The Secret to a Long Life: Be Awarded the Nobel Prize, Get Elected to the Hall of Fame, Win an Oscar...

What's the secret to a longer life? Be Awarded the Nobel Prize, get elected to the Hall of Fame, win an Oscar. Easy, right? Perhaps not, but research suggests that it's true. Hall of Fame inductees, Oscar winners, and Nobel laureates tend to outlive their peers. Why? That is the subject of the latest Freakonomics podcast, "How to Live Longer." Articles discussed in this brief podcast are:

• “Mortality and the Baseball Hall of Fame: An Investigation Into the Role of Status in Life Expectancy,” by David J. Becker, Kenneth Y. Chay, and Shailender Swaminathan.
• “Survival in Academy Award-Winning Actors and Actresses,” by Donald Redelmeier and Sheldon Singh. Also, for a challenge to the Redelmeier-Singh paper, see: “Do Oscar Winners Live Longer than Less Successful Peers? A Reanalysis of the Evidence,” by Marie-Pierre Sylvestre, Ella Huszti, and James A. Hanley.
• “Mortality and Immortality: The Nobel Prize as an Experiment Into the Effect of Status Upon Longevity,” by Andrew J. Oswald and Matthew D. Rablen
• “Old-Age Longevity and Mortality-Contingent Claims,” by Tomas J. Philipson and Gary S. Becker

The podcast is only six minutes long and well worth your time.