Forget Immortality. ‘Treated with Dr. Sara’ Makes the Case for Living Fully, Not Forever

Aging isn’t exactly the topic most people talk about while enjoying brunch with friends. But on Treated with Dr. Sara, host Dr. Sara Szal leans right in, joined by two of her closest friends and colleagues, longevity and epigenetics expert Dr. Kara Fitzgerald and board-certified family physician Dr. Patrick Hanaway. Together, they flip the script on society’s obsession with staying young forever and take on the seductive but impossible promise of immortality.

Instead of chasing every new biohacking trend, peptide, or red-light gadget, the conversation leans into what’s often ignored in the wellness world: meaning, connection, and the courage to live fully in the presence of death. As Szal puts it, “This isn’t about giving up, it’s about going deeper with your why, your fears and your commitments, because maybe the real medicine isn’t in conquering death, but in learning how to live fully in its presence.”

That sets the tone for an episode that’s less about fighting off wrinkles and more about embracing the messy, mysterious, and awe-filled reality of being alive.

Immortality: Live Fully, Not Forever, on ‘Treated with Dr. Sara’

The limits of immortality 

Fitzgerald frames the tension perfectly. On one hand, her patient’s story of a mother who lived into her nineties highlights aging as a natural, beautiful transition. On the other hand, she points out how today’s scientists are pushing ideas of “escape velocity,” with some even suggesting the first person to live to 1,000 is already alive. “There’s just this journey of death and religion and how impactful it is. And here we sit today in this idea of ‘don’t die,’” Fitzgerald says. That obsession with immortality, she suggests, risks distracting us from the deeper human work of acceptance, growth, and wisdom.

Don’t miss life’s opportunities

Szal takes it further by challenging the “don’t die” movement head-on. To her, it sounds like “bro science,” that is, “quite reductionistic.” Instead, she offers a new mantra: “Don’t miss it. Like, don’t miss the opportunity. Don’t miss the reverence. Don’t miss the awe. Don’t miss the eroticism. Don’t miss the aliveness.”

It’s not that nutrition, exercise, or even tracking biomarkers don’t matter. But focusing only on numbers can cut us off from what makes life feel worth living. She adds that one of the strongest predictors of longevity isn’t your VO₂ max or mitochondrial health—it’s social connection, meaning, and purpose.

From “aging to saging”

Hanaway deepens the conversation, reminding us that aging isn’t just about physical or cognitive decline—it can be about wisdom. He references the idea of moving from “aging into saging,” a role where elders carry knowledge and perspective forward. “It’s not so much about anti-aging as it’s about fully aging,” he says. “[It’s about] taking the role of the wisdom elder as we get older and seeing what that is, and that’s lost in our culture at this point in time.”

To illustrate, he shares the story of his 90-year-old mother, who survived a heart attack, bounced back quickly, and still beat him at cards. “She’s living that life of living fully until the end of her life. We don’t know when that’s gonna be,” he muses. “But here she is living fully, and I think that’s a testament to what we all want.” In other words, it’s quality of life, not endless life, that’s the goal.

The immeasurable side of longevity

Fitzgerald pushes back on the reduction of health to numbers by talking about “biological embedding.” Trauma can leave measurable marks on our biology, she explains—but so can resilience and wisdom. “I am today in my fifties, really a better human. I’m more patient. My heart is open. I’m able to love and be honest, less defensive. All of these juicy, essential things are more present in my existence now, by far, as I get older,” she says.

Hanaway echoes her with his own cancer journey (which you can hear more about in the full episode), describing how being in nature and embracing uncertainty made him feel more alive than any supplement or metric. “Uncertainty made me feel, makes me feel more alive,” he adds. “Getting at that edge of not knowing, actually, there’s an aliveness there.”

The trio agrees: tracking biomarkers has value, but it can’t replace awe, connection, and joy. At the end of the day, immortality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. What’s far more valuable is embracing the cycles of life, honoring uncertainty, and opening ourselves to awe. As Hanaway says, the real goal is to “optimize opportunities for awe”—not to stretch our lives endlessly, but to deepen the quality of every moment we get.

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