What the Caribbean reveals—more clearly than almost anywhere else—is the long shadow cast by systems never designed for longevity. Health infrastructures across the region were not built to protect life across a full human lifespan. They were built to manage labor: to keep bodies functional, productive, and replaceable. When those same systems are tasked with sustaining people through decades of chronic disease, aging, and environmental stress, they strain—and then fail. This is why illness in the Caribbean so often feels normalized rather than prevented. Why dialysis units expand while nutr...

Health does not begin in a hospital room, and it does not end with a prescription. The Global Black Lifespan Journey invites readers into a deeper, more honest conversation about what truly shapes Black health across a lifetime. In Series 3, we move beyond the narrow focus on medical care to examine the systems that quietly determine who thrives and who is left vulnerable—housing, education, income, transportation, policy, and power. This series introduces a new perspective on wellness, one that recognizes health as something built long before a doctor is ever seen. By tracing Black life from...