Public Health in the Pages: Kicking Off a New Reading Series

There is a saying among public health professionals (or at the very least between me and a good friend and colleague) that goes something like: public health is everywhere. Public health is more formally defined as the science and practice of protecting and improving the health of communities or populations (as opposed to the practice of medicine, which focuses on the individual). What does this mean in practice? Public health covers the healthcare we can access, the air that we breathe, the green spaces in our communities, the school meals our children eat (or don't eat), the books on library shelves, and everything in between.

Once you see it, you can't unsee that public health is literally everywhere.

I've spent more than two decades working at the intersection of law, healthcare, and policy. I have a law degree and a recently obtained master's degree in public health, but I've spent a lifetime as an avid reader and library card holder. And, some of the most notable moments in my public health education have happened between the pages of a book. From picture books that I've read to my kids to romance novels that I've read to decompress, I have recognized real world public health topics in many of those pages.

That's what this blog series is about.

Public Health in the Pages is a reading series that finds the public health topic hiding inside the books we love. From New York Times bestsellers to children's books, from dystopian science fiction to the classics, from contemporary literary fiction to memoirs, I'll highlight the public health threads: food insecurity, healthcare access and equity, environmental justice, literacy gaps, and the policy failures.

This series is NOT about turning pleasure reading into a chore or making that chapter book a textbook. It's about using everyday stories to make the systems and structures that shape lives feel more real and understandable. I love books and love making connections between what I read and everyday life. I also believe that the more we see ourselves and others in what we read, the more we can empathize and be equipped to make change or, at the very least, understand.

Here is what to expect from this series:

• Highlights - Each post will feature a book - a novel, picture book, memoir, graphic novel, you name it - and will highlight the public health themes, whether the author intended them or not.

• Context - I will connect the highlighted public health themes to real policies, data, and information.

• Recommendations - I'll close each post with action items ranging from recommended reading to how you can help.

You won't need a public health degree to read (and hopefully enjoy) this series. Just bring your curiosity (and maybe a book recommendation - or two) to think about your reading in a different way. Stay tuned for the first post!

Public health is everywhere ... let's go find it on the pages!