Jordan Beckwith is in her early 30s. She lives on her own just outside of Denver, Colorado.

She's got an apartment, a car, two big dogs named Sophie and Leo, and a YouTube channel with a million subscribers.

My name is Jordan Beckwith, but online my handles Footless Joe. Footless Joe's origin story goes like this.

When I was 13, I took a very bad fall off of a horse, shattered my ankle. My tibia broke off and then was shoved up into my legs. It was a really bad break, caused a lot of complications in healing. It was about 14 years of surgeries and trying to walk trying to be active and be a kid.

By the time I was 27 and still dealing with all of that,

I knew that I was at the point to make the right decision.

And five years ago in 2018 I had my below-the-ne amputation.

From the time that I sent the email in being like yes let's go ahead and do this I think it was three weeks from

then and it's funny I mean the process is like minor knee surgery or wrist

surgery it's all the same when they're also removing a limb they come in

smiling they're like this is the. They come in, smiling, they're like,

this is the one we're taking off today, right?

As soon as pain was under control, they keep you there for like three days,

and then they send you home.

What came next was an intense, expensive, and important relationship with her new leg.

In general, they try to get you up and beginning to use a prosthetic within like six to eight weeks,

which sounds very soon, right?

Like you just cut off my leg and I'm supposed to start

walking on that. For the Freakonomics Radio Network, this is the economics of

everyday things. I'm Zachary Crorakit. Today, prosthetic limbs.

In the US, about 2,000 babies a year are born

missing some portion of a limb. Far more people lose arms or legs later in life as a result

...