046: Hawaiian Ballistic Missiles and Shitholes

This week on Live From America Podcast; we sit down with Professor of Epidemiology Joshua M. Epstein. Dr. Epstein has extensive experience in mathematical and computational modeling of biomedical and social dynamics at all scales - from local to national to planetary. He pioneered the technique of agent-based computational modeling and has applied it to problems in social, behavioral, and biomedical science by modeling economic dynamics, patterns of civil violence, the evolution of norms, the computational reconstruction of the ancient civilization of the Anasazi, and the epidemiology of the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic, smallpox, HIV, and Ebola. To design evacuation and longer-term adaptation to climate change, he combined computational fluid dynamics (i.e. toxic plume dispersion) with human behavior to create a stunning 3D artificial Los Angeles. In response to Zika and in collaboration with colleagues and the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dr. Epstein has developed an artificial New York City to be applied to urban health policy challenges. His work has had a profound influence on emerging infectious diseases, bioterrorism, and the nascent field of disaster health, which is being developed under Presidential Directive (I-ISPD-21).

We ask Joshua about what has been gleamed from his models, and what they could be used for in the future; including whether or not they could be used to evaluate current political trends. Dr. Epstein explains how, with the right tweaking they can be molded to measure all sorts of metrics.

We of course also discuss the recent events from the White House, including the Hawaiian ballistic missile scare, and President Trump calling Haiti and other African nations "Shitholes".

Other guests on the show Comedian Modi,
& Comedian Tony Daro
Hosted by Noam Dworman and Hatem Gabr

Email the show at [email protected]