4.6 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 30 September 2021
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
In the past 100 years, we’ve doubled life expectancy. It might be the single greatest achievement of the modern era. So why haven’t we done more to celebrate it?
On this episode, Rufus Griscom, host of Wondery’s “The Next Big Idea,” turns the tables and puts Steven Johnson in the interviewee’s seat. They’ll discuss Steven’s book and PBS series “Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer,” about the many breakthroughs, large and small, that led to our increased longevity.
To learn more about “Extra Life,” visit https://stevenberlinjohnson.com/.
To hear more episodes of Next Big Idea, follow or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, the Wondery app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to American innovations |
0:03.6 | add free on Amazon Music. |
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0:07.9 | Join Wondery Plus to listen to American innovations |
0:11.2 | one week early and add free in the Wondery app. |
0:14.8 | Download the Wondery app in your Apple or Google Play |
0:18.2 | mobile app store today. |
0:19.5 | Wondery. |
0:26.6 | From Wondery, I'm Stephen Johnson. |
0:28.7 | And this is American Innovations. |
0:49.2 | In the past 100 years, we have doubled global life expectancy. |
0:54.1 | Scientific breakthroughs and life-saving medical interventions |
0:57.5 | drove some of that extraordinary progress. |
1:00.7 | It so did less heralded tools from chlorinated water and |
1:04.4 | pasteurized milk to seat belts and sewage systems. |
1:08.6 | My new book and PBS series Extra Life, a short history of living longer. |
1:13.8 | Weaves together the stories behind some of the breakthroughs |
1:17.0 | large and small that push the threshold of longevity. |
1:21.4 | And today, I'm talking with my old friend Rufus Griskem, |
1:24.8 | the host of Wondery's The Next Big Idea about how we got here |
1:29.2 | and also about the prospect of even greater extensions of our lifespan. |
1:34.5 | Here's my conversation with Rufus, which originally aired on The Next Big Idea. |
... |
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