For almost all of human history and pre-history -- going back tens of thousands of years -- the average human life expectancy was about 35 years or less. Steven Johnson, author of the new book Extra Life, describes this fact as The Long Ceiling. But something changed a few hundred years ago. A series of public health innovations started arriving in batches, each innovation building on the success of another, that finally began extending our average life expectancy to where it is now, at more than 70 years. Steven explains to Cardiff why these innovations began so late in the human experience, the institutions and public remedies needed for their benefits to spread, and what lessons they hold for the Covid era.

Links from the episode:

• Steven Johnson is on Twitter at @stevenbjohnson
• Steven’s website
• Extra Life, the book (https://tinyurl.com/yfksrh82)
• Extra Life, the PBS series (https://tinyurl.com/3hbk3sb7)
• The Ghost Map (https://tinyurl.com/5t48e5vy) 
• Cardiff and Aimee are on Twitter at @CardiffGarcia and @AimeePKeane
• Send us an email! You can write to us at [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.