The modern world, and the products we use everyday, are making us sick. But what if we could shift this trend and start to build health into everyday life? That’s exactly what Steve Downs and Thomas Goetz, co-founders of Building H, are working on. Steve, the former CTO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, joins us to discuss how Building H is helping companies and designers re-engineer products and “product environments” so they improve rather than harm health.  

We discuss:

• Shocking trends in American health: 48% of Americans are lonely, 35% don't get six hours a night of sleep and 60% of adult calories come from ultra-processed food.

• The mistake of thinking of our daily choices as “individual” decisions, when these decisions are profoundly shaped by our environments and the products we use.

• The Building H Index, which evaluates everyday products against five metrics of health: eating, physical activity, sleep, social connection, and spending time outdoors.

• Culdesac - A real-estate developer that is building “cities for people without cars”.

Steve asks how we could broaden consumer product regulation to focus on broad health impacts, not just safety:

“McDonald's is not responsible for all the food related chronic illnesses in America. But you might argue that they are, I don't know, 1.7%, responsible or 3.8% responsible …  I think we ultimately need to get to a place where if your product is leading to unhealthy behaviors, which is leading to illness and disease and cost, there may need to be some accountability for that."

ANNOUNCEMENT: Building H is seeking volunteers with a background in public health, healthcare or health policy to help build the Building H Index by rating products and services on their health impacts. If you’re interested in participating in a short scoring exercise, please go to this site for details and sign up https://www.buildingh.org/index/volunteer-signup