Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Our Illusion of Control

But Natural Causes goes deeper -- into the fundamental unreliability of our bodies & even our "mind-bodies," to use the fashionable term. Starting with the mysterious & seldom-acknowledged tendency of our own immune cells to promote deadly cancers, Ehrenreich looks into the cellular basis of aging, & shows how little control we actually have over it. We tend to believe we have agency over our bodies, our minds, & even over the manner of our deaths. But the latest science shows that the microscopic subunits of our bodies make their own "decisions," & not always in our favor.

We may buy expensive anti-aging products or cosmetic surgery, get preventive screenings & eat more kale, or throw ourselves into meditation & spirituality. But all these things offer only the illusion of control. How to live well, even joyously, while accepting our mortality -- that is the vitally important philosophical challenge of this book.

Drawing on varied sources, from personal experience & sociological trends to pop culture & current scientific literature, Natural Causes examines the ways in which we obsess over death, our bodies, & our health. Both funny & caustic, Ehrenreich then tackles the seemingly unsolvable problem of how we might better prepare ourselves for the end -- while still reveling in the lives that remain to us.