Special Episode: Dr. Steven Thrasher & The Viral Underclass

This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Health & Fitness, Science

4.8 • 17.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2023

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are viruses the “great equalizers” that some people claim them to be? Are we all similarly susceptible not only to infection from viruses but also to the consequences from infection? The short answer is no. The longer answer can be found in this week’s book club pick, The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide by Dr. Steven Thrasher. Dr. Thrasher, the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg Chair and Assistant Professor of Journalism at Northwestern University, joins us to discuss how racism, classism, sexism, ableism, stigma, and other forms of oppression intersect to create a viral underclass, a group of individuals that are disproportionately susceptible to and impacted by viruses. Our conversation takes us through several of these vectors of the viral underclass as well as personal stories that illustrate how social and political structures punish certain communities for getting sick while others profit. Part memoir, part academic discussion, part journalism, and entirely groundbreaking, The Viral Underclass is an incredibly timely book that demonstrates the ways that viruses amplify and exacerbate existing inequalities while also underlining how we are truly all in this together. Our interconnectedness means that if one of us is vulnerable to infection, then we all are.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Many put their hope in Dr. Serhat.
0:02.6	His company was worth half a billion dollars.
0:05.2	His research promised groundbreaking treatments for HIV and cancer.
0:09.5	But the brilliant doctor was hiding a secret.
0:12.9	You can listen to Doctor Death, bad magic,
0:15.4	exclusively an ad free by subscribing to Wundry Plus
0:19.0	in the Wundry app. The Oh, Hi, I'm Aaron Welsh, and this is, this podcast will kill you.
1:07.0	Thanks for joining me today for this latest installment in the T.P.W. KY Book Club,
1:12.0	this season's mini series of bonus episodes
1:15.2	where I chat with authors about their excellent popular science books.
1:19.4	If this is your first time tuning into one of these book club episodes, be sure to check out the other ones in the series to learn about why sweating is actually a superpower, how the Vatican deals with rogue flower-eating birds,
1:34.0	where some period myths come from, and so much more.
1:38.0	If I'm counting correctly, this is the sixth episode in our miniseries, and there will be three more coming out this season
1:45.1	for a total of nine.
1:47.0	So hopefully your library card or e-reader or bookshelf is getting a workout. And as always we love hearing from you
1:55.2	about how you're liking these episodes, any favorites you have so far, and what other
2:00.4	books you'd love to have featured in this miniseries or any future miniseries?
2:06.0	One of the most important questions that comes up in this podcast, in public health, in life really,
2:12.3	is why we get sick. Not how we get sick like airborne
2:16.9	transmission versus mosquito-born or what happens when you get sick like the
2:22.3	pathophysiology or symptoms of a disease, but why?
2:27.2	Why does one person get sick while someone else does not?
	...

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