Interview with Maryn McKenna, author of Big Chicken and global health specialist

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Today’s interview could not be more timely. I am speaking with Maryn McKenna, an independent journalist and author, specializing in public health, global health, and food policy. When I first reached out to interview Maryn, I was fascinated to talk with her about her book Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats. But since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, I pivoted our conversation to discuss what we are all concerned about.

Not only has Maryn reported from farms and food production sites but on epidemics and disasters including a bird-testing unit on the front lines of West Nile virus, an Arctic graveyard of the victims of the 1918 flu, an AIDS treatment center in Yunnan, a polio-eradication team in India, and epidemic of avian flu. She has reported on outbreaks like H5N1, anthrax, West Nile, SARS, H1N1, and Ebola. She is the creator of the site Today in Ebolanoia, which has been cited in medical and biodefense literature for documenting public overreaction to disease threats, and her work has also appeared in the Annals of Emergency Medicine and the Bulletin of the History of Medicine. I could have talked with her for hours. She is a wealth of knowledge on the food industry and COVID-19.

Links to Maryn McKenna’s social media and other items mentioned in the interview.

Instagram @marynmck

Facebook: @MarynMcKennaAuthor

Twitter: @marynmck

Website: https://marynmckenna.com

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