 The newly launched Alliance for Longevity Initiatives, an organization founded to advance policies and legislation aimed at increasing healthy human lifespan, recently held their first public event. It featured some well-known names in longevity, as well as some you might not expect, such as former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former Democratic Congressman Steve Israel. We'll tell you what was discussed and the organization's plans for the future in this episode of Lifespan News. According to their website, the Alliance for Longevity Initiatives, or A4LI, is an independent 501c4 non-profit founded with the goal of creating social and political action, specifically around the issues of combating age-related chronic conditions and increasing our number of healthy, disease-free years. The organization was created by Dylan Livingston, who currently serves as its president and CEO. Dylan describes himself as a political and previously worked as a Biden campaign staffer. In 2021, Dylan participated in a foresight institute event in which he outlined some of the possible initiatives and strategies of the A4LI, which include establishing a longevity caucus in Congress, increasing funding for the National Institute on Aging Division of Aging Biology, and helping the FDA to understand and support geroscience. During the A4LI's first event in December, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said the following. I actually think what we need is two things. We need a easy to understand explanation of the possibility backed up by scientists and the papers and everything else, but so that people realize it's not just, you know, an interesting publicity stunt, but in fact a report on the scale of opportunity that science is now putting at our doorstep. The second thing, I think, is that we need to look at the totality of government. You need a totally different food and drug administration approach. You can't say we're going to this great trial and in 27 years, we'll know something. You have to literally from the ground up say to yourself, if this is the zone we're in, maybe we need either a division of the FDA or a parallel to the FDA that has a totally different sort of capabilities. The other part of it is to liberate a fair amount of money simply by getting CBO of the Congressional Budget Office and others to model if you did in fact get these breakthroughs, what is their economic return and therefore was a rational investment strategy. And I think the numbers will be shocking that the potential return is so enormous. And then finally you need a publicity campaign that basically says, would you like to live healthier, longer, with greater opportunities at lower cost? And if the answer is yes, here's the information that shows you how close we are to being able to deliver that. Former Democratic Congressman Steve Israel responded with this. I agree with Speaker Gingrich, words I never thought I would say, the words that you wouldn't expect the former chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to utter. But on this we are in full agreement. First Dylan, thank you so much for your leadership in this space and thank you Mr. Speaker for reaching out and for educating me about this issue. I think you would agree Mr. Speaker that for most of our former colleagues when they hear the word longevity, they're just thinking about how many more terms does that mean in the house and they're thinking you may not expand much beyond that. And that is why he's exactly right that we really need to focus on educating members of Congress and other policy makers in the White House, out of the White House on not just the moral benefits of this but the economic, the very positive economic impact. So this has, I learned that Democrats and Republicans hardly agree on anything, which means they have an obligation to agree on something. And so I reached across the aisle and I think this is a really good template for a conversation during the next hour or so. And so what's the political agenda? What's the strategy to interact with policy makers? And I found that everybody in Congress wants to do something about Alzheimer's because every member of Congress was hearing the same thing in their districts. It wasn't just a Republican issue or Democratic issue or Rust Belt issue or suburban issue or a blue state issue or red state issue. And Mr. Speaker, I found such a wonderful ally in Congress with Tom Cole, conservative member of the House Appropriations Committee from Oklahoma, former direct head of the Republican National Committee. And I was, again, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, both of us on the Appropriations Committee. And working with Tom Cole and Rosa de Loro, you could not find more polar opposites in Congress than Rosa de Loro and Tom Cole. But they formed a cohesive effort in the Appropriations Committee to provide record breaking increases in funding for NIH and other entities of government specifically for Alzheimer's research. This panel, which was moderated by Dylan Livingston, also featured Dr. Nir Barzali, Dr. Dina Raidenkovic, and A4 Li, chair of the board, Sonia Erison. It is great to hear that politicians, academics, and business leaders are all taking this problem seriously and even coming up with their own ideas for what we can do to advance health span extension science. It's also great to see that many of the ideas put forward in this conversation are ones that I have personally had or have heard other people share. So it sounds like there's a real possibility of broad agreement, regardless of party or ideology that can lead to a unified approach to these problems that we're all facing. We've included links to this panel with Newt Gingrich and Steve Israel, as well as a link to Dylan's Foresight Institute presentation in the video description. You can learn more about the Alliance for Longevity Initiatives and support their work at a4li.org. I'm very excited about the existence of the A4 Li and am eager to follow their progress. There will be more to share soon and when there is, we'll bring it to you here. So please subscribe so you don't miss out. I'm Ryan O'Shea and we'll see you next time