237. Lawrence Ingrassia with Robert Merry: A Lethal Legacy — Genetic Predisposition to Cancer
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Release Date: 09/04/2024
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Whether it’s staying up late in front of the screens or waking up before dawn for that early morning flight – it’s easy to tell when something big has thrown off our routines. But what about the little things that add up over the course of a day, a week, or our lives overall? How do small adjustments to our daily practices affect our long-term relationship with the balance between our bodies and the busy technology-driven world we live in? In her new book, author and science journalist Lynne Peeples explores how our often hectic habits can impact our physical, mental, and social...
info_outline 238. Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert with Daniela Rosner: The Secret Life of DataTown Hall Seattle Science Series
With tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon, Seattle will be instrumental in the future of data and its effects on society. What are the long-term consequences of humanity’s recent rush toward digitizing, storing, and analyzing every piece of data about ourselves and the world we live in? How will data surveillance, digital forensics, and AI pose new threats––and opportunities? In their new book, The Secret Life of Data, authors Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert explore what might happen with all the data that we collect. They build on this basic premise: no matter what form data...
info_outline 237. Lawrence Ingrassia with Robert Merry: A Lethal Legacy — Genetic Predisposition to CancerTown Hall Seattle Science Series
One instance of grief can be difficult enough to cope with, but for Lawrence Ingrassia, losing multiple family members was not only devastating but perplexing. Typical discussions surrounding inheritance may include heirlooms or estates — not rare tumors in the cheeks of toddlers, as was the case for Ingrassia’s two-year-old nephew. After he lost his mother, two sisters, brother, and nephew to different types of cancer, Ingrassia was unsure whether his family’s generational heartbreak was merely misfortune or if there was some other cause. In his book A Fatal Inheritance: How a...
info_outline 236. Zoë Schlanger with Brooke Jarvis: The Light EatersTown Hall Seattle Science Series
Did you know that plants can hear sounds? And have a social life? Science writer Zoë Schlanger shares even more remarkable plant talents in her latest book, The Light Eaters, illustrating the tremendous biological creativity it takes to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. They communicate. They recognize their own kin. Schlanger immerses into the world of being a plant, into its drama and complexity. Scientists have learned that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a...
info_outline 235. Elaine Lin Hering with Ruchika Tulshyan: Learning to Speak Up in a World That Wants You to Stay QuietTown Hall Seattle Science Series
Can you think of occasions where you wanted to say something, but couldn’t? Perhaps you stopped yourself out of fear, or due to outside pressures. Having a seat at the table doesn’t necessarily mean that your voice is welcome. A new book is aiming to examine the influence of silence and offer ways that we can begin to dismantle it to find our voices at home and work to shift the paradigm. In Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully author Elaine Lin Hering explores the difficulty that can come with speaking up, especially when there may be...
info_outline 234. Anjali Nayar and Dr. Sean Gibbons: Hack Your Health — The Secrets of Your GutTown Hall Seattle Science Series
Your gut microbiome consists of trillions of microbiota and is a critical health determinant, affecting your immune system, mood, energy level, and much more. As a scientific field, microbiome research is new to the scene, but the intricate relationship between our gut and our overall health is clear – and getting clearer. In April, Netflix started streaming Hack Your Health, an informative documentary about the gut microbiome, gut health, and the science of eating. In this collaborative event between Town Hall Seattle and the Institute for Systems Biology, Hack Your...
info_outline 233. Sabrina Sholts with Dr. Julianne Meisner: Pandemics and Human PotentialTown Hall Seattle Science Series
The very fact of being human makes us vulnerable to pandemics, but it also gives us the power to save ourselves. The COVID-19 pandemic most likely won’t be our last—that is the uncomfortable but all-too-timely message of Sabrina Sholts’ new book, The Human Disease. Traveling through history and around the globe to examine how and why pandemics are an inescapable threat of our own making, Sholts draws on dozens of disciplines—from medicine, epidemiology, and microbiology to anthropology, sociology, ecology, and neuroscience—as well as a unique expertise in public education about...
info_outline 232. Dori Gillam and Mack McCoy: Hello Old Lovers Wherever You Are!Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Can you find lifelong love with an AARP card in your wallet? Dori (72) and Mack (69) did, and they’ve got a lot to say on the subject! Join them for a candid chat where they dish on discovering love later in life. Balancing time for each other, family, friends, and furry companions? Yep. Talking about merging households? Yep. Starting a family? Probably not going to happen. People in their third act of life tend to seek more than mere flesh and flash, instead craving depth and maturity. Ignorance of each other’s previous lives provides the bliss of having an abundance of stories,...
info_outline 231. Lee McIntyre: A History of DisinformationTown Hall Seattle Science Series
Disinformation has been used throughout history as a tool to intentionally deceive or manipulate the enemy. In our present age of information, where fabricated news stories, photos, or posts of any kind can be spread in an instant, we find ourselves especially vulnerable to the potentially devasting effects of weaponized disinformation. Lee McIntyre is an author and Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. McIntyre has penned multiple publications exploring the science behind strategic deception. In On Disinformation, the author guides...
info_outline 230. Emily Calandrelli with Zeta Strickland: Unleash Your Inner ScientistTown Hall Seattle Science Series
Have you ever made coins float in water? Or created a geode from an egg? If not, Emmy-nominated science TV host Emily Calandrelli can show you how. Calandrelli, MIT-trained engineer turned internet STEAM star, demonstrates science experiments you can do at home with common household products as the host of Netflix’s Emily’s Wonder Lab and through her popular social media channels. Following the success of her first book, Calandrelli has developed 50 new science experiments for the whole family to do together in Stay Curious and Keep Exploring: Next Level. Calandrelli is...
info_outlineOne instance of grief can be difficult enough to cope with, but for Lawrence Ingrassia, losing multiple family members was not only devastating but perplexing. Typical discussions surrounding inheritance may include heirlooms or estates — not rare tumors in the cheeks of toddlers, as was the case for Ingrassia’s two-year-old nephew. After he lost his mother, two sisters, brother, and nephew to different types of cancer, Ingrassia was unsure whether his family’s generational heartbreak was merely misfortune or if there was some other cause.
In his book A Fatal Inheritance: How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical Mystery, Ingrassia weaves his own family history with a history of cancer research. Part memoir, part medical thriller, Ingrassia’s work begins in the 1960s with Dr. Frederick Pei Li and Dr. Joseph Fraumeni Jr., groundbreaking researchers and physicians who would later uncover links between genetics and cancer.
A Fatal Inheritance journeys from the early days of discovery to present-day developments decades later, as Ingrassia and others continue to build upon Li and Fraumeni’s initial investigations and discover what this means for themselves and their families. Ingrassia also looks toward the future, as gene sequencing, screening protocols, CRISPR gene editing, and other developing technologies aid in extending lifespans and possibly getting us closer to a cure.
Lawrence Ingrassia is a former business and economics editor and deputy managing editor at the New York Times, having previously spent twenty-five years at the Wall Street Journal, as Boston bureau chief, London bureau chief, money and investing editor, and assistant managing editor. He also served as managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. The coverage he directed won five Pulitzer Prizes as well as Gerald Loeb Awards and George Polk Awards. His first book, Billion Dollar Brand Club, chronicles the rise of popular direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands and was shortlisted for several best business book awards for 2020. His latest book, A Fatal Inheritance, narrates the tale of a team of dedicated researchers who solved the medical mystery behind seemingly unrelated cancers devastating his and other families.
Robert W. Merry spent 45 years in Washington, D.C., as Wall Street Journal reporter and executive at Congressional Quarterly, including 12 years as CQ’s president and editor-in-chief. After CQ was sold to the Economist, he also served as editor of the polemical magazines The National Interest and The American Conservative. He is the author of six books on American history and foreign policy, including the forthcoming Decade of Disunion: How Massachusetts and South Carolina Led the Way to Civil War, 1849-1861 (Simon & Schuster).