Town Hall Seattle Science Series

It’s no secret that human health and the health of Earth’s systems — in particular, the air, water, biodiversity, and climate — are inextricably linked. It’s also no secret that Earth’s systems are changing in ways that can feel daunting and unwieldy. But with all great change comes great opportunity, and the emerging field of Planetary Health offers glimmers of hope rooted in actions, strategies, and a deepened understanding of our interconnectedness. In Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves, editor and University of Washington professor Howard Frumkin brought together a comprehensive collection of topics to guide our understanding of how a changing environment affects our health. With contributions by dozens of authors, the book covers a wide range of health impacts that include food and nutrition, infectious disease, non-communicable disease, mental health, and more. But the goal of the book isn’t to deliver a message of doom; it also offers optimistic strategies to combat the ill effects of environmental changes, such as controlling toxic exposures, investing in clean energy, and improving urban design, among others. Together, the two dichotomies illustrate how an interconnected approach to public health can benefit both people and the planet. In the Town Hall Forum, Frumkin talked about the field of Planetary Health, our changing environment, its impact on everyone from health professionals to students — and far beyond. Howard Frumkin is Professor Emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington School of Public Health in Seattle, where he was dean from 2000 through 2006. He was previously head of the Wellcome Trust “Our Planet, Our Health” initiative, and director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is also the author of Planetary Health: Safeguarding Human Health and the Environment in the Anthropocene.  Joseph Winters is an early-career journalist covering climate as Grist’s News and Politics Fellow. He recently graduated from Harvard University, where he was involved in journalism and climate advocacy — including in his role as senior U.S. editor for the Harvard Political Review and as an organizer for Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard. He has previously interned at the Public Radio International show Living on Earth and at NPR’s Oregon Public Broadcasting.  Buy the Book: Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves from Island Press Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

In July of 2018, Orca whale J35, also known as “Tahlequah,” gave birth to a calf off the coast of British Columbia. When the calf died shortly after birth, the world grieved alongside J35 as she carried the calf for 17 days across 1,000 miles before finally releasing it and rejoining her pod. Grief that transcends species is an extraordinary thing; it sparked a revival awareness of the critical need to preserve orcas, the chinook salmon they feed on, and their habitat — together, core elements of Pacific Northwest identity. In her book, Orca: Shared Waters, Shared Home, environmental journalist Lynda Mapes discussed one of the most urban whales in the world and why our efforts to protect them matter now, more than ever. The Southern Resident whales are a community of orcas that live in the Pacific waters spanning from Southeastern Alaska to central California. They are the only killer whale population listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act; as of September 2021, only 73 Southern Resident Whales remain and they are threatened by habitat degradation, lack of chinook salmon (their primary food source), relentless growth, and climate change. Walking through Orca, which is co-published with The Seattle Times and features photographs by photographer Steve Ringman as well as from other partner organizations, Mapes explores the natural history of the orca and their unique challenges for survival. For more content about the orca, tune in to an interview with Lynda Mapes and Town Hall’s Fall 2021 Podcast Artist-in-Residence, Samantha Allen. Lynda V. Mapes is a journalist, author, and close observer of the natural world, and covers natural history, environmental topics, and issues related to Pacific Northwest indigenous cultures for The Seattle Times. She is the recipient of a 2014-2015 Charles Bullard Fellowship in Forest Research and is the author of Witness Tree. Buy the Book: Orca: Shared Waters, Shared Home (Hardcover) from Elliott Bay Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Bestselling author Neal Stephenson is known for delivering novels with poignant and incisive reflections on our present and future. He’s also no stranger to the Town Hall stage and has joined us in the past to discuss his novel Fall and collaborative work with Nicole Galland, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., among others. Stephenson returned to the Town Hall stage to discuss his newest thriller, Termination Shock. In his speculative vision of the not-too-distant future, sea levels are rising, heatwaves and global flooding endure, and deadly pandemics threaten humanity. When the rest of the world continues to respond with inaction, a billionaire hatches a plan that will quickly throw climate change into reverse — but action at such a grand scale is anything but simple. There are consequences of global proportion, and some of them might even be worse than climate change itself. Stephenson’s discussion invited audiences to consider questions that can extend far beyond fiction and resonate with us in the present day: Will the world ever be able to take urgent action on climate change? What is the role of technology in this fight? Is there a role for motivated billionaires? What if the answers to these questions are highly unconventional? Stephenson invited us to expand our minds, and ask. Neal Stephenson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, Seveneves, Reamde, Anathem, The System of the World, The Confusion, Quicksilver, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Zodiac, and the groundbreaking nonfiction work In the Beginning . . . Was the Command Line. He is also the coauthor, with Nicole Galland, of The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. He lives in Seattle, Washington. Buy the Book: Termination Shock: A Novel (Hardcover) from Elliott Bay Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

When you think of therapy in a traditional sense, what comes to mind? Television shows, movies, and comics love to paint a stereotypical scene: a bespectacled therapist asks poignant questions and jots down notes on a legal pad; meanwhile, the patient reclines on a sofa and spills their thoughts and emotions into the void of the room. It might be easy to assume that therapy has always involved a person-to-person conversation, but in her new book The Distance Cure, scholar and author Hannah Zeavin invited us to consider definitions of psychotherapy that extend far beyond people talking in a room. In The Distance Cure, Zeavin described less conventional operations of therapy that include Freud’s treatments by mail, advice columns, radio shows, crisis hotlines, video, computers, and mobile phones. Across all formats, “therapists” vary widely in background and credentials; some may be professionally trained, while others are strangers or even chatbots. Is any method better than the other? Zeavin urged us to think beyond the traditional dyad of therapist and patient and consider the triad of therapist, patient, and communication technology. By tracing the history of teletherapy right up to its now-routine application in pandemic therapy sessions, Zeavin reminded us that as our world changes and advances in communication technology continue to expand, so will our definitions of what it means to connect. In a virtual presentation, Psychologist Margaret Morris interviewed Hannah Zeavin about her new book and the intimacy that is possible in remote communication. They are joined by Dr. Orna Guralnik, a clinical psychologist featured on Showtime’s Couples Therapy, who shared insights about therapy and connection during the pandemic. Hannah Zeavin is a Lecturer in the Departments of English and History at the University of California, Berkeley, and is affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society. She is a Visiting Fellow at Columbia University’s Center for Social Difference and Editorial Associate at The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in American Imago, differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Real Life Magazine, Slate, and elsewhere. Dr. Margaret Morris 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, as well as a research consultant. Morris is the author of Left to Our Own Devices: Outsmarting Smart Technology to Reclaim Our Relationships, Health and Focus. Dr. Orna Guralnik is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst practicing and teaching in New York City. Currently Dr. Guralnik lectures and publishes on the topics of couples treatment and culture, dissociation and depersonalization, and culture and psychoanalysis. She has completed the filming of several seasons of the Showtime documentary series, Couples Therapy. Buy the Book: The Distance Cure: A History of Teletherapy (Hardcover) from Elliott Bay Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

On average, a person takes around 20,000 breaths each day; yet most of us never notice the rhythmic rush of air flowing in and out, keeping our bodies oxygenated and alive. And as many asthma or respiratory distress sufferers will attest, you don’t want to notice. But things are happening all around us that threaten our blissful ignorance of breathing — wildfire smoke, indoor and outdoor pollution, and Viruses like COVID-19, to name a few — and they will continue to impact us unless we take action. In her new book, Breathing Lessons: A Doctor’s Guide to Lung Health, leading pulmonologist Dr. MeiLan K. Han broke down the wonders of breathing in an authoritative guide to how our lungs work and how to protect them. Dr. Han, a national spokesperson for the American Lung Association, shared some of the latest scientific thinking about the respiratory risks we currently face. As the threat of seasonal wildfire smoke grows, new diseases develop, and pollutants continue to be dispersed in the air, we still need to breathe. There’s no better time to learn more about how lungs work; and, Dr. Han argued, focus on social policy that prioritizes lung health nationwide. MeiLan K. Han, MD, is a professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Michigan. She also serves on the scientific advisory committees for both the COPD Foundation and American Lung Association and serves as a spokesperson for the American Lung Association. She is currently an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and serves on the editorial boards for Thorax, Lancet Respiratory Medicine, and Journal of the COPD Foundation. Albert A. Rizzo, M.D., FACP, is Chief Medical Officer for the American Lung Association and is a member of Christiana Care Pulmonary Associates in Newark, Delaware. He has been featured in national news outlets including CNN, The New York Times, ABC News, The TODAY Show, and hundreds more. He serves as the host of the Lung Association’s LungCast™ podcast. Buy the Book: Breathing Lessons: A Doctor's Guide to Lung Health (Hardcover) from Third Place Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Prebiotics and probiotics. Fecal microbiota transplants. Optimizing a diet personalized to you. These microbiome-themed topics are all around us in the media, but microbiome research remains a fairly nascent field of study and wasn’t on many people’s radars even 10 years ago. UCSD Professor Dr. Jack Gilbert and Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) Assistant Professor Dr. Sean Gibbons came together to tackle this exciting area of research. What have we learned over the past few years? What has gone well, and what could we do better? The two discussed some exciting developments on the horizon and share when they think people might see microbiome-based technologies in their daily lives. Dr. Jack A. Gilbert is a Professor of Microbial Oceanography in the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Pediatrics in UCSD School of Medicine. Dr. Gilbert is also cofounder of the Earth Microbiome Project and American Gut Project, has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on microbial ecology, and is the founding Editor in Chief of mSystems journal. He has been recognized on Crain’s Business Chicago’s “40 Under 40 List,” listed as one of the 50 most influential scientists by Business Insider, and was named as one of the “Brilliant Ten” by Popular Scientist. He is the co-author of Dirt is Good, a popular science guide to the microbiome and children’s health. Dr. Sean Gibbons is Assistant Professor at ISB. He holds a Ph.D. in biophysical sciences from the University of Chicago; his graduate work focused on using microbial communities as empirical models for testing ecological theory. Gibbons completed his postdoctoral training in Eric Alm’s laboratory in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT, where his work focused on developing techniques to quantify individual-specific eco-evolutionary dynamics within the human gut microbiome. He is particularly interested in learning how organisms in the human gut change and adapt to individual people over their lifespans, and how those changes impact health. Presented by the Institute for Systems Biology and Town Hall Seattle.

Human beings are extraordinary meddlers. We’ve been shaping the world around us since the last ice age, and the longer we’re around, the better we become at resetting the course of evolution. From domesticating animals to CRISPR, a revolutionary new gene-editing tool that garnered a Nobel Prize in 2020, humans haven’t stopped tinkering and probably never will. There’s an understandable nervousness around human interference; what are we potentially destroying, or at least mucking up, when we tamper with nature? In her new book, Life as We Made It: How 50,000 Years of Human Innovation Refined — and Redefined — Nature, Biologist Beth Shapiro argued that meddling is the essence of what humans do to survive and thrive. Hunting, hybridizing plants, domesticating animals, and conserving the living things around us are all forms of intervention, none of which are new to us. With that in mind, Shapiro made the case to free ourselves from fear of obtrusion and instead become better meddlers. In turn, we may find opportunities to maintain and improve biodiversity — and our own livelihoods. Beth Shapiro is Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz. She has appeared on National Geographic, Discovery, and the BBC, and has written for the Financial Times and Observer. She is the author of the award-winning book, How to Clone a Mammoth. Carl Zimmer is the science columnist for the New York Times and a frequent contributor to magazines including The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Scientific American. His award-winning books include Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive and She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Power, Perversion, and Potentials of Heredity. Buy the Book: Life as We Made It: How 50,000 Years of Human Innovation Refined—and Redefined—Nature from Third Place Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

We know we have to do something about climate change, and we know we need to move immediately. The mere thought of it tends to make people freeze in their tracks from sheer overwhelm. Thousands of ideas exist, but there’s no clear, collective plan. Try as some people might, jumping on a rocket to the next planet isn’t the answer. But what if we don’t need groundbreaking new inventions to move the needle on climate change? What if most of the innovations already exist? Could we build a better, cleaner future (and maybe even generate millions of new jobs while we’re at it)? Engineer and inventor Saul Griffith shared a detailed plan of action in his new book, Electrify: The Optimist’s Playbook for our Clean Energy Future. Take note of two important words in the book’s title, electrify and optimist. Griffith’s strategy circles around the transformation of our infrastructure to electrify everything, update our grid, and adapt homes to make it possible. And then there’s optimism: if we’re to build the future we dream of, a realistic yet optimistic outlook is necessary. After all, desperation and doom haven’t successfully elicited the unified global response needed to shift our trajectory; but we can change. Griffith shared the blueprints for exactly how. Saul Griffith is an inventor, entrepreneur, and engineer. He is the founder of Rewiring America, a nonprofit dedicated to decarbonizing America by electrifying everything, and founder and chief scientist at Otherlab. He was a recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant” in 2007. David Roberts writes for his newsletter, Volts, and previously wrote for Vox and Grist. Over the past 15+ years, he’s written for several other publications and appeared on a variety of TV shows, radio programs, and podcasts. Buy the Book: Electrify: An Optimists Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future (Hardcover) from Third Place Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

The year 2050 once felt like a far-off speck on a distant horizon. But with less than three decades left before we reach the halfway point of the 21st century, that faraway mote doesn’t feel quite so distant. Is it possible to avoid the worst effects of climate change by then? What efforts can we focus on to truly make an impact? In The Decarbonization Imperative, Professor Michael Lenox and Rebecca Duff described the urgent situation we’re in and why the year 2050 is so significant. They clearly and methodically broke down 5 key sectors— Energy, Transportation, Industrial, Building, and Agricultural— to look at which technologies stand the best chance of decarbonizing each sector. They also considered areas where investments and policy actions are needed to quicken the pace of adopting new technologies. The good news? In some sectors, clean technology is emerging or already exists; we only need a plan to transition in time. Lenox and Duff reminded us that climate change isn’t just looming; it’s here. And while there’s no shortage of work to do, there’s a pathway to get there through innovation and disruption of the status quo. The Decarbonization Imperative shows us how. Michael Lenox is the Tayloe Murphy Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean and Chief Strategy Officer at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and co-author of Can Business Save the Earth? and The Decarbonization Imperative. His work has been cited by the New York Times, the Financial Times, and The Economist. He has been recognized as a Faculty Pioneer by the Aspen Institute, as the top strategy professor under 40 by the Strategic Management Society, and one of the top 40 business professors under 40 by Poets&Quants. Rebecca Duff is Senior Research Associate at the Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. She also serves as the managing director for the Institute’s Business Innovation and Climate Change Initiative. She has more than 20 years of experience conducting industry and technology research, with a particular focus on product development, emerging technologies, and policy and market interventions. Nick Licata was elected to five terms on the Seattle City Council before leaving office at the end of 2015 to pursue helping citizens influence government policies. His new book, Becoming a Citizen Activist: Stories, Strategies and Advice on How to Change Our World, recaps his and others strategies and how they can be applied to current issues. Buy the Book: The Decarbonization Imperative: Transforming the Global Economy by 2050  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Escaping infectious disease and managing its spread has long been at the forefront of the human mind; it’s certainly taken front and center in the minds of today’s humans as the globe continues to wade through the COVID-19 pandemic. In an especially timely and fascinating look at the story of disease past and present, historian Kyle Harper explained the evolutionary past of humanity’s uniquely dangerous disease pool in Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History. Disease, he argued, is accelerated by technological progress and entangled with the history of slavery, colonialism, and capitalism. And while triumph over disease helps our lives progress, it’s actually destabilizing the environment and fostering new diseases. Gulp. But all is not lost. Harper pointed out what we can learn by looking at history while simultaneously looking forward, examining patterns of wealth, health, power, and inequality, paired with insights from cutting-edge genetic research. And, he reminded us, that human health is intrinsically connected to the health of the planet itself. Dr. Kyle Harper is Professor of Classics and Letters and Provost Emeritus at The University of Oklahoma. Dr. Harper is a historian of the ancient world whose work has spanned economic, environmental, and social history. His book, Plagues Upon the Earth, is a New Statesman Essential Non-Fiction Book of 2021. His other books include The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (Princeton) and From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity. Buy the Book: Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History (Princeton Economic History of the Western World #106) (Hardcover) from Third Place Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here.