Town Hall Seattle Science Series

In the 1940s, the insecticide DDT was widely used to combat insect-borne human diseases like malaria and control insects in agricultural applications, gardens, and inside homes. In the 1950s, it became evident that the pesticide was causing extensive health and environmental damage. In 1962, Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring alerted the public to the long-lasting dangers of pesticide use. And in 1972, the United States EPA issued an order for DDT’s cancellation due to adverse environmental effects and human health risks; in the years that followed, dozens of other countries followed suit. The process took decades, and continues to evolve as DDT remains in use for malaria control today. Historian Elena Conis traced the history of DDT in How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT, following a trail of corporate manipulation and manufactured doubt in science geared to keep the profits flowing. Using the story of DDT as a cautionary tale, Conis argued that we need new ways to communicate about science before it’s too late — especially in our current era of public confusion about protecting our health and the rampant spread of misinformation. Science, she reminded us, is a constantly-evolving discipline and not just an immutable collection of facts — changing how we view it could help us make better decisions about health, both for ourselves and the environment. Elena Conis is a writer and historian of medicine, public health, and the environment. She teaches at the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and the Media Studies Program, and directs the graduate program in Public Journalism. Her current research focuses on scientific controversies, science denial, and the public understanding of science, and has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine, and the Science History Institute. Her first book, Vaccine Nation: America’s Changing Relationship with Immunization, received the Arthur J. Viseltear Award from the American Public Health Association and was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title and a Science Pick of the Week by the journal Nature. Sally James is a writer and journalist who covers science and medical research. She has written for The Seattle Times, South Seattle Emerald, Seattle and UW Magazines, among others.  For the Emerald, she has been focusing during the pandemic on stories about health and access for communities of color. In the past, she has been a leader and volunteer for the nonprofit Northwest Science Writers Association. For many years, she was a reviewer for Health News Review, fact-checking national press reporting for accuracy and fairness. Buy the Book: How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

The COVID-19 pandemic — one of the most disruptive events in human history — has made it more challenging than ever to feel prepared, hopeful, and equipped to face the future with optimism. How do we map out our lives when it feels impossible to predict what the world will be like next week, let alone next year or next decade? Humans aren’t particularly fond of uncertainty, but what if we had the tools to help us feel more secure and shape our futures? Future forecaster and game designer Jane McGonigal believes it’s possible to recover confidence and face uncertain futures with optimism. As a world-renowned designer of alternate reality games, she has an extensive background in designing tools to improve real lives and solve real problems through planetary-scale collaboration. In her new book, Imaginable, McGonigal drew on the latest scientific research in psychology and neuroscience to show us how to train our minds to think the unthinkable and imagine the unimaginable. Through provocative thought experiments and future simulations, McGonigal offered strategies for envisioning our future lives, developing the courage to solve problems with creativity, and accessing the “urgent optimism” within each of us to take agency over our decisions. Jane McGonigal, Ph.D., is a future forecaster and designer of games created to improve real lives and solve real problems. She is the author of two New York Times bestselling books, Reality Is Broken and SuperBetter, and her TED talks on how gaming can make a better world have more than 15 million views. She was named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum; one of Fast Company’s “Top 100 Creative People in Business”; and one of the “Top 35 innovators changing the world through technology” by MIT Technology Review. She is the Director of Games Research & Development at the Institute for the Future, a nonprofit research group in Palo Alto, California. Margaret Morris, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist focused on how technology can support wellbeing. She is an affiliate faculty member in the Information School at the University of Washington and a research consultant. Morris is the author of Left to Our Own Devices: Outsmarting Smart Technology to Reclaim Our Relationships, Health and Focus. Buy the Book: Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything―Even Things That Seem Impossible Today  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Humans have been stumbling upon the remains of ancient animals since prehistoric times, long before fossils were routinely dug up, named, and pieced together into “whole” prehistoric skeletons. The word dinosaur wasn’t established until the mid-19th century – practically yesterday, considering the massive span of the geologic time scale. From bits and bones from unknown creatures emerged tales of giant dogs, dragons, sea serpents, and myriad other creatures. Absurd as these legends might seem, they gave rise to the modern science of paleontology – a discipline that completely reshaped how humans viewed the world. In his new book, Paleontology: An Illustrated History, comparative anatomist David Bainbridge took readers from ancient Greece to the eighteenth century, when paleontology started to coalesce into the scientific field we know today. Bainbridge explained how paleontology has always straddled the spheres of science and art, an idea evident in rich visuals that depict great fossil finds, life forms of all shapes and sizes, and prehistoric scenery. Bainbridge also propelled the timeline of paleontology further into the future, considering the roles of DNA and other genetic material and how they might revolutionize our understanding of the origins and evolution of ancient life. David Bainbridge is a comparative anatomist in the Department of Physiology, Development, and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of St Catharine’s College. His many books include How Zoologists Organize Things: The Art of Classification; Stripped Bare: The Art of Animal Anatomy; and Middle Age: A Natural History. Buy the Book: Paleontology: An Illustrated History from Elliott Bay Books To watch this program click here.  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

The majestic bald eagle can be spotted throughout most of North America at various points during the year. Here in Western Washington, we’re lucky to spot them all year-round — no doubt thanks to an abundance of tall trees for nesting and open bodies of water that provide a source of food. They are revered birds, sacred within Indigenous traditions, and associated with wisdom, bravery, and protection. Only a few decades ago, the future of bald eagles was tenuous. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, bald eagles were considered menaces by settler farmers, even falsely labeled as vicious, baby-snatching predators that might swoop away with an unsuspecting infant. In some areas, bounties were placed on the birds (folks could earn 50 cents to a dollar per bird killed), and their numbers declined by tens of thousands. The following years brought habitat destruction and deadly contamination of food sources by pesticides like DDT; by the 1960s, the population of nesting pairs dipped into the hundreds. After decades of concerted efforts, the bald eagle population recovered; today, it has soared to well over 300,000. What can we glean from the path of the bald eagle and the varying ways that different groups of humans have interacted with it? In The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America’s Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jack E. Davis traced the cultural and natural history of the bald eagle from before the nation’s founding through resurgences of the enduring species. Contrasting the age when indigenous peoples lived beside it peacefully with eras when others pushed Haliaeetus leucocephalus to the brink of extinction, Davis considered how the historical journey of the bald eagle might offer inspiration as we grapple with large-scale environmental peril today. Jack E. Davis is the author of the award-winning book, The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea and An Everglades Providence: Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the American Environmental Century. A professor of environmental history at the University of Florida, he lives in Florida and New Hampshire. Deborah Jensen is the Vice-President and Executive Director for Audubon Washington working to protect birds and the places they need now and in the future. Her career is dedicated to conservation, with decades of executive experience leading conservation, education, and scientific organizations. Deborah currently serves on the Puget Sound Leadership Council and the Board of Climate Solutions and is a past-chair of the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition. Buy the Book: The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America's Bird (Hardcover) from Third Place Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Our world constantly vibrates with sound, from the delicate flap of an insect’s wings to the thunderous roar of a rocket launching into space. There’s the spring chorus of frogs. The sputter of a creek and the whoosh of a sudden breeze. Songs, music, and speech. But the sounds of today aren’t necessarily the same sounds that our ancestors encountered. How have sounds changed? What might be missing from our present and future sonic experiences? In his new book, Sounds Wild and Broken, biology professor David Haskell explored how the wonders of sound came to be on a journey through our planet’s history. Tracing a sonic path from animal song to modern concert halls, he illuminated how sounds emerged and evolved alongside all of Earth’s living things. But despite the explosive creation of sounds over time, Haskell pointed out that there is also erasure; threats to sonic diversity impact our forests, oceans, and experiences as human beings. Haskell considered how the loss of sounds can make the world less creative, just, and beautiful, prompting the question: How can reverence for sound help guide us in a rapidly-changing world? David Haskell is a professor of biology and environmental studies at the University of the South and a Guggenheim Fellow. His work integrates scientific, literary, and contemplative studies of the natural world. He is the author of The Songs of Trees (2017), which won the John Burroughs Medal for Outstanding Nature Writing. His first book, The Forest Unseen (2012), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and was honored with the 2013 Best Book Award from the National Academies, the National Outdoor Book Award, and the Reed Environmental Writing Award. You can listen to a collection of sounds from his most recent book, Sounds Wild and Broken, here. Lyanda Lynn Haupt is an award-winning author, naturalist, ecophilosopher, and speaker whose writing is at the forefront of the movement to connect people with nature and wildness in their everyday lives. Her newest book is Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit  (2021). Buy the Book: Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution's Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction (Hardcover) from Third Place Books  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

In the dense rainforest of the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Somass River (c̓uumaʕas) brings sockeye salmon (miʕaat) into the Nuu-chah-nulth community of Tseshaht. C̓uumaʕas and miʕaat are central to the sacred food practices that have been a crucial part of the Indigenous community’s efforts to enact food sovereignty, decolonize their diet, and preserve their ancestral knowledge. In A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other, Charlotte Coté shared contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth practices of traditional food revitalization in the context of broader efforts to re-Indigenize contemporary diets on the Northwest Coast. Coté offered evocative stories — rooted in her Tseshaht community and in her own work — to revitalize relationships to haʔum (traditional food) as a way to nurture health and wellness. As Indigenous peoples continue to face food insecurity due to ongoing inequality, environmental degradation, and the Westernization of traditional diets, Coté foregrounded healing and cultural sustenance via everyday enactments of food sovereignty: berry picking, salmon fishing, and building a community garden on reclaimed residential school grounds. Charlotte Coté (Tseshaht/Nuu-chah-nulth) is Associate Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington, and has been teaching in AIS since 2001. Dr. Coté holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Comparative Ethnic Studies from the University of California at Berkeley and is Affiliated Faculty in the UW’s Jackson School Canadian Studies Center. Dr. Coté serves as co-editor for the UW Press’ Indigenous Confluences series and is the author of Spirits of Our Whaling Ancestors: Revitalizing Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth Traditions (UW Press, 2010). Dr. Coté is chair of the UW’s wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ (a Lushootseed word meaning “Intellectual House”) Advisory Committee. She is also co-founder and chair of the UW’s annual “The Living Breath of wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ” Indigenous Foods Symposium held in May at the wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ. Dr. Coté serves on the Board of Directors for the UW’s Center for American Indian/Indigenous Studies (CAIIS), the Burke Museum’s Native American Advisory Board, the Na-ah Illahee Fund Board, and the NDN Collective (Northwest Coast Representative). She also served on the Potlatch Fund Board of Directors, and for seven years served as President. Dana Arviso is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and grew up on the Bishop Paiute-Shoshone Indian Reservation in California. Dana proudly commits herself to improving the lives of youth, families, and communities through education and working for social improvements within the fields of education and philanthropy.  She previously served as the Executive Director of Potlatch Fund, a Native American-led foundation. Dana has served on the boards of Social Justice Fund Northwest, Native Americans in Philanthropy, American Indian Graduate Center, and 501 Commons. She also serves on the planning committee for the Living Breath of wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ: Indigenous Foods Symposium alongside Dr. Coté. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the UW College of Education. Buy the Book: A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other: Stories of Indigenous Food Sovereignty from the Northwest Coast (Indigenous Confluences) (Paperback) from University Book Store Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Tuberculosis might seem like a disease of the past in the West, but globally it remains a persistent and costly threat across all age groups. According to the World Health Organization, over 1.5 million people died from TB in 2020 — could it be on track to re-emerge as the next global public health crisis? According to medical science journalist Vidya Krishnan, the disease could be mounting a “frightening comeback.” In her new book, Phantom Plague, Krishnan traced a century of TB’s history from the slums of 19th-century New York to modern Mumbai. She described how superstition and folk remedies made way for scientific understanding of TB, leading to its high rate of control and cure in the West. But, she argued, the cure was never available to Black and Brown nations. As recent as 2020, just eight countries accounted for two-thirds of new TB cases, with India leading the count, followed by China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and South Africa. Through a social history of the disease and the stories of doctors and patients who have battled it, Krishnan painted a picture of urgency as weak links are exposed, and new drug-resistant strains of TB are becoming dominant. Vidya Krishnan is an award-winning journalist who has been reporting on medical science for the last 20 years. She has written for The Atlantic, The L.A. Times, The Hindu (as their health and science editor), and for the British Medical Journal. Amber Payne is co-editor in chief of The Emancipator at Boston Globe Media. She was a 2021 Nieman fellow at Harvard University, and formerly served as managing editor of BET.com and as executive producer of Teen Vogue and Them. Buy the Book: Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History (Hardcover) from Third Place Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle.

The human immune system is nothing short of remarkable: it helps our bodies ward off bacteria and viruses, heals wounds, and maintains the balance needed to keep us alive. The good news? Our immune systems are no longer threatened by the plagues and common diseases of the past. The bad news? Our bodies face an array of distinctively modern challenges; threats like fatigue, stress, and exposure to toxins, which place undue pressure on a system that typically keeps us healthy. Could the results of such stressors be weakened immunity and an explosion of autoimmune disorders? In his new book, An Elegant Defense, bestselling author Matt Richtel explored this very question through the stories of four people — a cancer patient, an HIV patient, and two women with autoimmune diseases. Combining these human accounts with anecdotes, insight from leading researchers, and the latest scientific findings, Richtel described how the body’s forces unite to ward off bacteria, parasites, and tumors. And on the flip side, he explained how sometimes the body’s defenses can become a threat and attack organs and other systems. Richtel investigated why: Is there a close connection between mental health and the immune system? What roles do diet and nutrition play in immunity? What might be weakening our immune systems? (Think antibacterial soaps, immune boosters, and other products marketed to “protect” us.) With discussion about health and the immune system remaining in the spotlight as the COVID-19 pandemic rages onward, Richtel offered a particularly relevant look into the deepest riddles of human survival and suggests potential keys to improving wellness. Matt Richtel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter and bestselling nonfiction and mystery author. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Meredith, a neurologist, and their two children. In his spare time, he plays tennis and piano and writes (not very good) songs. Buy the Book: An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives (Paperback) from Elliott Bay Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the Institute for Systems Biology.

Is it possible for drug use to be part of a responsible, balanced, and happy life? Dr. Carl L. Hart, a prominent neuroscientist and professor of psychology at Columbia University, believes so; but he didn’t always see it that way. Dr. Hart grew up in Miami at a time when drugs like crack cocaine were blamed for his city’s problems. Initially, his research aimed to prove that drug use led to bad outcomes. But what he found was unexpected: the facts didn’t support the ideology, the truth was dismissed and distorted to keep fear and outrage stoked, and more Black and brown bodies ended up behind bars. In his new book, Drug Use for Grown-Ups, Dr. Hart asserted that responsible drug use does more to enrich lives than to harm them. Based on personal experience and decades of research, he argued that criminalization and demonization of drug use — not the drugs themselves — are what caused negative outcomes and reinforced structural racism in America. Dr. Hart was joined in conversation with Professor Jennifer Oliva for a timely reflection on America’s war on drugs, the unjust stigmas that persist, and how we might develop a new vision of drug use. Carl Hart is the Ziff Professor of Psychology in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Columbia University. He is also a Research Scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Hart has published numerous scientific and popular articles in the area of neuropsychopharmacology and is co-author of the textbook Drugs, Society and Human Behavior. His book High Price was the 2014 winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Jennifer D. Oliva is the Associate Dean for Faculty Research & Development and director of the Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law at Seton Hall Law, where she specializes in health law and policy, FDA law, privacy, evidence, and complex litigation. She also serves as a senior scholar with the O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law at Georgetown Law and on the National Pain Advocacy Center’s science and policy advisory council. Oliva is the recipient of multiple scholarly and professional awards and has served as a peer reviewer for numerous law and health journals. Her scholarship has been published by or is forthcoming in the California Law Review, Duke Law Journal, and many others. Buy the Book: Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear Third Place Books  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Volcanoes have long fascinated curious humans of all ages. Here in the Seattle area, our beloved Tahoma (Mount Rainier) and the four other active volcanoes in the Cascade Mountain Range are beautiful but ever-present reminders of Washington’s location in the “Ring of Fire,” a 25,000-mile arc of volcanic activity that follows the rim of the Pacific Ocean. Volcanoes are quite literally our neighbors; how can we get to know them better and understand their role in shaping and reshaping our planet? Is there a way to safely live alongside them? In his new book, Super Volcanoes, science journalist and volcanologist Robin George Andrews walked us through awe-inspiring eruptions of the past and present and the secrets that they reveal about our planet. We already know quite a bit about how volcanoes form, erupt, and change, but many mysteries and questions remain: Is Earth’s unique system of plate tectonics the best way to forge a planet capable of supporting life? How can we better predict eruptions and protect communities in the path of danger? Andrews took us from the ocean floor to Hawai’i, Yellowstone, Tanzania, and planets beyond ours to explore recent discoveries and lingering questions about the geologic wonders that captivate us. Robin George Andrews is a science journalist with a Ph.D. in volcanology. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Scientific American, Atlas Obscura, and other publications. He lives in London, England. Buy the Book: Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond from Elliott Bay Books  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here.