In this episode, host Bilal Rehman interviews Dr. Robin Scheffler, historian of the modern biological and biomedical sciences at MIT and author of A Contagious Cause: The American Hunt for Cancer Viruses and the Rise of Molecular Medicine. Bilal explores Scheffler’s studies on the relationship and history between laboratory and legislature in bioscience, relating them to his own experiences with cancer in his family and his community. Particularly, Bilal uses Scheffler’s idea of the “biomedical settlement” to further understand his mother’s lymphoma diagnosis, his current academic interests, and the implications of his career as a physician in the future.
Metastasis is a part of the Medicine Race Democracy Lab. We are sponsored by the Bridge Systemic Racism and Racial Inequity Seed Grant and a product of The Center for Black Brown Queer Studies.
Our producers include Alicia Leong, Aysel Rizvi, Bilal Rehman, Eddie Jackson, Emma Cooke, Jason Lee, Julianne Bi, Katherine Wu, Mandy Quan Taylor Phillips, Tian-Tian He, and Yesmar Oyarzun. Danyal Rizvi is our executive producer and Cher Vincent, our Senior Advisor. Our music is by MOIZ. This project is directed by Lan Li.
For more of our episodes, check us out at metastasispodcast.com and learn more about the lab mrdlab.org
