The commissioner of health for New York City under Mayor Bloomberg, he battled cigarettes, transfats, and the fifty gallon vats of cola traditionally sold at movie theaters. He is the author of Saving Gotham and recently became the health commissioner of Philadelphia. We convened at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health with musician Kevin … Continue reading »
Category Archives: Science & Medicine
Episode 93: Sandeep Jauhar
Dr. Sandeep Jauhar, director of the Heart Failure Program at L.I. Jewish Medical Center, is that rare combination: a physician who is both skilled at his profession and able to reflect on it eloquently, as he does in two books, Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation, and Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician. We spoke at … Continue reading »
Episode 73: Martin Chalfie
In 2008, he shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work with green fluorescent protein. Its best known application? “It’s the reason they give in the movie for why Bruce Banner, when he gets angry, turns into the Hulk and becomes green.” Is it any wonder he’s proud? PERSON: Osamu Shimomura PLACE: Cambridge Molecular … Continue reading »
Episode 66: Diana Reiss
A member of the psychology department at Hunter College, Diana Reiss is an expert in dolphin cognition who has conducted ingenious experiments to demonstrate that these creatures recognize themselves in mirrors: that they are self-aware. She is, incidentally, our first guest to postpone her visit until she returned from a marine mammal conference which, I … Continue reading »
Episode 40: Alexandra Horowitz
A professor of psychology at Barnard, Alexandra Horowitz is the director of that school’s Dog Cognition Lab. What we particularly admire about her: she is one of a very few scientists who can write about current ideas in her field in a way that a lay audience finds not only comprehensible—dayanu—but intriguing, which she did … Continue reading »
Episode 37: Dr. Thomas Frieden
Dr. Thomas Frieden is the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A specialist in infectious diseases, he has also served as health commissioner of New York City. PERSON: Karel Styblo, the “father of modern TB epidemiology” PLACE: Conference room at the CDC THING: Little paper dipstick, used in a quick, accurate, inexpensive … Continue reading »
Episode 29: Steven Pinker
A professor of psychology at Harvard, Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist and a writer on language, mind, and human nature. His most recent book is The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, a title that all but begs some wiseguy interviewer to take a swing at him. He famously defended Larry … Continue reading »