Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer

An anthropologist uncovers new evidence for the evolutionary origins of human longevity—and explains why growing old is an opportunity, not a burden

Our ability to live for decades may seem like a modern luxury made possible by clean water and advances in medicine. In fact, human longevity is a legacy of our unique evolutionary path as a species. Seven Decades challenges the belief that life in the past was “nasty, brutish, and short,” tracing how our capacity for long life came to be and tr...