Americans Die Younger Than People in Any Other Rich Country. Why?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News Commentary, News

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2023

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s episode is about guns, drugs, cars, and a big question: Why do Americans die so much younger than people in any other rich country? Before the 1990s, average life expectancy in the U.S. was not much different than it was in western Europe: Germany, France, the U.K. But since the 1990s, something very strange and clearly bad has happened. Americans got much richer than Europeans. But American life spans have fallen behind those of Europeans so dramatically that today, the typical American has the same healthy life expectancy as someone in the poorest town in England. So what's going on? To unravel this mystery, today’s guest is John Burn-Murdoch, a data journalist at the Financial Times, who recently published a magisterial investigation of the American death gap. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_ Host: Derek Thompson Guest: John Burn-Murdoch Producer: Devon Manze Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Rough year for your favorite NFL team, join me, Danny Heifetz alone with Danny Kelly Benzolak
0:04.8	and Craig Kroeldick on the Ringer NFL Draft Show, where we talk about all things NFL Draft
0:08.4	and more importantly, how to fix your mediocre team.
0:10.8	Check out the Ringer NFL Draft Show every Tuesday and Thursday.
0:17.0	Hey everyone, quick programming note for today's episode.
0:20.7	I'm going to be appearing on Wednesday, April 12th at Politics in Pro's book store in
0:27.4	Washington, DC. This is the Connecticut Avenue location of Politics in Pro's.
0:32.2	I'll be talking with the Atlantic's Ross Anderson about a new book that I published, a new anthology
0:38.6	of work that I've done on the subject of work, the history of work, the future of work. It's called,
0:44.2	I guess appropriately, Derrick Thompson on work. If you want to hear me talk about this book,
0:48.4	answer questions about the history of labor, the contemporary issues and remote work and AI,
0:54.1	the future of work. Stop by. It'd be great to see some listeners of the show in Politics in
0:59.9	Pro's. Again, that is April 12th at Politics in Pro's, the Connecticut Avenue location.
1:07.2	Today's episode is about guns, drugs, cars, and one very big question.
1:15.0	Why do Americans die so much younger than people in just about every other rich country?
1:22.4	American exceptionalism is a term that's thrown around a lot. Americans like to believe we are the
1:28.8	richest, the cleverest, the most creative, the most swash-bucklingly awesome country in the world,
1:33.9	and the truth is in many ways we are. I am not one of these people who considers anti-patriotism
1:41.6	to be a virtue. You're not going to get a whole Will McAvoy, the newsroom, Aaron Sorkin,
1:46.0	thing out of me, you know, seventh in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science. I think there are a
1:50.7	lot of very special things about this big, boisterous, loud, riotously inventive country and its
1:56.9	history. But on the other side of the ledger, we are the rich death trap of the Western world.
	...

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