Person Place Thing with Charles Branas, Chair, Epidemiology

Person Place Thing, hosted by Randy Cohen
Podcast with guest Dr. Charles Branas

Tuesday, March 5
Taping and Reception from 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Faculty Club
630 West 168th Street, 4th Floor
New York City

Live performance by fiddlers Lily Henley and Duncan Wickel

Charles Branas, PhD
Chair and Anna Cheskis Gelman and Murray Charles Gelman Professor
Department of Epidemiology
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Charles Branas has conducted research that extends from urban and rural areas in the U.S. to communities across the globe, incorporating place-based interventions and human geography. His pioneering work on geographic access to medical care has changed the healthcare landscape in the US and other countries for many conditions: trauma, cancer, stroke, etc. His research on the geography and factors underpinning gun violence has been cited by landmark Supreme Court decisions, Congress, and the NIH Director. Dr. Branas has also led large-scale scientific work to transform thousands of vacant lots, abandoned buildings and other blighted spaces in improving the health and safety of entire communities.

Randy Cohen
Creator and Host
Person Place Thing

Randy Cohen’s first professional work was writing humor pieces, essays, and stories for newspapers and magazines (The New Yorker, Harpers, the Atlantic, Young Love Comics). His first television work was writing for "Late Night With David Letterman" for which he won three Emmy awards. His fourth Emmy was for his work on Michael Moore’s "TV Nation." He received a fifth Emmy as a result of a clerical error, and he kept it. For twelve years he wrote "The Ethicist," a weekly column for the New York Times Magazine. In 2010, his first play, “The Punishing Blow,” ran at New York’s Clurman Theater. His most recent book, "Be Good: how to navigate the ethics of everything," was published by Chronicle.