144. Rupa Marya and Raj Patel with Brady Walkinshaw Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice

09/28/21 • 61 min

Why do Black people have a higher death rate than white people from COVID-19? Why do the working class have higher instances of respiratory diseases? If someone is saddled with debt, what does that do to their bodies?

Inflamed illuminates the hidden relationships between our biological systems and the injustices of our political, social, and economic systems. Dr. Marya and Patel took us on a tour through the human body – our digestive, endocrine, circulatory, respiratory, reproductive, immune, and nervous systems. From there, they discussed the ways in which those systems break down due to the society we live in. Systemic racism affects the body, they argue. Doctors themselves, by the way, are not immune. For example, Black newborn babies die at more than twice the rate as white newborns. Research suggests this mortality rate is halved when Black infants are cared for by Black physicians.

There is a cure to all of this. They suggested that it’s the deep medicine of decolonization. Decolonizing heals what has been divided and reestablishes relationships, to the Earth and to each other. We can heal not only our bodies, they offer, but the world.

Dr. Rupa Marya is an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Franciscio, where she practices and teaches internal medicine. She is cofounder of the Do No Harm Coalition, a collective of health workers committed to addressing disease through structural change.

Raj Patel is a research professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, a professor in the university’s department of nutrition, and a research associate at Rhodes University, South Africa.

Brady Piñero Walkinshaw is the CEO of Grist.org, the leading national environmental media nonprofit dedicated to climate, justice, and solutions.

Buy the Book: Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice (Hardcover) from Elliott Bay Books

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and GRIST.

Brady Piñero Walkinshaw is the CEO of Grist.org, the leading national environmental media nonprofit dedicated to climate, justice, and solutions.

Buy the Book: Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice (Hardcover) from Elliott Bay Books

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and GRIST.

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143. Giulio Boccaletti: Water—A Biography

“If there is magic on this planet,” anthropologist Loren Eiseley said, “it is contained in water.” Humans have been trying to contain that magic for millennia. Giulio Boccaletti knows this more than most anyone. With Water: A Biography, Boccaletti showcased the revealing history of how the distribution of water has shaped human civilization.

We all need water to survive. It is essential to every plant and animal on this earth. Boccaletti offered up a wide-ranging environmental and social history, beginning from the earliest civilizations of sedentary farmers on the banks of the Nile, the Tigris, and Euphrates Rivers. Those early civilizations’ farming techniques forever changed the world. Their irrigation systems led to multiple cropping which, in turn, led to a population explosion and labor specialization.

The development of humankind flows with the development of water infrastructure. Irrigation’s early structure informed social structure. The invention of the calendar, for example, sprung from agricultural necessity. In ancient Greece, a community’s water well laid the groundwork for democracy. During the Roman Empire, water security led to systems of taxation. The control of water continues today, and is becoming increasingly important, as societies far and wide are dealing with water, and the lack thereof, with increasing regularity because of human-induced climate change. There’s no better time to understand our relationship to the most elemental substance on earth than now.

Giulio Boccaletti is a physicist and climate scientist, holding a doctorate from Princeton University, where he was a NASA Earth Systems Science Fellow. He is an honorary research associate at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford.

Buy the Book: Water: A Biography (Hardcover) from Elliott Bay Books

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation online click here.

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145. Dr. Meg Lowman: Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us

There aren’t many in this world who can be called a real-life Lorax. In fact, there’s just one: Dr. Meg Lowman. Lowman was nicknamed that by National Geographic for her enthusiasm and knowledge of all things trees. A true tree hugger, Lowman, executive director of the TREE Foundation, has been up in the branches and crowns for decades, learning and sharing that enthusiasm and knowledge about the arboreal world all around and above us.

With her new book, Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us, Lowman shares her incredible story. From the first seeds of wanting to explore the Australian rainforests in her graduate school days, to measuring tree growth in the northeastern United States; from climbing up the enormous redwoods on the Pacific, to saving Ethiopia’s last forests with the help of local priests, Lowman’s adventures become our own. Part memoir, part fieldwork account, The Arbornaut highlights her rise, one of only a few women in the scientific world of dendrology (the study of trees) and offers ways in which everyone can help conserve trees and make a positive impact against climate change. The Lorax would be proud.

Dr. Meg Lowman is an American biologist, educator, ecologist, writer, editor, and public speaker. She is the executive director of the TREE Foundation and a professor at the National University of Singapore, Arizona State University, and Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Buy the Book: The Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us (Hardcover) Third Place Books

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation online click here.