An Emergency Physician and a Children’s Book: Shan Liu Honors Her Great-Grandfather and his Innovation

What happens when an emergency medicine physician knows that the N95 mask she's wearing every day during the COVID-19 pandemic was invented by her great-grandfather over a century ago? Dr. Shan Liu joins me for a conversation that weaves together family legacy, innovation from the margins, and the power of storytelling to fight racism. Shan is an emergency medicine physician at Mass General Hospital, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and a children's book author. Her award-winning book, Masked Hero: How Wu Lien-teh Invented the Mask That Ended an Epidemic, tells the remarkable story of her great-grandfather who created the first respiratory mask during the 1910 Manchurian plague outbreak. Wu Lien-teh was the first Chinese Malaysian to study medicine at Cambridge, faced relentless racism throughout his career, and became the first Chinese person nominated for a Nobel Prize in medicine. Website: shanwuliu.com If you enjoy the show, please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating on Apple or a 👍🏻 on YouTube. Subscribe via the Website. Forward to a friend today!