Person Place Thing Recordings

Hosted by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Please join us for these special recordings of Person Place Thing with Creator and Host Randy Cohen.

Randy Cohen’s first professional work was writing humor pieces, essays, and stories for newspapers and magazines (The New Yorker, Harpers, the Atlantic, Young Love Comics). His first television work was writing for "Late Night With David Letterman" for which he won three Emmy awards. His fourth Emmy was for his work on Michael Moore’s "TV Nation." He received a fifth Emmy as a result of a clerical error, and he kept it. For twelve years he wrote "The Ethicist," a weekly column for the New York Times Magazine. In 2010, his first play, “The Punishing Blow,” ran at New York’s Clurman Theater. His most recent book, "Be Good: how to navigate the ethics of everything," was published by Chronicle.

All events are open to the public. 

Virginia Rauh on Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen

April 10, 2024

Virginia A. Rauh, ScD, MSW
Jane and Alan Batkin Professor in Child Health and Well-Being


Terry McGovern on Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen

April 17, 2023

Terry McGovern, JD
Chair, Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health
Harriet and Robert H. Heilbrunn Professor of Population and Family Health at CUMC


Commissioner Ashwin Vasan on Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen

October 11, 2022

Ashwin Vasan, ScM, MD, PhD
Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Assistant Professor of Clinical Population and Family Health Medicine, and a member of the Board of Advisors at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health


Dean Linda P. Fried on Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen

October 12, 2021

Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH
Dean and DeLamar Professor of Public Health
Director of the Rober L. Butler Aging Center
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health


Person Place Thing, Hosted by Randy Cohen Live Podcast With Guest Dr. Robert E. Fullilove

May 2, 2019

Robert E. Fullilove, EdD
Professor of Sociomedical Sciences
Associate Dean of Community and Minority Affairs
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Dr. Fullilove is an award-winning educator, civil rights advocate, and international public health leader. His research and practice spans numerous areas, including substance abuse and addiction, minority health, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and the built environment. He has had several committee and board appointments at the Institute of Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health, and in 2003, he was designated a National Associate of the National Academies of Science. For nearly a decade, Dr. Fullilove has been teaching public health courses in six New York State prisons that are part of the Bard College Prison Initiative (BPI) and serves as the Senior Advisor to BPI's public health program.


Person Place Thing, hosted by Randy Cohen Podcast with guest Dr. Charles Branas

March 5, 2019
Live performance by fiddlers Lily Henley and Duncan Wickel

Charles Branas, PhD
Chair and Anna Cheskis Gelman and Murray Charles Gelman Professor
Department of Epidemiology
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Charles Branas has conducted research that extends from urban and rural areas in the U.S. to communities across the globe, incorporating place-based interventions and human geography. His pioneering work on geographic access to medical care has changed the healthcare landscape in the US and other countries for many conditions: trauma, cancer, stroke, etc. His research on the geography and factors underpinning gun violence has been cited by landmark Supreme Court decisions, Congress, and the NIH Director. Dr. Branas has also led large-scale scientific work to transform thousands of vacant lots, abandoned buildings and other blighted spaces in improving the health and safety of entire communities.


For more information, contact Sheraye Niland.