The twenty-second episode of GREAT PODVERSATIONS features Nicholas Christakis speaking with NPR correspondent Rob Stein about Dr. Christakis’ book, Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live.

NICHOLAS A. CHRISTAKIS, MD, PHD, MPH, is a Yale University Professor of Social and Natural Science, in the Departments of Sociology, Medicine, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Statistics and Data Science, and Biomedical Engineering.  Previously, he was a professor at Harvard and the University of Chicago.

Apollo’s Arrow offers a riveting account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as it swept through American society in 2020, and of how the recovery will unfold in the coming years. Drawing on momentous historical epidemics, contemporary analyses, and cutting-edge research from a range of scientific disciplines, Christakis explores what it means to live in a time of plague — an experience that is paradoxically uncommon to the vast majority of humans who are alive, yet deeply fundamental to our species. The New Yorker praises, “excellent and timely.”

Dr. Christakis  was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2006 and was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2009. In 2009 and again in 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers. Christakis is the Director of the Human Nature Lab, the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science, the co-author of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives and the author of Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society.  His pathbreaking research has appeared on the front pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today.

ROB STEIN is a correspondent and senior editor on NPR’s science desk.

An award-winning science journalist with more than 30 years of experience, Stein mostly covers health and medicine. He tends to focus on stories that illustrate the intersection of science, health, politics, social trends, ethics, and federal science policy. He tracks genetics, stem cells, cancer research, women’s health issues, and other science, medical, and health policy news.

Before NPR, Stein worked at The Washington Post for 16 years, first as the newspaper’s science editor and then as a national health reporter. Earlier in his career, Stein spent about four years as an editor at NPR’s science desk. Before that, he was a science reporter for United Press International (UPI) in Boston and the science editor of the international wire service in Washington.

1. Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of the Coronavirus on the Way We Live by Nicholas Christakis
2. Human Nature Lab at Yale
3. The Iliad by Homer
4. 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic
5. Infection Fatality Rate for Covid 19
6. R Naught for Covid 19

Original air date: 5/21/2021

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