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Extra Life
- A Short History of Living Longer
- Narrated by: Steven Johnson
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
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Publisher's summary
“Offers a useful reminder of the role of modern science in fundamentally transforming all of our lives.” (President Barack Obama, on Twitter)
“An important book.” (Steven Pinker, The New York Times Book Review)
The surprising and important story of how humans gained what amounts to an extra life, from the best-selling author of How We Got to Now and Where Good Ideas Come From
In 1920, at the end of the last major pandemic, global life expectancy was just over 40 years. Today, in many parts of the world, human beings can expect to live more than 80 years. As a species, we have doubled our life expectancy in just one century. There are few measures of human progress more astonishing than this increased longevity.
Extra Life is Steven Johnson’s attempt to understand where that progress came from, telling the epic story of one of humanity’s greatest achievements. How many of those extra years came from vaccines, or the decrease in famines, or seatbelts? What are the forces that now keep us alive longer? Behind each breakthrough lies an inspiring story of cooperative innovation, of brilliant thinkers bolstered by strong systems of public support and collaborative networks, and of dedicated activists fighting for meaningful reform.
But for all its focus on positive change, this book is also a reminder that meaningful gaps in life expectancy still exist, and that new threats loom on the horizon, as the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear. How do we avoid decreases in life expectancy as our public health systems face unprecedented challenges? What current technologies or interventions that could reduce the impact of future crises are we somehow ignoring?
A study in how meaningful change happens in society, Extra Life celebrates the enduring power of common goals and public resources, and the heroes of public health and medicine too often ignored in popular accounts of our history. This is the sweeping story of a revolution with immense public and personal consequences: the doubling of the human life span.
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- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Age of Discovery explores a world on the brink of a new Renaissance and asks: how do we share more widely the benefits of unprecedented progress? How do we endure the inevitable tumult generated by accelerating change? How do we each thrive through this tangled, uncertain time? From gains in health, education, wealth and technology to crises of conflict, disease and mass migration, the similarities between today's world and that of the 15th century are both striking and prophetic: we have been here before.
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A monotonous text disguised as casual reading.
- By Rob on 07-29-16
By: Ian Goldin, and others
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Editing Humanity
- The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing
- By: Kevin Davies
- Narrated by: Kevin Davies
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Engrossing and captivating, Editing Humanity takes listeners inside the fascinating world of a new gene editing technology called CRISPR, a high-powered genetic toolkit that enables scientists to not only engineer but to edit the DNA of any organism down to the individual building blocks of the genetic code. Davies introduces listeners to arguably the most profound scientific breakthrough of our time. He tracks the scientists on the front lines of its research to the patients whose powerful stories bring the narrative movingly to human scale.
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Excellent content, solid execution
- By Samuel Finlayson on 01-25-21
By: Kevin Davies
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Plagues, Pandemics and Viruses
- From the Plague of Athens to COVID-19
- By: Heather E. Quinlan
- Narrated by: Samara Naeymi
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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It can come in waves - like tidal waves. It changes societies. It disrupts life. It ends lives. As far back as 3000 B.C.E. (the Bronze Age), plagues have stricken mankind. COVID-19 is just the latest example, but history shows that life continues. It shows that knowledge and social cooperation can save lives. Viruses are neither alive nor dead and are the closest thing we have to zombies. Their only known function is to replicate themselves, which can have devastating consequences on their hosts.
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Somewhat elemental
- By Bertha Watkins on 10-23-21
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Evolving Ourselves
- How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth
- By: Juan Enriquez, Steve Gullans
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Why are conditions like autism, asthma, obesity, and allergies exploding at unprecedented rates? Why are we living longer, getting smarter, having far fewer kids? If Darwin were alive today, how would he explain this new world?
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fascinating ideas and science
- By Joel on 07-04-15
By: Juan Enriquez, and others
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A Short History of Humanity
- A New History of Old Europe
- By: Johannes Krause, Thomas Trappe, Caroline Waight - translator
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Johannes Krause is the director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and a brilliant pioneer in the field of archaeogenetics - archaeology augmented by DNA sequencing technology - which has allowed scientists to reconstruct human history reaching back hundreds of thousands of years before recorded time. In this surprising account, Krause and journalist Thomas Trappe rewrite a fascinating chapter of this history, the peopling of Europe, that takes us from the Neanderthals and Denisovans to the present.
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Not a short history of humanity
- By Brent on 05-02-21
By: Johannes Krause, and others
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Tomorrowland
- Our Journey From Science Fiction to Science Fact
- By: Steven Kotler
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, Discover bestselling author Steven Kotler has written extensively about those pivotal moments when science fiction became science fact...and fundamentally reshaped the world. Now he gathers the best of his best, updated and expanded upon, to guide listeners on a mind-bending tour of the far frontier, and how these advances are radically transforming our lives.
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Covers a lot of different topics in many industries
- By ErnieA on 06-27-15
By: Steven Kotler
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Until Proven Safe
- The History and Future of Quarantine
- By: Nicola Twilley, Geoff Manaugh
- Narrated by: Kristen DiMercurio
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Quarantine is our most powerful response to uncertainty: it means waiting to see if something hidden inside us will be revealed. It is also one of our most dangerous, operating through an assumption of guilt. In quarantine, we are considered infectious until proven safe. Until Proven Safe tracks the history and future of quarantine around the globe, chasing the story of emergency isolation through time and space - from the crumbling lazarettos of the Mediterranean, built to contain the Black Death, to an experimental Ebola unit in London, and from the hallways of the CDC.
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Excellent writing, timely and informative
- By MSE on 07-24-21
By: Nicola Twilley, and others
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Pale Rider
- The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World
- By: Laura Spinney
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In this gripping narrative history, Laura Spinney traces the overlooked pandemic to reveal how the virus travelled across the globe, exposing mankind's vulnerability and putting our ingenuity to the test. As socially significant as both world wars, the Spanish flu dramatically disrupted - and often permanently altered - global politics, race relations, and family structures while spurring innovation in medicine, religion, and the arts.
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A Predilection for Those in the Prime of Life
- By Cynthia on 02-12-18
By: Laura Spinney
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The Remedy
- Robert Koch, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Quest to Cure Tuberculosis
- By: Thomas Goetz
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1875, tuberculosis was the deadliest disease in the world, accountable for a third of all deaths. A diagnosis of TB - often called consumption - was a death sentence. Then, in a triumph of medical science, a German doctor named Robert Koch deployed an unprecedented scientific rigor to discover the bacteria that caused TB. Koch soon embarked on a remedy - a remedy that would be his undoing. When Koch announced his cure for consumption, Arthur Conan Doyle, then a small-town doctor in England and sometime writer, went to Berlin to cover the event.
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thought-provoking
- By Jean on 07-06-14
By: Thomas Goetz
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Really Emma Goldman bio
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Good scientific history
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great material, but outdated.
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There's no one-size-fits-all model for the important decisions that can alter the course of a life, an organization, or a civilization. But Farsighted explains how we can approach these choices more effectively and how we can appreciate the subtle intelligence of choices that shaped our broader social history.
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Powerful Book for Business and Personal Decisions
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The Sum of Us
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Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis of 2008 to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a root problem: racism in our politics and policymaking. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all.
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Good book but Recording tech is poor. Glitches
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What listeners say about Extra Life
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jim Haynes
- 05-20-21
A Extra Life for every reader
Just reading this book will not only add to your knowledge base but will make your extra life more meaning full.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Mary H
- 08-09-21
Fascinating but somehow grim?
This book traces the biggest advances in extending human life, especially in decreasing infant mortality, in public health, medicine and technology. But somehow he’s still pessimistic..?
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- JFH
- 09-13-21
A terrific book with lots of stuff I never knew
Johnson has done a wonderful job of telling why life expectancy as doubled since the mid 1830's. start with an English aristocrat who was based in Istanbul and learned the rest of the world had already discovered a cure for smallpox, which was then refined to the point that smallpox, once one of the major killers of mankind, has now been eradicated worldwide. Many other interesting stories, including the development of statistical methods that ended a cholera epidemic in London when traced back to a single well. Every chapter has dozens of stories I never heard before. And Johnson, unlike some other authors who insist on reading their own books, is a terrific story teller. Highly recommended.
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- William
- 02-08-22
A different perspective on our health
This book does an excellent job explaining the gradual progress towards a longer lifespan. Progress is so much more than a few great discoveries as you will see if you read this book.
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- Douglas
- 06-22-21
Great
Great book very informative I really learned a lot thank you for the great research
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2 people found this helpful
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- JDRulon
- 03-29-22
Great book espeally for today
A hopeful dystopian story that offers many odeas on how to solve todays problemz - Climate change, Russia, energy, erc, etc, etc.
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- Antonio R.
- 07-17-21
Must Read
Clear and concise. The juxtaposition of true heroes is well-stated. Alas, we are humans.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Dominique W
- 09-06-22
Couldn't get enough!
This book made me seek out a grad certificate in public health. I literally couldn't get enough of it. THANK YOU, Steven Johnson for spotlighting this subject matter!!!
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- Acapulcomike
- 04-09-22
Great book, but his personal opinion got in the way some
It was a great book, but he was very determined to make sure you knew his views on population and it’s effects on climate change. He seems to think that the more people there are the worst it’s going to be for the planet. And that if we didn’t have as many people then our lifestyle would be just fine. Instead of what we are doing is making climate change happen and that our switch to renewable energy will allow our population to grow without fear of destroying the earth in the process. Anyways, this book was supposed to be about what has happened not about his opinion on what will happen. But the history part of the book was fantastic, his prediction part wasn’t.
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3 people found this helpful
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- pjhatchett
- 07-09-21
Profoundly interesting
I enjoyed this book. It held my interest with almost every word. A good read for the curious. There’s much to be learned about how far we’ve come in curing disease and possibly where we’re going. Fascinating stories and history I didn’t know. Highly recommended
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2 people found this helpful