Health

Emily Monosson says fungi and fungus-like pathogens are the most devastating disease agents on the planet, causing the extinction or near extinction of species of trees, bananas, bats, frogs and more.

MacPhail is an associate professor of science and technology studies at Stevens Institute of Technology. In her new book, Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World, she explores some of the theories behind the rise in allergies — including the theory that excessive emphasis on hygiene (and perhaps even showering) can contribute to the development of sensitivities.

James Jackson is a recognized expert on the cognitive and mental health impacts of long COVID, which he says are quite common. He writes in a new book about people who are happy standouts in their jobs who, after getting COVID, are chronically affected by fatigue, cognitive impairment and depression or more serious symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations.

Since 2010, Vicki Bloom has worked with the Doula Project, a New York City-based collective that partners with clinics to support pregnant people — whether the result is childbirth or termination.

Dr. Sandeep Jauhar says caring for his dad was the hardest journey he's ever taken. His memoir, My Father's Brain, is also about the latest research into the disease, and why there's not yet a cure.

Public Health researcher Arline Geronimus makes the case that marginalized people suffer nearly constant stress from living with poverty and discrimination, which damages their bodies at the cellular level and leads to increasingly serious health problems over time. Her term for it is "weathering."

Pulitzer Prize winning author Matthew Desmond talks about the roots of American poverty and how he says so many affluent citizens benefit from government subsidies and exploitation of the poor. His new book is Poverty By America.

Many of Ricardo Nuila's patients at Houston's Ben Taub Hospital are dealing with serious illnesses as a result of not being able to access basic preventive care. His new book is The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine.

Dr. Farzon Nahvi spent the first few months of the pandemic as an emergency room physician in Manhattan. He talks about trying to improvise treatments during that time. His new book is Code Gray.

Legal historian Mary Ziegler has chronicled the legal, political and cultural battles around abortion, and says the debate is far from over: "We're at a moment of almost unprecedented uncertainty in the United States when it comes to abortion," Zielger says. Her book is Roe: The History of a National Obsession.