Latest / Journey to the Fringe / Fringey Mini: Thawing out the love
Transcript
- 0:00I don't know how to feel about this article I
- 0:02found, but I can't not share it. So we're just
- 0:06gonna go with it and you're gonna have to trust
- 0:08I don't steer you wrong with articles. You know
- 0:10what? It was hard for me to start trusting for
- 0:13some reason. I don't know why, but now I've come
- 0:15to trust. Except for that last one you did. Oh
- 0:18man, that one was rough. That was a rough one.
- 0:21But the trust is still there now. This one is
- 0:24about the implications of cryogenically freezing
- 0:27people to bring them back. back to life at some
- 0:30time in the future. You're really bringing us
- 0:32a lot of content that is, we must judge the morality
- 0:35of things. I feel like that's where this is going.
- 0:38Continue. I don't think it's a heavy topic. It's
- 0:41a weirdly fun one. I haven't read the article.
- 0:44I have merely read the headline and saw it was
- 0:47on, not the onion. So I had to read it to you
- 0:50all. It comes from a website called dexerto,
- 0:52d -e -x -e -r -t -o dot com, posted on November
- 0:5617th, 2025, written by Virginia Glaze. Article
- 1:00title, man who cryogenically froze his wife finds
- 1:04new love years later. I'm not really sure what
- 1:07to make of this title, but I guess we have to
- 1:09continue listening. A man who cryogenically froze
- 1:12his wife in hopes of curing her lung cancer has
- 1:14found a new partner years later. It's a story
- 1:17that feels straight out of a sci -fi novel or
- 1:19a Batman movie with Mr. Freeze. In 2017, 57 -year
- 1:22-old Gui Junmin made the decision to cryogenically
- 1:26freeze his wife's body with the hope that in
- 1:28the future she could be potentially revived and
- 1:30treated when a cure for her lung cancer had been
- 1:32found. His wife, Zhang Wenlian, famously became
- 1:36China's first ever cryopreserved person. To this
- 1:40day, her body is still being stored at minus
- 1:42196 degrees Celsius in a unit labeled container
- 1:45in the Shandong Yin -Feng Life Science Research
- 1:49Institute. The institute, which was founded in
- 1:522015, teamed up with Shandong University Chiru
- 1:55Hospital to start an experimental cryopreservation
- 1:58program for humans, offering to freeze early
- 2:01volunteers for free. When Wen Lian was diagnosed
- 2:03with terminal lung cancer in April of 2017, Jun
- 2:06Min made the decision to have her preserved as
- 2:09part of the program. Quote, when she left, my
- 2:11world collapsed, I didn't know what to do, end
- 2:14quote, he told news outlets, describing himself
- 2:16as a dreamer and fantasist. Shandong Yinfeng
- 2:19or Science Research Institute claims that Wenlian
- 2:22is in quote stable unquote condition saying her
- 2:26cellular structure has not undergone any abnormal
- 2:29fluctuations however she has been clinically
- 2:31declared quote unquote dead. While Junmin's heart
- 2:35-wrenching decision to preserve his wife in hopes
- 2:38of a future cure was equal parts shocking and
- 2:40saddening he's now being met with criticism for
- 2:43refusing to wait for her resurrection. In November
- 2:46of 2025, Chinese news outlets discovered that
- 2:49Junmin had started dating again. Junmin himself
- 2:52confirmed that he has been living with his new
- 2:54girlfriend since 2020. He explained that he'd
- 2:56stayed single for two years but suffered from
- 2:59health complications that left him immobile without
- 3:01any help. Oh that's sad. without any help at
- 3:04home. Mail Business Newspaper states that Junmin
- 3:07suffered from a severe gout attack that caused
- 3:09him to collapse. He was discovered two days later
- 3:11after relatives broke down his door out of concern.
- 3:15Quote, If something really happens when you're
- 3:16alone, there's nothing that person can do. No
- 3:19one can know even if they die at home, end quote
- 3:22Junmin said. He later met his current girlfriend,
- 3:24Wang Chun Sha, through an acquaintance describing
- 3:26her personality as kind and thoughtful like his
- 3:29late wife. Despite entering into a relationship
- 3:31with Chun Sha, Zhou Min said he remains committed
- 3:34to his wife. Quote, she hasn't entered my mind
- 3:37yet. End quote. He said of his girlfriend, quote,
- 3:39I have a responsibility for her, but it's a complicated
- 3:42matter. She can never replace my wife. I can't
- 3:44just forget the past, but I still have to live
- 3:47my life. There should be an end quote there.
- 3:49The situation has sparked debate on Chinese social
- 3:52media platforms with one user writing, quote,
- 3:55Now he's holding one woman in his arms while
- 3:57hoping to reunite with another in 30 years. What
- 4:00is this emotional polygamy? Question mark, end
- 4:03quote. Quote, if that is the case, why start
- 4:06a new relationship? If you do, why not treat
- 4:08your new partner with genuine care? This kind
- 4:11of so -called devotion is not noble, it's selfish,
- 4:14end quote, another remarked. This isn't the first
- 4:17strange case of separation to go viral. In October,
- 4:20a Turkish man agreed to pay his ex -wife thousands
- 4:23of dollars in cat support as part of the terms
- 4:25of his divorce. And that's where the article
- 4:27ends. We could probably have left that last part.
- 4:29What? What a weird place to end. I just I find
- 4:34that a fascinating implication of freezing a
- 4:38body to like bring it back to life in the future
- 4:41that like you kind of have to assume that life
- 4:43stays the same for everybody involved in that
- 4:46situation until they find a cure or everybody
- 4:48dies in the meantime. and you come back hundreds
- 4:51of years later. I don't think that you can hold
- 4:53somebody like the, this is China right? Yeah.
- 4:57Like the media, the Chinese media is trying to
- 4:59do in the circumstance to a decision that was
- 5:03made when they were grieving about how are they
- 5:05ever going to move on obviously. yeah and i'm
- 5:08also very curious about the whole process of
- 5:11like putting somebody cryogenic freezing it almost
- 5:14seemed like she was still alive when they put
- 5:17her under but also i doubt it i couldn't quite
- 5:20understand how they were describing it i know
- 5:22but like it did say she was clinically dead but
- 5:26you would think to be brought back if you were
- 5:29to be cryogenically frozen that you would have
- 5:31to be frozen alive i mean i guess it depends
- 5:33on where you think technology is going to be
- 5:35at in the future where it could resuscitate the
- 5:37body it would have to be at zombie level i would
- 5:40think anyhow yeah it's just like one of those
- 5:42weird implications of the decisions you make
- 5:4530 years down the line don't really match up
- 5:48with that yeah here's my other question what
- 5:50would they prefer him do like do you think he's
- 5:53paying rent for her this is like a black mirror
- 5:56episode by the way and if he were to move on
- 5:59are they expecting that he would be like you
- 6:01know just un -thar and What's barrier because
- 6:05now I move it like what what are they expecting
- 6:07here the article weirdly almost makes him like
- 6:10a celebrity or a star in China, from how they
- 6:14described it, but also he lived with this woman
- 6:16for five years before they kind of like noticed
- 6:19he was dating someone. It must have been a slow
- 6:22news day and they're just like, follow up on
- 6:24this guy, and they're like, no way, you're never
- 6:27gonna guess. Go look at all the cryogenic people's
- 6:29family members, see what they're up to. Yeah,
- 6:31you're never gonna guess, he's been living with
- 6:34a woman for five years now. I thought it was
- 6:40a fun article. You can take those implications
- 6:42with you, I guess, for the rest of your listening
- 6:45to this podcast episode has frozen a family member
- 6:47or might be really awkward. A Bigfoot maybe though.
- 6:51I don't think it's cryogenically frozen if they're
- 6:54listening to this podcast episode. I think it's
- 6:57a deep freeze. It's definitely a deep freeze.
- 7:02cryogenic chamber written in short B on it. Written
- 7:06wrong. Written wrong on it. Yeah, it's spelled
- 7:09totally wrong. Anyhow, you guys got 48 hours.
- 7:12Maybe look into getting that Bigfoot properly
- 7:15stored for long -term care. So we could bring
- 7:18it back. Anyhow, bye.