The things I've seen
Coming back from the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, a few observations and takeaways are on my mind. This was my tenth year at the meeting, and I’ve now published books by so many amazing people that just catching up with them all takes about half my time. It’s a great feeling—like connecting with old friends—and it energizes me for the mission.
I ran into Adele Houghton, author of Architectural Epidemiology. Actually, we passed by each other on the escalators and I hurried to loop around and say hi. (photo by coauthor Carlos Castillo-Salgado)
I got to have dinner with author Tyler Evans and his team from the Wellness Equity Alliance to celebrate the publication of his new book, Pandemics, Poverty, and Politics
I met Kevin De Cock in person for the first time, and we got to admire the beautiful cover of his new book, Deployed
Paul Fleming, author of Imagine Doing Better stopped by after a talk at the local library, and we took the chance to grab a photo with Raiding the Heartland by his friend William Lopez, who couldn’t be at the meeting.
And I caught up with Yara Asi, author of How War Kills for the first time since she received the 2024 Sidel Levy Award for Peace from APHA.
And a moment I’ll share for all my authors—check out the photo below to see how popular your books are!
Dozens of other conversations with authors and attendees gave me a sense of the meeting beyond the exhibit hall where I spent 95% of my time. Here are a few questions observations that stuck with me:
Policies are extraordinarily powerful—how can we help regular folks see their value, as well as their unintended consequences, and get them involved in creating solutions that start in communities?
Can local news be a public health intervention?
Storytelling will be a key skill for public health in the years to come. It seems that everybody knows this—it’s no longer a matter of convincing people. But it’s a bit outside the comfort zone of many people. Look for a lot more on storytelling principles here and in future books on my list soon. (if you’re hungry for storytelling content, you can look through my archive—maybe start with this one: Stories that work)
People are interested in food, and I don’t just mean because a conference this big always feels like a food desert. Food systems, sustainability, nutrition, industrial agriculture, all seemed to keep coming up even in relation to other topics.
Books on the influence of private equity were hot.
More and more people are looking for highly readable books to use in courses that they teach. I get the sense that there was more interest than in past years around books that would be both engaging and reliable. Is this a sign of the pushback against the profusion of slop that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago?
What did I miss? What were your big takeaways from the meeting?
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