An exploration of one of the most universal human obsessions charts the rise of longevity science from its alchemical beginnings to modern-day genetic interventions and enters the world of those whose lives are shaped by a belief in immortality.

In this lyrical and poignant book, Finding Immortality: The Making of One American Family, award-winning writer Herbert Hadad records the joys and sorrows of parenthood and, in so doing, opens a wide window into family life that is intimate and unmistakably American. The masterful prose of Finding Immortality conveys the true tale of one family confronting and triumphing over real issues, from infidelity and drink to mortality and racism. These universal themes provide a treasury of lessons for parents and all other admirers of fine writing to learn and enjoy. Here is what some readers have had to say about Finding Immortality: These gritty and flavorful essays address the emotional costs of virtue, faith, and true love. Lawrence Wright, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction for The Looming Tower and staff writer for The New Yorker An elegant writer and story teller, Hadad spins tales as compelling as OHenrys. These are vivid, often roguish, portraits of the angst and pleasures of contemporary existence. Selwyn Raab, author and retired New York Times reporter Kid boxer and life-long journalist Herb Hadad has been around. Hes seen a lot. Part Jew, part Arab, and all American, he loves his children, his wife, and his world. These stories will clear the mind and warm the heart. Benjamin H. Cheever, novelist and journalist As strong as the bonds are among Herbert Hadads family members in these pellucid domestic narratives, he makes clear that as a father he has as many faults as the next guy. These are not stories about suburban Care Bears. Yet the episodes flow so smoothly that you imagine it must be easy to do this kind of writing. It isnt. Stephen S. Pickering, retired New York Times staff editor Hadad doesnt blink, he doesnt flinch. He looks straight at his subjects, sometimes in sorrow but mostly in joy, and tells the stories that dwell in most of us. Finding Immortality is a wonderful read. the late Dennis Duggan, columnist, Newsday Herb Hadad distills with a great eye and a great ear what we care about and presents it brilliantly, with wit and understanding. Dr. Myles Striar, professor of education emeritus, Boston University, writer, and translator His essays are personal and quirky, with an angle, a larger theme, that makes them stick and gives them an edge. The big test: as a reader it is hard not to care about Herbert Hadad and his family. I think of E.B. White here, how he could make his geese, his dachshund Fred, his neighbor with the plow, himself with doldrums, all off-center and yet universal, something we understood. He made his little world feel connected to ours, us to him. Thats the gift. I think Herbert does that. Geraldine Van Dusen, editor and freelance journalist

In this lyrical and poignant book, Finding Immortality: The Making of One American Family, award-winning writer Herbert Hadad records the joys and sorrows of parenthood and, in so doing, opens a wide window into family life that is intimate and unmistakably American. The masterful prose of Finding Immortality conveys the true tale of one family confronting and triumphing over real issues, from infidelity and drink to mortality and racism. These universal themes provide a treasury of lessons for parents and all other admirers of fine writing to learn and enjoy. Here is what some readers have had to say about Finding Immortality: "An elegant writer and story teller, Hadad spins tales as compelling as O'Henry's. These are vivid, often roguish, portraits of the angst and pleasures of contemporary existence." -Selwyn Raab, author and retired New York Times reporter "Kid boxer and life-long journalist Herb Hadad has been around. He's seen a lot. Part Jew, part Arab, and all American, he loves his children, his wife, and his world. These stories will clear the mind and warm the heart." -Benjamin H. Cheever, novelist and journalist "Herb Hadad distills with a great eye and a great ear what we care about and presents it brilliantly, with wit and understanding." -Dr. Myles Striar, professor of education emeritus, Boston University, writer, and translator

During the last two centuries BC, the Western Han dynasty of China forged the first stable empire covering all of China and presided over a golden age that shaped much of subsequent Chinese art and culture. From family values to the structure of the civil service, Han thinking and philosophy continue to pervade Chinese society up to the present day - indeed, the majority of Chinese people consider themselves 'Han Chinese'. In the search for immortality, the Han imperial family left an artistic legacy of spectacular beauty and power. The finest of these treasures to have survived - including exquisite jades, silver and goldwork, bronzes and ceramics - have been found in the tombs of the Han imperial family and of a revival 'emperor' of Nanyue.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER As seen on The Joe Rogan Experience! A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations. The most influential religious historian of the 20th century, Huston Smith, once referred to it as the "best-kept secret" in history. Did the Ancient Greeks use drugs to find God? And did the earliest Christians inherit the same, secret tradition? A profound knowledge of visionary plants, herbs and fungi passed from one generation to the next, ever since the Stone Age? There is zero archaeological evidence for the original Eucharist – the sacred wine said to guarantee life after death for those who drink the blood of Jesus. The Holy Grail and its miraculous contents have never been found. In the absence of any hard data, whatever happened at the Last Supper remains an article of faith for today’s 2.5 billion Christians. In an unprecedented search for answers, The Immortality Key examines the archaic roots of the ritual that is performed every Sunday for nearly one third of the planet. Religion and science converge to paint a radical picture of Christianity’s founding event. And after centuries of debate, to solve history’s greatest puzzle. Before the birth of Jesus, the Ancient Greeks found salvation in their own sacraments. Sacred beverages were routinely consumed as part of the so-called Ancient Mysteries – elaborate rites that led initiates to the brink of death. The best and brightest from Athens and Rome flocked to the spiritual capital of Eleusis, where a holy beer unleashed heavenly visions for two thousand years. Others drank the holy wine of Dionysus to become one with the god. In the 1970s, renegade scholars claimed this beer and wine – the original sacraments of Western civilization – were spiked with mind-altering drugs. In recent years, vindication for the disgraced theory has been quietly mounting in the laboratory. The constantly advancing fields of archaeobotany and archaeochemistry have hinted at the enduring use of hallucinogenic drinks in antiquity. And with a single dose of psilocybin, the psychopharmacologists at Johns Hopkins and NYU are now turning self-proclaimed atheists into instant believers. But the smoking gun remains elusive. If these sacraments survived for thousands of years in our remote prehistory, from the Stone Age to the Ancient Greeks, did they also survive into the age of Jesus? Was the Eucharist of the earliest Christians, in fact, a psychedelic Eucharist? With an unquenchable thirst for evidence, Muraresku takes the reader on his twelve-year global hunt for proof. He tours the ruins of Greece with its government archaeologists. He gains access to the hidden collections of the Louvre to show the continuity from pagan to Christian wine. He unravels the Ancient Greek of the New Testament with the world’s most controversial priest. He spelunks into the catacombs under the streets of Rome to decipher the lost symbols of Christianity’s oldest monuments. He breaches the secret archives of the Vatican to unearth manuscripts never before translated into English. And with leads from the archaeological chemists at UPenn and MIT, he unveils the first scientific data for the ritual use of psychedelic drugs in classical antiquity. The Immortality Key reconstructs the suppressed history of women consecrating a forbidden, drugged Eucharist that was later banned by the Church Fathers. Women who were then targeted as witches during the Inquisition, when Europe’s sacred pharmacology largely disappeared. If the scientists of today have resurrected this technology, then Christianity is in crisis. Unless it returns to its roots. Featuring a Foreword by Graham Hancock, the NYT bestselling author of America Before.

It’s hard enough to close the door on your past. But what do you do when it comes knocking again? Seattle-based novelist James Kimble is a new man. After acquitting old obligations, he’s come clean to his fans and life is looking up. He has a new book out, a stimulating job as a reporter, some savvy real estate investments, and a fresh desire to embrace the land of everyday living. But when a rogue tenant threatens his livelihood and the authorities begin tossing his place looking for fresh clues to old murder cases, his life quickly spirals into the murky world of moral relativism he was trying so hard to escape. In a journey across the globe to track down the enigmatic Grace, James Kimble is pursued by immortal players obsessed with the riddle of a longer life. Trapped again in a shadowy world where ordinary life spans do not apply, he discovers the extraordinary lengths some people will go to remain among the living. Continuing in the genre of first-person psychological thriller, Finding Immortality is the sequel to Interviewing Immortality in the ongoing series by Bill Conrad.

"In his most ambitious work yet, Shermer sets out to discover what drives humans' belief in life after death, focusing on recent scientific attempts to achieve immortality by radical life extentionists, extropians, transhumanists, cryonicists, and mind-uploaders, along with utopians who have attempted to create heaven on earth. For millennia, religions have concocted numerous manifestations of heaven and the afterlife, the place where souls go after the death of the physical body. Religious leaders have toiled to make sense of this place that a surprising 74% of Americans believe exists, but from which no one has ever returned to report what it is really like. Heavens on Earth concludes with an uplifting paean to purpose and progress and what we can do in the here-and-now, whether or not there is a hereafter" --