The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation is the most important ocean current that almost no one has heard of. If it were to stop, disastrous effects would follow on both sides of the Atlantic. So I was recently in Hazard, which is town in eastern Kentucky in the Appalachian Mountains. It's a place that used to be home to a lot of America's coal industry. But it's also a place where the opiate crisis has been entrenched for a very long time.
An appalling record compared with much of the rich world is not just down to drugs and guns. We ask what changes, both in policy and philosophy, might reduce the death toll. A heat-transporting ocean current in the Atlantic could soon be on the wane—or switch off altogether (10:08). That would have disastrous consequences. And musing on airborne etiquette for business travelers (18:09).
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Runtime: 23 min