Freakonomics Radio · 2025-05-21 · 53 min · 8,147 words

How to Succeed at Failing, Part 4: Extreme Resiliency (Update)

Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Timestamps stay in sync with the live audio

Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner and you are about to hear the fourth and final episode of our series, How to Succeed at Failing, which was first published in 2023. If you missed any of the earlier episodes, they should be right there in your podcast app. For this version, we have updated facts and figures as necessary. As always, thanks. for listening.

If I asked you to name the world's deadliest infectious disease, what would you say? COVID 19? That was the biggest infectious killer for a few years, but not anymore. How about malaria? Influenza?

HIV? Those are all deadly, but not the deadliest. So what's number one? Actually TB for the last 20-30 years has been the number one infectious disease killer in the world.

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