The library will be CLOSED Sunday, April 20, 2025, in observance of Easter Sunday.
Join us online. Streamed live.
Join us for this enlightening presentation with Smithsonian curator Sabrina Sholts as she talks about how the very fact of being human increases our pandemic risks—and gives us the power to save ourselves. Weaving together a wealth of personal experiences, scientific findings, and historical stories, Sholts brings dramatic and much-needed clarity to one of the most profound challenges we face as a species. Though the COVID-19 pandemic looms large in Sholts's account, it is, in fact, just one of the many infectious disease events explored in The Human Disease. With its expansive, evolutionary perspective, the book explains how humanity will continue to face new pandemics because humans cause them, by the ways that we are and the things that we do. By recognizing our risks, Sholts suggests, we can take actions to reduce them. When the next pandemic will happen, and how bad it will become, are both largely within our highly capable human hands—and will be determined by what we do with our extraordinary human brains.
A presentation you don’t want to miss, register now!
Brought to you in partnership with the Library Speakers Consortium. Visit our site to see all events, register and explore recordings of past events.
Westlake Porter Public Library is an independent public library serving the residents of the city of Westlake, western Cuyahoga County and eastern Lorain County. The library is located at 27333 Center Ridge Road in Westlake, Ohio. Anyone who lives, works, owns property, or goes to school in Ohio can register for a free library card.
