Why are Americans dying so young? – Gavin Esler asks Dr Steven Woolf

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Society & Culture, Politics, Government

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2024

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The US life expectancy is at its lowest point in more than two decades – and behind that of some so-called ‘developing nations’? Why is this the case – and is anything being done about it? To answer these questions, Gavin Esler speaks to Dr Steven Woolf, lead author of the Journal of the American Medical Association’s report on health outcomes in the United States. • “It would be easy to blame this on a single cause such as the obesity epidemic, the opioid epidemic, guns: these are all big problems for the United States, but neither one by itself fully explains the systemic pattern of poorly performing against other high income countries.” – Dr Steven Woolf • “Studies have shown that even the so-called ‘advantaged’ populations of the U.S. die earlier than rich people in the UK. Across multiple categories of advantage – such as having health insurance, being a non-smoker, being white – all of these populations have been doing worse than in other countries.” – Dr Steven Woolf Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and Presented by Gavin Esler. Produced by: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved
0:05.5	photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.
0:11.8	Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retry. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?
0:13.0	I loved going to college.
0:14.0	It's good you can retrain and do something.
0:16.0	Yeah, yeah.
0:17.0	Let's talk about working, learning, saving and making the most of living longer.
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0:28.0	Search Phoenix Group living longer.
0:30.0	Pets brings so much joy.
0:32.0	From those happy greetings at the door to the warm cuddles on the sofa
0:36.7	so give a little love back with dental life from Purina a range of delicious chues made for dogs and tasty snacks for cats that help clean and support your pets, teeth and gums, essential for their overall well-being and a happy, healthy life. They give you plenty of smiles so look after
0:55.9	theirs with dental life. Pick up dental life in the pet food aisle. Hello and welcome to the bunker I'm Gavin Esler. A few years ago I was interviewing an American politician for BBC television
1:16.5	and asked him why health outcomes in the United States were so poor. Specifically I said
1:22.0	that perinatal mortality rates in the US, that is deaths of babies
1:26.2	around the time of birth, were much worse statistically in the United States than in Cuba.
1:32.4	The American politician was outraged and demanded to know
1:34.8	where I got those supposed facts. They're on the CIA website I told him.
1:39.7	Now two things struck me about this exchange. First, the world's richest country had very poor health outcomes for some people.
1:47.0	And second, beyond this politician's patriotic pride, he didn't know about the situation.
1:52.0	Well, in today's bunker I'm joined by
1:54.5	Dr Steve Wolf who's the lead author of the Journal of American Medical
	...

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