COVIDCalls

Today is a discussion of COVID-19 in the “Cancer Alley” region of southern Louisiana with Wesley James and Kimberly Terrell. Wesley James currently serves as Associate Professor of Sociology and Executive Director of the Center for Community Research and Evaluation (CCRE) at the University of Memphis. He received his Ph. D. from Mississippi State University in 2009. Dr. James' primary research int...

Today is my second #COVIDCalls discussion with Dr. Peter Chin-Hong. Peter Chin-Hong is Associate Dean for Regional Campuses of the UCSF school of medicine. He is a medical educator who specializes in treating infectious diseases, particularly infections that develop in patients who have suppressed immune systems, such as solid organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients and HIV+ organ...

Today is a discussion with Hannah Zeavin, author of the new book The Distance Cure Hannah Zeavin   is a Lecturer in the Departments of English and History at UC Berkeley, and a faculty affiliate of the University of California at Berkeley Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society.  Her research focuses on the coordinated histories of technology and medicine. Zeavin is the author of   T...

Welcome to a special episode in recognition of ONE YEAR of the FACES of COVID project with Alex J. Goldstein. Alex was my guest on November 12, 2021 and on that day there were 242,310 deaths—today 552,073. Alex Goldstein created FacesOfCOVID in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as a means of lifting up the stories behind the statistics of those lost to COVID and affirming their dignity, and...

Today is a discussion with Jason Kauffmann & Jean Kilheffer Hess, creators of the Anabaptist History Today project—the project captures Anabaptist experiences (including Mennonite and Amish communities) throughout the pandemic. Jason Kauffman is the Director of Archives and Records Management for Mennonite Church USA in Elkhart, Indiana. Along with managing and providing access to the recorded his...

Today is a discussion of emergency management in the COVOD-19 pandemic with Jeff Schlegelmilch and Samantha Montano. Samantha Montano is an assistant professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Her forthcoming book DISASTEROLOGY: Dispatches from The Front Lines of The Climate Crisis comes out this August. She is also author of recent essay: Not All Disasters Are Disasters:...

Today is a discussion of Puerto Rico in the pandemic with neuroscientist and science policy advisor Daniel Colon-Ramos. Daniel Alfonso Colón-Ramos is the McConnell Duberg Professor of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at Yale University School of Medicine , where his lab studies the cell biology of the synapse during development and learning. Daniel was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He completed his...

You can hear COVIDCalls anytime recorded as podcasts on Spotify, iTunes, Podbean or anywhere you get podcasts. Congresswoman Nikema Williams represents Georgia’s 5th congressional district in the US House of Representatives. The Fifth Congressional District is a historic district, a seat formerly held by Congresswoman Williams’ friend and mentor, civil rights icon the late Congressman John Lewis....

Today is a discussion of Historically Black Colleges/Universities and Public Health in Nashville with Andrea Ringer, Learotha Williams, and A. Hannibal Leach. Dr. A. Hannibal Leach is the Interim Assistant Dean of the School of Humanities and Behavioral Social Sciences of Fisk University. He is also an Assistant Professor of Political Science and director of the African American Studies program. ...

Today is a discussion of THE COVID CRISIS IN ELDER CARE with Lori Smetanka and Jasmine Travers. Lori Smetanka is the Executive Director of the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, the leading national nonprofit advocacy organization representing consumers receiving long-term care and services in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home and community based settings. Lori h...

Today is a discussion with writer Lyz Lenz author of the new book Belabored: A Vindication of the Rights of Pregnant Women. Lyz Lenz: Lyz’s writing has appeared in the Huffington Post, The Washington Post, the Columbia Journalism Review, The New York Times, Pacific Standard, and others. Her book   God Land   was published in 2019, through Indiana University Press. Her second book Belabored , was p...

Today is a discussion of astrobiology, big science, and the pandemic with astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz Lucianne Walkowicz is an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and the co-founder of the JustSpace Alliance . Walkowicz studies the ethics of Mars exploration, stellar magnetic activity, how stars influence a planet’s suitability as a host for alien life, and how to use advanced computi...

How do we measure the impact of COVID beyond death counts? Today I talk about the grief, loss, and the COVID-19 bereavement multiplier with Ashton Verdery. Dr. Ashton Verdery is an Associate Professor of Sociology, Demography, and Social Data Analytics at the Pennsylvania State University. His research deals with questions about how demographic and family change affect the health and wellbeing of...

Today I talk about the experience of covid in the care of pregnant mothers and their children with physician and writer Chavi Eve Karkowsky. Dr. Chavi Eve Karkowsky completed her undergraduate degree at Yale University, followed by medical school at Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine in New York City. She then finished internship and residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the integrated progr...

Dr. Gigi Kwik Gronvall is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her area of expertise is immunology. Dr. Esther Chernak.  Esther is a professor in the Department of Environmental Health, Drexel University School of Public Health, an...

Today I speak with historians Kyle Riismandel and Mary Rizzo about the impact of COVID on cities and suburbs. Kyle Riismandel is a Senior University Lecturer and the Interim Director of the Law, Technology, and Culture Program in the Federated Department of History at the New Jersey Institute of Technology/Rutgers-Newark. He is a cultural historian of cities, suburbs, media, and technology in rece...

Today I speak with the multi-talented poet and teacher Taylor Mali. Taylor Mali is one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement. He was one of the original poets to appear on the HBO series Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry and was the “Armani-clad villain” of Paul Devlin’s 1997 documentary film SlamNation. His poem “What Teachers Make” has been viewed over 4 mi...

Today I speak with historian and podcast host Chris White about COVID in Appalachia. Chris White is Professor of Latin American History at Marshall University. is a professor of Latin American history. He is the author of The War on Drugs in the Americas Creating a Third World : Mexico, Cuba, and the United States during the Castro Era (New Mexico, 2007), as well as The History of El Salvador (Gre...

Today I speak with Erika Lee and Maddalena Marinari about their project Immigrants in COVID America. Erika Lee is a Regents Professor of History and Asian American Studies and Director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota. Recently elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, she is the Vice President of the Organization of American Historians and author...

Today is a special memorial episode dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the March 11 triple disaster in Japan: the Great East Japan Earthquake, the tsunami that followed, and the disaster of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.  My guests today are Sulfikar Amir, Kohta Juraku, Kyoko Sato, & Ryuma Shineha. Sulfikar Amir is an associate professor of science, technology, and society (STS) and...

Today is a discussion of COVID-19 in Portugal with João Machado, Inês Navalhas  Tiago Saraiva, & Hugo Soares. João Machado has been a research fellow in History of Science and Technology since 2012, and since 2020, a PhD candidate in History, Philosophy and Heritage of Science and Technology at the NOVA School of Science and Technology. His project is concerned with computing in Portugal in the 19...

Today is a discussion of COUNTING THE DEAD, AND ACCOUNTING FOR CARE IN THE PANDEMIC with Jacqueline Wernimont and Robert Soden. Robert Soden is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto working on crisis informatics, human-centered computing (HCC), and science and technology studies (STS). His research uses a range of ethnographic, participatory, and design research methods to evaluate a...

Today is a discussion in partnership w/the Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest of Villanova University.  I will be talking with Tyesha Maddox and Daniel Joslyn about the pandemic and the history of mutual aid. Daniel Joslyn is a PhD candidate in history at New York University, whose work recovers a largely forgotten transnational mystical feminist socialist movement at the turn of the...

Today is a discussion on politics, history, and the pandemic with historian Kevin M. Kruse. Kevin M. Kruse is a Professor of History at Princeton University. He specializes in the political, social, and urban/suburban history of twentieth-century America, with a particular interest in conflicts over race, rights and religion and the making of modern conservatism. Kevin is currently conducting rese...

Today is a discussion in partnership w/the Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest of Villanova University.  I will be talking with Britt Dahlberg and Jessica Martucci about their project: Beyond Better: Experiences of Recovery, Disability, and Politics in Pandemics. Britt Dahlberg completed a Phd in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. Before BeyondBetter, she co-designed and...