The Shocking Origins of Epidemiology - Dr. Jim Downs, Gettysburg College

We take for granted today that public health systems around the world have the capacity to trace the progression of outbreaks, to determine how cancer clusters are linked to environmental effects, how dirty water causes outbreaks of transmissible illnesses... but where did all this knowledge come from? Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't from John Snow's identifying the origin of the Cholera epidemic as the pump on Broad Street. No, John Snow was using techniques that were passed to him fully formed. The real source of epidemiological tools lies in the brutal and bloody arc of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, a finding that shocked Gettysburg College history professor Jim Downs when he found it buried in the dusty archives from which his research is sourced. Support the scientific revolution with a monthly donation: https://bit.ly/3lcAasB    Check our short-films channel, @DemystifySci:  https://www.youtube.com/c/DemystifyingScience   Join our mailing list https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S      PODCAST INFO:  Anastasia completed her PhD studying microbial communication at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting and exploring the woods. Michael Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities. - Blog: http://DemystifySci.com/blog   - RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss - Donate: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD- Swag: https://bit.ly/2PXdC2y     SOCIAL:    - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySci  MUSIC:    -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671