In which John explores the question of historical life expectancy, and how sometimes a misleading narrative is corrected by ... a misleading narrative. If you want to understand historical and present life expectancy in granular detail, I recommend these Our World in Data articles, where I got most of the information in this video: How Does the Risk of Death Change as We Age? https://ourworldindata.org/how-do-the-risks-of-death-change-as-people-age Life Expectancy Has Increased at All Ages: https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy?insight=life-expectancy-has-increased-at-all-ages#research-writing It's Not Just about Child Mortality: https://ourworldindata.org/its-not-just-about-child-mortality-life-expectancy-improved-at-all-ages ---- Subscribe to our newsletter! https://werehere.beehiiv.com/subscribe Preorder John's new novel Hollywood, Ending (out September 22!): https://hollywoodendingbook.com Learn more about our project to help Partners in Health radically reduce maternal mortality in Sierra Leone: https://www.pih.org/hankandjohn If you're able to donate $2,000 or more to this effort, please join our matching fund: https://pih.org/hankandjohnmatch If you're in Canada, you can donate here: https://pihcanada.org/hankandjohn