BookThinkers: Life-Changing Books 260. Emily Mendenhall | Unmasked: COVID, Community, and the Case of Okoboji
Join us for BookThinkers LIVE 2025! Happening November 9, 2025!
https://www.bookthinkers.com/book-thinkers-live-2025
In today’s episode, we have the pleasure to interview Emily Mendenhall, author of Unmasked: COVID, Community, and the Case of Okoboji.
Emily is a medical anthropologist, professor at Georgetown University, and award-winning author whose research explores the intersections of health, culture, and politics. Her work has taken her from the hospital wards of Chicago to the villages of South Africa—and ultimately back to her hometown of Okoboji, Iowa during the height of the pandemic.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to approach polarizing topics with curiosity instead of judgment, what the COVID pandemic revealed about collective identity and shame, and why public health isn’t just about protocols—it’s about people, empathy, and community trust.
We hope you enjoy this incredible conversation with Emily Mendenhall.
To Learn More about Emily and buy her book visit:
The Book: https://a.co/d/h3uou4J
Website/Socials: https://www.emilymendenhall.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-mendenhall-268b255
https://www.youtube.com/@mendenhall_em
https://twitter.com/mendenhall_em
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:23 Anthropology & using it to study COVID
5:53 Experiencing the pandemic in different cities
9:09 Understanding the complex layers of events like the 2020 pandemic
12:50 Shame and subconscious survival mechanisms
14:42 Contrast between local culture & different communities
17:02 Social consequences vs Business consequences
22:48 An anthropologist’s view on the effects of social media
25:25 How to deal with opposing perspectives and opinions
35:12 Leadership in schools & the education system
39:02 Emily’s future work
40:09 How your decisions affect people around you in the long‑run
41:10 The effects of virtual learning & education during the pandemic
43:11 Emily’s perspective shifts after publishing the book
47:52 The importance of long‑form content for deep understanding
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