line.
Hi. How you doing?
[laughs]
I have a 4-year-old son
and a 20-year-old.
- 4-year-old?
- I got a lot of kids.
- Big range.
- Big range, yeah.
I'm a straight white man.
[laughs]
Kimchi, of course, of course.
Oh, an actual apple.
Thank you.
Tell me what you do.
You put meat, all right.
And then some sauce, right?
Oh, my God, that's so good!
That's amazing.
You get this free
every day of your lives
before you finish school.
- Yeah.
- You know,
you guys eating this,
I can't imagine young people
in the United States
eating any of this at all,
especially vegetables.
How can we get American kids
to eat like this?
What would you tell them?
- That's a great idea.
- Oh, that's a good idea.
How long do you all
want to live?
- What?
[laughing]
You probably will.
Eating this, you will, 100%.
You will, absolutely.
- Well, that could be sooner
than you think.
- He's a jokester.
- Yeah.
- He's a jokester.
- I see that.
- Yeah.
- Nice.
[laughter]
- I'm moving to Korea,
so my little ones
They learn how to eat.
Preventative health care
in Korea
might start early
with a healthy gut,
but it's not the only thing
keeping them healthy.
People always talk
about skin care in Korea.
They're so well-known for
the high quality of products,
but it's also part of the
preventative-health regimen.
Eating, sleeping, skin care
It's part of a bigger picture,
not just, I want to look pretty.
So, when in Seoul, I booked
a consultation
with Dr. Hwa Young Jung,
a board-certified dermatologist,
to see what the latest
in preventative skin care
could offer this very
well-loved 62-year-old face
of mine.
- This way, please.
Please sit down right here.
- Okay.
- Today we'll begin
with a facial analysis
using Vectra 3D imaging system.
- Vectra?
- Vectra.
- Who names these things?
- It's called Vectra.
You have very small face.
- Small face.
Apparently, I have a small face.
- Maybe we have
to heighten the
- Oh, heighten I'm short
and with a small face, okay.
- No, no, no, no, no, no.
- Small face, short person.
I could not live in Korea.
I'm not polite enough.
- That's good.
Okay.
- One, two, three.
[camera shutter clicks]
- Wow.
I should've smiled.
I look like
I'm gonna be arrested.
- I'm sorry to point this out
on our first meeting.
I'm sorry.
- No, that's okay.
- We could see a bit of sagging.
- Yes, I'm old.
- And then there's a little bit
of looseness under the chin.
You do have this hollow.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, it's because
of the fat redistribution
because of the skin aging.
- Mm-hmm.
I look like a Roman statue.
And then right here there's this
from squinting my whole life.
- Yes, but I think it's natural,
and I think you like it.
- I do.
- Actually, you don't have
that much jowl.
- Mm-hmm.
- You just have sagging.
- Just sagging, not jowl.
Thank you. Great.
Oh, wow.
It's bright in here.
You gonna take my face off?
- [laughs]
Please sit here, okay?
- Okay. All right.
But is anti-aging
backed by science, really?
What causes skin aging?
- Oh, there are intrinsic
factors and extrinsic factors.
The two important thing
is the UV exposure,
of course, and smoking.
- Smoking.
- Yes.
- Never smoke.
- What's good for our body
Generally, it's good
for our skin also.
So eating foods
with low glycemic index,
adequate hydration,
regular sleep,
wearing sunscreen.
- When I was a kid,
nobody did sunscreen.
We used to put foil
under our face with oil,
like we're a chicken breast.
Can you recover from that?
- When we look
in the microscope,
the sun-damaged tissues,
it's called solar elastosis.
It's the loosening of the skin.
And it could be restored
by stimulating
fibroblast activity
and tightening the face.
- So what do you recommend?
- I would recommend CoolSoniq
for skin tightening.
I would recommend Mirajet
for your fine lines,
overall skin texture.
- I mean, certain countries
do more skin intervention,
surgically, kind of thing.
And this is more
- More noninvasive.
- Noninvasive.
- Minimal downtime,
minimal pain.
I'll do some
facial designing first.
- Oh, you're actually drawing
on my face, okay, yeah.
- Is it okay?
- Yeah.
Jeez, now I look like
I'm about to invade England.
- Okay, we'll start
with the CoolSoniq first.
- First up, CoolSoniq
It's a Korean-developed,
high-intensity ultrasound device
that targets deep layers
of the skin
to stimulate new collagen.
It helps with the structural
breakdown from age and sun,
including the damage done
from America's truly inspired
foil-and-oil era.
You know, they're a little
more aggressive in the U.S.
- Oh.
- They kind of shove a lot
of treatments in your face.
- I hope this becomes a reason
for you to come back to Seoul.
[laughter]
- Next is Mirajet.
Instead of going deep,
it's a needleless laser system
that works in the mid layers
of the skin
to improve texture
and hydration.
It helps maintain skin quality
and addresses
the visible effects of aging
The fine lines and unevenness
that develop over time.
- We could see the texture
is a little bit smoothened
- Mm-hmm.
- The fine wrinkles.
It has an immediate effect.
- It feels great.
It doesn't feel
at all irritated.
In the U.S., many people
only see a dermatologist
when something seems wrong.
Here, skin care is treated
more like routine health care,
focused on prevention
and maintaining healthy skin
for the long haul.
Oh, that feels so good.
- Okay.
- I love having
my skin worked on.
- All right.
We go into the box of shaman.
I can't believe I'm getting
in a box with technology.
It seems problematic.
The pagoda of my fate
from an iPhone.
- I'd like to know
how my children are doing.
- Why in the world
would I take advice from AI?
[mysterious music]
What was the inspiration
behind this?
- Mm-hmm.
This is Tek-Jin Nam,
industrial designer
and director
of the Design Research Lab at
the Korea Advanced Institute
of Science and Technology.
In South Korea, addressing
preventative health care
for your body,
whether it's your skin or gut,
is widely accepted as the norm.
But mental health,
on the other hand,
remains stigmatized,
and many Koreans seek
emotional well-being
outside of the conventional
medical system.
One place they're turning to
[bells ringing]
Shamanism, Korea's only
native spiritual practice,
which is experiencing
a resurgence
among young South Koreans.
Shamans are filling the gap,
offering young people
a culturally accepted space
to talk through
life's uncertainties.
Tek-Jin's experiment
combines the widely accepted
spiritual tradition with AI
to create a chatbot
known as Shaman AI.
- Young generation
often use this for fun.
- Mm-hmm.
Sometimes it's quite dangerous.
- Of course, yeah.
- It's been big problems with
young people in our country.
Should AI be doing this with us?
- As Korea continues
to develop its AI,
people like Tek-Jin are asking
more critical questions,
not just about its capabilities
but about the emotional role
this technology
is beginning to take on.
- Uh-huh.
- The oven is a spouse.
Right.
- Huh.
- Mm-hmm.
- Mm-hmm.
- And maybe
that kind of evolution
isn't as far-fetched
as it sounds.
Korea is doing a lot
of these relationships.
I'm just as worried for them
as I am for people in the U.S.
Which somehow leads me
to a birthday party.
And like any decent guest,
I'm bringing cake.
But not just any birthday party,
it's Hyodol's birthday.
Yes, a birthday party
for a doll.
Go ahead.
Take a moment.
Yes, it's as creepy
as it sounds.
[car horns honking]
Korea has become
a super-aged society,
with 10 million people
over the age of 65
and a third of them
living alone.
With the world's
lowest birth rate
and Korean women poised
to break the lifespan barrier,
that senior population
will only continue to grow,
creating a critical gap
in caregivers.
In a country where
early health prevention
seems to be the default,
much like their approach
to food or skin care,
Korea has already been
preparing for the crisis
of the silver generation.
One solution
- AI-powered robots
designed to sound
and look like seven-year-olds.
- And these seniors
take these things seriously.
They give them nicknames,
knit them clothes,
and even tuck them in at night.
[doll speaking Korean]
Every month, they get together
to celebrate
their loved one's birthday.
[doll speaking Korean]
Today's guest of honor is
Grandma Jeon and her Hyodol.
[all singing "Happy Birthday"
in Korean]
[cheers and applause]
And I'm sitting down
with a woman who insists
this isn't a new horror
franchise in the making,
Jihee Kim, CEO of Hyodol.
And joining us is Joanna Jung,
a researcher with the company
who works closely
with the elders
and in R&D
back at the factory.
So what was the idea
behind dolls for the elderly?
- Right.
So it's companionship.
- Yeah, right.
- And how many are out there?
- 13,000?
- In Korea.
- In Korea.
- And who pays for these?
- Hello.
[laughter]
- Oh.
Thank you.
Oh, wow.
- This is
a welfare center, right?
For seniors to come
- Right. Right, right.
- And have companionship.
Wouldn't regular people be
better than a doll or not?
Or it just doesn't work?
- It's really easy to assume
that if they come together
in the welfare center,
they may talk about everything,
but it's actually not true
because they all have
different interests.
They come
from different backgrounds.
- I'm aware.
I have an elderly parent.
- Yeah. [laughs]
- She doesn't like anybody.
Besides being a chatbot,
it also apparently collects
medical information.
- Right.
- And does it inform
the social worker, then?
- Yeah.
- Only the health-related
questions
- Okay.
- The answers are recorded.
- Back in the U.S., a tech
company with that kind of data
would or really should set off
privacy alarm bells.
But in January of 2026,
the Korean government
rolled out the AI Basic Act,
the world's first
comprehensive national AI law
requiring transparency
and safeguards.
And many seem to trust
those protections
and believe the tradeoff
is worth it,
unlike Americans,
who've watched tech companies
vow to safeguard private data
before predictably doing
the opposite.
Where else do you see
this going?
- Everyone, global.
- Yeah, global.
- And this reality for us
might come sooner
than you think.
Hyodol recently received
FDA approval
and has plans to make them
available in the U.S. in 2026.
- Don't forget
to hang out with me
at least three times a day.
- "Three times a day"?
Wow, it's very demanding.
- Very demanding.
- So you do this and
- Grandma.
- This doll
is calling me Grandma.
I'm not a grandma yet.
- Oh.
How are you today?
- I feel really good.
I'm talking to a doll,
obviously.
You could do a Fox News doll
for, like, my mother.
[robotic voice] You're right.
Hillary Clinton's terrible.
- Grandma,
I am only a little boy,
so I don't know
about politicians.
I just want everyone to be
happy and kind to each other.
- What does it mean to have
this doll in your life?
Her daughter.
- She's worried about what
will happen when she dies.
- Oh.
- Uh-oh.
- The Hyodol says, until you
die, I'm gonna be beside you.
- Beside you.
Oh, my gosh, you're killing me.
I was watching my four-year-old
play with his cars
the other day,
and he was making up
a whole story by himself.
He was sitting there
and talking.
You know, you overhear him,
and I found it very moving.
I kind of felt the same way
when I was watching
the older people.
They're sort of rediscovering
imagination for themselves.
Feeling not alone by playing
with an inanimate object,
that kind of goes back
to your youth in a lot of ways.
- With younger people,
I don't think they should have
chatbot friends.
In the older people, I didn't
find it to be dangerous
because I thought
they were deploying it
in a really responsible way.
Well done. I was dubious,
I'll be honest with you.
- Bye-bye.
- Thank you.
Again, thank you. Thank you.
Good luck. Good luck.
Thank you.
You're adorable.
You're, like,
aggressively adorable.
- Today I'm on the move
to find out what's next
for health tech in Korea.
To see where that's heading,
I'm getting on Korea's KTX.
And like most things in Korea,
it moves at lightning speed.
At nearly 200 miles per hour,
the bullet train slices
through the landscape,
leaping forward
to the city of Daejeon
Korea's newly named
Robot Valley.
Behind these
world-class research labs
and startup buildings
embody the nation's
next strategic move
robotics.
Having successfully engineered
and invested in K-pop,
the government is now setting
its sights on a new ambition
at the center of the newly
formed K-Humanoid Alliance,
bringing together
more than 40 companies,
universities,
and research institutes.
And they're investing
in not just industrial
machines or service bots
but robots meant
to support people as they age
and extend quality of life.
And one of the founding members
of the Alliance is this man,
Kyoungchul "KC" Kong,
professor at
the Korea Advanced Institute
of Science and Technology
and the founder
of Angel Robotics.
- We are developing
wearable robot.
- Wearable robots.
- Yeah, you can wear.
- An exoskeleton, right?
- Exactly.
- You've seen them around.
- In the movie, of course.
- Yeah.
When you hear
the word "exoskeleton,"
what probably comes to mind
are sci-fi films
like "Aliens,"
"Iron Man," or "The Matrix."
- [shouting]
- What KC emphasizes instead
is for the technology
to address the real everyday
needs of ordinary people.
- What real people need
is medical device first.
In Korea, if you look around,
like, the rehabilitation
hospitals,
you will see my robot
almost everywhere.
- Everywhere.
- Ten years ago, they found
that the right measurement
of health condition
is locomotion.
If someone
is not walking normally,
then they start getting,
you know,
other diseases very quickly.
- Right. That's right.
They tend to die when they fall,
and then they get pneumonia,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Research consistently shows
that maintaining mobility
is strongly linked to longevity.
It's a reliable predictor
of how long and how well
people live.
- After use of this wearable
robot for about two months,
their walking ability
becomes way better
- Way better.
- Than before.
- What's wrong with just
having them all the time?
- The problem is they don't use
their own muscles.
We have to find the optimal
amount of assistive torque.
- Right.
- This robot
does not make a decision,
because this robot
has to read our intention.
So do you want to try
wearing the robot?
- Of course I do.
Okay. All right.
So it goes around the waist.
It feels like a belt,
like a police belt.
- [laughs]
- It's very light.
I tried some of these many
years ago, and they were heavy.
- Oh, really? Oh.
- At MIT and places like that.
- Oh.
- This is much more flexible.
- Also, it has, like,
a small computer in it.
- Yeah.
- This one has two actuators
- On each side.
- For each hip joint.
And then this one
has six sensors
that measure your very small,
tiny movement.
Actually, this device
needs information
from the knee joint as well
- Right. Oh.
- And also
from the ground contact.
- [imitating Schwarzenegger]
I'll be back.
[laughter]
- Just reduce the flexor 30%.
- [normal voice] Mm-hmm.
- Would you like to walk?
- Yeah.
Oh, wow.
- You initiate the motion.
- Right.
It's going because I'm
So, if I stop, it stops.
- Right.
So now let me increase
the system factor to be 100%.
It's gonna be
a little bit unnatural.
- Oh, wow.
Oh, it's pulling me up.
Yeah. Look at that.
[laughter]
This is really terrific.
[imitates whirring, clanking]
I sound like a robot.
- If I turn this off
- Yeah.
- You will feel something.
- Yeah.
- I promise.
- Yeah, okay.
- So just walk.
- Yeah.
It's gonna do it for
So it's pushing me right now.
- Yes. Yes, yes.
- [laughs] Wow.
Yeah, I could see how you could
be more confident, right,
if you were nervous
about walking.
Now you're gonna
Oh, I can't walk.
[laughter]
That's a party trick.
The minute it stopped,
I stopped being able to walk
'cause my brain
had allowed the robot
to take over my muscles.
And so I couldn't walk
for a second.
It was pretty cool
and scary a little bit.
- If we have
too much assistance
- Your body will forget to walk.
- Exactly.
- Just like if we use too much
AI, we'll forget to think.
- Exactly.
- That's what's happening.
- Yes.
- That was so weird.
I couldn't walk.
- By the way,
this kind of phenomenon
is called embodiment.
Like, you feel that this
is just part of your body.
- Wow.
- So
- That was wild.
Wow. Huh.
Embodiment.
[pensive music]
And so far here in Korea,
what stood out to me
is the actual thoughtfulness
behind these solutions.
That extends
to deployment as well,
with systemic checks designed
to prevent overreliance
on the technology.
What would it cost
to buy one of these,
to have your own exoskeleton?
- Oh, actually, we don't sell
this device
for individuals yet.
If you go to hospital
and then if you get
rehabilitation treatment
out of this medical device,
the government pays.
- Oh. Some people have wanted
to buy it, I assume.
- There are some you know,
the "potential customers"
- Right.
- Contact me, but, actually,
we decided not to sell.
- In the U.S.,
we've seen no shortage
of tech billionaires
building products unchecked
that somehow make life less safe
for everyday Americans,
while making themselves
obscenely richer
in the process.
What's nice
is the lightness of this
and easy to put on.
It's about what solutions
can be done
using technology
to help humanity.
But you can see
the emotional feeling,
if you had a stroke
and you feel so incapacitated,
and you were able to
- Right.
- Start to come back.
My brother
has muscular dystrophy,
and so this would allow him
to stand.
Are you an angel?
- [chuckles]
I wanted to be.
- Ah.
[birds chirping]
- Korea can feel like a glimpse
of the future of health,
with major investments
in health tech
and systems to care for both
the young and the old.
And in many ways, especially
compared to the U.S.,
it is.
But the systems here
are built
around a very specific idea
of what a normal Korean life
looks like.
And for those who don't fit
into that mold,
societal forces and stigmas
have real health consequences
that affect lifespan
and quality of life.
[siren wailing]
Although Korea has
one of the longest lifespans
in the world,
it also leads
in a more alarming category.
It reports
the highest suicide rate
among OECD member countries,
with rates among women
and marginalized identities
particularly high.
One of the reasons we're here
It's 'cause
of this longevity thing.
And Korea
has the longest lifespans.
- Where is that data
coming from?
[laughter]
- It's true.
No, it is true.
- I can't believe it.
- Lang Lee is a writer,
musician, and video director
whose work explores
the less visible sides
of life in Korea
Stories that sit outside
of the country's glossy,
high-tech image
most often seen
around the world.
She's invited me
to her favorite neighborhood
restaurant, Sunmi San Allu,
along with some
of her fellow artist friends
and collaborators.
This is fantastic.
- Thank you.
- Lang, why don't you introduce
everybody to me?
- We met
at the performance event.
I was reading children's book
in drag.
- Oh, okay.
- 'Cause I used to do drag.
- Mm-hmm.
- I'm Hoyoung.
I'm a writer and translator.
Sometimes I also interpret.
- This district?
- Yes.
- What's this district called?
Both: Mapo.
[acoustic music]
- The society is heavily
focusing on the economy.
- Mm-hmm.
- To bring it up
in the conversation
and live as who you are
is also about the longevity,
'cause you cannot really hide
and live long.
- I'm also trans
and felt uncomfortable.
Anything that's deemed
not normal is made invisible.
- Alongside heavy investments
in robotics,
Korea has set a $51 million
2026 suicide-prevention budget
with many tech-driven solutions.
But still, for now,
the most reliable lifelines
in this community
aren't so technological.
- So it's like random night
phone call.
- Yeah, random night
phone call friend.
- Yeah. Yeah.
[laughter]
- The kinetic connection
between human beings
is good for your health.
Social connections are critical
to all kinds
of health-care issues
Stress, cortisol,
brain plasticity.
The more you are with people,
the less you hate,
the more you feel hopeful.
Study after study
after study has shown this.
What is a good life
in your idea?
- What is good life?
- Health, family
being who I am, being who I am
and benefiting from it,
rather than having people
take away things.
- Yeah.
Today is a good day, I think.
- Yeah.
Did you ever see "Gladiator"?
- Mm-hmm.
- "It's a good day to die,
just not today."
[laughter]
But not today. But not today.
- Let's not die today.
[light music]
- Right.
Right.
- Dr. Geon-Ha Kim
specializes in dementia
and cognitive neurology
at Ewha Womans University
Hospital.
- Since 2009, she's published
multiple studies
on SuperAgers older adults
with cognitive abilities
comparable to someone
decades younger.
- So what are the elements
of a SuperAger?
- Uh-huh.
- Uh-huh.
- Right. Right.
- Uh-huh.
- At any age.
- Before my time here
comes to a close,
I have one last person to meet
A Korean grandmother who may
not know Dr. Kim's research
but whose lifestyle embodies
much of her findings.
- Now, you may know her,
but if you don't,
it's time you do.
- She shares videos
of her daily routine,
from workouts
to traditional recipes,
along with her
skin-care regimens.
It's a lifestyle
that's kept her healthy
and clearly very happy
to defy the life-expectancy
odds of her generation.
- [laughing]
- She's invited me to one
of her regular get-togethers
with her friends
by the Han River.
- And you're all friends?
- 40 years?
Wow.
[laughter]
[laughter]
- This is a real posse
of ladies.
Korean women
will be living the longest.
Why do you think that is?
- It sounds like your minds
are still young, too.
You look pretty good.
Korean Grandma started using
Instagram and YouTube
at age 71 at the urging
of her granddaughter Yura.
- Mm-hmm.
- Mm-hmm. Why did you do it
in the first place?
- Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
- You get to spend time
with your grandmother.
- Yes.
- That's a great thing.
I miss my grandmother.
♪
What's the good life for you?
[laughter]
- Mak-Rye and her generation
have lived
through Korea's rise
from bottom of the charts
to the top.
- They've embraced
new technology,
but they've held on
to the things
that have kept them healthy
for decades,
like eating traditional foods
and spending time
with loved ones.
[mouth full]
Ooh! Spicy.
- [laughs]
- Now I will live forever.
- [laughs]
- [normal voice] I went to Korea
to see what we could learn
from their approach
to health care.
There are plenty of problems
in Korea.
They have suicide issues.
They have loneliness issues,
rich and poor.
But the government is
interested in the health care
of its citizens
in a much more profound way.
Even if they're not perfect,
at least it matters to them
at the very base.
Thinking about preventative
health care great idea.
Learning to eat well
at an early age great idea.
They're putting money
towards issues of elderly
in their country and mobility.
That's the kind of stuff
we can learn from them.
We need to think
about health care as a right,
not a thing that you get maybe.
[bells ringing]
[mysterious music]
- I'll tell you
Korea has better AI than we do.
Ours would be a Dunkin' Donuts.
- Tell me about how
to stop Scott Galloway
from doing dick jokes.
- Let me try it again.
So what can Americans learn
from Korea
and its approach to living?
♪
I spent the past few months
traveling across the U.S.,
talking
with longevity scientists,
health-tech millionaires,
and everyday Americans
chasing dreams
of longer and healthier lives.
But the awkward truth is that,
despite spending two times
more on health care than
other industrialized nations,
Americans are living shorter
and less healthy lives
than people
in other developed countries.
So maybe it's time
for a second opinion.
- [speaking Korean]
- Enter South Korea.
[upbeat music]
You may have heard of it.
- "Parasite" makes history.
- "Squid Game" number one
in 90 different countries.
- I love Korea.
I love the food.
I love the energy.
I used to come for technology
'cause I covered Samsung and LG.
I haven't been to Korea
in about ten years.
I'm excited to see, you know,
the various things
around longevity.
I'm back in Korea
because the numbers don't lie.
When it comes
to health-care performance,
South Korea consistently ranks
among the world's top
performers year after year.
And all this is pretty recent.
In just a few decades,
life expectancy in Korea
surged from an average
of 53 to 78 years,
surpassing the U.S. by 2004.
And a recent Lancet report
projected South Koreans,
and specifically South Korean
women born in 2030,
will soon be
the longest-living population
in the world.
So what propelled Korea
toward the top
of the global health outcomes?
And what exactly
is America missing?
And are there downsides
of getting there?
[car horn honks]
[upbeat music]
♪
Where are we right now?
- We're in Gangnam.
I guess it would be
the Times Square
but much more younger.
- Uh-huh.
[electronic music]
♪
There's doctors everywhere, too.
- There's doctors everywhere.
- Like, how many are there here?
- You really cannot count.
- You cannot.
- In Korea
- Right.
- You need to be proactive
about your body.
If you have a sniffle,
you have to go to the hospital.
Unlike the U.S.,
where it's very expensive
and limited to the rich,
here it's really affordable,
accessible.
It's, like,
kind of part of life.
- Hieun Shin is a journalist
and the Korean correspondent
for AFP.
Her reporting covers
the culture, politics,
and social undercurrents that
define life here in Korea.
So how often do Koreans go
to the pharmacy, to the doctor?
- Anything you want
If your back hurts, you can
just go to the chiropractor.
You don't need a referral
to a general hospital.
You just go there.
- Right.
- Whenever my grandparents
or people around you ask,
how are you, you don't ask
them, how are you?
- Yeah.
- You ask them, how's your body?
- Uh-huh.
- That's how you say it here.
- Oh.
Oh, how do you say that?
- [speaking Korean]
- [speaking Korean]
- [speaking Korean]
- I'm not gonna be able
to do it.
There was a prediction that
Korean women would live longer,
and now they are.
- Right.
- So why do you think that is?
- I think it's
that whole survivalist mode
that still exists
in South Korea.
It goes back
decades and decades.
If you look at the generations
right before me,
we have that generation
going through poverty,
war, rapid industrialization.
- Mm-hmm.
But that same momentum
accelerated improvements
in health care.
Many who have lived
through the Korean War,
now 75 or older,
are now enjoying medical care
they could've hardly imagined,
while their grandchildren
take a long, healthy life
as the norm
A testament
to the speedy improvements
focused on preventative
health care.
- It's called
"the ppalli-ppalli culture."
- Okay. Right.
- "Ppalli" means "quick."
- And so it's
about how South Korean people
need to have everything
quick as possible.
And that whole
constant adaptation
to do everything so quickly,
so fast, it is exhausting.
- Yeah.
- But at the same time,
that whole preventive
health-care system
really does attribute
to that really long lifespan.
- That health span, really.
- Yeah.
- In just over 12 years, Korea
went from voluntary insurance
to full-on universal coverage.
And by 2000, it had become
a single-payer system,
where people see their doctors
an average of 16 times a year,
not because they're sicker.
They go because they can.
Every citizen is entitled
to a routine screening
every other year.
And a routine screening
includes dozens of tests
Advanced imaging, like MRIs,
PET and CT scans,
heart and lung checks,
tumor markers,
body-composition analysis,
just to name a few.
Meanwhile, in the U.S.,
to get these same screenings
in a day,
you'd have to have a membership
to concierge medicine
that costs a fortune.
But in Korea, it's done
in a couple of hours,
all on one floor, door to door
Efficient, affordable, thorough.
You should have
an annual health-care check
with your doctor
that is rigorous, right?
Every year
everybody should have that.
And so you could look
and monitor,
whether it's weight,
whether it's diabetes.
We live in a society
where we do sick care.
We don't do health care.
We do sick care.
In Korea, it seems
like most people
get the base level health care
that they need to stay healthy.
- If you ask
a lot of South Koreans,
would you like to live in
the U.S. or in South Korea
- Right.
- A lot of them would say
South Korea
because of the medical care.
- 'Cause of the medical care.
- I'm currently pregnant,
and I can really get scans
every week if I want to.
- It's off your plate.
That's a huge worry
in the United States.
- It's a huge thing.
- What do you hope
for your child?
- I know this country
is just constantly moving.
- Right.
- But I hope that he kind
of finds his own pace
and just doesn't compare
himself to others
- Right.
- When it comes to his value
and happiness.
- Mm-hmm.
- It's really hard to do here.
- My younger kids they
don't eat enough vegetables.
And they call them
revenge-tables,
which I'm really
not pleased with.
[school bell ringing]
And in Korea, they've decided
it's a priority
for their kids to learn
how to eat properly
from an early age.
Talk about the importance
of good nutrition for kids,
because it sort of sets you up
for life, for longevity,
for health and weight
and every other disease
that comes with bad food.
- Inviting me today
is Yeonju Kim,
the nutritionist
at Mullae Elementary School.
And, yes, in Korea,
every school gets its own.
Yeonju plans the daily meals
for the hundreds of kids,
from first through sixth grade,
because in a country
where people are living longer
than almost anywhere else,
preventative health doesn't
start in the doctor's office.
It starts on the lunch tray.
- Also joining us is
Tina Choi, a food scientist,
recipe developer,
and content creator,
sharing Korean dishes
with her millions of fans
as Doobydobap.
- I do a lot
of meal prep, actually,
especially
for the U.S. audience,
of how to incorporate
more vegetables
into your everyday eating.
- Having gone through the
Korean school system herself,
she knows her way
around these silver trays.
- You get handed a menu.
- Uh-huh.
- And the day that you receive
that, you know, I remember,
like, highlighting
the ones that I liked
- I did that, too.
- You know, like katsu.
You know, I always looked
forward to lunchtime.
- Talk about kimchi
and the importance
of fermented foods,
because it's a key element
of food, essentially, here.
- I think it was just something
so normalized for us
that it's not something
that we think are like,
oh, this is great for us.
- Right.
- Oh, it's just kimchi.
- So what's on the menu today?
- Hi. Hi.
How you doing?
Nice to meet you.
Wow, a line.
Hi. How you doing?
[laughs]
I have a 4-year-old son
and a 20-year-old.
- 4-year-old?
- I got a lot of kids.
- Big range.
- Big range, yeah.
I'm a straight white man.
[laughs]
Kimchi, of course, of course.
Oh, an actual apple.
Thank you.
Tell me what you do.
You put meat, all right.
And then some sauce, right?
Oh, my God, that's so good!
That's amazing.
You get this free
every day of your lives
before you finish school.
- Yeah.
- You know,
you guys eating this,
I can't imagine young people
in the United States
eating any of this at all,
especially vegetables.
How can we get American kids
to eat like this?
What would you tell them?
- That's a great idea.
- Oh, that's a good idea.
How long do you all
want to live?
- What?
[laughing]
You probably will.
Eating this, you will, 100%.
You will, absolutely.
- Well, that could be sooner
than you think.
- He's a jokester.
- Yeah.
- He's a jokester.
- I see that.
- Yeah.
- Nice.
[laughter]
- I'm moving to Korea,
so my little ones
They learn how to eat.
Preventative health care
in Korea
might start early
with a healthy gut,
but it's not the only thing
keeping them healthy.
People always talk
about skin care in Korea.
They're so well-known for
the high quality of products,
but it's also part of the
preventative-health regimen.
Eating, sleeping, skin care
It's part of a bigger picture,
not just, I want to look pretty.
So, when in Seoul, I booked
a consultation
with Dr. Hwa Young Jung,
a board-certified dermatologist,
to see what the latest
in preventative skin care
could offer this very
well-loved 62-year-old face
of mine.
- This way, please.
Please sit down right here.
- Okay.
- Today we'll begin
with a facial analysis
using Vectra 3D imaging system.
- Vectra?
- Vectra.
- Who names these things?
- It's called Vectra.
You have very small face.
- Small face.
Apparently, I have a small face.
- Maybe we have
to heighten the
- Oh, heighten I'm short
and with a small face, okay.
- No, no, no, no, no, no.
- Small face, short person.
I could not live in Korea.
I'm not polite enough.
- That's good.
Okay.
- One, two, three.
[camera shutter clicks]
- Wow.
I should've smiled.
I look like
I'm gonna be arrested.
- I'm sorry to point this out
on our first meeting.
I'm sorry.
- No, that's okay.
- We could see a bit of sagging.
- Yes, I'm old.
- And then there's a little bit
of looseness under the chin.
You do have this hollow.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, it's because
of the fat redistribution
because of the skin aging.
- Mm-hmm.
I look like a Roman statue.
And then right here there's this
from squinting my whole life.
- Yes, but I think it's natural,
and I think you like it.
- I do.
- Actually, you don't have
that much jowl.
- Mm-hmm.
- You just have sagging.
- Just sagging, not jowl.
Thank you. Great.
Oh, wow.
It's bright in here.
You gonna take my face off?
- [laughs]
Please sit here, okay?
- Okay. All right.
But is anti-aging
backed by science, really?
What causes skin aging?
- Oh, there are intrinsic
factors and extrinsic factors.
The two important thing
is the UV exposure,
of course, and smoking.
- Smoking.
- Yes.
- Never smoke.
- What's good for our body
Generally, it's good
for our skin also.
So eating foods
with low glycemic index,
adequate hydration,
regular sleep,
wearing sunscreen.
- When I was a kid,
nobody did sunscreen.
We used to put foil
under our face with oil,
like we're a chicken breast.
Can you recover from that?
- When we look
in the microscope,
the sun-damaged tissues,
it's called solar elastosis.
It's the loosening of the skin.
And it could be restored
by stimulating
fibroblast activity
and tightening the face.
- So what do you recommend?
- I would recommend CoolSoniq
for skin tightening.
I would recommend Mirajet
for your fine lines,
overall skin texture.
- I mean, certain countries
do more skin intervention,
surgically, kind of thing.
And this is more
- More noninvasive.
- Noninvasive.
- Minimal downtime,
minimal pain.
I'll do some
facial designing first.
- Oh, you're actually drawing
on my face, okay, yeah.
- Is it okay?
- Yeah.
Jeez, now I look like
I'm about to invade England.
- Okay, we'll start
with the CoolSoniq first.
- First up, CoolSoniq
It's a Korean-developed,
high-intensity ultrasound device
that targets deep layers
of the skin
to stimulate new collagen.
It helps with the structural
breakdown from age and sun,
including the damage done
from America's truly inspired
foil-and-oil era.
You know, they're a little
more aggressive in the U.S.
- Oh.
- They kind of shove a lot
of treatments in your face.
- I hope this becomes a reason
for you to come back to Seoul.
[laughter]
- Next is Mirajet.
Instead of going deep,
it's a needleless laser system
that works in the mid layers
of the skin
to improve texture
and hydration.
It helps maintain skin quality
and addresses
the visible effects of aging
The fine lines and unevenness
that develop over time.
- We could see the texture
is a little bit smoothened
- Mm-hmm.
- The fine wrinkles.
It has an immediate effect.
- It feels great.
It doesn't feel
at all irritated.
In the U.S., many people
only see a dermatologist
when something seems wrong.
Here, skin care is treated
more like routine health care,
focused on prevention
and maintaining healthy skin
for the long haul.
Oh, that feels so good.
- Okay.
- I love having
my skin worked on.
- All right.
We go into the box of shaman.
I can't believe I'm getting
in a box with technology.
It seems problematic.
The pagoda of my fate
from an iPhone.
- I'd like to know
how my children are doing.
- Why in the world
would I take advice from AI?
[mysterious music]
What was the inspiration
behind this?
- Mm-hmm.
This is Tek-Jin Nam,
industrial designer
and director
of the Design Research Lab at
the Korea Advanced Institute
of Science and Technology.
In South Korea, addressing
preventative health care
for your body,
whether it's your skin or gut,
is widely accepted as the norm.
But mental health,
on the other hand,
remains stigmatized,
and many Koreans seek
emotional well-being
outside of the conventional
medical system.
One place they're turning to
[bells ringing]
Shamanism, Korea's only
native spiritual practice,
which is experiencing
a resurgence
among young South Koreans.
Shamans are filling the gap,
offering young people
a culturally accepted space
to talk through
life's uncertainties.
Tek-Jin's experiment
combines the widely accepted
spiritual tradition with AI
to create a chatbot
known as Shaman AI.
- Young generation
often use this for fun.
- Mm-hmm.
Sometimes it's quite dangerous.
- Of course, yeah.
- It's been big problems with
young people in our country.
Should AI be doing this with us?
- As Korea continues
to develop its AI,
people like Tek-Jin are asking
more critical questions,
not just about its capabilities
but about the emotional role
this technology
is beginning to take on.
- Uh-huh.
- The oven is a spouse.
Right.
- Huh.
- Mm-hmm.
- Mm-hmm.
- And maybe
that kind of evolution
isn't as far-fetched
as it sounds.
Korea is doing a lot
of these relationships.
I'm just as worried for them
as I am for people in the U.S.
Which somehow leads me
to a birthday party.
And like any decent guest,
I'm bringing cake.
But not just any birthday party,
it's Hyodol's birthday.
Yes, a birthday party
for a doll.
Go ahead.
Take a moment.
Yes, it's as creepy
as it sounds.
[car horns honking]
Korea has become
a super-aged society,
with 10 million people
over the age of 65
and a third of them
living alone.
With the world's
lowest birth rate
and Korean women poised
to break the lifespan barrier,
that senior population
will only continue to grow,
creating a critical gap
in caregivers.
In a country where
early health prevention
seems to be the default,
much like their approach
to food or skin care,
Korea has already been
preparing for the crisis
of the silver generation.
One solution
- AI-powered robots
designed to sound
and look like seven-year-olds.
- And these seniors
take these things seriously.
They give them nicknames,
knit them clothes,
and even tuck them in at night.
[doll speaking Korean]
Every month, they get together
to celebrate
their loved one's birthday.
[doll speaking Korean]
Today's guest of honor is
Grandma Jeon and her Hyodol.
[all singing "Happy Birthday"
in Korean]
[cheers and applause]
And I'm sitting down
with a woman who insists
this isn't a new horror
franchise in the making,
Jihee Kim, CEO of Hyodol.
And joining us is Joanna Jung,
a researcher with the company
who works closely
with the elders
and in R&D
back at the factory.
So what was the idea
behind dolls for the elderly?
- Right.
So it's companionship.
- Yeah, right.
- And how many are out there?
- 13,000?
- In Korea.
- In Korea.
- And who pays for these?
- Hello.
[laughter]
- Oh.
Thank you.
Oh, wow.
- This is
a welfare center, right?
For seniors to come
- Right. Right, right.
- And have companionship.
Wouldn't regular people be
better than a doll or not?
Or it just doesn't work?
- It's really easy to assume
that if they come together
in the welfare center,
they may talk about everything,
but it's actually not true
because they all have
different interests.
They come
from different backgrounds.
- I'm aware.
I have an elderly parent.
- Yeah. [laughs]
- She doesn't like anybody.
Besides being a chatbot,
it also apparently collects
medical information.
- Right.
- And does it inform
the social worker, then?
- Yeah.
- Only the health-related
questions
- Okay.
- The answers are recorded.
- Back in the U.S., a tech
company with that kind of data
would or really should set off
privacy alarm bells.
But in January of 2026,
the Korean government
rolled out the AI Basic Act,
the world's first
comprehensive national AI law
requiring transparency
and safeguards.
And many seem to trust
those protections
and believe the tradeoff
is worth it,
unlike Americans,
who've watched tech companies
vow to safeguard private data
before predictably doing
the opposite.
Where else do you see
this going?
- Everyone, global.
- Yeah, global.
- And this reality for us
might come sooner
than you think.
Hyodol recently received
FDA approval
and has plans to make them
available in the U.S. in 2026.
- Don't forget
to hang out with me
at least three times a day.
- "Three times a day"?
Wow, it's very demanding.
- Very demanding.
- So you do this and
- Grandma.
- This doll
is calling me Grandma.
I'm not a grandma yet.
- Oh.
How are you today?
- I feel really good.
I'm talking to a doll,
obviously.
You could do a Fox News doll
for, like, my mother.
[robotic voice] You're right.
Hillary Clinton's terrible.
- Grandma,
I am only a little boy,
so I don't know
about politicians.
I just want everyone to be
happy and kind to each other.
- What does it mean to have
this doll in your life?
Her daughter.
- She's worried about what
will happen when she dies.
- Oh.
- Uh-oh.
- The Hyodol says, until you
die, I'm gonna be beside you.
- Beside you.
Oh, my gosh, you're killing me.
I was watching my four-year-old
play with his cars
the other day,
and he was making up
a whole story by himself.
He was sitting there
and talking.
You know, you overhear him,
and I found it very moving.
I kind of felt the same way
when I was watching
the older people.
They're sort of rediscovering
imagination for themselves.
Feeling not alone by playing
with an inanimate object,
that kind of goes back
to your youth in a lot of ways.
- With younger people,
I don't think they should have
chatbot friends.
In the older people, I didn't
find it to be dangerous
because I thought
they were deploying it
in a really responsible way.
Well done. I was dubious,
I'll be honest with you.
- Bye-bye.
- Thank you.
Again, thank you. Thank you.
Good luck. Good luck.
Thank you.
You're adorable.
You're, like,
aggressively adorable.
- Today I'm on the move
to find out what's next
for health tech in Korea.
To see where that's heading,
I'm getting on Korea's KTX.
And like most things in Korea,
it moves at lightning speed.
At nearly 200 miles per hour,
the bullet train slices
through the landscape,
leaping forward
to the city of Daejeon
Korea's newly named
Robot Valley.
Behind these
world-class research labs
and startup buildings
embody the nation's
next strategic move
robotics.
Having successfully engineered
and invested in K-pop,
the government is now setting
its sights on a new ambition
at the center of the newly
formed K-Humanoid Alliance,
bringing together
more than 40 companies,
universities,
and research institutes.
And they're investing
in not just industrial
machines or service bots
but robots meant
to support people as they age
and extend quality of life.
And one of the founding members
of the Alliance is this man,
Kyoungchul "KC" Kong,
professor at
the Korea Advanced Institute
of Science and Technology
and the founder
of Angel Robotics.
- We are developing
wearable robot.
- Wearable robots.
- Yeah, you can wear.
- An exoskeleton, right?
- Exactly.
- You've seen them around.
- In the movie, of course.
- Yeah.
When you hear
the word "exoskeleton,"
what probably comes to mind
are sci-fi films
like "Aliens,"
"Iron Man," or "The Matrix."
- [shouting]
- What KC emphasizes instead
is for the technology
to address the real everyday
needs of ordinary people.
- What real people need
is medical device first.
In Korea, if you look around,
like, the rehabilitation
hospitals,
you will see my robot
almost everywhere.
- Everywhere.
- Ten years ago, they found
that the right measurement
of health condition
is locomotion.
If someone
is not walking normally,
then they start getting,
you know,
other diseases very quickly.
- Right. That's right.
They tend to die when they fall,
and then they get pneumonia,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Research consistently shows
that maintaining mobility
is strongly linked to longevity.
It's a reliable predictor
of how long and how well
people live.
- After use of this wearable
robot for about two months,
their walking ability
becomes way better
- Way better.
- Than before.
- What's wrong with just
having them all the time?
- The problem is they don't use
their own muscles.
We have to find the optimal
amount of assistive torque.
- Right.
- This robot
does not make a decision,
because this robot
has to read our intention.
So do you want to try
wearing the robot?
- Of course I do.
Okay. All right.
So it goes around the waist.
It feels like a belt,
like a police belt.
- [laughs]
- It's very light.
I tried some of these many
years ago, and they were heavy.
- Oh, really? Oh.
- At MIT and places like that.
- Oh.
- This is much more flexible.
- Also, it has, like,
a small computer in it.
- Yeah.
- This one has two actuators
- On each side.
- For each hip joint.
And then this one
has six sensors
that measure your very small,
tiny movement.
Actually, this device
needs information
from the knee joint as well
- Right. Oh.
- And also
from the ground contact.
- [imitating Schwarzenegger]
I'll be back.
[laughter]
- Just reduce the flexor 30%.
- [normal voice] Mm-hmm.
- Would you like to walk?
- Yeah.
Oh, wow.
- You initiate the motion.
- Right.
It's going because I'm
So, if I stop, it stops.
- Right.
So now let me increase
the system factor to be 100%.
It's gonna be
a little bit unnatural.
- Oh, wow.
Oh, it's pulling me up.
Yeah. Look at that.
[laughter]
This is really terrific.
[imitates whirring, clanking]
I sound like a robot.
- If I turn this off
- Yeah.
- You will feel something.
- Yeah.
- I promise.
- Yeah, okay.
- So just walk.
- Yeah.
It's gonna do it for
So it's pushing me right now.
- Yes. Yes, yes.
- [laughs] Wow.
Yeah, I could see how you could
be more confident, right,
if you were nervous
about walking.
Now you're gonna
Oh, I can't walk.
[laughter]
That's a party trick.
The minute it stopped,
I stopped being able to walk
'cause my brain
had allowed the robot
to take over my muscles.
And so I couldn't walk
for a second.
It was pretty cool
and scary a little bit.
- If we have
too much assistance
- Your body will forget to walk.
- Exactly.
- Just like if we use too much
AI, we'll forget to think.
- Exactly.
- That's what's happening.
- Yes.
- That was so weird.
I couldn't walk.
- By the way,
this kind of phenomenon
is called embodiment.
Like, you feel that this
is just part of your body.
- Wow.
- So
- That was wild.
Wow. Huh.
Embodiment.
[pensive music]
And so far here in Korea,
what stood out to me
is the actual thoughtfulness
behind these solutions.
That extends
to deployment as well,
with systemic checks designed
to prevent overreliance
on the technology.
What would it cost
to buy one of these,
to have your own exoskeleton?
- Oh, actually, we don't sell
this device
for individuals yet.
If you go to hospital
and then if you get
rehabilitation treatment
out of this medical device,
the government pays.
- Oh. Some people have wanted
to buy it, I assume.
- There are some you know,
the "potential customers"
- Right.
- Contact me, but, actually,
we decided not to sell.
- In the U.S.,
we've seen no shortage
of tech billionaires
building products unchecked
that somehow make life less safe
for everyday Americans,
while making themselves
obscenely richer
in the process.
What's nice
is the lightness of this
and easy to put on.
It's about what solutions
can be done
using technology
to help humanity.
But you can see
the emotional feeling,
if you had a stroke
and you feel so incapacitated,
and you were able to
- Right.
- Start to come back.
My brother
has muscular dystrophy,
and so this would allow him
to stand.
Are you an angel?
- [chuckles]
I wanted to be.
- Ah.
[birds chirping]
- Korea can feel like a glimpse
of the future of health,
with major investments
in health tech
and systems to care for both
the young and the old.
And in many ways, especially
compared to the U.S.,
it is.
But the systems here
are built
around a very specific idea
of what a normal Korean life
looks like.
And for those who don't fit
into that mold,
societal forces and stigmas
have real health consequences
that affect lifespan
and quality of life.
[siren wailing]
Although Korea has
one of the longest lifespans
in the world,
it also leads
in a more alarming category.
It reports
the highest suicide rate
among OECD member countries,
with rates among women
and marginalized identities
particularly high.
One of the reasons we're here
It's 'cause
of this longevity thing.
And Korea
has the longest lifespans.
- Where is that data
coming from?
[laughter]
- It's true.
No, it is true.
- I can't believe it.
- Lang Lee is a writer,
musician, and video director
whose work explores
the less visible sides
of life in Korea
Stories that sit outside
of the country's glossy,
high-tech image
most often seen
around the world.
She's invited me
to her favorite neighborhood
restaurant, Sunmi San Allu,
along with some
of her fellow artist friends
and collaborators.
This is fantastic.
- Thank you.
- Lang, why don't you introduce
everybody to me?
- We met
at the performance event.
I was reading children's book
in drag.
- Oh, okay.
- 'Cause I used to do drag.
- Mm-hmm.
- I'm Hoyoung.
I'm a writer and translator.
Sometimes I also interpret.
- This district?
- Yes.
- What's this district called?
Both: Mapo.
[acoustic music]
- The society is heavily
focusing on the economy.
- Mm-hmm.
- To bring it up
in the conversation
and live as who you are
is also about the longevity,
'cause you cannot really hide
and live long.
- I'm also trans
and felt uncomfortable.
Anything that's deemed
not normal is made invisible.
- Alongside heavy investments
in robotics,
Korea has set a $51 million
2026 suicide-prevention budget
with many tech-driven solutions.
But still, for now,
the most reliable lifelines
in this community
aren't so technological.
- So it's like random night
phone call.
- Yeah, random night
phone call friend.
- Yeah. Yeah.
[laughter]
- The kinetic connection
between human beings
is good for your health.
Social connections are critical
to all kinds
of health-care issues
Stress, cortisol,
brain plasticity.
The more you are with people,
the less you hate,
the more you feel hopeful.
Study after study
after study has shown this.
What is a good life
in your idea?
- What is good life?
- Health, family
being who I am, being who I am
and benefiting from it,
rather than having people
take away things.
- Yeah.
Today is a good day, I think.
- Yeah.
Did you ever see "Gladiator"?
- Mm-hmm.
- "It's a good day to die,
just not today."
[laughter]
But not today. But not today.
- Let's not die today.
[light music]
- Right.
Right.
- Dr. Geon-Ha Kim
specializes in dementia
and cognitive neurology
at Ewha Womans University
Hospital.
- Since 2009, she's published
multiple studies
on SuperAgers older adults
with cognitive abilities
comparable to someone
decades younger.
- So what are the elements
of a SuperAger?
- Uh-huh.
- Uh-huh.
- Right. Right.
- Uh-huh.
- At any age.
- Before my time here
comes to a close,
I have one last person to meet
A Korean grandmother who may
not know Dr. Kim's research
but whose lifestyle embodies
much of her findings.
- Now, you may know her,
but if you don't,
it's time you do.
- She shares videos
of her daily routine,
from workouts
to traditional recipes,
along with her
skin-care regimens.
It's a lifestyle
that's kept her healthy
and clearly very happy
to defy the life-expectancy
odds of her generation.
- [laughing]
- She's invited me to one
of her regular get-togethers
with her friends
by the Han River.
- And you're all friends?
- 40 years?
Wow.
[laughter]
[laughter]
- This is a real posse
of ladies.
Korean women
will be living the longest.
Why do you think that is?
- It sounds like your minds
are still young, too.
You look pretty good.
Korean Grandma started using
Instagram and YouTube
at age 71 at the urging
of her granddaughter Yura.
- Mm-hmm.
- Mm-hmm. Why did you do it
in the first place?
- Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
- You get to spend time
with your grandmother.
- Yes.
- That's a great thing.
I miss my grandmother.
♪
What's the good life for you?
[laughter]
- Mak-Rye and her generation
have lived
through Korea's rise
from bottom of the charts
to the top.
- They've embraced
new technology,
but they've held on
to the things
that have kept them healthy
for decades,
like eating traditional foods
and spending time
with loved ones.
[mouth full]
Ooh! Spicy.
- [laughs]
- Now I will live forever.
- [laughs]
- [normal voice] I went to Korea
to see what we could learn
from their approach
to health care.
There are plenty of problems
in Korea.
They have suicide issues.
They have loneliness issues,
rich and poor.
But the government is
interested in the health care
of its citizens
in a much more profound way.
Even if they're not perfect,
at least it matters to them
at the very base.
Thinking about preventative
health care great idea.
Learning to eat well
at an early age great idea.
They're putting money
towards issues of elderly
in their country and mobility.
That's the kind of stuff
we can learn from them.
We need to think
about health care as a right,
not a thing that you get maybe.