(TOMS RIVER, NJ) -- The common factor in pandemics that have plagued humanity since the beginning of time is... humanity. Smithsonian Curator Sabrina Sholts contends that recognizing our habits and traits is the key to reducing our risks. She'll bring clarity to this critical issue in her Ocean County Library Virtual Author Talk on Tuesday, February 4, 2025. The event begins at 2:00pm.

In The Human Disease: How We Create Pandemics, from Our Bodies to Our Beliefs, available at the Ocean County Library, Sabrina weaves a tapestry of scientific evidence, historical tales and personal experiences to illustrate our vulnerabilities and defenses against assaults on our health and well-being.

Exploring historic infectious disease events, Sabrina reveals the often unwitting roles that humans have played in them and ways that awareness can help to avert them. She combines disciplines of medicine, epidemiology, anthropology, ecology, neuroscience and more with her expertise in biological anthropology and public education.

The Smithsonian’s Curator of Biological Anthropology has co-authored more than 40 research articles that have appeared in scientific and academic journals worldwide and has enlightened readers of Scientific American and Smithsonian magazines.  She served as lead curator for the recent exhibit Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and its related display at the museé des Confluences in Lyons, France.

Please register at https://libraryc.org/theoceancountylibrary to attend this free program, to view the upcoming schedule, and to view previous talks. Registrants will receive links to the program by email and may submit questions for the author during signup.