Steven Johnson
About Steven Johnson
Speech topics
A Short History of Living Longer
A hundred years ago, global life expectancy was in the mid-thirties and a third of all children died before reaching adulthood. Today, the average human being lives into their seventies, and childhood mortality has been reduced by a factor of ten. Drawing on his acclaimed book and PBS series, "Extra Life," Steven Johnson tells the inspiring story of humanity's greatest achievement, the doubling of human life expectancy over the past century. Described by the New York Times as a “deep thinker and gifted storyteller,” Steven explores fascinating narratives from the past and present of medicine and public health to illustrate crucial lessons about the kinds of innovation and activism that drive momentous change in society, from the early vaccine pioneers to the thrilling race-against-the-clock story of the antibiotics revolution, to new breakthroughs in genome sequencing and machine learning. And he looks at the future of the human lifespan: can we reduce the health inequalities that remain? Will we someday be able to stop the aging process itself?
Speaking videos
Books by Steven Johnson
“The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective” (2024)
The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective
“Extra Life (Young Readers Adaptation): The Astonishing Story of How We Doubled Our Lifespan” (2023)
Extra Life (Young Readers Adaptation): The Astonishing Story of How We Doubled Our Lifespan
“Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer” (2021)
Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
“Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt” (2020)
Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt
“Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most” (2018)
A groundbreaking book about making once-in-a-lifetime decisions, from the bestselling author of How We Got to Now and Where Good Ideas Come FromPlenty of books offer useful advice on how to get better at making quick-thinking, intuitive choices. But what about more consequential decisions, the ones that affect our lives for years, or centuries, to come? Our most powerful stories revolve around these kinds of decisions: where to live, whom to marry, what to believe, whether to start a company, how to end a war.Full of the beautifully crafted storytelling and novel insights that Steven Johnson's fans know to expect, Farsighted draws lessons from cognitive science, social psychology, military strategy, environmental planning, and great works of literature. Everyone thinks we are living in an age of short attention spans, but we've actually learned a lot about making long-term decisions over the past few decades. Johnson makes a compelling case for a smarter and more deliberative decision-making approach. He argues that we choose better when we break out of the myopia of single-scale thinking and develop methods for considering all the factors involved.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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