Perspectives on Science

Kathryn Olivarius recounts how epidemics have exacerbated social and economical inequalities. Find this podcast and more in the Consortium's series on COVID-19 at: https://www.chstm.org/video/74

In this episode, we talk with Joseph Martin, author of Solid State Insurrection: How the Science of Substance Made American Physics Matter. Joseph Martin tells the story of how solid state physics challenged and redefined some of the core ideals of American physics, and in the process played an essential role in sustaining the prestige physics enjoyed in Cold War American society. Find this podcast and further resources on the Consortium's website at: https://www.chstm.org/video/88

In this episode, we talk with Cameron Strang, author of Frontiers of Science: Imperialism and Natural Knowledge in the Gulf South Borderlands: 1500-1850. Cameron Strang takes American scientific thought and discoveries away from the learned societies, museums, and teaching halls of the Northeast and puts the production of knowledge about the natural world in the context of competing empires and an expanding republic in the Gulf South. Find this podcast and further resources on the Consortium's website at: https://www.chstm.org/video/87

Natalia Molina discusses the intersection of race and public health during the covid-19 and other pandemics. Find this podcast and more in the Consortium's series on COVID-19 at: https://www.chstm.org/video/74

In this podcast episode, we discuss the history of how biblical notions of race influenced European understandings of Africa with Michael Robinson, author of The Lost White Tribe: Explorers, Scientists, and the Theory that Changed a Continent. Find this podcast and further resources on the Consortium's website at: https://www.chstm.org/video/70

Is the story of American girls’ and women’s access to science and math education a direct path from exclusion to inclusion? What does equity for girls in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) look like, and how do we get there? Pairing a historian and educational researcher, this event takes a journey from the 1800s through the present, including surprising histories, continuing challenges, and current strategies. Find this presentation and further resources on the Consortium's website at: https://www.chstm.org/video/63

Why do we refer to patients as "consumers" in the United States? Is today's opioid crisis the result of medical consumerism run amok--of pills hawked like soap to gullible shoppers? Is picking a doctor really like choosing a new car? Join us as historians Nancy Tomes and David Herzberg discuss when and why patients started to be called "consumers," and examine the positive and negative aspects of twentieth-century medical "consumerism." We explore a century of efforts to deliver pharmaceutical relief through properly calibrated markets, and evaluate the risks (and often-misunderstood benefits) of governing addictive drugs as consumer goods. Find this presentation and further resources on the Consortium's website at: https://www.chstm.org/video/57

Join us to examine vaccine skepticism, in contemporary America, historically, and in the clinic. What are the historical roots of resistance to vaccination? What is the data about contemporary attitudes? How do these attitudes relate to changing social, economic and political contexts? How do these issues play out in the relationship between a doctor and a patient? Three experts share their research and experience on these questions, and lead our discussion. "Trust in Science: Vaccines" is the first event in a series inspired by Perceptions of Science in America, a report from the Public Face of Science Initiative at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Two more events will cover trust in science through evolution and climate change. Find this presentation and further resources on the Consortium's website at: https://www.chstm.org/video/61

In this episode, we discuss race, anthropology, and the collection and display of human remains with Samuel Redman. Sam is Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the author of Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums. Find this podcast and further resources on the Consortium's website at: https://www.chstm.org/video/65

Many social, economic, and political factors affect urban health on local, regional and global scales. Examples from near and far, past and present, abound. In the 18th century, yellow fever coursed from city to city across the world as merchant shipping helped spread the disease. As cities incubated the disease, social relations among urban communities were reconfigured. In modern times, increasing urbanism—the unintended effect of agricultural policies compounded by political instability and social prejudice—led to outbreaks of disease. The entrenchment of Chagas disease—a debilitating and sometime fatal infection—made the city of Arequipa, Peru, a microcosm for the way cities shape disease, and a model for the recent bedbug outbreak in New York City. Join American historian Billy Smith, and epidemiologist Michael Levy, for a conversation that uses both science and history to understand the intersection of urban development and the spread of contagions. Find this presentation and further resources on the Consortium's website at: https://www.chstm.org/video/56