Extinction Medicine Reading Group: 2026-2027 Plans
September 6, 2026 will mark the one-year anniversary of the Extinction Medicine Reading Group as an International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Medical Student Movement initiative.[1] For the 2026-2027 school year, we will continue collaborating with the Ethics of Human Extinction Reading Group, which was started by Dr. Émile P. Torres in 2024. Together, we want to extend our thanks to the participants and speakers who have joined us over the past two and a half years.
This year, in honor of August being Civic Health Month and the upcoming Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) Review Conference, we are launching two reading group themes. The first, Democracy, Autocracy, and Extinction Risk, will examine how current trends in political systems and extinction risk converge. The second, Nuclear Weapons: Health Intersections and Prohibition, will focus on the work of IPPNW, including its collaboration with the World Association of Medical Editors. We have a fantastic group of speakers from across the world joining us for each theme, including:
09/19/26 11:30 AM EDT: Dr. Marina Nord (Postdoctoral Scholar, V-Dem Institute)
10/02/26 12:00 PM EDT: Dr. Luke Kemp (Research Affiliate, CSER)
10/17/26 11:30 AM EDT: Stella Ziegler (Deputy Board Chair, Germany, IPPNW)
11/07/26 11:30 AM EST: Dr. Bandy Lee (Founder, World Mental Health Coalition)
11/21/26 11:30 AM EST: Dr. Ira Helfand (At-Large Member, USA, IPPNW)
12/12/26 11:30 AM EST: Molly McGinty (Program Director, IPPNW)
12/19/26 11:30 AM EST: Cecil Abungu (Founder, ILINA Program)
Upcoming Spring ‘27: Sterre van Buuren (PhD Student, University of Glasgow)
Altogether, we will examine the decline in democracy and its relationship to inequality, societal collapse, and extinction risk. With special focus on nuclear weapons, we hope participants will acquire a better understanding of how intergroup conflict, climate change, aims to build artificial superintelligence, and the second Trump administration are converging to compromise health, threaten humanity, and perpetuate systems of domination. Readings for September and October include:
09/19/26 with Dr. Nord: Democracy Report 2026: Unraveling the Democratic Era?
Shorter companion: State of the world 2025: unravelling the democratic era?
10/02/26 with Dr. Kemp: Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse
10/17/26 with Stella: Climate Change, Armed Conflict, and Global Public Health: A Reinforcing Cycle of Harm
Finally, we invite participants to pre-submit questions for speakers this year. Live sessions will have recorded (speaker presentation and pre-submitted Q&A) and non-recorded (live Q&A) components. We also plan to start posting joint recordings on YouTube. You can submit questions for speakers here, stay up-to-date and get meeting links here, and view our calendar here. We hope you will consider participating before, during, and/or after each session.
[1]This is a lightly edited version of an e-mail announcement sent to the Extinction Medicine Reading Group and IPPNW Forum mailing lists on Friday, August 28, 2026. It is human-written by myself and includes no text generated by artificial intelligence.
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