The COVID-19 pandemic won't be our last&md ash\;because what makes us vulnerable to pandemics also makes us human. Th at is the uncomfortable but all-too-timely message of The Human Disease: H ow We Create Pandemics\, From Our Bodies to Our Beliefs\, which travels th rough history and around the globe to examine how and why pandemics are an inescapable threat of our own making. Drawing on dozens of disciplines&md ash\;from medicine\, epidemiology\, and microbiology to anthropology\, soc iology\, ecology\, and neuroscience&mdash\;as well as a unique expertise i n public education about emerging infectious diseases\, biological anthrop ologist Sabrina Sholts identifies the human traits and tendencies that dou ble as pandemic liabilities\, from the anatomy that defines us to the misp erceptions that divide us.
\nWeaving together a wealth of personal e xperiences\, scientific findings\, and historical stories\, Sholts brings dramatic and much-needed clarity to one of the most profound challenges we face as a species. Though the COVID-19 pandemic looms large in Sholts's a ccount\, it is\, in fact\, just one of the many infectious disease events explored in The Human Disease. With its expansive\, evolutionary perspecti ve\, the book explains how humanity will continue to face new pandemics be cause humans cause them\, by the ways that we are and the things that we d o. By recognizing our risks\, Sholts suggests\, we can take actions to red uce them. When the next pandemic happens\, and how bad it becomes\, are la rgely within our highly capable human hands&mdash\;and will be determined by what we do with our extraordinary human brains. A presentation you don& rsquo\;t want to miss\, register now!
\nAbout the Author: \; Sab rina Sholts is a biological anthropologist and Curator of Biological Anthr opology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). He r research explores intersections of human\, animal\, and environmental he alth in the past and present. She received her PhD in Anthropology at UC S anta Barbara and was a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley in Integrati ve Biology and at Stockholm University in Biophysics and Biochemistry. Sho lts has published widely in academic journals including American Journal o f Biological Anthropology\, Environmental Health Perspectives\, JAMA\, PNA S\, Scientific Reports\, Proceedings of the Royal Society B\, and Nature E cology &\; Evolution\, and written for popular audiences in Scientific American and Smithsonian Magazine. She was named as a World Economic Forum Young Scientist in 2019. In addition\, she was Lead Curator of the exhibi tion Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World at the NMNH (2018-2022) and a scientific advisor for the related exhibition É\;pidé\;mies: Prendre soin du vivant at the musé\;e des Confluences in Lyon\, Fra nce (2024-2025).
\nThis program is sponsored by the Friends of Duncan Library and th e Friends of Beatley Central Lib rary.
\nUpcoming and previously broadcast author talks can be viewed here.
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