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In this episode of Flourish As You Age, Michael C. Patterson explores the research of Jennifer Karas Montez, showing that life expectancy in the United States is increasingly determined by state-level public policies and systems of social support.

Across states and even ZIP codes, differences in wages, healthcare access, education, environmental protections, and safety nets can add—or subtract—years of life. This episode examines how political choices translate into biological outcomes, why some policy environments support healthier aging than others, and what it means to think of democracy itself as a public-health intervention.

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