All statements about child mortality

150 statements about child mortality in 75 videos, by upload date.

Back to child mortality.

2012

2012-12-17 · THE PROJECT FOR AWESOME 2012 IS HERE! Save the Children. — John says seven million children under five will die this year (2012), most of diseases that can be treated or prevented inexpensively. — 00:01:50
2012-12-17 · THE PROJECT FOR AWESOME 2012 IS HERE! Save the Children. — John says children first have to survive to five, and that cutting childhood illness and death rates also cuts poverty rates. — 00:02:20

2014

2014-01-21 · Are Poor Countries Doomed? — John says more than 6 million children died worldwide in 2013 — horrible and unjust — yet the lowest in quite a while, even as world population steadily increased. — 00:00:01
2014-01-21 · Are Poor Countries Doomed? — John: Quizzing Hank, John says the world did not see fewer than 6.3 million child deaths in 1975 (population 4 billion) or 1900 (1.6 billion), when probably more than 8 million died. (hedged) — 00:00:11
2014-01-21 · Are Poor Countries Doomed? — John says Earth has not seen a year with so few child deaths in hundreds of years, maybe a thousand. (hedged) — 00:00:25
2014-01-21 · Are Poor Countries Doomed? — John repeats that fewer children died in 2013 than in any year on record. — 00:02:48
2014-07-22 · Ambiguous Victories and Real Progress: Behind the Beautiful Forevers — recommendation: John: As data to start the discussion, John points to WHO figures on infant mortality and trends in child mortality, the EIU Food Security Index, World Bank figures on global income distribution, and The Economist on global inequality. — video description
2014-07-29 · Listen: Thoughts from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — John says twenty years ago more than fifteen percent of children born in Ethiopia died before age five; today it is less than seven percent. — 00:01:22
2014-07-29 · Listen: Thoughts from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — John says child mortality is falling faster in Ethiopia than in the world overall and is much lower than in far richer countries. — 00:01:30
2014-08-19 · Baby Names: Thoughts from Rural Ethiopia — John: A story John heard often: Ethiopian women traditionally waited months to name babies because so many died, but with mortality falling thanks to smart aid and government investment they now name them at birth. — 00:00:13
2014-08-19 · Baby Names: Thoughts from Rural Ethiopia — John: Diarrhea remains one of the leading causes of child death in Ethiopia though almost always survivable with hydration; a sick boy went home with rehydration solution that might have saved his life. — 00:02:03
2014-08-19 · Baby Names: Thoughts from Rural Ethiopia — John: Their progress is real and should be celebrated, but much remains: children should not die of diarrhea, pneumonia or malaria, and far too many still do. — 00:03:07
2014-08-19 · Baby Names: Thoughts from Rural Ethiopia — John: Asked about naming, the women agreed babies are now named at birth; some said lower child mortality might be why, but most said it is because birth certificates must now be filled out. — 00:03:20
2014-09-09 · Bill Gates and John Green Discuss Global Health — Bill Gates: Gates says primary health care facilities are how childhood death was brought down from about 25% of all children to about 5%. — 00:00:29
2014-09-09 · Bill Gates and John Green Discuss Global Health — Bill Gates: Asked how we know care drove the drop, Gates says poor countries' statistics are poor except child deaths; deaths were very high, and vaccines against a few infectious diseases cut them a lot. — 00:01:18
2014-09-09 · Going to College (in Ethiopia) — John says these young people have seen the greatest drops in poverty and infant mortality in Ethiopia's history, yet tens of thousands of Ethiopian children still die yearly of easily preventable diseases. — 00:03:39
2014-09-09 · Going to College (in Ethiopia) — John says the lesson of twenty years of global health is that children who needn't die can grow up and end up studying in that library. — 00:03:49
2014-09-23 · Looking Away — John says child death in Ethiopia has dropped by more than two-thirds in 20 years, alongside huge growth in school attendance and in college graduates. — 00:01:27
2014-09-23 · Looking Away — ask: John says the fundraiser won't end poverty or child mortality but can change 8,000 lives, and asks viewers who can to donate at water.org/johngreen. — 00:02:59
2014-09-29 · Bill Gates and John Green Discuss Progress — Bill Gates: Gates says in the last ten years Ethiopia cut its childhood death rate from over 15% to about 8%; the US is below 1%. — 00:02:03
2014-09-29 · Bill Gates and John Green Discuss Progress — Bill Gates: Gates says Ethiopia should be able to get childhood death below 2%. (hedged) — 00:02:08
2014-11-28 · Global Health and Human Hair: What the Vlogbrothers are Thankful For — John is thankful that childhood death around the world is decreasing at an astonishing pace. — 00:00:40
2014-12-02 · What You Eat Of Those You Love — John says norovirus rarely kills US children but causes over 200,000 child deaths a year worldwide, mostly for want of clean water and rehydration solution costing about 50 cents. — 00:01:38
2014-12-02 · What You Eat Of Those You Love — John says that despite difficulties and failures, organizations from Save the Children to Water.org to many local charities are helping to decrease child mortality. — 00:02:21

2015

2015-01-27 · Will Life Get Better for the Poor? — John says hundreds of millions of people have left absolute poverty in the last 25 years, child mortality has been cut by half, and more kids than ever are vaccinated. — 00:00:16
2015-01-27 · Will Life Get Better for the Poor? — John says in the rich world fewer than 1% of kids die before age 5, almost no one gets malaria, few lack vaccines for want of refrigeration, and serious child malnutrition is extremely uncommon. — 00:00:28
2015-01-27 · Will Life Get Better for the Poor? — John says global child mortality halved in the last 25 years, and the Gates letter argues it can halve again in the next 15, without expensive specialists or new procedures. — 00:01:09
2015-01-27 · Will Life Get Better for the Poor? — John reminds viewers that cutting infant mortality does not lead to population explosions in the long run, but quite the opposite. — 00:01:47
2015-09-22 · Is Poverty Necessary? Looking back at the Millennium Development Goals — John: The 66% child-mortality target will be missed, but global child mortality has more than halved since 1990; for example, measles vaccinations prevented about 15 million child deaths. — 00:02:02
2015-09-25 · Pissed Off for a Better World — Hank wants to be angry that children are dying, that gender inequality exists nearly everywhere, and that 6 million people will die this year (2015) without access to clean water. (doubtful: 6 million) — 00:00:46
2015-09-25 · Pissed Off for a Better World — Hank: After the sign-off Hank says he is honestly amazed at how far we've come, with infant mortality down and education and access to clean water up. — 00:02:45
2015-12-11 · The Refugee Crises: Project for Awesome 2015 — John says infant mortality has halved in the last 25 years, the share of kids in school has skyrocketed, and global poverty has diminished. — 00:03:00

2016

2016-02-23 · How Energy and Time Change Everything — John says about 2,000 years ago roughly half of people died before age five, and by 1800 the global under-five mortality rate had fallen only to around 43%. — 00:00:05
2016-02-23 · How Energy and Time Change Everything — John says child mortality then fell dramatically: by 2013 the global rate was 3.4%, and in wealthy countries it is under 1%. — 00:00:19
2016-08-16 · Some Good News: 16 Ways 2016 Is Not a Total Dumpster Fire — John adds that child mortality is continuing to trend down in every region of the world. — video description
2016-08-16 · Some Good News: 16 Ways 2016 Is Not a Total Dumpster Fire — Max Roser (quoted): Max Roser of Our World in Data, as John relays him, notes that no headline ever reads that global child mortality fell by a tiny fraction since yesterday. — 00:00:15
2016-08-16 · Some Good News: 16 Ways 2016 Is Not a Total Dumpster Fire — John says child mortality keeps falling worldwide and 2016 is on pace to have the fewest child deaths of any year in thousands of years. — 00:00:26
2016-12-09 · The Difference A Decade Makes: The 10th Annual Project for Awesome Is Here! — John says a decade ago almost 13% of children in Sierra Leone died before age 5; today it is under 9%. — 00:01:10
2016-12-09 · The Difference A Decade Makes: The 10th Annual Project for Awesome Is Here! — John says 4 million fewer children died worldwide last year (2015) than in 2006. — 00:01:32

2017

2017-02-14 · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. — recommendation: John recommends Our World in Data as an amazing resource for understanding changes in the human condition over time, from literacy to life expectancy, praising its overviews of child mortality and absolute poverty; the In a Nutshell video he references was made with it. — video description
2017-02-14 · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. — John says that in 1998 more than 10 million children under 5 died and over half of kids in low-income countries were not vaccinated. — 00:00:22
2017-02-14 · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. — John says that today 80% of kids in low-income countries are vaccinated, fewer than 10% of people live in absolute poverty, and fewer than 6 million children will die this year (2017). — 00:00:36
2017-02-14 · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. — John says child mortality is not just falling: the rate of its fall has been accelerating for two decades. — 00:00:44
2017-02-14 · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. — John: Citing an In a Nutshell video, John says that when child mortality falls, families choose to have fewer children, which ultimately slows population growth. — 00:01:49
2017-02-14 · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. — John says lower child mortality also means healthier kids more likely to go to school and parents freer to work, benefiting whole social orders. — 00:01:59
2017-02-14 · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. — Bill Gates (quoted): Bill Gates, as John relays him, says saving children's lives is the best deal in philanthropy. — 00:02:11
2017-02-14 · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. — John says saving children is often inexpensive: many vaccines cost less than a dollar, and vaccination is the number one reason child mortality has declined. — 00:02:15
2017-02-14 · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. — John says most children who die still die only because they were born poor, which is unacceptable and need not be accepted. — 00:02:23
2017-02-14 · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. — John says 45% of child mortality now occurs within the first month of life. — 00:02:37
2017-02-14 · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. — John says that in 20 years (by 2037), when today's median viewer is his age, absolute poverty and child mortality may be rare everywhere on Earth. (hedged) — 00:03:25
2017-02-14 · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. — John says absolute poverty and child mortality may feel beyond our control, as if only the Gateses and Buffetts can move the needle, but in reality it is up to all of us. — 00:03:46
2017-06-16 · When Will You Die? — Hank says average life expectancy tells you little about when an individual will die: a change in child mortality moves it far more than a change in elderly mortality. — video description
2017-06-16 · When Will You Die? — Hank says a past life expectancy of 35 doesn't mean people died around 35: deaths of children and babies pulled the average down, and 80-year-olds in the Middle Ages were no mythical creatures. (playful) — video description
2017-07-18 · Accio Decade Hallows — John recalls Hank's idea that bad news usually comes all at once and good news slowly: declines in absolute poverty, child mortality and violent deaths go unreported because they are decades-long processes, not events. — 00:00:09
2017-12-12 · 2017 is the Best? — John says babies have never been as healthy or as likely to survive into adulthood as in 2017. — 00:01:44
2017-12-12 · 2017 is the Best? — John says that in 1995, 24% of babies born in Liberia died before age five; today it is under 7%, still far too high but down by more than two-thirds in 22 years. — 00:01:51
2017-12-12 · 2017 is the Best? — John rejects the worry that population growth is out of control: in Liberia, as everywhere, when health care improves and child mortality falls, families choose fewer children. — 00:02:09
2017-12-12 · 2017 is the Best? — John says that in the year his mother was born Portugal's child mortality rate was about 9%; in 2017 no country on Earth will have a rate that high. — 00:02:44

2018

2018-01-23 · On Emergencies — John: With catastrophic consequences: 9% of kids born in Sierra Leone die before they are five. — 00:01:22
2018-08-21 · SYSTEMS!!!! — John: Between 1994 and 2014, Thailand's child mortality rate fell by more than 55%. — 00:01:13
2018-11-27 · On The Melian Dialogue — John says 266,000 children under five died of malaria last year (2017), almost all of them poor. — 00:01:56
2018-12-07 · BABIES! The 2018 Project for Awesome is here… — John says yesterday's babies were born into the healthiest, best-educated moment in human history, more than twice as likely to survive to adulthood as children born in 1990. — 00:01:17
2018-12-07 · BABIES! The 2018 Project for Awesome is here… — John says 266,000 children are expected to die of malaria this year (2018), 728 of them born yesterday, and another 14,000 children born yesterday will die before age five. — 00:01:43
2018-12-07 · BABIES! The 2018 Project for Awesome is here… — John says the problems are not simple but the solution is: the more humanity prioritizes the health of its most vulnerable children, the more likely they are to lead healthy lives. (hedged) — 00:02:13

2019

2019-10-01 · Why Are Poor Countries Poor? — The description says Sierra Leone has the world's highest maternal mortality rate and one of the highest child mortality rates, which John believes long-term investment can change. — video description
2019-10-01 · Why Are Poor Countries Poor? — John: Nothing about Sierra Leone's poverty is natural or inevitable, so John doesn't think it is permanent; evidence worldwide shows systems can strengthen so more mothers and children survive. — 00:07:52
2019-10-22 · Why We're Donating $6,500,000 — John says they talk about the gift publicly to draw attention to health workers like Ruth, who need more robust systems to address the maternal and child mortality crises. — 00:01:44
2019-10-22 · Why We're Donating $6,500,000 — John says 10 percent of Sierra Leonean children do not live to see their fifth birthday. — 00:02:00

2020

2020-01-07 · Endings · Beginnings — ask: The description asks people who can give $1,000 or more to support Partners In Health's fight to end the maternal and child mortality crises in Sierra Leone. — video description
2020-01-28 · Looking Away (Again) — John says most children who die in Sierra Leone die of conditions we know how to treat or prevent. — 00:01:51
2020-01-28 · Looking Away (Again) — John says he understood in the abstract that Sierra Leone's maternal and child mortality crises were emergencies but had not been treating them like emergencies. — 00:02:50
2020-10-05 · Thank God It's Over and PIZZAMAS IS HERE!!!!!!! — announcement: John: The Pizzamas items are sold only during this Pizzamas, and all profits and royalties go to charity to reduce child and maternal mortality, plus international COVID relief for a couple of items. — 00:00:29
2020-11-17 · Our Biggest Project Yet: A One Year Update — John: As Sierra Leone's health system has strengthened in recent years, child and maternal mortality have dropped sharply, showing these deaths are not inevitable. — 00:01:27
2020-11-27 · Finally Launching this Project!!! — announcement: Hank says shipping is free everywhere with an address and 100% of the profit goes to charity, currently to decrease maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:02:05
2020-12-11 · The /W/orst Letter — Hank says all the sock club's profits will go to decreasing maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:02:58

2021

2021-10-04 · PIZZAMAS IS HERE! — announcement: In a channel comment John adds that all Pizzamas royalties and profits go to charities supporting stronger health care systems in communities with high maternal and child mortality. — creator comment
2021-11-02 · enough — ask: In a comment John says the Awesome Socks Club is live and urges viewers to get great socks; 100% of proceeds support reducing maternal and child mortality. — creator comment
2021-11-02 · enough — John says money donated now still grows, as more kids surviving to adulthood and more educational opportunities, growth far more transformational than stock appreciation. — 00:02:16
2021-11-05 · We Have Invented Something Marvelous — Hank says every dollar of the club's profit supports the community's work decreasing maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:01:56
2021-12-21 · NOW I AM THE SCIENCE ONE… — John reports big reductions in child and maternal mortality at Koidu Government Hospital over the last year, and far more people using the health system because they feel they can get care. — 00:02:26

Also named in: Breaking Ground!!!

2022

2022-01-04 · After 15 Years on YouTube, THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING — John: In 2021 alone Koidu Government Hospital saw a 36% reduction in child mortality at its pediatric ward. — 00:02:38
2022-02-22 · On the Death of My Hero — John: Child and maternal mortality are the lowest in human history and health systems are strengthening even in very poor communities, but profound health inequities persist. — 00:02:55
2022-03-01 (said on 2022-02-27, implied) · Hard Week — John: When John was a college freshman, children globally were twice as likely to die before age five as today: a massive human success story. — 00:02:26
2022-07-12 · Nauseous Puddle Water — announcement: John says all of the club's profits, not some or most, are donated to fight maternal and child mortality in impoverished communities. — 00:02:15
2022-09-13 · A Million Things at Once — John says in Kono 1 in 20 women will die in childbirth and 1 in 10 children won't survive to age 5. — 00:02:34
2022-10-11 · Most People Have Never Been 20 — John says the median person almost certainly could not read or write, probably was not monotheist, probably died before adulthood, and if not, probably farmed and lost children. (hedged) — 00:01:27
2022-10-11 · Most People Have Never Been 20 — John says overall life expectancy was brought below 30 only because child mortality was so high. — 00:01:56
2022-10-11 · Most People Have Never Been 20 — John: Against the claim that only falling child mortality raised life expectancy, John says in 1865 Italy it was under 50 even for those surviving childbirth; today well over 70. — 00:01:56
2022-10-11 · Most People Have Never Been 20 — John says about 30% of people born in France in 1800 died before age 10. — 00:02:26
2022-10-11 · Most People Have Never Been 20 — John says the best current guess is that when the median person was born 2,000 years ago, half of all people died before age 10. (hedged) — 00:02:26
2022-10-11 · Most People Have Never Been 20 — John says child mortality was so high that birth rates were five times today's, yet the human population barely grew. — 00:02:55
2022-10-11 · Most People Have Never Been 20 — John says that even last year (2021) more people died before age five than between 65 and 69. — 00:02:55
2022-10-11 · Most People Have Never Been 20 — John says we can't change historical rates of premature death, but we can choose a world where fewer people die early, and he knows because we have made that choice before. — 00:03:24
2022-10-25 · Instantly Debateable — John: The year John graduated from high school, 11 million children under 5 died; this year (2022) fewer than 5 million will, which is still way too high. — 00:03:24
2022-11-04 · My Secret Obsession — announcement: Hank says the Awesome Socks Club sends a pair by a different independent artist each month, ships free, cancels anytime, and gives all profit to cutting maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:02:03
2022-11-15 · 3 Years In: What Happened, Why, and What's Next — John says Kayima had a huge outbreak of diarrhoeal illness this year (2022), one of the leading causes of death for children under five. — 00:01:27
2022-11-15 · 3 Years In: What Happened, Why, and What's Next — John says child mortality at the hospital has fallen by over half in just the last two years. — 00:02:26
2022-11-15 · 3 Years In: What Happened, Why, and What's Next — John says the project's biggest hope was that work in one region of one country could prove maternal and child mortality can be radically reduced everywhere and inspire other partners, which is starting to happen. — 00:04:22
2022-11-15 · 3 Years In: What Happened, Why, and What's Next — John says we can choose a world where maternal and child deaths are rare, and he really believes the community is helping bring it about. — 00:06:49
2022-11-15 · 3 Years In: What Happened, Why, and What's Next — John says even viewers who can't donate help: their attention and advocacy draw attention to the maternal and child mortality crises, which brings in big funding partners. — 00:06:49

2023

2023-03-14 · The Seduction of Despair — John says millions of kids will die needlessly of impoverishment this year (2023), but 30 years ago kids were twice as likely to die before the age of five. — 00:02:16
2023-03-14 · The Seduction of Despair — John says that change was neither natural nor inevitable: many people collaborated across time and space, in anger, frustration and disgust, but not in hopelessness. — 00:02:30
2023-05-02 · GOOD NEWS — John: In Kono both maternal and child mortality have since declined dramatically. — 00:00:58
2023-05-02 · GOOD NEWS — John: A special care baby unit at Koidu's hospital has already dramatically reduced child mortality. — 00:04:23
2023-06-13 · touched by a king — ask: John's comment says the Awesome Socks Club has reopened and urges viewers to get Awesome Coffee Club coffee, whose profits all fight maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — creator comment
2023-08-01 · Three Mornings — John says the Awesome Coffee Club donates 100% of profit to charity; Awesome Coffee, Awesome Socks and Sun Basin Soap have donated over $5 million in three years to fight maternal and infant mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:05:20
2023-08-29 · Breaking News: CEO Demoted — John says the clubs donate 100% of their profit to charity and have so far raised over $5 million for better child and maternal health in Sierra Leone. — 00:00:00
2023-09-22 · A Feeling I've Never Felt Before — Hank reminds viewers that all Pizzamas profit goes to decreasing maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:04:56

2024

2024-01-16 · The Bank of Nerdfighteria — John: In 2019 the community began supporting Partners In Health's efforts to radically reduce maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone's Kono District. — 00:00:25
2024-04-26 · One Year Out. — Hank says that today only the first pair of socks from the Awesome Socks Club costs $5 with free shipping, and that 100% of the profit from it and everything at good.store goes to decrease maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:03:52
2024-05-28 · A Midlife Crisis — John says Good Store has raised over $7.5 million to reduce maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:01:27
2024-05-28 · A Midlife Crisis — John says his other work feels extremely urgent because it involves many people's livelihoods and, with tuberculosis and maternal and infant mortality, many people's lives. — 00:02:55
2024-10-03 · Broadly in Favor of Humans — John lists what humans did in the last eight hours of the human year: flew to the Moon, raised greenhouse gases, deforested most of North America, cut child death 95%, eliminated smallpox, grew food supply, drove large mammals toward extinction. — 00:01:59

2025

2025-01-03 · My 2025 Bingo Card — Hank says that a hundred years ago one in five children in the US died before age five. — 00:02:57
2025-01-28 · This Is Not Normal — John says over 11 million children died before age five in 1995, and fewer than 5 million did last year (2024). — 00:00:00
2025-01-28 · This Is Not Normal — John says child mortality is still far too high and could be cut by another 50% with existing technology if we really wanted to. — 00:00:29
2025-01-28 · This Is Not Normal — John says this fall in child mortality was not natural, normal or inevitable, and represents the greatest success in human history. — 00:00:29
2025-01-28 · This Is Not Normal — John says about 46% of people born in the US in 1800 died before five, similar to rates thousands of years earlier, and by 1840 it had only fallen to 43%. — 00:00:58
2025-01-28 · This Is Not Normal — John says that between 1920 and 1960 the chance of dying under age five fell from 18% to 3%. — 00:01:27
2025-01-28 · This Is Not Normal — John says our species is about 300,000 years old, with no meaningful progress on child mortality for over 99% of that time, and most of about 120 billion humans never reached 20. — 00:01:56
2025-01-28 · This Is Not Normal — John says a central reason child mortality fell since 1995 is government-funded interventions, including US-funded PEPFAR and the Global Fund. — 00:02:55
2025-01-28 · This Is Not Normal — John hopes that in 30 years his most encouraging fact will be that child mortality kept falling throughout his whole lifetime. — 00:05:21
2025-02-14 · Let's Do a Good — Hank lists the organizations' work: treating children for malnutrition, HIV treatment, supporting kids in war zones, reducing maternal and infant mortality, responding to disease outbreaks. — 00:00:44
2025-05-13 · I Have the BEST News — John says the MCOE will care for thousands or tens of thousands of people a year and radically reduce maternal and infant mortality in Kono and beyond. — 00:04:32
2025-06-10 · 90,000,000 Lives for $20 — John says graphs of child mortality, TB and HIV deaths since 2000 all bring good news, but this progress will stop and reverse because of the US-led global pullback in health funding. — 00:00:00
2025-06-10 · 90,000,000 Lives for $20 — John cites a recent estimate that within five years annual TB deaths will rise from 1.3 million to 2 million, and child mortality will worsen. — 00:00:00
2025-09-23 · Why Can't I Take My Meds? — John says it is natural for about half of children to die before five, and for people to die of polio and smallpox or catch bovine tuberculosis from raw cow milk. — 00:04:22
2025-10-01 · Real Reasons for Hope — announcement: John says maternal mortality at the hospital will decline further with the opening next month (November 2025) of the Maternal Center of Excellence there. — 00:03:53
2025-10-31 · We Did It… — Hank says the MCOE's real impact, healthier mothers, stronger families and a more resilient health system, will grow over years. — 00:07:14
2025-11-04 · The Real Question — John grants there is progress to point to, such as ongoing reductions in child and maternal mortality. — 00:03:24
2025-11-11 · John's Annual Psychophysical Decline — John calls the MCOE a statement of intent: the long-term, open-ended problems of maternal and child mortality in Kono are being met by long-term, open-ended support from the community. — 00:01:37
2025-11-11 · John's Annual Psychophysical Decline — John says Good Store, another way to support Partners In Health and the Coral Reef Alliance, raised about $10 million over the last five years to fight maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:03:04

2026

2026-01-06 · Hope Is Not a Feeling — John notes the circular fact that deciding on a hopeful worldview makes hopeful outcomes likelier: believing the world is worth saving makes reducing under-five deaths likelier. — 00:03:24
2026-01-06 · Hope Is Not a Feeling — John: If nothing and no one mattered, John says, there would be no point in reducing child mortality or in writing books meant to console or encourage readers. — 00:03:53
2026-02-13 · Project for Awesome 2026 Kickoff! — John says that since he graduated from college, yearly child deaths have fallen from 11 million to 5 million: still far too high, but huge progress that is easy to forget. — 01:46:24
2026-02-13 · Project for Awesome 2026 Kickoff! — John says Hank is joking about a better 2027, but the world really can be better in 2027 than in 2026, with fewer children dying; he does not know that we are good news, but truly believes we can be. — 07:15:19
2026-02-24 · Risk Is a Privilege — John calls the MCOE a real game changer for maternal and child health in the region. — 00:00:29
2026-02-24 · Risk Is a Privilege — John says the reluctance to invest in impoverished communities is the main reason maternal and child mortality were so high in Sierra Leone. — 00:02:55
2026-02-24 · Risk Is a Privilege — John says more than one in 10 children in Sierra Leone died before age five and more than one in 20 women died in pregnancy or childbirth. — 00:03:24
2026-04-14 · Babies. Babies. Babies. — John says mothers and children who could have died now survive every week in Kono, and the community has played a small but significant role. — 00:03:24
2026-04-28 · What I Can't Show You — John: In the NICU John saw babies who months ago would have had a very low chance of survival and will now lead long, productive lives. — 00:02:55
2026-04-28 · What I Can't Show You — John says 500 babies were born at the MCOE in its first six weeks of operation, including over 200 C-sections, many of them emergencies that might otherwise have meant maternal and child death. — 00:05:37
2026-05-05 · Noted Brother Hank Green — John says most of those, Hank and Katherine included, who raised over $30 million for the MCOE and other efforts against maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone have never been there. — 00:03:24
2026-08-03 · Esther Day 2026: Some Thoughts on Loss — John says around half of all people who ever lived did not live to age 10. — 00:02:49
2026-09-08 · The Life Expectancy Lies That Won't Die — John describes the backlash: the 'life expectancy myth' correction held people were not dying of old age in their mid-30s, and life expectancy was low because child mortality was so high. — 00:01:56
2026-09-08 · The Life Expectancy Lies That Won't Die — John says many humans, perhaps nearly half, died before age 5, and another 10% or so before 15. (hedged) — 00:02:26
2026-09-08 · The Life Expectancy Lies That Won't Die — John concludes both narratives mislead: people were not dying of old age in their mid-30s, nor routinely living to their 70s; most died in childhood, and most survivors died before 60. — 00:03:53
2026-09-08 · The Life Expectancy Lies That Won't Die — John says high child mortality was a catastrophe, robbing billions of people of the chance to live loving and productive lives. — 00:03:53
2026-09-08 · The Life Expectancy Lies That Won't Die — John states the truth of historical life expectancy: high child mortality dragged it down dramatically, and the chance of dying at every decade was much higher in the past than today. — 00:04:22
2026-09-08 · The Life Expectancy Lies That Won't Die — John says child mortality has dropped from over 40% to under 4%, and has dropped every year for decades and decades. — 00:05:21