COVIDCalls

EP #461 - 3.10.2022 - Disasters and COVID in Latin America w/Mark Healey

Today I welcome historian of Latin America and disaster, Mark Healey.

Mark Healey is an urban, environmental, and political historian of Latin America, and also a fellow disaster scholar. The author of “The Ruins of the New Argentina” (Duke, 2011), he is currently writing a book about the environmental and political history of water in the drylands of Argentina, as well as a project about the transnational political history of housing and development. He has taught at NYU, the University of Mississippi, UC Berkeley and, since 2011, the University of Connecticut, where he is now Head of Department.

EP #460 - 3.9.2022 - The Pandemic Imaginary w/Christos Lynteris

Today I welcome medical anthropologist Christos Lynteris back to COVIDCalls.

Christos Lynteris is a medical anthropologist, and senior lecture at the Univ. of St. Andrews in the UK. His research focuses on the anthropological and historical examination of epidemics, zoonosis, epidemiological epistemology, medical visual culture, colonial medicine, and epidemics as events posing an existential risk to humanity.

Dr Lynteris' new project (2019-2024) The Global War Against the Rat and the Epistemic Emergence of Zoonosis will examine the global history of a foundational but historically neglected process in the development of scientific approaches of zoonosis: the global war against the rat (1898-1948).

Dr Lynteris' recently completed project Visual Representations of the Third Plague Pandemic (2013-2018) collected and analysed photographs and other visual documents of the third plague pandemic (1855-1959).

For updates on Christos Lynteris' Global War Against the Rat and the Epistemic Emergence of Zoonosis and Visual Representations of the Third Plague Pandemic projects: @visualplague

EP #459 - 3.9.2022 - War, Refugees, and the Pandemic w/Deborah Amos

Today I welcome Deborah Amos, NPR middle east correspondent and journalism professor at Princeton University.

Deborah Amos is an award-winning international correspondent for NPR News, which regularly features her groundbreaking reporting on the Middle East and refugees in the United States on Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and All Things Considered. Amos previously reported for ABC’s Nightline and PBS’s Frontline. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she is the author of two books, Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East (Public Affairs, 2010) and Lines in the Sand: Desert Storm and the Remaking of the Arab World (Simon and Schuster, 1992). Amos has won several major journalism honors, including the Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation, George Foster Peabody Award, Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award, and an Emmy. She was part of a team of reporters who won a 2004 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of Iraq. She is presently a fellow of the American Academy in Berlin.

EP #458 - 3.9.2022 - Ukraine and Disaster: Past & Present

Today I welcome historian John Vsetecka to discuss Ukrainian history and the war going on in Ukraine today.

John Vsetecka is a PhD Candidate in the Department of History at Michigan State University where he is writing a dissertation on the 1932-1933 famine (Holodomor) and the 1946-1947 famine in Soviet Ukraine. He is the founder and one of the current editors of H-Ukraine--part of the larger H-Net online platform--that is dedicated to promoting and sharing academic and scholarly content related to the study of Ukraine. During the 2021-2022 academic year, John was on a Fulbright scholarship to Kyiv, Ukraine but was evacuated out of the country in late January due to the threat of war. John is currently in Warsaw, Poland finishing his grant and working with refugees who are crossing into Poland from Ukraine.

EP #457 - 3.8.2022 - Science and the Pandemic: Followup w/Laura Helmuth

Today I welcome Laura Helmuth editor in chief of Scientific American.

Laura Helmuth is the Editor in Chief of Scientific American. She has previously been an editor for The Washington Post, National Geographic, Slate, Smithsonian, and Science’s news section. She serves on the boards of High Country News, Spectrum and SciLine and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s standing committee on the science of science communication. She is a past president of the National Association of Science Writers.

EP #456 - 3.8.2022 - COVID and Mental Health w/Jessi Gold

Today, I welcome Jessi Gold, Director of the Wellness Engagement and Outreach Department and the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. 

Jessi Gold, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor and the Director of Wellness, Engagement, and Outreach in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis. She is a nationally recognized expert on healthcare worker mental health and burnout (particularly during the pandemic), college mental health, using social media and media for mental health advocacy, and the overlap between pop culture and mental health, including celebrity self-disclosure. Dr. Gold is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. and M.S in Anthropology, the Yale School of Medicine, and completed her residency training in Adult Psychiatry at Stanford University where she served as chief resident. Dr. Gold also writes for the popular press and has been featured in, among others, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, TIME, InStyle, and Self. She is a member of the Expert Advisory Council for the ViacomCBS Mental Health Storytelling Initiative and Co-author of the Mental Health Media Guide, as well as the Rare Beauty Mental Health Council. Her website is https://www.drjessigold.com/ and she can be found on twitter and instagram under @drjessigold

EP #455 - 3.8.2022 - Public Health in a Historical Perspective w/Michael Yudell

Today I welcome public health ethicist and historian Michael Yudell.

Michael Yudell is vice dean and professor in the ASU college if health solutions.  He is a public health ethicist and award-winning historian whose work focuses on the history and ethics of genomics, the history of the race concept, and the history and ethics of autism research

Yudell is the author of Race Unmasked: Biology and Race in the 20th Century (Columbia University Press, 2014), winner of the 2016 Arthur J. Viseltear Award from the American Public Health Association. On a lighter note, Yudell performs in the long-running improv comedy show Study Hall.

EP #454 - 3.8.2022 - The Pandemic’s True Death Toll

Today I welcome journalist David Adam to discuss his Nature article “The pandemic’s true death toll: millions more than official counts”

David Adam is a best-selling author and an award-winning journalist, who covers science, environment, technology, medicine and the impact they have on people, culture and society.

EP #453 - 3.7.2022 - Promise House: Heather’s Story w/Krista Rowe

Today I welcome actor and film maker Krista Rowe to talk about her new film Promise House Heather’s Story.

Originally from Arlington, Texas, Krista Rowe is an independent filmmaker, producer, director, and actress. She produced three seasons of the reality road trip cooking show American Food Battle with Helsinki based Mogul Media, for the AWE network and National Geographic Channel. She also produced Amanda and The Players, a hockey reality series for Mogul Media. She works as a commercial, television and film actress in Canada. Her first documentary film, Promise House - Heather’s Story was selected for an award of merit at the Impact Doc Awards and she was named Best Canadian Female Filmmaker at the Toronto International Women's Film Festival.

She holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Texas Christian University and a Master’s Degree in International Education from New York University. She is the founder of 3LG Productions. Krista lives in Toronto with her husband, three daughters, and Peggy the schnoodle dog. 

 

EP #452 - 3.7.2022 - American Pandemic Culture w/James McWilliams

Today I welcome historian James McWilliams to talk about American culture in the pandemic.

James McWilliams, is currently writing a biography of the southern poet Frank Stanford. He's written about a wide range of interests, including the American South, food and agriculture, animal ethics, memory, and the poetics of place. His work has appeared in literary venues ranging from Runner's World to The Paris Review, including The Virginia Quarterly Review, The New Yorker, and Harper's. He lives in Austin, Texas but spends as much time as he can in New Orleans. He has taught history at Texas State University since the last century. His face has appeared in People Magazine.