How We Create Pandemics, From Our Bodies to Our Beliefs with Smithsonian Curator Sabrina Sholts

Join us for this enlightening presentation with Smithsonian curator Sabrina Sholts as she talks about how the very fact of being human increases our pandemic risks—and gives us the power to save ourselves. 

The COVID-19 pandemic won't be our last—because what makes us vulnerable to pandemics also makes us human. That is the uncomfortable but all-too-timely message of The Human Disease: How We Create Pandemics, From Our Bodies to Our Beliefs, which travels through history and around the globe to examine how and why pandemics are an inescapable threat of our own making. Drawing on dozens of disciplines—from medicine, epidemiology, and microbiology to anthropology, sociology, ecology, and neuroscience—as well as a unique expertise in public education about emerging infectious diseases, biological anthropologist Sabrina Sholts identifies the human traits and tendencies that double as pandemic liabilities, from the anatomy that defines us to the misperceptions that divide us.

 Weaving together a wealth of personal experiences, scientific findings, and historical stories, Sholts brings dramatic and much-needed clarity to one of the most profound challenges we face as a species. Though the COVID-19 pandemic looms large in Sholts's account, it is, in fact, just one of the many infectious disease events explored in The Human Disease. With its expansive, evolutionary perspective, the book explains how humanity will continue to face new pandemics because humans cause them, by the ways that we are and the things that we do. By recognizing our risks, Sholts suggests, we can take actions to reduce them. When the next pandemic happens, and how bad it becomes, are largely within our highly capable human hands—and will be determined by what we do with our extraordinary human brains. A presentation you don’t want to miss, register now!

Join the conversation and register at https://libraryc.org/santacruzpl/66593.

About the Author:

Sabrina Sholts is a biological anthropologist and Curator of Biological Anthropology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). Her research explores intersections of human, animal, and environmental health in the past and present. She received her PhD in Anthropology at UC Santa Barbara and was a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley in Integrative Biology and at Stockholm University in Biophysics and Biochemistry. Sholts has published widely in academic journals including American Journal of Biological Anthropology, Environmental Health Perspectives, JAMA, PNAS, Scientific Reports, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, and Nature Ecology & Evolution, and written for popular audiences in Scientific American and Smithsonian Magazine. She was named as a World Economic Forum Young Scientist in 2019. In addition, she was Lead Curator of the exhibition Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World at the NMNH (2018-2022) and a scientific advisor for the related exhibition Épidémies: Prendre soin du vivant at the musée des Confluences in Lyon, France (2024-2025).

For upcoming author talks, visit https://libraryc.org/santacruzpl/upcoming.

SCPL's Virtual Author Talks are made possible by the Friends of the Capitola Library.

Local author and Life Coach Jeri Ross joins us to share her deeply personal story of being the daughter of a notorious drug-trafficking kingpin serving a life sentence in maximum security federal prison. Jeri writes about how her childhood trauma of witnessing domestic violence and finding out at the age of ten, that her dad was in prison instead of away at school. Hers is the story shared by millions of sons and daughters of the incarcerated across the country.

Light refreshments will be provided. Registration is recommended to help us plan refreshments, but not required. Register Below.

See You in the Sky is a tender tale of hope revealing how finally, through many years, Jeri learns to trust and reconnect with her father by being honest, facing her hurt and opening her heart to forgiveness. “This healing resource shares a much-needed message about love beyond bars.” Sandra Kay Barnhill, JD, Founder and CEO of Foreverfamily "When I started reading See You in the Sky, I didn't want to put it down. There are so many fantastic life experiences in this story. If you only take one thing away from reading this memoir, your life will be better for it." Harvey RV Powers, currently incarcerated.

On a summer afternoon in her hometown of Decatur, Georgia, eight-year-old Jeri Ross dressed up for a family dinner at Morrison's Cafeteria, stepped out onto the front porch, and saw her father punch her mother in the face. Within weeks, she and her sister came home one day to discover that their mom was gone. After moving in with their grandparents they learned that their father was sent away to prison. She was told not to tell anyone. Thus began decades of Jeri hiding family secrets, avoiding shame and being afraid of being abandoned. Until the day Jeri decided to change, to heal.

See You in the Sky offers hope for all families affected by incarceration and for anyone who decides, at any age, to seek a more meaningful life.

Jeri Ross is a Licensed Health Educator with a Masters in Public Health (MPH). She trained with  Martha Beck, Byron Katie, Chloe Taylor Brown, Dr. Susan Allison, Sandra Ingerman, and Alberto Villoldo’s The Four Winds Dying Consciously course. She is a Community Organizer raising thousands of dollars for youth violence prevention programs and programs for children with incarcerated parents.

Dystopian Tropes from an Indigenous Perspective: In Conversation with Waubgeshig Rice

You’re invited to a riveting conversation with bestselling author Waubgeshig Rice to chat about his newest book Moon of the Turning Leaves, the hotly anticipated sequel to the bestselling novel Moon of the Crusted Snow.

It’s been over a decade since a mysterious cataclysm caused a permanent blackout that toppled infrastructure and thrust the world into anarchy. Evan Whitesky led his community in remote northern Ontario off the rez and into the bush, where they’ve been living off the land, rekindling their Anishinaabe traditions in total isolation from the outside world.

As new generations are born, and others come of age in the world after everything, Evan’s people are in some ways stronger than ever. But resources in and around their new settlement are beginning to dry up, and the elders warn that they cannot afford to stay indefinitely.

Evan and his fifteen-year-old daughter, Nangohns, are elected to lead a small scouting party on a months-long trip to their traditional home on the north shore of Lake Huron—to seek new beginnings and discover what kind of life—and what dangers—still exist in the lands to the south.

Moon of the Turning Leaves is Rice’s exhilarating return to the world first explored in the phenomenal breakout bestseller Moon of the Crusted Snow: a brooding story of survival, resilience, Indigenous identity, and rebirth. Register now for a thrilling conversation!

Join the conversation and register at https://libraryc.org/santacruzpl/67077.

About the Author:  Waubgeshig Rice is an author and journalist originally from Wasauksing First Nation. His books include the Independent Publishers Book Award-winning short story collection Midnight Sweatlodge and the national bestselling novel Moon of the Crusted Snow. Reporting for CBC News for the bulk of his journalism career, in 2014 he received the Anishinabek Nation’s Debwewin Citation for excellence in First Nation Storytelling, and from 2018 to 2020, he hosted Up North, CBC Radio’s afternoon show for northern Ontario.

For upcoming author talks, visit https://libraryc.org/santacruzpl/upcoming.

SCPL's Virtual Author Talks are made possible by the Friends of the Capitola Library.

I Am Nobody’s Slave: An Author Talk with Pulitzer Prize Finalist Lee Hawkins

We welcome you to our conversation with journalist and author Lee Hawkins as he talks to us about the examination of his family’s legacy of post-enslavement trauma and resilience in this riveting memoir, I Am Nobody's Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free. 

I Am Nobody’s Slave tells the story of one Black family's pursuit of the American Dream through the impacts of systemic racism and racial violence. This book examines how trauma from enslavement and Jim Crow shaped their outlook on thriving in America, influenced each generation, and how they succeeded despite these challenges.

To their suburban Minnesotan neighbors, the Hawkinses were an ideal American family, embodying strength and success. However, behind closed doors, they faced the legacy of enslavement and apartheid. Lee Hawkins, Sr. often exhibited rage, leaving his children anxious and curious about his protective view of the world. Thirty years later, his son uncovered the reasons for his father’s anxiety and occasional violence. Through research, he discovered violent deaths in his family for every generation since slavery, mostly due to white-on-Black murders, and how white enslavers impacted the family’s customs.

Hawkins explores the role of racism-triggered childhood trauma and chronic stress in shortening his ancestors' lives, using genetic testing, reporting, and historical data to craft a moving family portrait. This book shows how genealogical research can educate and heal Americans of all races, revealing through their story the story of America—a journey of struggle, resilience, and the heavy cost of ultimate success. Register today to join the conversation!

Join the conversation and register at https://libraryc.org/santacruzpl/67561.

About the Author: LEE HAWKINS was a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist as a lead reporter on a series about the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 at the Wall Street Journal, where he worked for nineteen years. He has received several fellowships, including The Carter Center’s Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism, the Alicia Patterson Foundation Journalism Fellowship, the O’Brien Fellowship for Public Service Journalism, the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism National Fellowship for reporting on child well-being. Hawkins is a five-time winner of the National Association of Black Journalists’ “Salute to Excellence” Award. He is the creator and host of the podcast “What Happened in Alabama?” and lives in the New York City area.

For upcoming author talks, visit https://libraryc.org/santacruzpl/upcoming.

SCPL's Virtual Author Talks are made possible by the Friends of the Capitola Library.

Join a community viewing of the recording of our SCPL Virtual Author Talk with Lee Hawkins and join the discussion afterwards. Hawkins' book, I Am Nobody’s Slave, tells the story of one Black family's pursuit of the American Dream through the impacts of systemic racism and racial violence. This book examines how trauma from enslavement and Jim Crow shaped their outlook on thriving in America, influenced each generation, and how they succeeded despite these challenges.

Light refreshments will be provided. Registration is recommended and drop-ins are welcome. The live discussion takes place February 18th at 11am. To view the live interactive discussion, visit our Virtual Author Talks page.

Hawkins explores the role of racism-triggered childhood trauma and chronic stress in shortening his ancestors' lives, using genetic testing, reporting, and historical data to craft a moving family portrait. This book shows how genealogical research can educate and heal Americans of all races, revealing through their story the story of America—a journey of struggle, resilience, and the heavy cost of ultimate success. Register today to join the conversation!

About the Author: LEE HAWKINS was a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist as a lead reporter on a series about the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 at the Wall Street Journal, where he worked for nineteen years. He has received several fellowships, including The Carter Center’s Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism, the Alicia Patterson Foundation Journalism Fellowship, the O’Brien Fellowship for Public Service Journalism, the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism National Fellowship for reporting on child well-being. Hawkins is a five-time winner of the National Association of Black Journalists’ “Salute to Excellence” Award. He is the creator and host of the podcast “What Happened in Alabama?” and lives in the New York City area.