Episode 44: A Coronavirus (COVID-19) Special with Dr. Robert Kim-Farley

Hello and welcome to the Baha’i Blogcast with me your host, Rainn Wilson. In this series of podcasts I interview members of the Baha’i Faith and friends from all over the world about their hearts, and minds, and souls, their spiritual journeys, what they’re interested in, and what makes them tick. With the recent pandemic of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading globally, and as the situation continues to unfold, I thought it would be timely to get Dr. Robert Kim-Farley on the Baha'i Blogcast. Dr. Kim-Farley is an epidemiologist and a dear Baha'i friend who currently serves as a Professor in both the Departments of Epidemiology, and the Community Health Sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, and from 2004 to 2018, he served as the Director of the Division of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. In this episode, Dr. Kim-Farley (or Dr. Bob as I like to call him), tells us about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and what we know about it so far. He shares some possible scenarios of what could happen in the coming months and gives examples of how certain countries are fighting it. he tells us how we can help slow down the spread of the virus, and he also shares his personal experience in how they were able to completely eliminate polio from Indonesia. Skip ahead to the 24-minute mark of the podcast if you don't want to hear any more about the Coronavirus (COVID-19), and find out how Dr. Bob got into epidemiology, how he discovered the Baha'i Faith, met his wife, and recently joined a rock band. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did, and also find it helpful! To find out more about some of the things we covered in this episode, check out the following links: * Find out more about Dr. Robert Kim-Farley's professional work here: https://ph.ucla.edu/faculty/kim-farley * Dr. Kim-Farley explains the idea of humanity being like the human body, and this concept was actually put into a small editorial in the American Journal of Public Health which you can read here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2836328/ * Dr. Kim-Farley refers to the following quote by Baha'u'llah: "Religion without science is superstition. Science without religion is materialism." * Dr. Kim-Farley relates a story about Abdu'l-Baha relating to science and religion. Find out more about Abdu'l-Baha here: https://www.bahai.org/abdul-baha/ * Dr. Kim-Farley mentions the Universal House of Justice: https://universalhouseofjustice.bahai.org/ * Dr. Kim-Farley talks about being a Baha'i pioneer: https://bit.ly/2w0jrD5 * Rainn mentions the following quote from 'The Hidden Words' of Baha'u'llah (https://bit.ly/2Wg56Nu): "Say, O brethren! Let deeds, not words, be your adorning." * Dr. Kim-Farley mentions the word Allah-u-Abha: https://bit.ly/2U3xVKg * Dr. Kim-Farley mentions the following quote from Baha'ullah: "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens." * Rainn mentions the following article from the Baha'i World News Service: 'Hope and Support in Italy During a Global Health Crisis': https://news.bahai.org/story/1401/ * Dr. Kim-Farley mentions the Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program (JYSEP) which you can learn more about here: https://www.bahaiblog.net/junior-youth/ * And finally, you can watch this video with Dr. Kim-Farley performing as his alter ego named "Gage", singing "Born to be Wild" with Ryan and the Runaways: https://bit.ly/39WfJJo Be sure to subscribe to the Baha’i Blogcast for more episodes on: * YouTube: bit.ly/2JTNmBO * iTunes: apple.co/2leHPHL * Soundcloud: @bahaiblogcast * Spotify: spoti.fi/2IXRAnb If you would like to find out more about the Baha'i Faith visit BAHAI.ORG, and for more great Baha'i-inspired content check out BAHAIBLOG.NET: bahaiblog.net/ Thanks for listening! -Rainn Wilson