What if Violence were like a contagious disease?

Well, according to our guest on this episode... it absolutely is. 

Dr. Gary Slutkin is the Founder and CEO of Cure Violence Global, which seeks to reduce violence globally using disease control and behavior change methods.

He is Professor of Epidemiology and Global Health, University of Illinois Chicago's School of Public Health, was Formerly the Director of Intervention Development at the World Health Organization, where he spearheaded efforts to combat the tuberculosis, cholera and AIDS epidemics, as well as consulting on the global efforts to combat SARS and Ebola. Dr. Slutkin is also currently advising governments on responses to COVID-19.

After working in 25 different countries on these various epidemics, he returned to the States only to recognize the same patterns in the transmission of Violence as he saw while working on other epidemics. 

That's when he began implementing a three-pronged, epidemic-like approach to combating and containing Violence in cities across the nation:

1. Detect and find first cases.
2. Prevent future spread. 
3. Shift future norms. 

After seeing reductions in violence that ranged from 40-70% and reached up to 90-100%, Dr. Slutkin knew he'd found a pathway to actually tracking, treating and containing Violence in communities around the world. 

Dr. Slutkin’s work has been featured in The New York Times, NYT Sunday Magazine, "PBS News Hour," CNN, "60 Minutes," The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, The Guardian, Financial Times, The Economist, and other leading publications.

Having him as a guest on this episode was a great honor for me. I hope you enjoy!

Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss:

• "With violence, it’s just what we empirically see in nature — the greatest predictor of violence is exposure to a preceding event of violence." - Dr. Gary Slutkin
• While hate violence and terrorism are important forms of violence to track and treat, most violence currently occurs in homes towards children and communities between members.
• Learn about the 3-part approach that treats Violence, in a way similar to treating diseases like Covid-19, Cholera, AIDS, SARS, etc.
• How anticipating "push-back" is part of an effective treatment process. 

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Dr. Slutkin's TED Talk: Let's Treat Violence Like a Contagious Disease (2013)
• JRP's Masters Thesis: The Effects of Spanking on Mental Health, and Why Clinicians Need to Know (2016)
• Cure Violence Global
• New York Times Magazine: Blocking the Transmission of Violence (2008)
• PBS Documentary: The Interrupters (2012)
• A Path Appears (2015) by Nicholas Kristoff & Cheryl WuDunn
• World Health Organization definition of Interpersonal Violence (2007)
• JAMA Article: Violence in the United States: Status, Challenges, and Opportunities (2015)
• Digest of Education Statistics: Projected Student Enrollment (2020)
• Cure Violence Global's Social Media: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube

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