This blog post and companion radio show explore a new study that suggests that brain health before age 3 may predict a person’s cost to society around age 40. These costs included health expenses, such as hospital stays and drug prescriptions, as well as welfare benefits, insurance claims, and criminal court and prison costs. Center Director Jack Shonkoff is interviewed, stressing that children at high risk are not inevitably doomed and that by changing early experiences, we can change outcomes.