Picture it: you’re on a crowded subway and someone sneezes. Or maybe you’re on a plane and the person next to you keeps coughing. Perhaps you shook hands with someone who didn’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom. Interaction with germs is inevitable, but why do some people get sick while others don’t?
Keely A. Muscatell, a social neuroscientist and psychologist from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explains what happens when we get sick and why in this episode of the podcast “Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness.” Muscatell goes deep on how the innate and adaptive branches fight against pathogens, how social experiences impact our physical health and what we can do to help prevent getting sick.