Author Q&A
Spring 2026
February 18, 2026 • 6:00-7:00pm
Mallary Tenore Tarpley
SLIP: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery
(S&S/Simon Element, August 2025)
March 19, 2026 • 6:00-7:00pm
Dr. Tom Frieden
THE FORMULA FOR BETTER HEALTH: How to Save Millions of Lives--Including Your Own
(The MIT Press, September 2025)
April 22, 2026 • 6:00-7:00pm
Jason Gale
AFTER COVID: The Health Impacts That Will Last Generations
(Johns Hopkins University Press, March 2026)
We'd like to send a special thank you to the Center for Public Scholarship and Engagement, IDEAS Festival, and Georgia Center for the Book for being the official co-sponsors of the Spring 2026 Living Health: Author Q&A Series.
Fall 2025
September 17, 2025 • 6:00-7:00pm
Jennie Erin Smith
THE VALLEY OF FORGETTING: Alzheimer's Families and the Search for a Cure
(Riverhead/PRH, April 2025)
October 22, 2025 • 6:00-7:00pm
Starre Julia Vartan
THE STRONGER SEX: What Science Tells Us about the Power of the Female Body
(Seal Press/Hachette, July 2025)
November 19, 2025 • 6:00-7:00pm
Eram Alam, PhD
THE CARE OF FOREIGNERS: How Immigrant Physicians Changed US Healthcare
(Johns Hopkins University Press; Oct 14, 2025)
We'd like to send a special thank you to the Center for Public Scholarship and Engagement, IDEAS Festival, and Georgia Center for the Book for being the official co-sponsors of the Fall 2025 Living Health: Author Q&A Series.
SPRING 2025
January 29, 2025 • 7:00-8:00pm
Caitlin Rivers, PhD
Crisis Averted: The Hidden Science of Fighting Outbreaks
(Viking, 2024)
February 26, 2025 • 7:00-8:00pm
Dr. Adam Ratner, MD, MPH
Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children's Health
(Avery, February 2025)
March 19, 2025 • 7:00-8:00pm
Carl Zimmer
Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe
(Dutton, February 2025)
April 16, 2025 • 7:00-8:00pm
Jaap de Roode
Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves
(Princeton University Press, March 2025)
We'd like to send a special thank you to Georgia Center for the Book, the Emory Center for Public Scholarship and Engagement, and IDEAS Festival Emory for being the official co-sponsors of the Spring 2025 Living Health: Author Q&A Series.
FALL 2024
September 11, 2024 • 7:00-8:00pm
Rachel Hall-Clifford, PhD
Underbelly: Childhood Diarrhea and the Hidden Local Realities of Global Health
(The MIT Press, May 2024)
October 9, 2024 • 7:00-8:00pm
Lynne Peeples
The Inner Clock: Living in Sync with Our Circadian Rhythms
(Riverhead Books, September 2024)
November 13, 2024 • 7:00-8:00pm
Lina Zeldovich
The Living Medicine: How a Lifesaving Cure Was Nearly Lost—and Why It Will Rescue Us When Antibiotics Fail
(St. Martin's Press, October 2024)
We'd like to send a special thank you to Georgia Center for the Book, Atlanta Science Gallery, Emory Office of Public Scholarship, and Ideas Festival for being the official co-sponsors of the Fall 2024 Living Health: Author Q&A Series.
SPRING 2024
January 31, 2024 • 7:00-8:00pm
Jessie Singer
There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster—Who Profits and Who Pays the Price
(Simon & Schuster, Feb 2023)
February 28, 2024 • 7:00-8:00pm
Theresa MacPhail, PhD
Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies In A Changing World
(Random House, May 2023)
April 3, 2024 • 7:00-8:00pm
Christine Yu
Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes
(Riverhead Books, May 2023)
We'd like to send a special thank you to Georgia Center for the Book, Atlanta Science Gallery, and Decatur Book Festival for being the official co-sponsors of the Spring 2024 Living Health: Author Q&A Series.
FALL 2023
September 7, 2023 • 7:00-8:00pm
Quinn Eastman
The Woman Who Couldn’t Wake Up: Hypersomnia and the Science of Sleepiness
(Columbia University Press, Aug 2023)
October 5, 2023 • 7:00-8:00pm
Jennifer Lunden
AMERICAN BREAKDOWN: Our Ailing Nation, My Body’s Revolt, and the Nineteenth-Century Woman Who Brought Me Back to Life
(Harper Wave, May 2023)
November 2, 2023 • 7:00-8:00pm
Amy Dockser Marcus
We The Scientists: How a Daring Team of Parents and Doctors Forged a New Path for Medicine
(Riverhead Books, Feb 2023)
We'd like to send a special thank you to Georgia Center for the Book, Atlanta Science Gallery, and The Decatur Book Festival for being the official co-sponsors of the Fall 2023 Living Health: Author Q&A Series.
SPRING 2023
February 23, 2023 • 7:00-8:00pm
Elena Conis, PhD
How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall and Toxic Return of DDT
(Bold Type, 2022)
March 23, 2023 • 7:00-8:00pm
Bethany Brookshire, PhD
Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains
(Ecco, Dec 2022)
This event is co-produced with the Atlanta Science Festival.
April 12, 2023 • 7:00-8:00pm
Steven Thrasher, PhD
The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide
(Celadon Books, Aug 2022)
We'd like to send a special thank you to Georgia Center for the Book and Atlanta Science Gallery for being the official co-sponsors of the Spring 2023 Living Health: Author Q&A Series.
FALL 2022
September 27, 2022
Rachel Gross
Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage
(WW Norton & Co., March 2022)
WATCH FULL VIDEO HERE
October 27, 2022
Jim Downs
Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery and War Transformed Medicine
(Harvard University Press, Sept 2021)
WATCH FULL VIDEO HERE
SPRING 2022
March 29, 2022
Jo Handelsman, PhD
A World Without Soil: The Past, Present and Precarious Future of the Earth Beneath Our Feet
(Yale University Press)
April 19, 2022
Emily Willingham, PhD
The Tailored Brain: From Ketamine, to Keto, to Companionship, A User’s Guide to Feeling Better and Thinking Smarter
(Basic Books)
FALL 2021
September 29, 2021
Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley
Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine
October 13, 2021
Daisy Hernández
The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation's Neglect of a Deadly Disease
October 26, 2021
Dr. Cassandra Quave
The Plant Hunter: A Scientist’s Quest for Nature’s Next Medicines
About Dr. Quave:Cassandra Quave, PhD, is the herbarium curator and an associate professor of dermatology and human health at Emory University, where she leads anti-infective drug discovery research initiatives and teaches courses on medicinal plants, food, and health. She is also the co-founder and CEO/CSO of PhytoTEK LLC, a drug-discovery company dedicated to developing solutions from botanicals for the treatment of recalcitrant antibiotic-resistant infections. Dr. Quave is the co-creator and host of Foodie Pharmacology, a podcast dedicated to exploring the links between food and medicine. A leader in the field of medical botany, she has authored more than 100 scientific publications and has been featured in the New York Times Magazine and BBC Focus, as well as on PBS, NPR and the National Geographic Channel.
November 10, 2021
Olivia Campbell
Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changes the World of Medicine
SPRING 2021
March 24, 2021
Perri E. Klass, MD
A Good Time to Be Born: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future
April 21, 2021
Chelsea Wald
Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet
FALL 2020
September 24, 2020
Debora MacKenzie
COVID-19: The Pandemic that Never Should Have Happened and How to Stop the Next One
October 22, 2020
Emily Anthes
The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness
November 12, 2020
Emily Willingham, PhD
PHALLACY: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis
We'd like to send a special thank you to Georgia Center for the Book for being the official sponsors of the Spring 2021 and Fall 2020 Health & the Human Experience: Author Q&A Series.