7-Footers & the Case for Universal Healthcare 🏀
“Hey, do you play basketball?"
Hello NST-hive!
This week’s episode was inspired by an intriguing basketball stat, which ended up taking us into much unexpected territory. For the sports-averse listeners: I promise there’s a lot in here for you, too. Here’s the stat, first reported in 2011 by Pablo Torre in Sports Illustrated: A 7’ (or taller) American man has a 17% likelihood of being an NBA player.
We wanted to see if this data point holds up in today’s league, and to find out just how rare it is to be seven feet tall. I talked to a bevy of height researchers, a basketball stats expert, and a real-life seven-footer. Below, I’ll link to some related links and research, so keep scrolling!
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Links!
First, a few pieces from our esteemed guests:
Tom Breihan, “On Being a Giant”
Barry Bogin details some of his research on Maya communities: How chronic stress stunts child growth
Björn Quanjer’s dissertation: A Tale Of Tallness. A household perspective on early life determinants of male height within the Netherlands between 1850 and 1950
Report on research by Guillaume Lettre and others on genes and height: New genes for height revealed in global study of 700,000 people
Owen Phillips’ basketball data newsletter, The F5:
And some other reports referenced in the episode:
National Center for Height Statistics: Anthropometric Reference Data for Children and Adults: United States, 2015–2018
Obituary for nutritionist Elsie Widdowson, who conducted the research on the German orphanages.
Pablo Torre in Sports Illustrated: Larger Than Real Life
Do you know any seven-footers? What’s your ideal height? And do you now support universal healthcare? Let us know in the comments below.
Sadly relevant, given the weekend’s shootings in Minnesota: Check out our interview with political violence expert Robert Pape from December:
Why are assassinations on the rise?
The past decade has seen a resurgence of political violence: January 6, multiple attempts on Trump’s life, and of course the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO. We spoke with University of Chicago Professor Robert A. Pape, who has studied political violence for decades, to understand this disturbing trend, the public’s reaction to it, and why he thinks it's here to stay.
As always, please leave us a 🌟5-star🌟 review wherever you get your podcasts, and email us at mannynoahdevan@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at 860-325-0286 if you have a question you’d like us to answer. We’re also on Instagram, X fka Twitter, and TikTok!