The complicated story of death in America

Friday, October 6, 2023

Hey readers,

It’s finally Friday. Here’s what we’re thinking about ahead of the weekend. 

Up first: A clearer look into American life expectancy

In other news: The bubbling backlash for Taylor Swift, a new report indicates millions of kids were displaced because of climate change, and how student loans hurt everyone.

Oh, and a heads up: Sentences will return to your inbox Tuesday. We’re off Monday for Indigenous Peoples Day.

—Izzie Ramirez, Future Perfect deputy editor

What a striking new study of death in America misses

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The story of death in America goes a little bit like this. For nearly two decades, the predominant theory was that Americans without college degrees die earlier and more from what researchers call “deaths of despair”: suicides, opioid overdoses, and alcohol related-causes. But it’s more complicated than that, senior correspondent Dylan Matthews argues.

The lowdown: 

• Life expectancy rates give us a glimpse into what’s going well and what’s not in a given place. A sharp dip, like the one caused by Covid in 2020 and 2021, indicates something deeply wrong. 

• The traditional college vs. non-college life expectancy breakdown obscures something big. Some researchers are finding that stagnating progress against cardiovascular disease is actually an even bigger contributor to US life expectancy stalling out than college degrees.

• And the big divide on premature death isn’t really between college grads and non-grads. It’s between high school dropouts and everyone else. That implies we might want to think more specifically about heart disease, and about the American underclass, and less about the college divide.

The stakes: As Dylan explains, understanding where certain rates come from allows us to better figure out effective (and rather quick) interventions.

“People dying now cannot wait for the whole US economy to transform to be more worker-friendly, as nice as that might be,” he writes. “They need solutions that are tailored for their specific problems that can be implemented soon.”

Read Dylan’s piece here »

The whole Taylor Swift-NFL cross-promotion thing is starting to feel icky

Elsa/Getty Images

Swifties are taking over the NFL — but at what cost? Ever since pop star Taylor Swift was rumored to be dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce last month, highlighting the pair has become the league’s top viewership strategy. Here’s what you need to know: 

• Both Swift and Kelce are at the top of their game right now. The singer just wrapped up her Eras tour in the US, and Kelce’s career has been pretty strong. [Vox]
  

• Don’t come for me, but Taylor Swift’s fanbase is a little intense. Not only do they staunchly defend the singer amid any controversy, they also mobilize to support her every appearance. The NFL has cut to Swift during broadcasts an absurd number of times during games. Viewership numbers naturally skyrocketed.  [Daily News]

• Taylor Swift is at risk of overexposure. With the increased amount of attention on Swift to a different audience, publicity exhaustion abounds. That can lead to backlash and damaged careers. Let a girl have some fun in peace, I say. [Vox]

• Jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi wins Nobel Peace Prize. Mohammadi, a staunch advocate for women’s rights, is the deputy head of the Defenders of Human Rights Center. Even behind bars, she rallied support for the women-led protests in Iran last year. [NBC News]
  
  

• Donald Trump backs Jim Jordan for speaker job. Jordan is a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. He’s one of two leading candidates for the speaker of the House role, along with Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise. [Guardian]
  
  

• Churches apologize for treatment of Indigenous peoples. Several leaders of Christian churches are acknowledging the harms of colonialism, erasure of Indigenous beliefs, and repossession of lands. [NPR]
  
  

• Millions of children are displaced due to extreme weather events. A United Nations report says that storms, fires, and other extreme weather events led to more than 43 million displacements involving children between 2016 and 2021. [ABC News]

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Today’s crossword

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