#17 Jonathan Michel Metzl on Gun Control, Vaccine Mandates, and the Rural Pushback Against Government 

Jonathan Michel Metzl, MD, PhD, joins Nick Dirks to discuss his educational journey that combined the sciences with the humanities, gun culture in the American Heartland, and the growing skepticism toward institutional expertise. Prof. Metzl is a physician, psychiatrist, sociologist and public intellectual whose scholarship and commentary explore the intersections of health, race, identity and violence in America. He currently holds the Frederick B. Rentschler II Professorship in Sociology and Psychiatry and directs the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University. His path-breaking books – such as Dying of Whiteness and What We’ve Become – challenge conventional public-health narratives about gun violence, mental illness and race. His work asks what it means to be healthy, safe and free in a deeply divided society.   

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