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"How Our Bodies Fight Disease, Attract Others, and Define Our Selves" (Encore presentation.)

Aired on Friday, February 28th.

On today's show, we listen back to a StudioTulsa on Health broadcast from October of last year. At that time, guest host John Henning Schumann spoke with Daniel M. Davis, a Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester in the UK. The focal point of this discussion was the then-new book that Dr. Davis had out from Oxford University Press, "The Compatibility Gene: How Our Bodies Fight Disease, Attract Others, and Define Our Selves." As was noted of this title in The New York Times, in that newspaper's science section: "[It] will enhance most readers' appreciation for the immune system's heroic daily struggles to prevent their body from being overrun by alien life-forms. The book also explores the immune system's reach into realms as unexpected as choosing a mate, wiring the brain, and determining the success of pregnancies.... [Davis] not only writes gracefully but has taken the trouble to interview the major players in [immunology] about how they made their discoveries. His book is enlivened by many details one would not find in an immunology textbook. Which famous immunologist was into sadomasochism? Which told his wife she had first claim on his love but not on his time? Which one wrote a letter to his deceased wife every week? Read all about it here.... The exact nature of the relationship between the brain and the immune system is far from clear, and Davis does a good job of explaining the nuances.... [His] readable and informative book takes the reader into unexpectedly interesting corners of both the immune system and the lives of immunologists. It is packed with an insider's knowledge --- not just of the field, but of where its bodies are buried." You can read more about this book, and can also hear a free 24/7 stream of our entire interview with Dr. Davis, at this link.

Rich Fisher passed through KWGS about thirty years ago, and just never left. Today, he is the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and the host of KWGS’s public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in August 2012 . As host of StudioTulsa, Rich has conducted roughly four thousand long-form interviews with local, national, and international figures in the arts, humanities, sciences, and government. Very few interviews have gone smoothly. Despite this, he has been honored for his work by several organizations including the Governor's Arts Award for Media by the State Arts Council, a Harwelden Award from the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, and was named one of the “99 Great Things About Oklahoma” in 2000 by Oklahoma Today magazine.
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