David Braudt, a recent graduate student affiliated with the Carolina Population Center, defended his dissertation in July, and he will start as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Before leaving Chapel Hill, though, he also published research about the social influences of early life mortality, or dying between the ages of 1 and 24.

Braudt’s research was the first such investigation in 22 years. It updates that study and offers a multidimensional approach to family resources. He examined four aspects of family resources, the mother’s education, the father’s education, household income and whether or not each parent was present in the household.

On this week’s episode, Braudt explains the personal connection that drove him to study early life mortality and how he hopes this research will save the lives of children across the country.