Breath and Lung Health Talk at Woods Hole Public Library

Dr. Michael J. Stephen will give a talk at the Woods Hole Public Library on the importance of breath and lung health on Monday, July 29, at 6:30 PM.

We take an average of 7.5 million breaths a year and some 600 million in our lifetime, and what goes on in our body each time oxygen is taken in and carbon dioxide expelled is nothing short of miraculous. Our lungs are the lynchpin between our bodies and the outside world, and yet we take our lungs for granted until we’re incapacitated and suddenly confronted with their vital importance. Today, our breath is faced with multiple threats as the air quality declines and our world gets smaller. To understand where we are going, we must understand where we have come from, all the way back to the origins of life and how science has illuminated the marvel of the human body. Some of this research has happened right here in Woods Hole, and Dr. Stephen would like to take you on this journey of life and discovery to help us understand how our lungs are hooked into the power of the universe like no other organ.

Dr. Stephen is a pulmonary physician at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He has published widely in the areas of cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis, and has been a leader of numerous clinical trials and was on the front line caring for COVID-19 patients. His most recent book is titled “Breath Taking: The Power, Fragility, and Future of Our Extraordinary Lungs.” Over the past two decades, he has studied advanced end-stage lung diseases and worked with patients at diverse locales, including a Massachusetts prison hospital and a pediatric HIV clinic in Cape Town, South Africa. A graduate of Brown University and Boston University Medical School, he lives in New Jersey.