Friday, September 25th, 2009

Connected

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Interconnections between smokers, Framingham Heart Study. Yellow nodes indicate smokers (the larger the node, the heavier the smoker), whereas green nodes indicate nonsmokers. Arrows represent social ties. Courtesy James Fowler, UC San Diego

How can your friends -- and your friends' friends -- affect you? We'll talk with Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, two researchers exploring social networks and how they affect our health and behavior. In their new book 'Connected,' the pair describe research into how social networks tie into obesity, smoking, voting behavior, happiness, and more.

Guests

Nicholas Christakis
Co-author, "Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives" (Little, Brown, 2009)
Professor of Medicine, of Medical Sociology, and of Sociology
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts

James Fowler
Co-author, "Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives" (Little, Brown, 2009)
Associate Professor in the Center for Wireless and Population Health Systems and the Political Science Department
University of California, San Diego
San Diego, California

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Segment produced by:Charles Bergquist

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