COVIDCalls

Today I discuss the compound disaster of wildland fire and smoke and COVID-19 with Luke Montrose.   Dr. Luke Montrose is an environmental toxicologist with research interests in public health, epigenetics, and chronic illness, particularly as it relates to vulnerable and understudied populations. As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Health at Boise State Unive...

Today I discuss data visualization, COVID-19, and risk communication with Alex Wellerstein. Alex Wellerstein is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Science and Technology Studies Program at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He has a PhD in the History of Science, and his research interests are primarily in the history of nuclear technology. His book, Restricted Data: The History of Nucle...

Today I discuss the pandemic with two physicians based in Texas.   Dr. Bonnie Rawot is an Infectious Disease specialist practicing in Dallas, TX since 1996.  She is the Medical Director, Infection Prevention and Control for Medical City Dallas Hospital.  She was the Medical coordinator for our hospital's COVID 19 response.  Medical School: State University of New York at Buffalo 1986-1990.  Reside...

Today I discuss the wildfires in OR and CA with Erica Kuligowski, Jim Whittington, and Erica Fischer. Erica Fischer, PhD, PE is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University. Dr. Fischer’s research interests revolve around innovative approaches to improve the resilience and robustness of structural systems affected by natural and man-made hazards. She has...

Today, on September 11, I talk with fire science professor and disaster investigation expert Glenn Corbett. Glenn Corbett is an Associate Professor of Fire Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice where he was the former chair of the Department Of Protection Management.   He is a technical editor of Fire Engineering magazine and is a former Assistant Chief of the Waldwick, New Jersey Fire D...

Can we actually learn anything from disasters? Today, I talk about the ways disaster researchers study the past and think about the present with Andy Horowitz and Jacob Remes. Jacob Remes is a clinical associate professor of history at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where he directs the nascent Initiative for Critical Disaster Studies. Author of Disaster Citizenship...

Today I talk about the issues surrounding a COVID-19 vaccine with Emily Brunson and Monica Schoch-Spana. Emily Brunson is an applied anthropologist specializing in medical anthropology. She received an MPH in epidemiology and a PhD in anthropology from the University of Washington in Seattle. Her primary research focus is health care access and decision-making, and particularly how policies, socia...

Today we will talk with Terrill Haigler, Philadelphia sanitation worker and creator of the Instagram account yafavtrashman. Terrill Haigler aka yafavtrashman on instagram, from North Philadelphia—and started on December 30, 2019.  Before that he was a personal trainer. Creative and Performing Arts HS in Philadelphia. Attended in Baltimore at Coppin State.    welcome to COVIDCalls!   https://www.in...

Today we will talk about the challenges of teaching and learning about COVID-19 in higher education with Audrey Truschke (trushkey), Theresa MacPhail, and Maddy Larkin. Maddy Larkin is a junior Custom Design Major student at Drexel University. For her major, she combines studies of biology, psychology, criminology, and public health to study Humanistic Health. She is also a theatre minor and is in...

Today we will talk about COVID-19 in the air, the water, and on surfaces with environmental engineer Chuck Haas. Charles N. Haas is the L.D. Betz Professor of Environmental Engineering and head of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, at Drexel University, where he has been since 1991. He also has courtesy appointments in the Department of Emergency Medicine of the...

Today we will talk about authoritarianism in the time of COVID-19 with historians Richard Bodek and Richard E. Frankel. Richard Bodek is professor of History at the College of Charleston.  His research and teaching interests roam widely from science fiction to detective fiction to popular culture to radical politics to violence. He has taught courses in all of these areas. He has also written abou...

(This is the 117th episode, the host misspoke in the intro and said 116) Today we will talk about sports, the pandemic, and racial justice with Billy Witz, reporter for the NYTimes. Billy Witz is a sports reporter for The New York Times. He has spent the last year covering college sports, writing about everything from how the University of Alabama uses phone-tracking technology to prevent students...

Today I have a co-host: Shivani Patel! (INTRODUCE YOURSELF BRIEFLY) Today we will talk about the upcoming K-12th grade schoolyear, in the midst of the pandemic, with Angela Minor, Rebecca Martinson, and Mark Keierleber. Angela Minor began teaching in Baltimore County, Maryland in 1995 and began at Pennsbury High School in 2003. She teaches a variety of grades and levels, including AP Government, U...

Today we will talk about the return to campus with Juliana Kaplan and Sheldon Jacobson. Sheldon H. Jacobson is a Founder Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He has a Ph. D. in Operations Research from Cornell University.  Dr. Jacobson research focuses on data-driven, risk-based, decision-making applied to problems in public health and...

Today we will talk about special education and COVID-19 with Dr. Simon Tan and journalist Joy Diaz. Texas Standard reporter Joy Diaz has amassed a lengthy and highly recognized body of work in public media reporting. Prior to joining Texas Standard, Joy was a reporter with Austin NPR station KUT on and off since 2005. There, she covered city news and politics, education, healthcare and immigration...

Today we discuss how Fires and Hurricanes intersect with the pandemic.

Today we start a series of COVIDCalls on various aspects of education at this time—today a discussion of the upcoming school year from the perspective of high school and college students with Madeline Ladd, Afrah Howlader, and Shivani Patel. Madeline Ladd is a rising high school senior at Villa Maria Academy in Malvern, PA. She has been a competitive swimmer for most of her life and is supposed to...

Today, a discussion of the Democratic national Convention and COVID-19 with Adderson Francois and Samantha Montano. Professor Aderson Francois is the director of the Civil Rights Voting Rights Institute at Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to joining the Georgetown faculty, Professor Francois directed the Civil Rights Clinic at Howard University School of Law, where he also taught Constituti...

Today, a discussion with historian John Barry! John M. Barry is a prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author whose books have won multiple awards. The National Academies of Sciences named his 2004 book The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history, a study of the 1918 pandemic, the year's outstanding book on science or medicine. His earlier book Rising Tide: The Gre...

Today, a discussion of stresses on the family in COVID-19 with Dana Greene, Gonzalo Bacigalupe, and Christine Gibb. Gonzalo Bacigalupe is a Professor of Counseling Psychology  at the  University of Massachusetts Boston  and leads the Citizen Education and Governance Team  at the Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management ( CIGIDEN ), in Santiago, Chile.  He is also an artist, and his...

Today, a public health update with Esther Chernak, and a discussion of COVID-19 in Italy with Giuseppe Forino. Dr. Esther Chernak.  Esther is a professor in the Department of Environmental Health, Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health, and has a position in the Drexel University College of Medicine. She is the director of the Center for Public Health Readiness and Communication at Dre...

Today, a discussion of Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and COVID-19 with Vivian Shaw and Susanna Park. Vivian Shaw (Lead Researcher, Co-Principal Investigator) is a researcher, and educator, from New York. She earned her PhD in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin and is currently a College Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Harvard University. She teaches on Asian American c...

Today, a discussion of ethics, epidemiology, and COVID-19 with Daniel Goldberg and Ashley Holub. Daniel S. Goldberg is trained as an attorney, a historian of medicine, and a public health ethicist.  His current research agenda in law, policy, and bioethics focuses on: the social determinants of health, public health policy and chronic illness, health inequities, and stigma. In addition, he maintai...