Mason County District Library and Abondia Center turn to epidemiology in the public lecture series Shifting Landscapes on Monday November 15, with Epidemiology: Why Does the Course of Disease Matter? at 7-8:30 pm Zoom (mcdl <http://mcdl.pub/sl-zoom>.pub/sl-zoom), featuring Kenneth Dudley, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, and Jordan Powell, MPH, epidemiologist, District Health Dept #10. This 2021-2022 series is exploring six areas of our lives that have been reshaped during the Covid-19 epidemic and the many events that have occurred in the past 20 months. Science is the second topic in the Shifting Landscapes series. Kenneth Dudley, formerly a Family Physician, now teaches epidemiology to first-year medical students. He will address the questions, What is epidemiology? and Why is it important? Because it is important to get human science correct, more money has been put into epidemiology than any other field of science. He will discuss how the result-surprising insights into how we know can be applied to every other branch of knowledge. Jordan Powell will explore why there’s an epidemiologist at District Health Dept#10. She’ll outline what is helpful for the public to know as they obtain information from both news sources and social media as well as on DHD#10’s website. Especially important is an understanding of the paths and patterns of diseases, including infectious diseases like Covid-19 and chronic diseases like diabetes and cancer. In asking questions about the nature of science, vaccines, and the epidemiological course of the pandemic, Shifting Landscapes’ series seeks to address questions on people’s minds. It also hopes the information helps them get more from news sources as well as their health professionals and others about science that matters to them. There will be no sessions in December but the Shifting Landscapes series will start again January 10 focusing on education, including the 1619 Project (Jan10), Critical Race Theory (Jan 17), and Teaching Difficult Truths to Children and Youth (Jan 24). Additional topics include Race/Racism (Feb 7, 14, 21), Truth in Politics (Mar 7, 14, 21), and Economics (Apr 4, 11, 18). If you are interested in hosting a live viewing of some of these future events at your library, let me know. Your attendees will be able to interact with the speaker and the rest of the viewers. We will provide press releases and brochures. This would be free quality programming for your library. Events are free, live or by Zoom at mcdl <http://mcdl.pub/sl-zoom> .pub/sl-zoom. Tickets are not necessary but registration is helpful. To register: mcdl.pub/sl-register. For information check the Mason County District Library website: mcdlibrary.org or contact Thomas Trahey, Mason County District Library at ttrahey@mcdlibrary.org or Brooke Portmann, director of Abondia Center, at baportmann312@gmail.com This project has been funded by grants from Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and Michigan Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. -- Thomas Trahey Mason County District Library Head of Circulation 231-843-8465