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How can humans stay alive for longer?

For a year, The Washington Post has been investigating why life expectancy in the U.S. is in decline, a trend that started longbeforethe pandemic. 

Here is the bad news: We are doing a bad job keeping people alive.The investigation found that Americans are more likely to die before the age of 65 than residents of similar wealthy nations.That’s despite the fact the United States spends far more per person on health care.

That’s one side of the life expectancy coin. The other is what some scientists believe could be an “Apollo moment” for how long we can expect to live. 

We speak to Lauren Weberwho was part of the Post’s reporting team. We also talk to Alex Zhavoronkovwho says aging research is the most important field of science right now.He’s the CEO of Insilico, a biotech startup that’s working with artificial intelligence and big data.

 

Copyright 2023 WAMU 88.5

Rupert Allman