Professor Tara Smith discusses Ayn Rand's philosophy on living egoism authentically and challenging societal norms. Topics include aligning desires with rational self-interest, dissecting human moral psychology, and exploring selfishness in a morally upright way. The episode offers fresh perspectives on pursuing personal fulfillment and debunking misconceptions about egoism.

Tara Smith, an epidemiologist, discusses the worrying trend of COVID-19 impact in rural areas and the cultural divide in response to the virus. Martha Lincoln highlights the risk of coronavirus strategies being caught in US culture wars. Chris Ingram emphasizes the need for a balanced response to COVID-19 amidst media sensationalism and loss of perspective.

This is a special episode of Mindscape, thrown together quickly. Many thanks to Tara Smith for joining me on short notice. Tara is an epidemiologist, and a great person to talk to about the novel coronavirus (and its associated disease, COVID-19) pandemic currently threatening the world. We talk about what viruses are, how they spread, and a lot of the science behind virology and pandemics. We also take a practical turn, talking about what measures (washing hands, social distancing, self-isolation) are useful at combating the spread of the virus, and which (wearing masks) are probably not. Then we look to the future, to ask what the endgame here is; Tara suggests that the kind of drastic measure we are currently putting up with might last a long time indeed.Tara Smith received her Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Toledo. She is currently Professor of Epidemiology at the Kent State University College of Public Health. She has researched and written extensively about diseases such as ebola and MRSA. She is an active science communicator, and writes regular columns for SELF magazine.Web siteKent State web pageGoogle Scholar publicationsWikipediaAmazon author pageTwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.