Professor’s New Book Shares Science through Stories.
Professor’s New Book Shares Science through Stories
In The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health, Monica Wang weaves four women’s stories—including her own—with scientific research to illustrate the social and structural forces that shape health, and to highlight the ways people from all walks of life can contribute to building healthier communities.
Some people picked up baking, crafting, or running during the COVID-19 pandemic. Monica Wang, associate professor of community health sciences, started writing her first book.
Titled The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health, Wang’s recently published book weaves four women’s stories—including her own—with scientific research to illustrate the social and structural forces that shape health, and to highlight the ways people from all walks of life can contribute to building healthier communities.
She hopes that by applying a personal lens to the complex issues at the heart of public health, the book cuts through chatter of misinformation and delivers a clear explanation of how health is a product of the everyday conditions and systems people share.
“It was never on my radar to write a book. In public health, most of the time [faculty] are focusing on peer‑reviewed manuscripts,” says Wang. And up until 2021, she was too. Over the course of her 15-year career as a health equity researcher studying community-based approaches to chronic disease prevention, her work has been published in leading academic journals including JAMA and JAMA Pediatrics and covered by journalists at The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, National Geographic and more.
During the pandemic, however, Wang noticed that while the mainstream media was reporting on comorbidities associated with an increased risk of COVID infection and death, the root causes of these disparate health outcomes were largely absent from the discussion. As an expert on the social determinants of health, she wanted to unpack for the public how factors beyond their genes and individual behavior, such their income, education, race and ethnicity, and conditions of their neighborhood affect their health.
“We have scientific evidence, but it’s not always accessible, easy to digest, or grounded in everyday experiences. It’s not enough to present data—you also have to make information resonate. Stories are fundamental ways to connect with people—they bridge divides. If people see themselves in a story, they’re more likely to see themselves as part of the solution,” says Wang, speaking from her years of experience in the study and practice of health communications. She currently serves as an editor-at-large for SPH’s Public Health Post.
“Stories don’t replace the science—the stories help the science land,” Wang says.
Monica Wang discusses The Collective Cure with journalist Indira Lakshmanan at the Museum of Science on February 26. Photo courtesy of Monica Wang.
Guests pack the Museum of Science on February 26 to hear Monica Wang discuss The Collective Cure. Photo courtesy of Monica Wang.
The Collective Cure conveys four distinct stories. There’s that of Marielis, a first‑generation Latina student and a Boston University alum who navigates financial insecurity in the Bronx. Then, there is that of Dorothy Oliver, a Black community organizer from Panola, Alabama who rallied her neighbors to get vaccinated for COVID. There is also the story of Rosa Tupina, an Indigenous clinical social worker whose practice blends Western, evidence‑based approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy with culturally based practices from her upbringing on the Texas-Mexico border. Finally, the book features Wang’s own story, from growing up an Asian American busing student in Boston to earning her doctorate from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and becoming a mother to two girls and a prominent researcher and teacher at BU.
Wang spoke with SPH about The Collective Cure, its distinctive narrative structure, her role in the book, and its central message.
Q&A
With Monica Wang
SPH: The book is about public health but is not written in the traditional academic way. Can you talk about why you chose to include individual narratives, and why all the stories are those of women?
Wang: For the book to be accessible to the everyday reader, it really had to be grounded in real‑life stories. Stories can be incredibly compelling in terms of making data more human, giving the research a voice and a soul so people can see everyday life experiences in the numbers. I interviewed many more people than the three other main characters who show up in the book, so it took a while to narrow down which stories to use. I wanted to weave a tapestry: though the four women are from different generations, represent distinct parts of the U.S., and have different life experiences, we have shared themes—everyday conditions that shape how we navigate life and health.
While I also interviewed men, time and again women’s stories emerged as a connecting thread in terms of how family and community made a big difference in how they navigated challenges. Although we often focus on the negative social determinants of health, there are also positive determinants, such as social support and social capital, that facilitate resilience and empowerment. Recurring themes included bringing together community and providing emotional, informational, or practical support to families and networks. We are meant to be part of a village and are wired for connection.
SPH: What led you to include your own story in the book?
Wang: There were a few key social and structural determinants I could speak to from lived experience. I was a METCO student, a busing student. I lived in Boston and I bused through a school desegregation program to Belmont, a wealthier, predominantly white suburb. The experience of living in one neighborhood and going to school in another showed me how different two neighborhoods can be, even if they are just 10 miles apart.
My peers who lived in Boston experienced more chronic health issues like asthma and diabetes. They often lived near busy streets filled with vehicle exhaust, or areas with many corner stores or fast-food places but not many healthy food stores. They could not be physically active outside because parks and streets were not always safe. Meanwhile, my peers in Belmont had access to healthy lunches, sidewalks, bike lanes, and after‑school sports. That showed me from an early age how much the environments you grow up in can impact your ability to be healthy, even with good intentions and knowledge of healthier choices.
I am also a working mom, which helps me understand and unpack research around work stress, gender inequities, and health. Doing the research while living the reality made it feel natural to write about the experience of juggling work and parenting. And my experience as a Chinese American was an opportunity to highlight health disparities that often get overlooked when Asian American and Pacific Islander data are aggregated.
SPH: What do you see as the “collective cure,” so to speak?
Wang: I see it as different people from different sectors—housing, healthcare, education, food systems—coming together and working in collaboration and harmony to improve not just health but people’s ability to lead full, thriving lives. For example, I discuss [in the book] the Green and Healthy Homes Initiative, a national cross sector collaboration focused on lower to moderate income households whose homes may have lead exposure, be close to highways—exacerbating asthma, or be poorly insulated. The initiative brings together healthcare efforts to end childhood lead poisoning with the housing and energy industries to comprehensively assess and renovate homes in one go rather than through piecemeal fixes that could potentially seal in indoor pollutants. A cross-trained team can improve the home’s health and energy efficiency, yielding fewer asthma attacks, less missed school, less missed work, and reduced energy bills. Cross-sector teams can create jobs, increase skills training, and raise salaries when workers can perform multiple remediation tasks. It is a real life example of partnering across sectors to address multiple social determinants, improving health and other outcomes.
SPH: Who is this book for?
Wang: It is for the person curious about health in general, who might know a little about public health but is not certain what it entails. People looking for ways they can contribute to their community and be part of the conversation. [The book] is not simply for public health practitioners, although they are a great audience. It is for people interested in understanding what factors beyond our healthcare system, genetics, and lifestyle choices that impact health. Through stories and science, my goal is to help readers understand that everyone has a role to play, no matter how large or small, in improving their communities’ health. Public health, by definition, is shared.
To hear Wang talk more about her book, attend her upcoming author events at the Watertown Public Library on April 7 or at the Boston Public Library Central Branch in Copley Square on April 16. Both events are free and open to the public.
To read more from Wang, visit her website here or subscribe to her substack, Moving Upstream, here.
