Martine Rothblatt

What if death could be optional?

In the ’90s, Martine Rothblatt launched Sirius Satellite Radio.

The idea? Beam music, talk, and weather data from space to cars across the U.S. with zero static.

It sounded impossible.

But Martine convinced the FCC, raised the capital, and made it real.

Today, SiriusXM is a $20B audio empire.

She could’ve stopped there.

But in 1994, her daughter Jenesis was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

A rare, fatal lung disease with no cure.

Martine refused to accept the prognosis.

So she taught herself biology.

Enrolled in a Ph.D. program in medical ethics.

And started a biotech company from scratch.

That company (United Therapeutics) developed a treatment that saved Jenesis’s life.

Then it saved thousands more.

And Martine kept going.

She’s now 3D-printing human lungs using collagen grown in genetically modified tobacco plants.

She’s developing genetically engineered pig organs for transplant.

One of which was used in the world’s first successful pig-to-human heart surgery.

And she’s building electric, pilotless aircraft to fly those organs to hospitals.

She’s a licensed pilot.

A trans woman.

A space lawyer who helped write the rules for satellite communication.

A futurist exploring mind uploading and digital consciousness.

And she’s building all of it to make one thing possible: a future where death is optional.

She founded the Terasem Movement to explore digital immortality.

She created one of the world’s first AI-powered humanoid robots.

BINA48, modeled after her wife.

She even built the world’s largest net-zero energy office building, the Unisphere, powered entirely by solar and geothermal energy.