Welcome to the 427th episode of COVID-Calls, a daily discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic with a diverse collection of disaster experts. My name is Jacob Steere-Williams, I am a historian of public health at the College of Charleston, in South Carolina, and I’m thrilled to be hosting the program this week.
Dr. Kathleen Bachynski is an assistant professor of public health at Muhlenberg College. Dr. Bachynski’s work on public health is wide-ranging, but she is a leading expert on brain injuries, sports, injury prevention, youth health, and risk. Her book, No Game for Boys to Play: The History of Youth Football and the Origins of a Public Health Crisis has been called by one scholar called “smart, salient, timely, eminently readable, and socially important.” It’s a terrific book and I highly suggest everyone order a copy.
Dr. Johanna Mellis is an assistant professor of World History at Ursinus (Er-sigh-nus) College outside of Philadelphia and was a former D-I swimmer at the College of Charleston and a former swim coach. She is a historian of Cold War sport who analyzes sporting interactions between Hungary, the International Olympic Committee, and the US. She is a co-host of the End of Sport podcast that explores capitalist sport, labor, and justice for the end of times and has written pieces for the Guardian, Time, Washington Post, and LA Times, and also for the Journal of Sport History and Contemporary European History. I am so excited to read the book she is working on, Changing the Global Game: Hungarian Athletes and International Sport during the Cold War.