S3 E2: Dr Emily Smith: Your Friendly Neighborhood Epidemiologist

Liminal Living

Dr Emily Smith is a PhD epidemiologist whose work has been featured in TIME Magazine, Christianity Today, the Washington Post, and NPR. Dr Emily’s profession as an epidemiologist was a natural way to express her Christian values for loving her neighbor. So when the pandemic hit, she was in a unique spot to rally the church together to love their neighbor as the Good Samaritan taught, or so she thought. Expressing her expertise online made her a target, even from her own church members, whom her husband was pastor of. After threats to her children were made, she broke down with debilitating and chronic migraines for 15 months, spending 6 months in bed. When she was well enough, she wrote of her experiences in a published book entitled, The Science of the Good Samaritan. We have an honest conversation about her journey through this time, and her book.

You can connect with Dr Emily’s work at https://emilysmith.substack.com
You can purchase her book at https://rb.gy/94v8jh

Time Stamps for the episode:
03:08 Science, Astronomy, and Liminal Space
06:25 Epidemiology and Equity
11:02 Searching for the story behind the data
15:24 White collar violence
20:55 Systemic Racism’s historical effect
25:59 Faith over fear… what it really points to
31:03 Speaking out and being thirst into liminal space
36:23 The Evangelical machine
41:28 Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism
45:38 Healing in the dirt in the garden
51:05 Thinking globally
56:37 Conclusions

All Music for this episode is provided by Axeltree

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All Music for this episode composed by Axeltree