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SPH Plugs In: Summer Selects

Members of the SPH community share recommendations for the books, podcasts, shows, and other content that has resonated with them as they study, research, and practice public health.

In the wake of the recent publication of Interim Dean Michael Stein‘s new book A Living: Working-Class Americans Talk To Their Doctor, eight School of Public Health community members share their recommendations for content that has resonated with them and that they feel others in public health would appreciate in this moment.

Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine / Aaron Pinkett

Aaron Pinkett (SPH’19), an aspiring civil rights lawyer, recommends the book Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine by Uché Blackstock. At a young age, Pinkett lost his mother to breast cancer after her early symptoms were dismissed and a diagnosis came too late for effective treatment. This personal experience with racism in medicine ultimately led him to study law and author a note in his university’s law review that explored racial disparities in healthcare and proposed a possible legal mechanism for civil rights plaintiffs to hold hospitals accountable.

Blackstock’s book resonated deeply with him, Pinkett says. “[D]r. Blackstock went to Harvard Med, worked at a community hospital in New York where she grew up, talked about her own mother’s passing, and then dealing with […] what it’s like to be a black physician in academic medicine and then also in community medicine, trying to advance and then also trying to help [both] patients that look like you and patients that don’t look like you. [It] was a really incredible book.”

This Podcast Will Kill You / Anna Staddon

Anna Staddon (SPH’25) is a big fan of This Podcast Will Kill You. Created and hosted by two now-graduated PhD students in disease ecology both named Erin, the podcast has nearly 200 episodes, each exploring different infectious diseases. “I recommend this podcast to individuals in public health because it ties historical, cultural, and scientific contexts together in the discussion of important public health topics,” says Staddon, who studied epidemiology and biostatistics while an MPH student at SPH. “Through multidisciplinary communication, the hosts provide insight into prevention and control strategies and engage with current global health issues.”

An Enemy of the People / Kinkini Bhaduri

Kinkini Bhaduri (SPH’25), who also studied epi/biostats as an MPH student, did not miss a beat in recommending the classic play An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen. Bhaduri moved from India to attend SPH after earning her undergraduate degree in pharmacy. During her final semester of the MPH program, she completed a research fellowship with the Center for Mental Health and Trauma, applying her data collection and analysis skills to the documentation of policies that affect transgender and nonbinary students on U.S. college campuses. Henrik Ibsen is her favorite playwright, Bhaduri says, and An Enemy of the People will resonate with anyone who has ever felt that the truth has been defeated—a theme, she notes, that is unfortunately common in the field of public health.

“It is a must-read for those in public health because it explores the tension between truth and public interest, highlighting the moral dilemmas [in] exposing inconvenient facts for the greater good,” says Bhaduri. “The play serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of integrity in the face of resistance when challenging popular beliefs, especially when public health is at stake.”

The Pitt / Cara Willis

Cara Willis (CAS’08), assistant dean of marketing and communications, emphatically recommends that everyone at SPH watch the medical drama The Pitt on HBO. An emergency room procedural drama from the creators of ER, The Pitt takes viewers along for a sweeping looking into the health challenges facing Americans. From underfunding and understaffing to long wait times and burnout, the show weaves into each episode both upstream and downstream determinants of health. Released in January 2025, the show has quickly garnered praise for its authentic and humanizing portrayal of difficult, real-life scenarios.

“It is remarkable to find a show that is an hour by hour look at life in a busy and overcrowded emergency room,” says Willis. “[The Pitt] tackles some of society’s most pressing public health problems: hospital budget and staffing issues, mental health, racism, gun violence, elder care, trauma, Black maternal health, substance use, and so much more. It is gripping and raw, but the storytelling is done with empathy and care.”

Bending the Arc / John Lambert

John Lambert‘s (SPH’23) public health career began as a COVID-19 contact tracer and later outbreak specialist at Partners in Health (PIH), a global health nonprofit headquartered in Boston. Founded by renowned physician and medical anthropologist Paul Farmer, PIH began as a community-based health project in rural Haiti and has since expanded to other countries as well as become Haiti’s largest nongovernmental healthcare provider, serving an estimated 4.5 million people. “The people at PIH are universally incredible, and they do an amazing amount of important work,” says Lambert, who credits his experience at the nonprofit with first sparking his interest in epidemiology, a subject he would later study as an MPH student at SPH. Lambert recommends that everyone in the field watch the PIH documentary Bending the Arc.

“This film captures the origin of PIH and demonstrates that it is possible to do what others call ‘impossible’ in medicine and public health,” says Lambert. “It also emphasizes PIH’s commitment to solidarity—not charity—in partnering with people and building real and lasting systems.”

Flowers for Algernon / Linge Hong

Linge Hong (SPH’25), who studied epidemiology and biostatistics and completed a practicum with the Medical and Scientific Affairs Team at Pfizer as a student at SPH, recommends that the public health community check out the book Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. The science-fiction novel tells the tale of Charlie Gordon, a 32-year-old man with intellectual disabilities who undergoes a new operation designed to boost his intelligence. Careful not to give too much away, Hong says, “It’s a powerful story about the ethics of scientific experimentation and the impact of social and emotional factors on well-being. It serves as a reminder [to people] in public health to consider the human side of research and the ethical responsibilities we hold.”

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art / Lucas Nurmi

Lucas Nurmi, an MPH student studying epidemiology and biostatistics as well as health communication and promotion, recommends the book Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud. Written in comic book form itself, the book provides an overview of the history of comics and explores the language that comics use to convey their ideas, says Nurmi. The 215-page work of nonfiction discusses comics both as a medium for communication and an art form. Nurmi, a new member of SPH’s Queer Alliance, arrived at his decision to suggest Understanding Comics to the SPH community because “… so much of the queer canon is defined by comics and graphic novels,” he says. By equipping readers with the vocabulary to appreciate comics as a medium, Nurmi feels that McCloud’s book is a good precursor to the many popular comics and graphic novels featuring LGBTQ+ characters and themes.

The Opposite of Loneliness / Martine Geary-Souza

Martine Geary-Souza (SPH’25), who studied community assessment, program design, implementation, and evaluation as an MPH student, recommends The Opposite of Loneliness, a posthumous collection of essays and stories by Marine Keegan. Keegan penned the title essay “The Opposite of Loneliness” for her peers at Yale University on the occasion of their commencement. Shortly after the ceremony, at the age of 22, Keegan died in a car accident. Meanwhile, her essay went viral. In her memory, Keegan’s family and friends compiled the piece and a selection of her other work together to form the book.

“I think that [the] book is really important for anybody in public health because we work in such a difficult field, especially right now, and it really emphasizes just how important it is to have community and to surround yourself with the people you love, even when things are really difficult,” says Geary-Souza. A skilled writer herself, Geary-Souza has taken her personal experience navigating the healthcare system with diagnoses of complex post-traumatic stress disorder and functional neurologic disorder to advocate for the universal implementation of trauma-informed care in clinical education. As a student at SPH, she investigated ways to improve the experience of patients with a history of trauma in the Department of Gynecology at Boston Children’s Hospital, conducted research on provider interactions with patients around cannabis use as a student fellow with the Center for Trauma and Mental Health, and completed a practicum with The Fenway Institute culminating in the publication of a brief on the importance of universal trauma-informed care for LGBTQ+ patients.