This content aims to save lives by highlighting the most common and avoidable causes of death for young adults in Western countries, emphasizing that everyday activities, not just rare events, pose significant risks.
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Let’s save your life today. Not long term, today. By specifically finding out
what's most likely to kill you next week so you can actually avoid it.
First let’s assume that 3 million people will watch this video and that you're all
among our typical viewers. You're between the ages of 15 and 35 and
you are living in western countries. We based this video on statistics specifically for your
demographic and our own estimates. They are not perfect but roughly correct! Don’t worry,
we also might save your life if you are older or live somewhere else.
Ok, now let’s gather all three million of you in 40 packed football stadiums. Look around,
most of you are teens and young adults, so much potential! Unfortunately by the
end of next week 58 of you watching right now will not be alive anymore.
3000 of you will sadly have passed in a year. That is one in 1000. Or not!
Today we will save your, yes, your life by looking at the avoidable ways you might die.
We will not cover long term things like diseases because we want to prevent your
death next week! Your life consists of millions of micro decisions and some
of you are on a path that will end soon. Can we guide you down a different path?
Humans are incredibly bad at judging the real risks of life. Bad things happen to people
all the time because there are so many of us. And since the news focuses so much on freak accidents,
we have a completely distorted picture of what actually poses a danger to us. For example,
the chance any one of you are going to die in a terror attack is below 0.0002%.
There are super risky activities that are clearly insanely dangerous, like wingsuit flying. If all
3 million of you were to practise this sport, about 285 of you would die just next week. Then
there are things that are pretty dangerous. If all of you rode a motorcycle, 35 of you would
not survive next week. If you don’t want this kind of risk in your life, well, don’t do these things.
It turns out, what's most likely to kill you next week are things that feel safe. That you do all
the time and are routine, things you may even be really good at. This is what we'll prevent.
By far the most dangerous thing you are currently doing is:
Driving. 8 of you will die in a car crash just next week. 416 of you over the next
year. Mostly because most of you are not aware what driving really is:
You are zooming through the world in a metal torpedo at the speed of a cheetah or faster.
In an average car that weighs 1.5 tons at roughly 60 km/h or 40 mph, you have the
mechanical energy of a piano dropped from the top of the statue of liberty. If you crash,
this energy is released into your car and more importantly, your body.
30% of deadly car accidents are caused by speeding, mostly because you overestimate
yourself. But that will kill two of you next week. It's very straightforward – if you go fast,
you have less time to react and only notice the danger when it's too late. A lot of you
watching tend to go over the speed limit regularly – which saves very little time.
If your destination is 20 minutes away at 100 km/h or 60 mph, driving 15 km/h or 10
mph faster will save less than 3 minutes. But your probability of a deadly crash increases by 60%.
So two of you may survive next week if you just tone down your speeding. This
alone would eliminate the most dangerous activity in your life. Isn’t this wild?
Close second is drinking alcohol and driving, causing 25% of deadly crashes. In the next week,
this will also kill two of you. You don’t even need to feel drunk, you just have to have consumed
enough to slow your reaction time. Even if you still feel completely in control, chances are high
that you are not. Aside from being extremely illegal, it's one of the most reckless and
dangerous things too many people do regularly. And it's easy to avoid: Just don’t do it, ever. Taking
a cab after that work event next week, even if you only had two drinks, might save your life.
Just because you were distracted while driving, 1 of you will die
next week. Maybe because you were eating, or fumbling with the radio – But let’s be real:
probably because you were looking at your phone. If you drive at 60 km/h or 40 mph
and check your phone for just a moment … you have now crossed an entire football
field. Completely blind. Stop doing this and you might survive next week.
Lastly we want to have an especially frank word with the 3 of you that will die because
you did not wear a seatbelt. What an incredibly stupid way to die young.
Way more of you will get into a car crash and be injured, for all the same reasons. And of course,
often the victims of crashes are not to blame at all and many of you watching right now will end
up hurting someone else. But you now know how to reduce the chances of this happening massively.
Let’s move to other deadly things that you can easily avoid.
26 of you will die by falling, or more precisely by hitting the ground,
in the next year. Which means one of you will die every two weeks. You would think
the danger of height was not as big of a deal, but it is – going up ladders,
working on scaffolding or on a roof and going hiking in nature is normal.
But falling from a height of just two meters has about the same mechanical
energy as a bowling ball dropped from a 7 story building. You probably would
not want to be hit by it – And it only gets worse the higher you go.
For a fall from five meters, the height of a large ladder, the equivalent would be the
energy of a bowling ball dropped from a 19 story building. But even just falling over
can easily be fatal, because your head is all the way at the top of your body.
Another surprisingly dangerous thing is: water.
1 of you will drown next week. Being in and around
water is fun and doesn’t seem to be a big deal - mainly for three reasons:
You'll underestimate how dangerous a body of water is and be taken by strong currents or rip tides.
You'll overestimate your swimming abilities – you are most likely a much worse swimmer thank
you think. Or, also sadly common, you'll go into the water drunk, especially dangerous because you
are more reckless and even more likely to be overwhelmed by a cold shock or hypothermia.
Harmless situations around water turn deadly so quickly that in the US drowning is the second
most common cause of death by accident for kids – after, you may have guessed it, car crashes.
So if you are going for a swim next week, keep this in mind. Make sure that the water is safe,
assume you are at best a mediocre swimmer, and you will not die. Also for the love of god,
be careful on cruise ships – if you go overboard you have a 60% chance of dying.
Let's move on to the thing that will kill the most people watching
this video. This one is extremely sad and very delicate because sensationalist
public discussion can make it worse: It's harming yourself.
Statistically, about 10 of you could die this way next week. There is something
that you might not be aware of, that might save your life. The majority
of these deaths happen in crisis situations – usually triggered by traumatic events and
extraordinary circumstances that overwhelm people and undermine their coping strategies..
Studies show that suicide rarely occurs out of the blue. There are warning signs and often,
suicidal thoughts and feelings can be mastered by getting professional help,
for example from a crisis intervention center. Most people who survive an
attempt don’t try again and end up being very glad that they did survive. It was
just way too much for them and they felt desperate and as if there was no way out.
It would be so, so nice if someone watching this who is in a bad spot decides to get
help. You matter, you really do, and the world is better with you in it. Please
stay with us. If you currently feel overwhelmed by life, seeking help is
not weakness. It's strength. We’ve put some resources for you in the video description.
This also means another thing – if you have someone in your life going through a crisis,
withdrawing, expressing hopelessness or talking about this topic, even jokingly,
take it seriously. Show them that they are loved and important. You personally could save a life,
maybe next week already. You might never know, but worst case, you've been a true friend.
Now for the final thing, and to be honest, this will not save your life next week. But maybe
this year. Cancer is sadly a real risk even for your age group and will kill 5 of you next week.
The most common being thyroid, breast and testicular cancer. The author of this video
had cancer at the age of 32. If he had been aware of this risk and went to regular check ups, this
could have been entirely avoided. So this is also a personal heartfelt recommendation. We collected
a few resources about screenings and self check ups in our sources for you, check them out.
At least one type of cancer is almost entirely avoidable: Melanoma, or skin cancer.
You might be surprised how deadly this is, but as a great philosopher said, the sun is a deadly
lazer. Burning your skin with the energy released from trillions of tons of plasma. The solution
couldn't be simpler: use sunscreen. It's been a while or you have been in the water? Cool, apply
it again. About 9 of you will die of melanoma in the next year, so sunscreen might save your life.
Ok, let's wrap up. Just by being more aware and modifying your behavior a little bit, you,
personally, could survive next week. Dozens of all of you watching right now. Hundreds of you
this year.. Hopefully you will be able to tell us stories in the next few years. Of
situations that almost turned really bad – but didn't because you behaved differently.
And if you have people in your life that do or don’t do the things we talked about today,
please send them this video. It might save their lives too. Life is just the
best thing and we hope to celebrate it together for as long as possible.
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