With rates of diagnoses and death disproportionately affecting racial minorities and low-income workers, experts in this episode address how COVID-19 has further exposed already dire health outcome inequalities.

We begin with a political scientist discussing how governmental policy drives health inequality, especially during times of crisis. Then, a Ph.D. student in history and sociology of science talks about how infectious microbes like the coronavirus can affect communities of people with genetic vulnerabilities. And finally, a professor of sociology, Africana studies, and law, discusses how the biological concept of race was invented as a way to justify racism and influence outcomes.

FEATURING:

Julia Lynch, Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies

Rebecca Mueller, doctoral candidate in the Department of History and Sociology of Science

Dorothy Roberts, George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology, Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights, and Professor of Africana Studies

***

Produced by Blake Cole

Narrated by Alex Schein

Edited by Alex Schein and Brooke Sietinsons

Interviews by Blake Cole and Jane Carroll

Theme music by Nicholas Escobar, C'18

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

Illustration by Nick Matej

Logo by Drew Nealis

In These Times is a production of Penn Arts & Sciences. Visit our series website to learn more and listen to the first season of In These Times. 

Visit our editorial magazine, Omnia, for more content from Penn Arts & Sciences faculty, students, and alumni. 

Follow Penn Arts & Sciences on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.