COVIDCalls

Today I welcome historian of science, technology, and inequality Amy Slaton. Amy E. Slaton is a professor of history at Drexel University in Philadelphia.  She holds a PhD  in the History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the history of technical expertise and labor, seen through the lens of historical ideas of human difference—asking, that is, h...

Welcome to the 423nd episode of COVID-Calls, a daily discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic with a diverse collection of disaster experts. My name is Jacob Steere-Williams, I am a historian of public health at the College of Charleston, in South Carolina, and I’m thrilled to be hosting the program this week. Dr. Susan Jones is the Distinguished McKnight University Pressor in Ecology, Evolution, and B...

Today I welcome political scientist Don Kettl back to COVIDCalls. My guest is Donald F. Kettl.  He is the Sid Richardson Professor at the LBJ School at UT Austin.  He previously served as dean in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Volcker Alliance, the Brookings Institution and the Partnership for Public Service. Kettl has autho...

Today I welcome Pamela Addison back to COVIDCalls to talk about her life AND advocacy since her husband died of COVID in 2020. Pamela Addison is the widow of a brave healthcare worker who lost his life to Covid at the start of this pandemic when her children were just 5 months and 2 years old.  Since her late husband’s death she has become a covid loss advocate focusing on the young children who h...

Welcome to the 422nd episode of COVID-Calls, a daily discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic with a diverse collection of disaster experts. My name is Jacob Steere-Williams, I am a historian of public health at the College of Charleston, in Charleston, South Carolina. This week I will be the guest host of COVID-Calls while the program’s founder, Scott Knowles, takes a much-needed recharge. I’m thrille...

Today I welcome medical anthropologist Danya Glabau, author of the forthcoming book Food Allergy Advocacy: Parenting and the Politics of Care back to COVIDCalls. Danya Glabau is an STS scholar and medical anthropologist, and Industry Assistant Professor and Director of the Science and Technology Studies program in the department of Technology, Culture, and Society at NYU Tandon School of Engineeri...

Today I welcome historian and psychotherapist Chuck Strozier back to COVIDCalls. Charles B. Strozier is Professor Emeritus of History, John Jay College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York; and a practicing psychoanalyst.  He has twice been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize (2001 and 2011) and was a finalist for the Lincoln Prize (2017).  He is the author of scores of articles on hist...

Today I welcome poet Kathleen Ossip, author of the recent book July, an NPR best book of 2021. Kathleen Ossip’s most recent book of poems, July, was one of NPR’s Best Books of 2021. She is also the author of The Do-Over, which was a New York Times Editors' Choice; The Cold War, which was one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2011; The Search Engine, selected by Derek Walcott for the American Po...

Today I welcome traffic collision experts Michal Grivna and Yasin Jemal Yasin to talk about new research on collisions and the pandemic. Prof. Michal Grivna is a leading expert in injury control and safety promotion. Prof. Grivna´s research included topics related to childhood and adolescent injuries, school safety, traffic safety, baby walker injuries, child vehicle occupant protection, playgroun...

Today is Feb. 17, 2022. I welcome Kristin Briney, author of Crafting a COVID Visualization: How I Processed Pandemic Anxiety and Grief with Yarn.

It is Feb. 17, 2022. Today I welcome NYTimes staff editor Spencer Bokat-Lindell to discuss the surging murder rate in the United States amid the pandemic. Spencer Bokat-Lindell is an editor and writer based in Brooklyn. He is currently a staff editor for The New York Times, where he writes Debatable, a newsletter that surveys the spectrum of opinion on some of the week's most pressing disagreement...

Today I welcome Ashton Verdery back to COVIDCalls to talk about COVID bereavement and its long term impacts on children. Ashton M. Verdery, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor of Sociology, Demography, and Computational and Data Science at the Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on how changes in social and family networks influence health.

Today I welcome Dr. Peter Chin-Hong back to COVIDCalls. 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. He directs the immunocompromised host infectious diseases program at UCSF. His research focuses o...

Today I welcome Alessandra Jerolleman author of Disaster Recovery through the Lens of Justice. Alessandra Jerolleman is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Doctoral Program in Emergency Management at Jacksonville State University’in Alabama.  She is a community resilience specialist and applied researcher at the Lowlander Center, as well as a co-founder of Hazard Resilience, a United St...

Today I welcome social epidemiologist Sharrelle Barber back to COVIDCalls! Dr. Sharrelle Barber is a social epidemiologist and scholar-activist in the Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University.  Her research focuses on the intersection of "place, race, and health" and examines the role of structural racism in shaping health and racial/ethnic health inequities among Blacks in the United S...

Today I welcome Lucy Easthope, Professor in Practice of Risk and Hazard at the University of Durham UK and author of the forthcoming book: When The Dust Settles: Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope from an Expert in Disaster. Professor Lucy Easthope is a leading authority on recovering from disaster. For over two decades she has challenged others to think differently about what comes next, after tragi...

Today I welcome Elizabeth Outka, author of Viral Modernism: The Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature. Elizabeth Outka is Professor of English at the University of Richmond. Her latest book, Viral Modernism: The Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature (Columbia University Press 2020), investigates how one of the deadliest plagues in history—the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic—silently reshape...

Today I welcome Marxist feminist scholar Sue Ferguson, author of the essay Life-Making or Death-Making. Susan Ferguson is Associate Professor Emerita at Wilfrid Laurier in Canada. Prior to joining the academy, she worked as a journalist for Maclean's, Canada's national news magazine. Ferguson is a Marxist-Feminist scholar and activist, who has been reading, writing and thinking about social reprod...

Today I welcome economist Jason Abaluck to discuss his research on mask wearing and COVID-19. Jason Abaluck is a professor of economics in the Yale University school of management. His work lies at the intersection of public finance, behavioral economics, health economics and industrial organization. His research focuses on the detection of mistakes and the design of institutions when consumers or...

Today I welcome public health and science journalist Tara Haelle back to COVIDCalls. Tara Haelle is a freelance science journalist and photojournalist who serves as the AHCJ Core Topic Leader for Medical Studies. She particularly specializes in reporting on vaccines, pediatrics, maternal health, obesity, nutrition, mental health and medical research in general, and she regularly speaks on vaccine...

Today I welcome Monica Green, Eleanor Murray, Cecilia Tomori to discuss pandemic and endemic disease—and where COVID is headed in that discussion. And Jacob Steere-Williams is joins me as guest host today!  Monica H. Green is a historian of medicine, currently serving as Suppes Visiting Professor of the History of Science at Stanford University. She specializes in the premodern period and global i...

Today I welcome anthropologist Timothy Gitzen, co-author of the article “Pandemic Surveillance and Homophobia in South Korea.” Timothy Gitzen is a sociocultural anthropologist and postdoctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at The University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on the intersections of security, surveillance, queer politics, and science and technology. His work ha...

Today I welcome Dr. Chavi Eve Karkowsky back to COVIDCalls —she is the author of High Risk: Stories of Pregnancy, Birth, and the Unexpected (2020). Dr. Chavi Eve Karkowsky attended 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 program at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusett...

Today I speak with social epidemiologist Justin Feldman. Justin Feldman is a social epidemiologist and a Health and Human Rights Fellow at the Harvard FXB Center for Health & Human Rights. His research looks how racism and economic inequality influence population health. This work has addressed multiple domains including police violence, residential segregation, and the toll of the COVID-19 pandem...

Today is a discussion of decolonizing global health and the history of medicine with historian Helen Tilley. Helen Tilley is a professor of History at Northwestern University.  Her book,  Africa as a Living Laboratory: Empire, Development, and the Problem of Scientific Knowledge  (Chicago, 2011) explores the dynamic interplay between scientific research and imperialism in British Africa between 18...