What does it really mean to ‘age well’? | CNN

When we think about the quest to slow aging, perhaps no one is more monomaniacal about the pursuit than American tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, who reportedly spends around $2 million per year on anti-aging treatments and has become notorious online for his rigorous routine. His mission — to halt his body’s natural response to time and gravity — includes numerous hours in the gym, intermittent fasting, red light therapy and swallowing over 100 supplements each day. At one point, he controversially coordinated trigenerational blood transfusions, injecting his 17-year-old son’s plasma and passing his own to his 70-year-old father. In 2025, he claimed to have successfully slowed down his biological aging process so much that he has a birthday every 19 months. Johnson’s fixation may sound dystopian, but it’s not uniquely modern. In fact, the question of aging well is something Shamita Sharmacharja, curator at London’s Wellcome Collection, ponders in her latest exhibition — “The Coming of Age” — a show that sweeps across five centuries, including more than 120 artworks and objects that deal with the reality of growing older, from the freedom and joy it can offer,