(2022-03-26) Johnson What Would Have Killed You

Steven Johnson: What Would Have Killed You? This weekend, NPR’s TED Radio Hour is airing a special hour-long episode where I discuss the past, present, and future of human life expectancy.

If you’ve followed some of the work I’ve published around the Extra Life project up to now, you might remember that one of my arguments about health progress is that it is chronically under-appreciated for almost structural reasons, because by definition it is made up of non-events: illness or death that didn’t happen because someone years ago figured out how to vaccinate against polio or purify public drinking water

Manoush revealed a family tradition that tries to compensate for this blind spot: You might be pleased to know that my siblings and I play a very dark game, which is called “What would have killed us.” So for my brother, it was his burst appendix. For me, I had strep throat so badly, it definitely would've killed me.