If there's one thing we know about life expectancy in the US, it's that wealthy communities have long life expectancies and poorer communities have shorter life expectancies. But some poor communities far exceed their peers in terms of health outcomes and length of life. Experts will tell you that “place matters"—but they can’t tell you exactly why.

In episode 2 of Century Lives: Place Matters, we explore the recent history of life expectancy in America. The United States is exceptional, and not in a good way: we are one of the wealthiest nations in the world, but our life spans lag far behind our economic-peer nations. In ”American Exceptionalism,” we consider reasons that life spans in the U.S. aren’t as long as they could be—and consider ways we can all live longer.