Why Should I Trust You?

Tim Ryan, the moderate, 10-term Democratic congressman from Ohio's Rust Belt, has pushed for a different conversation for years: one that reimagines America’s approach to food and health.Long before it had a name, Ryan was championing many of the ideas now fueling the “MAHA” movement: nutritious, “real” food (he wrote The Real Food Revolution back in 2014), regenerative agriculture, openness to alternative therapies, and a reassessment of the unhealthy systems taxpayer dollars continue to support. Then he watched the movement take off and align with the Republican Party.In this episode, Ryan reflects on what it’s been like to see his long-held priorities suddenly gain traction. We ask about tensions around vaccines and whether MAHA’s alignment with MAGA is ultimately sustainable.Most importantly, we dig into his message for Democrats: embrace a modern, forward-looking health agenda that meets Americans where they are—while also calling out Republicans for, in his view, policies that run counter to what MAHA claims to stand for.Hosts: Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuest:Former Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH), who served 10 terms in the United States House of Representatives.Recent articles by Tim Ryan on MAHA and health politics in America:https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/republicans-believe-maha-backing-farm-billhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/05/democrats-rfk-jr-maha-healthy-foodhttps://www.statnews.com/2026/04/28/microplastics-nanoplastics-health-epa-trump-arpa-h/Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie Bartlett (producer)Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (seeing patients)Guests:Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)Alex Clark, TPUSA, MAHADel Bigtree, High Wire, ICANThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Trust in higher education is slipping, with a growing number of Americans questioning whether universities are delivering value beyond their walls (and ivory towers).Today, we’re joined by Daniel Crowley, who goes by Max. He is a behavioral scientist and endowed chair at Penn State. His argument: universities produce groundbreaking research, but too often it sits on a shelf, never reaching the decision-makers who could use it to improve lives.That disconnect may help explain part of the decline in trust. Of course, many factors are driving that trend, from costs, to admissions practices, and perceptions of elitism, to name a few captured in a new report from Yale University.Crowley believes that building better systems to translate research to everyone from members of Congress to local leaders to the public itself could help turn that trust slide around.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie Bartlett (off)Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off)Guest:Daniel Max Crowley, director of the Prevention Research Center at Penn State University and a prevention scientist investigating how to optimize investments in healthy development and well-being.Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Today, we are delving into the subject of healthcare fraud.  The Trump administration has elevated it into a major political issue.When it comes to Medicaid fraud specifically, do you see this administration's recent actions towards states such as Minnesota as a well-meaning push to take on the bad actors and lax state oversight that has allowed this taxpayer-supported safety net to be exploited? Or do you see it as a political talking point being used to suggest widespread abuse when there is not, to justify cutting that very safety net? Or is this an abhorrent scam for which we just don't see eye to eye on the solution? The truth is, your answer may depend on where you get your information, who you trust, and how you’ve experienced the system yourself.In today’s episode, we dig into that divide. What do we actually know about healthcare fraud in America—and what is rhetoric versus reality? We bring together Trump and MAHA supporters, including a mother whose child was covered by Medicaid, along with a health reporter from Minnesota and experts on Medicaid program integrity, to ask: how big is the problem really, are we focused on the right issues, and what can we actually agree on?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Jacqueline Capriotti, founder and CEO of Health Revolution USA, small business owner and mother of two adults with cystic fibrosis, worked on the Kennedy/MAHA campaign. Aaron Everitt, writer and Substacker for Besides the Revolution and House inHabit volunteered for Kennedy campaign. Eleanor Hildebrandt, reporter at the Minnesota Star Tribune, has covered the Medicaid fraud issue on the ground there in that state.Andy Schneider, health policy expert at Georgetown’s McCourt School who served as a senior advisor at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services during the Obama administration.Joel White, President of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage who served as the Staff Director for the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means.Wilk Wilkinson, host of the Derate the Hate podcast and director of Media Operations for Braver Angels. Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Today, we’re joined by Dr. Stephen Hoge, president of Moderna, the biotech company that helped make mRNA a household name during the pandemic, producing a vaccine taken by millions of Americans.Now, Moderna is using that same technology to push into new frontiers, developing treatments for cancers like melanoma and lung cancer. While at the same time, mistrust of mRNA and of the pharmaceutical industry more broadly has only grown.We discuss with Dr. Hoge his company's latest innovations in cancer treatment as well as an mRNA-based flu vaccine they are hoping to have available before the next flu season. We discuss what it's like to try and innovate using a platform that many Americans, coming off the pandemic experience, do not trust. And we talk about whether using mRNA as a tool against cancer might yield a different reception.  Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuest:Dr. Stephen Hoge, President of ModernaThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

It's an episode full of news: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s move to counter the federal judge who ruled his handpicked vaccine advisory committee lacked the expertise to guide U.S. vaccine policy. At the same time, the Trump administration has rolled out its new budget, a clear statement of priorities, with major increases in defense spending alongside deep cuts to medical research. And the EPA is stepping in with a new push to reduce microplastics in the nation’s drinking water.We break it all down.Then, the main event: the administration’s crackdown on what it calls “DEI” research has scuttled studies on racial health disparities. But that raises a deeper question: was the system working in the first place? The gap in life expectancy between Black and white Americans persists.Our guest is health equity researcher Jerel Ezell. He’s critical of the current cuts but also of how this research has been done for years. So what does he think is broken? What needs to change? And what’s at stake if we get this wrong?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuest:Dr. Jerel Ezell, sociologist and public health researcher, he worked as an epidemiologist in Detroit and Chicago. He’s now an assistant professor in Infectious Diseases and Global Health at the University of Chicago, and has taught at Cornell and UC Berkeley. His research focuses on opioid use, environmental health, and the long-term human impact of crises like the Flint water crisis, with a growing emphasis on AI and equity.The One Area Where Trump’s N.I.H. Cuts Might Actually Make Sensehttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/opinion/health-disparities-nih.htmlThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

We are taking a few days off! We'll be back with a new episode on Thursday April 16. We love our theme song, so here it is in full. Enjoy!xo,WSITY teamThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Today, we’re diving into a new Netflix documentary, The Plastic Detox, which follows six couples trying to conceive and what happens when they attempt to reduce plastic exposure in their daily lives.We’re joined by two of the scientists featured in the film: Dr. Shanna Swan of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, a leading researcher on endocrine-disrupting chemicals and reproductive health, and Dr. Jasmine McDonald of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, an epidemiologist who studies how environmental exposures may shape long-term health.Take a look around your home, and if you’re anything like us, you’ll see plastic everywhere. Food wrappers, toothbrushes, detergents, carpets, it’s woven into nearly every part of daily life.So what impact is all of this plastic having on us? And more specifically, is it playing a role (and if so, how big a role) in our falling birth rates? Many plastics contain chemicals known as endocrine disruptors. What do we know about how that might be impacting us? And, impacting a couple's ability to have a baby. Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie Bartlett (off)Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off)Guests:Dr. Shanna Swan, reproductive health epidemiologist, professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.Dr. Jasmine McDonald, molecular epidemiologist, professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.Sources:The Plastic Detoxhttps://www.netflix.com/title/82074244Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

With the midterm elections approaching, health care is emerging as a central issue. So today, we’ve gathered a group of top-notch pollsters to help us understand where Americans’ heads are right now when it comes to health.Yes, this is about rising health care costs—a visceral concern and a growing factor in the upcoming elections—driven in part by expiring ACA subsidies and potential Medicaid cuts. But it’s also about nutrition, school lunches, ultra-processed foods, and pesticides. This isn’t the old “for or against Obamacare” debate. The lines are shifting, and MAHA sits right in the middle of it all.As one political analyst put it, “Health care policy is going to be a top issue in all competitive House races this cycle.” So at a time when Americans are deeply concerned about the cost of daily life, where does health care fit in? How do people feel about MAHA’s nutrition agenda, pesticides and pollution, or changes to childhood vaccine guidance?We’re joined by polling analysts Liz Hamel and Ashley Kirzinger from KFF, and Melissa Toufanian of Navigator Research—along with our friend Aaron Everitt, a MAHA supporter and writer.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark Abdelmalek (off)Guests:Liz Hamel,  senior vice president and director of public opinion and survey research, KFFAshley Kirzinger, director of survey methodology and associate director for public opinion and survey research, KFFMelissa Toufanian, managing director, Navigator ResearchAaron Everitt, MAHA supporter, writer for Besides the Revolution, Kennedy supporter, writer for House InHabitWhy MAHA Needs Public Health by Aaron Everitthttps://besidestherevolution.substack.com/p/why-maha-needs-public-healthThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Today, we explore an unlikely alliance.The Make America Healthy Again movement is nearly always associated with MAGA and the Republican Party. But on one issue, the political lines are being scrambled. It is Democrats in Congress, and not Republicans, who are standing with the movement in opposing liability protections for pesticide manufacturers.  At the center of the fight is a controversial provision in the new Farm Bill that critics say would give pesticide manufacturers a legal liability shield.We’re joined by two key Democrats who fought to stop it—Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine and Congressman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts—one of whom called the proposal “an outrage.”We’ll also hear from influential MAHA environmental advocate Kelly Ryerson.Are Democrats willing to work with MAHA on some issues? Is MAHA willing to break with Republicans when their goals diverge? And what could this unusual coalition mean for the coming midterm elections and, most importantly, the health of Americans?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), is the Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee and also serves on the House Agriculture Committee.Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), serves on House AppropriationsCommittee and House Agriculture Committee.Kelly Ryerson, MAHA activist, Glyphosate Girl, currently advocating to oppose legal protections for pesticide manufacturers. Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

In today’s episode, Dr. Kirk Milhoan, the chair of the influential ACIP, returns to our show. In a wide-ranging conversation, we discuss his reaction to major news this week: the federal judge issuing a preliminary order pausing his committee’s work, leading to the cancellation of their scheduled meeting.Since ACIP was expected to take up the issue of vaccine injury, we explore the topic with Dr. Milhoan, alongside Dr. Craig Spencer of Brown University School of Public Health and Dr. Akiko Iwasaki of Yale School of Medicine.Together, we hear the stories of three remarkable individuals who have experienced serious health setbacks following a COVID vaccine. We ask whether enough is being done to care for Americans like them, what challenges stand in the way of better understanding vaccine-related injuries, and how public health should respond to the very real experiences of those affected.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Dr. Kirk Milhoan, chairman, ACIP, pediatric cardiologistJohn West, federal employee, Covid vaccine injuredProf. Akiko Iwasaka, immunologist, Yale School of MedicineDr. Craig Spencer, ER doctor, public health professor, Brown School of Public HealthJane Rioseco, consultant working on health and justice issues; Covid vaccine injured(recorded voice of Daniel King), Covid vaccine injured; served as active duty military. Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Measles has returned to the United States in a way we haven’t seen in more than a quarter-century. The outbreak in South Carolina follows one in West Texas last year, threatening the measles-free status the U.S. achieved in 2000.In today’s polarized climate, the virus has become a political flashpoint. Critics say the rise reflects eroding vaccine trust driven by the MAHA movement and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. Others argue outbreaks like this occur every year, are usually mild, and are just a part of life. So we went straight to the front lines. We speak with doctors in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and a public health leader from West Texas who worked inside the communities most affected.What are they actually seeing on the ground? How much of this surge is about politics and vaccine mistrust—and how much is rooted in religion, culture, or generations-old skepticism? What is the media getting right about the measles resurgence… and what might we be getting wrong?As one of the most contagious viruses in the world makes a comeback in America, we ask: what comes next?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Dr. Robin LaCroix,  a pediatric infectious disease specialist, is the medical director emeritus of Prisma Health Children's Hospital in Greenville, S.C. Dr. Stuart Simko, a pediatrician with Prisma Health, practices in Greer, South Carolina, has seen several families with measles cases. Dr. Katherine Wells,  is Director of the Lubbock Public Health District, was the lead from Lubbock in responding to the West Texas measles outbreak. Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

GLP-1 drugs are being hailed as “miracle” treatments for obesity and diabetes, two of the biggest drivers of America’s chronic disease crisis. Nearly 30 million Americans say they’re taking one, and early signs suggest they may be changing not just individual lives, but even national health trends. Could Ozempic actually help reverse the obesity epidemic?But in the era of “Making America Healthy Again,” where the focus is on food, lifestyle, and root causes, how does a blockbuster pharmaceutical fit in? Are GLP-1s a genuine breakthrough or another example of America reaching for the next quick medication fix while deeper problems go unsolved?We’re joined by Rachael Bedard, who recently wrote about GLP-1s for New York Magazine; Mariela Glandt, an expert on metabolic health; and Dhruv Khullar, who has covered these drugs for The New Yorker.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Dr. Rachael Bedard, geriatrician, palliative-care specialist, contributing writer for The New York Times (https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ozempic-weight-loss-diet-drug-moral-panic.html)Dr. Dhruv Khullar, physician, associate professor Weill Cornell Medical College; staff writer at The New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/02/16/can-ozempic-cure-addiction)Dr. Mariela Glandt, endocrinologist, experience treating diabetes, founder of Owna Health, a virtual clinic that helps people — especially in underserved communities — manage and even reverse type 2 diabetes and obesity through a nutrition-focused plan. (https://owna.health/)Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Our guest today is Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Director of the National Institutes of Health and acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.As he leads the world’s largest biomedical research enterprise and now the CDC--the first time one individual has led both institutions--we discuss his goals, governing philosophy, and vision for the future of American health science.After emerging as a vocal critic of federal health leadership during the pandemic, how does he now approach his new roles? Nearly a year into his tenure, does he believe public trust is being restored?We examine the past year, including cuts to research deemed connected to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; the administration’s freeze on certain university funding tied to concerns about campus policies it considers discriminatory or antisemitic; his strategic approach to setting funding priorities; and his message to early-career researchers.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonDr. Mark AbdelmalekMaggie Bartlett (producer role today)Guest:Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Director of the National Institutes of Health; Acting Director of the Centers For Disease Control and PreventionThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

In the wake of the President's executive order on glyphosate, the herbicide widely used on American farms and long derided by MAHA, there is intense focus on the movement. People are asking whether the wheels are coming off, whether this is the moment the MAGA–MAHA alliance begins to fracture. And that question isn’t just coming from critics. Many MAHA supporters themselves are wondering the same thing.President Trump’s executive order invoked the Defense Production Act to safeguard U.S. supplies of glyphosate, calling it critical not only to farmers, but also to the nation’s food security — and even national defense.MAHA and its leader, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have long argued that glyphosate is harming Americans’ health. Yet Kennedy has expressed support for the executive order.That has left many in the movement furious. But is MAHA really splintering? Or are followers beginning to see this as the reality of governance — compromise and patience?We’ve got a star-studded MAHA lineup today: Zen Honeycutt, Kelly Ryerson, and Jenna McCarthy — influential voices with plenty to say about where this movement goes next.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie Bartlett (off)Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off)Guests:Zen Honeycutt, founder + executive director of Moms Across America movement; environmental activistKelly Ryerson, Glyphosate Girl on social media; environmental activist; regen farming advocateJenna McCarthy, author of Jenna's Side substack and co-author of The War on Ivermectin with Pierre KoryThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Now, some of you may have heard the recent headlines that the FDA refused to review Moderna’s application for its new flu vaccine … a vaccine that uses mRNA technology. And then a few days ago, the agency has REVERSED course. We had an episode planned all about what this decision means and whether or not it speaks to something larger about making vaccines in this moment….So now we’re rolling with the news of that big reversal. And the truth is, we are kind of still asking the same question.What the heck is going on? This is messy. On the one hand, doesn’t this FDA have a point about setting a higher standard for approving vaccines that they’re being asked to consider no matter how chaotic that might look? On the other hand, how are vaccine makers supposed to operate with all that chaos? And even with the reversal, is this ALREADY having a chilling effect on vaccine makers? Health journalist and physician Ben Mazer from the Atlantic joins us. Hosts:Tom JohnsonBrinda AdhikariMaggie Bartlett (off)Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off)Guest:Dr. Benjamin Mazer, surgical pathologist, writer for The AtlanticThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Today, we bring together a group of Black women with a wide range of perspectives — from mainstream public health and medicine to MAHA and everything in between — for a candid conversation about their health, their lived experiences, and their trust, or lack of it, in the systems designed to heal us.Black women face higher rates of diabetes and stroke, more aggressive cancers, and far riskier pregnancies. And yet, time and again, they say the medical system meant to care for them has too often failed them.So what do they see as their most urgent needs? How do they view this administration — Kennedy, MAHA, the push against ultra-processed foods, and the backlash against DEI? And ultimately, do they believe these changes will improve their health, or once again leave them on the margins?And riding shotgun with us today is a friend of the pod, MacKenzie Isaac, who is passionate about the health issues affecting the Black community.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuest host: Mackenzie Isaac, health educator, getting phD in bioethics from Oxford UniversityGuests:Dr. Keisha Callins, OB/GYN, health educatorRenee Mitchell, founder Breaking the Cycle Drop Corp; Kennedy & MAHA supporterDenise Octavia Smith, community health worker and inaugaral executive directorAlexandra Thompson, public health policy analystTribeca Cannon, community health workerYesenia Muhammad, lawyer; Kennedy & supporterThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

You might remember monoclonal antibodies from the height of the pandemic, when President Trump and later Joe Rogan revealed they'd been treated with them for COVID. On today's episode, we dive into monoclonal antibodies--the science, the hopes, the limitations.Monoclonal antibodies, the lab-created antibody treatment designed to disrupt a threat, boost your immune system, or even stave off an infection, are already a game-changer for millions of Americans struggling with disease or compromised immune-systems. Today we ask: where is this innovation heading? Can the high costs be reduced? Where does this approach fall in the treatment versus prevention tug of war that emerged during the pandemic? And given the mistrust towards other interventions, are monoclonals heading on a different trajectory?We're joined by Marc Elia, the chairman of the board for Invivyd, and friend-of-the-pod, Dr. Michael Mina.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Marc Elia, Chairman of the Board of Invivyd, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing monoclonal antibody platformsDr. Michael Mina, epidemiologist, immunologist, and physician. He’s been an associate professor at Harvard Medical School as well as the TH Chan School of Public Health, led America’s test-to-treat program during the pandemic. Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

In today’s episode, we focus on a battle underway between two institutions that have long worked side by side. On one side: the Department of Health and Human Services. On the other: the American Academy of Pediatrics. Right now, these two organizations are in disagreement over how best to protect the health of children.You’ve likely seen the headlines: for the first time, the AAP has broken with the CDC, refusing to endorse the agency’s childhood vaccination recommendations. Instead, the AAP is urging pediatricians across the country to follow the vaccination schedule that was in place before the current HHS made its changes.Today, we’re joined by Dr. Susan Kressly, who sits on the AAP’s board, until very recently served as the organization’s president, and is a practicing pediatrician. She led the group through this tumultuous past year. We ask her why the AAP sued HHS, why it did not participate in the most recent ACIP meeting, how she believes trust in public health can be repaired, and, most importantly, at this fraught moment, who parents should trust.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuest:Dr. Susan Kressly, immediate past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics; board-certified pediatricianThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

The deadly shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis has become a flashpoint in the national conversation. It feels like an inflection point. Today, we’re joined by evolutionary biologist and influential podcaster Bret Weinstein; MAHA supporter and writer Aaron Everitt; and doctors Rachael Beddard and Craig Spencer, both writers and prominent voices in public health. Together, we examine what Minneapolis tells us about where we are as a country today: How is it that people can watch the same video and reach radically different conclusions? Do we still share the same facts, or has our shared sense of truth fully collapsed? Should those who saw the government's response during COVID as overreach also see what's happening in Minneapolis as government overreach? And finally, could this tragedy actually reveal that we share more values with one another than we realize in these tense and combative days?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Dr. Bret Weinstein, evolutionary biologist, author, co host of DarkHorse podcastDr. Craig Spencer, ER physician, professor at Brown School of Public Health; writerDr. Rachael Bedard, palliative care and geriatics physician; worked as physician at Rikers Island; contributing writer The New York TimesAaron Everitt, MAHA supporter, Kennedy campaign volunteer, video journalist and writer House In Habit and Besides the Revolution substacksThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Dr. Kirk Milhoan, chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), is our guest today. ACIP sets America’s vaccine policy, and since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the reins at HHS, it has been at the center of some of the most heated public health debates.A pediatric cardiologist, Air Force veteran, and physician who has dedicated his life to helping sick children around the globe, we’ll ask Dr. Milhoan about his philosophy on vaccines, how he approaches vaccine policy for American children, and whether ACIP can operate independently of political pressure. We’ll also explore the massive changes that HHS has just been made to America's childhood vaccine schedule. Was ACIP consulted? And, finally, what does he see as his committee’s role in rebuilding public trust?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark Abdelmalek Guest:Dr. Kirk Milhoan: pediatric cardiologist; chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices; co-founder For Hearts and SoulsThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Today, we’re joined by Kelly Ryerson, known to many as the “Glyphosate Girl”. Ryerson is a leading grassroots voice inside the MAHA movement focused on environmental toxins, especially herbicides and pesticides, which she believes are putting public health at risk. Her fight comes at a volatile moment: the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a pivotal case that could sharply limit Americans’ ability to sue pesticide makers, Congress is debating industry liability shields, and a major glyphosate safety study has just been retracted.We ask Ryerson whether MAHA’s environmental wing is gaining real traction or hitting a wall. With the Midterms approaching, she has threatened to mount primary challenges against Republicans who side with industry on liability protections, raising questions about the future of the MAHA–MAGA alliance. And how much is the Trump administration and this EPA an ally in her fight, or are they operating under very different priorities?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie Bartlett (off)Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off)Guest:Kelly Ryerson, educator, speaker, activist, "Glyphosate Girl" on Instagram; co-founder American RegenerationThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

With the new federal nutrition guidelines out — and the old food pyramid effectively turned on its head — we dig into what this moment is really about. Where do MAHA and traditional nutrition experts actually agree on the new recommendations, and where do they sharply diverge? How has industry influenced past guidelines, and is it exerting a similar influence on the new ones? How should we understand the bold messaging about ending the “war” on protein and “healthy” saturated fats? And despite the heated rhetoric, is there real common ground here that could help rebuild trust?We’re joined by nutrition experts with a wide range of perspectives — plus a dose of MAHA — to unpack what these guidelines really mean for both our health and our confidence in the institutions behind them.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark Abdelmalek (off)Guests:DeeDee Tobias, a nutrition and obesity epidemiologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. Kevin C. Klatt is a phD and a registered dietitian. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto.Ty Beal, is a nutrition scientist at GAIN–the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition–and host of The Ty Beal Show. Dr. Beal was a scientific review author for the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, part of the advisory team under the Trump administrationElizabeth Frost, a grassroots organizer, she leads MAHA Ohio, worked for the Kennedy campaign,  co-founder of a political consulting company called Independent ForceThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Today, we’re joined by sociologist Vivek Chibber, the provocative scholar and social critic who has a pointed critique of the modern day Left. The host of the Confronting Capitalism podcast joins us and argues that their management of institutions—including academia, media, the Democratic Party, and even public health—is completely out of touch with the lives and struggles of working and middle-class Americans. We discuss how this disconnect is fueling the widespread distrust of experts and institutions today, as well as Chibber's critique of the MAHA movement and its alliance with MAGA. We also speak with public health professor and emergency physician Craig Spencer to explore how these critiques play out in the health space —on public health, cuts to scientific research, and the shrinking safety nets under the Trump administration. Finally, we discuss what, if anything, can be done to rebuild trust within communities that feel left behind, keying off of polling showing dramatic bipartisan support of the idea that good healthcare is a human right.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie Bartlett (off)Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off)Guests;Vivek Chibber,  sociology professor at NYU who studies capitalism, class, and social theory. He is a contributor to Jacobin magazine and editor of Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy. Currently co-host of podcast Confronting Capitalism.Dr. Craig Spencer, associate professor at Brown University School of Public Health, an ER doctor, has also worked for Doctors without BordersThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

We delve into the CDC’s move to recommend fewer vaccines in the childhood immunization schedule, one of the most significant steps taken by the Kennedy administration so far. The change is sparking strong reactions across the spectrum, and we aim to understand why it’s happening, what evidence is being used to justify it, and what the potential consequences could be for children, parents, and public trust.The administration says it looked to models abroad, particularly Denmark, where fewer vaccines are recommended. So we invited two Danish physicians who know their country’s vaccine policy and practice, along with a friend of the show, Dr. Michael Mina.We ask: Is Denmark — a far smaller country with universal health care — really a good model for U.S. vaccine policy? Was this change grounded in gold-standard science? Or, as mainstream public health warns, does it increase risk for American children, even though all vaccines remain available and covered? And what, if anything, can the U.S. learn from countries that recommend fewer vaccines?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Dr. Eskild Petersen, an infectious disease specialist who worked 14 years at the Statens Serum Institut moving back into clinical ID in 2003. Since 2024 adjunct professor at PandimiX Center, Roskilde University, Denmark. Leading author of "Infectious Diseases, A Geographical Guide (Rutledge 2024) and editor in chief of the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.Dr. Lone Graff Stensballe, a consultant pediatrician and expert in pediatric infectious diseases, with over 20 years of clinical experience at the pediatric department of Denmark’s National University Hospital. She is Professor of Pediatric Vaccinology and Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Copenhagen. Since 2018, she has served as Chair of the Research Ethics Committees in Denmark. Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and immunologist and physician. Over the course of his career, he’s been an associate professor at Harvard Medical School as well as the TH Chan School of Public Health. In the height of the pandemic, he led America’s Test to Treat program, which connected home testing to treatment options. He’s been a scientific advisor for health start-ups and has served on high-profile boards. Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Welcome to Season 2! As the new year gets underway, we’re looking inside America’s exam rooms. We’ve brought together a group of traditional, allopathic doctors across multiple specialties and a group of MAHA supporters. With breaking news about changes to the childhood vaccine schedule and the dietary guidelines, this felt like the right moment to convene an honest conversation between physicians and patients about how the relationship is working.Trust in doctors remains high—but it’s drifting downward. And we know from countless conversations that a negative experience with a doctor—over a diagnosis, treatment plan, or vaccine recommendation—can fuel mistrust in the entire medical system. Why do some patients leave these interactions feeling dismissed, and where do they turn next? What is it actually like to be a doctor in America right now? What financial pressures and systemic constraints are they operating within? How do they view their time with patients? And finally, how might this week’s changes reshape trust, care, and those exam-room conversations?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Nancy Fuller, MAHA supporter, former Kennedy campaign volunteer, from OhioDr. Craig Spencer, ER physician Providence, RI; professor at Brown University School of Public HealthLen Arcuri, MAHA supporter, host of podcast Autism Parenting Secrets Dr. Keisha Callins, OB/GYN Jeffersonville, GA; professor at Mercer University School of MedicineDaniel DeLuca, MAHA supporter, bar and restaurant owner, political consultantDr. Jamie Loehr, family doctor from Ithaca, NY. Former ACIP memberDr. Ross England, infectious disease pediatrician, Children's Hospital of PhiladelphiaThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

**This will be our last episode in 2025! We will be back in early January 2026! Have a happy holiday season and a huge thank you for listening!!**Are our schools making our kids sick? Not because of moldy buildings or bad cafeteria food, but because of what the modern school day has become.From increased screens in the class and shrinking free time to teachers and administrators forced to focus more and more time on prep for standardized testing, schools today would be nearly unrecognizable to many parents. So, too, are the soaring rates of ADHD, anxiety, and depression among children.In this episode, we’re joined by New York Times reporter Jia Lynn Yang to discuss her provocative piece, “America’s Children Are Unwell. Are Schools Part of the Problem?” We examine what impact a school day increasingly organized around screens, metrics, and test prep is having on children’s mental health and even childhood itself. At a moment when a great deal of attention is focused on how social media and phones are impacting teen mental health, Yang argues it’s time to scrutinize the place where kids spend most of their week: school.Could this be a rare area where MAHA and public health actually agree?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuest:Jia Lynn Yang, Senior Ideas Writer, The New York Times, author of the recent article, "America's Children Are Unwell. Are Schools Part of the Problem?"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/magazine/youth-mental-health-crisis-schools.htmlThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Welcome to a new era for public health. In the wake of RFK Jr.’s ACIP committee making its first major change to America’s childhood vaccine schedule—ending the universal Hepatitis B birth dose—we break down what this means, and what it doesn’t. Much of the mainstream public-health world is sounding alarms, calling the move dangerous, unscientific, and the opening salvo in a broader campaign against childhood vaccines. So today we ask some tough questions: Is this a reckless break from science—or a reasonable correction? Is this really about one dose of one vaccine, or the future of the entire childhood schedule? And now that ACIP is in the driver’s seat, is traditional public health's doom messaging the right and only course of action? Or should they rally around a different strategy? To help us sort it out, we’re joined by our own “fantasy ACIP” panel: Dr. Michael Mina, Dr. Rachael Bedard, and Dr. Craig Spencer.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Dr. Rachael Bedard is an internist, geriatrician, and palliative-care physician whose work focuses on health, human rights, and justice. She teaches, advocates, and writes, you’ll find her work in the New York Times, The New Yorker, and a popular substack called The Argument. Dr. Craig Spencer is an emergency medicine physician and an Associate Professor at Brown University School of Public Health. He focuses on frontline preparedness in the U.S. and around the world and has written for various news publications, including the Atlantic and the New York Times.Dr. Michael Mina is an epidemiologist and immunologist and physician. Over the course of his career, he’s been an associate professor at Harvard Medical School as well as the TH Chan School of Public Health. In the height of the pandemic, he led America’s Test to Treat program, which connected home testing to treatment options. Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

It’s a newsy week for public health and medicine, with potential changes to the childhood vaccine schedule and a senior health agency official raising alarming doubts about the safety of the COVID vaccine for children — claims public health veterans are calling irresponsible and baseless. Against that backdrop, we sit down with a group of 8 people who care deeply about both health and faith, but who come from opposite sides of our health culture war. We ask how they see this moment, and how we might pull ourselves back from the brink of our division.How does their spirituality and faith shape the way they understand this moment of rapid change in health and science — from vaccines and global aid to mRNA technology, chronic illness, and scientific expertise itself?And ultimately, could grace — and a shared sense of faith — be part of rebuilding trust?Hosts;Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:1. Jacqueline Capriotti, a mother of two adults with cystic fibrosis, patient rights advocate. She is a health-policy strategist, works on initiatives within the MAHA movement, and was the Director of Chronic Illness Outreach and Healthcare Reform for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. She is the co-founder of Doctors for America First.2. Dr. Francis Collins, the former head of the National Institutes of Health during Operation Warp Speed, under three U.S. presidents; co-discovered the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis and led America’s effort to map the human genome; author of The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust.3. Jennifer Galardi, Senior Policy Analyst for Restoring American Wellness at The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center. Her writing has appeared in The Federalist, Epoch Times, Washington Examiner, and The Blaze, and she frequently appears in media to discuss cultural & policy shifts tied to the MAHA movement.4. Dr. Marc Siegel, Clinical Professor of Medicine at NYU Langone Health, a practicing internist, and the Senior Medical Analyst for Fox News. He is the author of several books, including a brand new one titled: The Miracles Among Us: How God's Grace Plays a Role in Healing.5. Elizabeth Frost, works with MAHA Ohio and is a co-founder of Independent Force Consulting. Prior to this, Elizabeth was the Ohio State director for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign.6. Mackenzie Isaac, a Rhodes Scholar pursuing her doctorate in Population Health at Oxford University, where she got her MS in Modeling for Global Health. She earned a master’s degree in Health Education from Teachers College, Columbia Uni. Her work focuses on health equity and community health education in Black and Brown communities.7. Rev. Wendy Silvers, a Minister, author, and Transformational Life Coach supporting mothers & families; created The Awakened Mother series, founded the Million Mamas Movement, and hosts The Awakened Mother Podcast and Million Mamas Rising radio show. She was invited to be the faith engagement lead for the Kennedy presidential campaign in 2024.8. Emily Smith, an Assistant Professor at Duke University focusing on children’s global surgery, health-systems strengthening, and global health policy. She has conducted extensive research in Africa, and her work has been featured in TIME, NPR, The Washington Post, and Christianity Today.Resource: https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

**We taped this episode earlier this week. Happy Thanksgiving. ***On this Thanksgiving, we each reflect on an episode that struck us. We are so grateful to you, our listener community. We all care about our health, our country and our families so much. We hope you all get to spend today surrounded by people you love. Thank you and a very Happy Thanksgiving to all. Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Today, we’re talking about a different kind of health: the health of our media and information diet. What information we consume, how we consume it, and whether today’s social media ecosystem has become so toxic that it threatens not only our well-being, but the health of our democracy itself.It’s no secret that trust in mass media has plunged to an all-time low, with the old top-down model of journalism—where a handful of outlets controlled the flow of information—losing its authority. So we’ve invited three major voices who operate on the front lines of this shift: Astead Herndon, formerly of The New York Times and now at Vox; Emily Jashinsky, of Breaking Points and now part of Megyn Kelly’s media offerings; and Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative collective Bellingcat, who warns that in this fractured landscape where we can’t even agree on basic facts, democracy isn’t just wobbling; it’s breaking down.Today we ask: Are we in a crisis? If so, what will it take to secure the “information supply chains” that a functioning democracy depends on? And finally, if we can get things back on the rails, could this new, more democratized media ecosystem with individuals, not institutions, driving the flow of information, possibly lead us to a better, more trusted place?We talk Iraq War, 2016 and 2024 Elections, Covid, Epstein, and so much more. HostsBrinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie Bartlett (off this week)Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off this week)Guests: Eliot Higgins, founder,  Bellingcat, an open source investigative journalism networkEmily Jashinsky, host, After Party; Megyn Kelly wrap-up show; co-host Breaking Points; writes for UnHerdAstead Herndon, editorial director and host, Vox; former national political reporter The New York TimesSource:Verification, Deliberation, Accountability: A New Framework for Tackling Epistemic Collapse and Renewing Democracyhttps://demos.co.uk/research/verification-deliberation-accountability-a-new-framework-for-tackling-epistemic-collapse-and-renewing-democracy/Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

In the final installment of our series from the Children’s Health Defense conference in Austin, we sit down for candid, face-to-face conversations with attendees. They share their life stories, talk about their thoughts on vaccines, on why RFK Jr. resonates with them, and why they came to Austin.We also reflect on our own experience: Why did we go? What did we learn about the MAHA movement and the extent of the mistrust in science and medicine today? And, ultimately, what have we learned about both the potential and limits of opening up a dialogue across our great health divide today? Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Audrey Trepiccione, midwifeTina Siemens, founder, West Texas Living Heritage Museum, https://wtlhm.com/Len Arcuri, host Autism Parenting Secrets podcast and a Strategic Parenting AdvisorAutismParentingSecrets.comElevateHowYouNavigate.comThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

In part two of our three-part series from the Children’s Health Defense conference in Austin, we sit down with one of the most influential figures in the MAHA movement: Del Bigtree.A longtime ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Bigtree is a singular presence—an expert communicator, storyteller, and filmmaker with a reach of tens of millions. To fans and supporters, he’s a charismatic fighter taking on the chronic illness crisis and exposing corruption. His critics say he is a spreader of anti-vaccine misinformation.We discuss politics, the future goals of MAHA, America's vaccine policies, bodily autonomy, and activism. It is a free-wheeling, occasionally raucous, but respectful conversation with one of the most important voices in MAHA today. Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuest host: Elizabeth Frost, MAHA Ohio; Independent Force ConsultingGuest:Del Bigtree, founder and head of Informed Consent Action Network; former director of communications for Robert F Kennedy Jr's presidential campaign; founder, host High WireThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

We’re on the road this week, coming to you from Austin, Texas, at the Children’s Health Defense 2025 conference. Yes, that Children’s Health Defense: the influential organization founded and once led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now the country’s top health official. Critics say CHD is one of the most outspoken anti-vaccine groups in America and a major source of misinformation. Supporters say it is fighting to eliminate toxic exposures and protect kids in an era of rising chronic disease. Our central question: Is there any space—any at all—for common ground? Or are the chasms simply too deep?In the first of a series of episodes from the conference, we sit down with two of its most influential voices: Dr. Bret Weinstein, evolutionary biologist, author of A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century, and host of the DarkHorse Podcast, and Dr. Pierre Kory, critical care and pulmonary specialist, and author of The War on Ivermectin.We have an honest, no-holds-barred conversation about the breakdown in trust on all sides; what it means to live in a world of competing “facts” and data; whether standards of care help or hinder doctors; and, most importantly, whether respectful dialogue can help rebuild trust in one another. We bring them together with doctors from more traditional public health with more CHD/MAHA supporting doctors. Take a listen.  Guests:Dr. Craig Spencer is an emergency medicine physician and public health professor at Brown University.  He worked on front lines during the COVID outbreak in New York City and now focuses his work on global health, humanitarianism, pandemic preparedness and the impact of COVID-19 on health systems.Link: https://vivo.brown.edu/display/cspenc10Dr. Pierre KoryDr. Pierre Kory is a physician trained in pulmonary and critical care medicine who gained national attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for his advocacy of off-label treatments, including ivermectin. He now runs The Leading Edge Clinic where he works as a Certified Tribal Practitioner where he focuses on long COVID and post- vaccine injury.Link: https://drpierrekory.com/Brett Weinstein, PhDBrett Weinstein, PhD, is an evolutionary biologist, author, and co-host of the podcast, The DarkHorse, which aims to explore science, culture, and human nature with a goal of making scientific thinking more accessible for everyone.Link: https://www.bretweinstein.net/about-bret-weinsteinThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

School vaccine requirements have long been the backbone of America’s public health, keeping vaccination rates high for decades. Every state mandates that children be up to date on routine vaccinations to attend public school, and every state allows medical exemptions—most also allow religious or philosophical ones. But just weeks ago, Florida—and now Idaho—said “no more,” insisting parents must have ultimate control over what goes into their child’s body. Are these the first dominoes to fall?Today, we’re having an honest—and yes, uncomfortable—conversation about why some parents are questioning the vaccine schedule and the mandates. Should public health hold the line? Is there a way to respect individual choice without dismantling a system that’s protected us for generations? And can these mandates survive a movement that sees them as an affront to parental rights?Joining us is Jennifer Reich, author of Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines, who explores why some parents are seeking an individualized approach to vaccination and what that means for the community.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuest:Jennifer Reich; sociologist, Professor of Sociology University of Colorado-Denver; author Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines. Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

It’s Election Day in parts of the country, so we thought it was time to talk politics.Dr. Craig Spencer, from Brown University’s School of Public Health, penned a Substack last week that stopped us cold. In it, he makes a bold case that public health needs to get more political—not partisan, but political in the sense of organizing, mobilizing, and demanding what people say they value: cleaner air, safer food, prevention that actually gets funded.It’s a striking call at a moment of profound change — what some call a reimagining, others a dismantling — of public health itself. But if you look at the polling across Republicans, Democrats, and the MAHA “curious,” there’s surprising common ground right in public health’s wheelhouse.It’s time, Spencer argues, for public health to step into the political arena to fight for change or watch the system unravel.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark Abdelmalek (off today)Guest:Dr. Craig Spencer, an emergency medicine physician; Associate Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice at Brown University School of Public Health. Craig's Substack article referenced:https://craigaspencer.substack.com/p/when-public-health-forgot-how-toThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

East Palestine, Ohio, became a national symbol of fear and mistrust after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed, resulting in a massive black plume filling the sky. Two years later, how are residents of this small community faring? Is their soil, air, and water truly safe?In this episode, we meet two women who chose collaboration over conflict: Elizabeth Frost of MAHA, Ohio, and Dr. Nicole Deziel of the Yale School of Public Health. The pair met through our podcast and teamed up — Elizabeth working on the ground to connect with residents, and Nicole, along with partners including Ohio Valley Allies, securing an NIH grant to study East Palestine’s water as part of a larger research effort led by the University of Kentucky. Joining the conversation is Stuart Day, an area resident, member of Ohio Valley Allies, and community partner on the research team.How are a grassroots MAHA advocate and a Yale public health scientist bridging the divides that define so much of our nation’s health debate today? And most importantly, what are researchers discovering that could help address residents’ concerns and help East Palestine move forward?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonDr. Maggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Elizabeth Frost: grassroots organizer for the MAHA movement in Ohio; the Ohio State director for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign;  is a co-founder of Independent Force ConsultingDr. Nicole Deziel: Associate Professor in Environmental Health Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health & co-Director of the Yale Center of Perinatal, Pediatric, & Environmental Epidemiology.Stuart Day: community partner with Ohio Valley Allies; co-creator and executive producer of Exposure Podcast, investigating environmental health issues in the region (Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/exposure/id1765728709)John Klar: a former attorney who now operates a small farm in Vermont, is a writer for The MAHA Report, a popular newsletter, and a big supporter of Secretary Kennedy’s visionParticipants in the East Palestine research:The Yale-based proposal was led by Dr. Nicole Deziel and Professor Michelle Bell from the Yale School of the Environment, and involved a broad team of researchers and community partners. The awarded NIH grant formally includes Nicole Deziel, Michelle Bell, Dr. James Saiers, a hydrogeologist at Yale, and Ohio Valley Allies (led by Jill Hunkler and Stuart Day).At Yale, Drs. Deziel, Bell, and Saiers will assess water quality impacts using advanced hydrological modeling in partnership with Ohio Valley Allies and other community stakeholders such as MAHA Ohio.The work is part of the newly formed East Palestine Investigation Consortium (EPIC), which will be led by the University of Kentucky (Dr. Erin Haynes) and also includes the University of Pittsburgh.Resources:https://research.uky.edu/news/uk-lead-federal-research-effort-on-east-palestine-health-impactshttps://www.epa.gov/east-palestine-oh-train-derailmenthttps://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/programs/east_palestinehttps://www.ohiovalleyallies.org/campaigns Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

They’re the invisible forces steering what we see every day and shaping what we trust.Algorithms, now supercharged by AI, don’t just feed us information. They feed us emotion — suspicion, outrage, validation — and, maybe most dangerously, only the content they think we want to see.Today, we’re talking with an expert about how we got here and where we’re heading.With trust in institutions, public health, and science under constant attack, how much of that is the algorithm’s fault? And how much is on us?How are memes, ricocheting through our media ecosystems, changing the very nature of political communication?And as user-facing AI begins to learn from these same algorithms, will it start tailoring its answers to match what it thinks we want to hear?If that’s our future, how do we hold on to what little remains of our shared facts and shared reality?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuest:Claire Wardle, co founder of the Information Futures Lab at Brown University as well as the non profit First Draft, meant to study and navigate what she calls “information disorder." Claire is currently an associate professor of communications at Cornell University.Definition, from Oxford Language DictionaryDVD: a type of compact disc able to store large amounts of data, especially high-resolution audiovisual material.Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

On this special episode—the latest in our series of conversations that bring together people who rarely talk to each other—we hear from different perspectives on autism in a no-holds-barred discussion about this pivotal moment.Joining us are two MAHA moms raising children with autism, Science editor-in-chief Holden Thorp—who was diagnosed with autism as an adult—and Dr. Rachael Bedard, a physician and science communicator. President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have made finding a cause a top issue, putting autism—and the families living with it—squarely in the national spotlight. They’ve pointed to Tylenol use during pregnancy as a possible cause, sounding big alarm bells and triggering backlash.Today, we move past the politics and the noise to ask some bigger questions: Is Kennedy disrupting the status quo—or distorting it? And is this the kind of change that autistic people and parents actually want?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Jennifer Phillips, MAHA mom, has a daughter living with autism, founder Make a Stand 4 AutismHolden Thorp, editor in chief, Science; was diagnosed as being on the ASD spectrum as an adultApril Robinson, MAHA mom, has a son living with autism; works with Voice for ChoiceDr. Rachael Bedard, physician, journalist, works with caregivers managing serious illness Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

It’s been just over a year since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stood before a raucous Arizona crowd and asked, “Don’t you want a president who’s going to make America healthy again?”-- and with that, the MAHA era began.Now, for the first time, we have data showing how big this movement really is--and how much of America agrees with it. A brand-new national poll reveals what’s fueling MAHA’s rise: from food and fitness to vaccines, chemicals, and pesticides.How has MAHA reshaped MAGA — and how has MAGA reshaped MAHA? Which MAHA issues resonate most with the rest of the country? And how much do vaccines really factor into the movement’s identity?We’ll dig into the numbers with Erica Seifert of Navigator Research. Joining the convo is MAHA supporter Aaron Everitt, who is a friend of the show.If you’ve been tempted to write MAHA off as a small, fringe movement…you're gonna want to sit down for this one.  Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Aaron Everitt, MAHA supporter, former Kennedy campaign volunteer, video journalist and writer for Besides the Revolution and for prominent MAHA influencer Jessica Reed Kraus' House InHabit newsletter. Erica Seifert, polling expert and senior director at Navigator Research, a progressive polling firmLinks to the Navigator Poll:https://navigatorresearch.org/maha-americans-and-health-and-wellness/https://navigatorresearch.org/maha-the-policies-and-messages/Global Strategy Group conducted a public opinion survey among a sample of 1,000 registered voters from September 4-September 8, 2025. 100 additional interviews were conducted among Hispanic voters. 100 additional interviews were conducted among African American voters. 75 additional interviews were conducted among Asian American and Pacific Islander voters. 100 additional interviews were conducted among independent voters. For more on the poll, please visit www.navigatorresearch.orgThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Today, we’re exploring the new world of health and science communication now that the old playbook is dead. The days of publishing a study and expecting to reach the public with it through legacy media or pointing people to health institutions and medical associations for guidance are over. Millions no longer trust the science, the guidance, or the messenger. Meanwhile, the Make America Healthy Again movement is finding new ways to communicate and harness the enthusiasm of its followers.So what now for traditional public health? On today’s episode, we talk with Katelyn Jetelina of Your Local Epidemiologist and Jessica Steier of Unbiased Science—two innovators navigating this new communication landscape. They’re working to cut through the noise and connect evidence to people’s lives, even as traditional institutions struggle to keep up.We’ll ask how they’re adapting, what’s working, and whether the scientific establishment is giving communicators like them the support they need in this moment of upheaval.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Katelyn Jetelina, founder, author Your Local Epidemiologist; data scientist and epidemiologist; named Time 100 Most Influential People in HealthJessica Steier, data scientist, doctor of public health, founder and CEO of UnBiased Science site and podcast; has written recently about autism studies for  the New York Times. Your Local Epidemiologist: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/UnBiased Science: https://www.unbiasedscience.com/Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Coleman Hughes is a thinker, writer, podcaster, and author. You may know him from his Conversations with Coleman podcast with The Free Press, from appearances on CNN, Joe Rogan, and The View, or from his recent book, in which he argues that America should strive toward colorblindness, treating people and designing public policy without regard to race.In addition to that, what interests us is that he’s an independent, unorthodox voice—someone who doesn’t follow the political script his critics assume he should. That speaks to something we think about a lot here: too often, we take our cues from our “side” and stick to the script, seeking approval from our team, instead of engaging with compelling versions of an opposing view. That dynamic can be just as true among public health institutions as it is among supporters of MAHA.So today, we ask Coleman: What has he learned from being that unorthodox voice—challenging the side that thought he was one of their own? And, ultimately, how does he think we can bridge divides and rebuild trust?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuest:Coleman Hughes, host of Conversations with Coleman produced by the Free Press; author, The End of Race Politics: The Argument for a Colorblind AmericaThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

In our latest big conversation bringing together individuals who don’t always see eye to eye, we sit down with Gen Zers who care deeply about the nation’s health. Some are launching careers in public health, others are inspired by the MAHA movement. Together, we talk politics, race, philosophy, and shared values. What do they make of the profound changes reshaping American health today? The group of twenty-somethings explore the rise of individualism in public health, what expertise means and when it deserves deference, how to reach their generation, and whether the MAHA and MAGA era represents reform or a dismantling of America’s public health and science infrastructure. Finally, we discuss how dialogue around these issues is impacted by the tragic killing of Charlie Kirk.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark Abdelmalek (off this week)Guests: Rotimi Kukoyi: is a Truman Scholar, Jeopardy Champion, and the Senior Class President at UNC-Chapel Hill. He’s studying health policy and management on the premed track and wants to be a physician-policymaker at the state and national levels. Elizabeth Frost: Works at MAHA Ohio, ran grassroots for Sec. Kennedy's presidential campaign; runs Independent Force Consulting; has been on our pod several times!Maesa Vicente: Maesa works with the The Touch Grass Collective as the Director of Policy Research and Strategy. She is now located in Pamplona, Spain, for a year where she is an English Teacher. MacKenzie Isaac: an Indianapolis-based health educator and final-year PhD candidate at the University of Oxford, where’s she’s studying the bioethical nuances of mental health treatment pathways for Black adolescents. She’s a 2022 Rhodes Scholar and the resident Health Equity Hygienist for global science communication collective, Those Nerdy Girls. Hunter Ryerson: a student at the University of Michigan and a journalist at Pirate Wires, a leading publication on technology, politics, and culture. He writes about the MAHA movement and the advancement of human health for Pirate Wires has written for the Michigan Daily Nathaniel Mamo: a Program Coordinator at NYU's Division of Medical Ethics working on issues in vaccine ethics.Dorian Johnson: a public health communicator and board certified health and wellness coach who tackles big public health issues for little people; works to make public health topics digestible for families through storytelling. You can find him at @PHUncleAdnan Alkhalili: Adnan Alkhalili is a young citizen scientist, student of metabolic health, and founder of the Touch Grass Together movement. A junior at Rutgers University, his work focuses on metabolic fatalism and aims to restore human connection in an era of hijacked biology, digital disconnection, and cultural division. Links:Those Nerdy Girls, creators of Dear Pandemic: https://thosenerdygirls.org/Touch Grass Collective - Get Outside. Get Human.: https://touchgrasstogether.com/Hunter Ryerson, Author at The Michigan Daily: https://www.michigandaily.com/author/hryerson/The PHuncle | Where Public Health Hits Different: https://thephuncle.com/Rotimi Kukoyi named Truman scholar | UNC-Chapel Hill: https://www.unc.edu/posts/2025/04/21/rotimi-kukoyi-named-truman-scholar/Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

On today's episode, a remarkable moment in the Make America Healthy Again era. From the White House, the president urged pregnant women not to take Tylenol, saying it was linked to autism, before launching into a discourse on his personal fears and advice on autism rates, vaccine safety, and when parents should vaccinate their children. For many MAHA supporters, it was cathartic to see a president speak from instinct rather than the strict limits of a body of scientific work they do not trust. For public health veterans, the press conference was full of confusing and unfounded advice that could result in dangerous consequences. Where does that leave parents, pregnant women, and their doctors? We unpack the science, the politics, and the fallout — with voices from both sides, including a pregnant mother of a child with autism and a pediatrician on the front lines.Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuest:Brooke Blanke, mom to a 4 yo son with autism; respiratory therapist living in New JerseyDr. David Higgins, pediatrician, preventative medicine specialist; assistant professor of pediatrics at the Colorado School of MedicineResource:CDC Vaccine Schedule: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/imz-schedules/index.htmlThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

It’s the very first shot a newborn gets—just hours after birth. Today, Secretary Kennedy’s new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Committee is reviewing whether it should remain so. We’re talking about the Hepatitis B “birth dose,” the starting point of America’s childhood vaccine schedule since 1991.But for some parents today, it’s the starting point of their vaccine hesitancy. They ask: “Why give a vaccine against a virus mostly spread through sex or IV drug use to a brand-new baby?” That question has fueled broader mistrust of the government’s vaccine message.Supporters counter that childbirth itself is a major risk if the mother carries Hep B—and testing is far from foolproof. They point to the thousands of babies infected each year before the birth dose became universal, and cases plummeted.What would delaying that first shot until later in childhood mean? Is it a way to rebuild public trust or a risky rollback that could put more kids in danger?We explore these questions with two leading voices in vaccines, Dr. Paul Offit and Dr. Michael Mina, who don’t totally see eye to eye on the "birth dose".Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Dr. Paul Offit, a leading pediatrician and infectious disease specialist, co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, was on the FDA’s Vaccine Advisory Committee, director of the Vaccine Education Ctr at the Children Hospital of PhiladelphiaDr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist, immunologist, and physician. Former associate professor at Harvard Medical School & TH Chan School of Public Health, led America’s test-to-treat program during the pandemic; has served as a scientific advisor for health start-ups. Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

On today's episode, we are heading to the farm, which is where one of America's biggest debates is taking place over food, health, and who and what we trust.Modern agriculture feeds the nation and the world, but its tools raise tough questions about long-term impacts on our health, not to mention our land. You'll hear from farmers, journalists and advocates -- some aligned with MAHA and others not -- as we dig into how we grow and harvest our food, the pressures on the population and on the planet, what we know and don't know about the harms of pesticides, and their take on the new MAHA Commission report on the topic of pesticides. And we will ask: would some in MAHA even break with the GOP if Congress moves to shield pesticide makers from lawsuits?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark Abdelmalek (off this episode)Guests:Stephanie Nash, a fourth-generation dairy farmer who lives and works in Tennessee. On IG, @nofarmsnofoodJohn Klar, operates a small farm in Vermont, and is an author for the MAHA Report, a popular newsletter; he is a supporter of Sec. Kennedy and MAHA's vision. Michelle Miller, a popular presence on social media, @thefarmbabe, former corn and soybean farmer, she says she spends her time traveling the country unearthing the truth about modern farming and supporting farmers. Erin Martin, founded Fresh RX Oklahoma, which prescribes local, regeneratively grown food to reverse  food linked chronic disease in Oklahoma; co-lead Oklahoma Food is Medicine policy; frequent supporter of MAHA vision.Michael Grunwald, who is a journalist focused on the climate, agriculture and author of a new book:  "We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate.” He is a contributor to the New York Times opinion page and a former staff writer for the Washington Post, Time and Politico Magazine.Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

It's been 24 hours since we learned about the shooting and murder of famed conservative activist and leader Charlie Kirk. We wanted to bring together some friends of the show, people we engage with frequently on the pod, to discuss what happened to Charlie, and to get into how we as a society can disagree better, whether getting to yes or even trying to bring ourselves into the same room together these days is worth it. The answer is: yes. We must. Now more than ever. Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonGuests:Elizabeth Frost, MAHA Ohio, Kennedy organizerAaron Everitt, substacker, video journalist, Besides the Revolution, Kennedy volunteerDr. Craig Spencer, ER physician, Associate Professor at Brown School of Public Health, works also w Doctors Without BordersThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

**We recorded this episode on Wednesday early morning. **The big MAHA report is out, a roadmap for how Kennedy and the Trump administration plan to tackle the chronic disease crisis impacting America's children. It’s a bold attempt to turn the federal government toward confronting the dire state of our health.In this episode, we break down what’s in the plan, what’s missing, and how both the MAHA movement and the public health community are responding.Joining us is Dr. Michael Forde, a public health leader working to reduce health inequity and inequality. At a moment when MAHA has moved chronic disease to the center of the national conversation, does the Black community feel included in their plan? And how do recent cuts to food programs, Medicaid, and diversity-focused health research square with the mission of making all communities healthier?Finally, we ask, how can medicine, science, and public health build trust with a community that has profound reasons to mistrust them?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonDr. Maggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuest:Dr. Michael Forde, a public health leader focused on public health equity. He is the director of health equity for a Fortune 500 health company, where he works within the state of Maryland to improve access to care, with a focus on Medicaid.Follow him on IG, YouTube and TikTok, @MichaelHForde, where he breaks down the history, stories and facts about the Black American experience with our health system. Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Americans today are engaging in a great Rorschach Test over public health–and its results may determine our future.Are radical changes at the CDC and beyond moving us in the right direction for a healthier nation, or dangerously backwards?Are we undoing the very system that has protected us for decades (from infectious disease)? Or upending a system that has made us sicker (chronic disease epidemic)?Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) has succeeded in putting that question front and center. The movement encourages us to research for ourselves and make health decisions based on our unique family's needs. The days of lining up and getting your shot, no questions asked, are done. The days of trusting the experts appear to be winding down, too. That theme became clear in our conversation with the CDC leaders who recently resigned in protest. They tendered their resignations in defiance over RFK Jr.’s management of the agency, including the the firing of his handpicked director Dr Susan Monarez. It was a fascinating conversation, where we explored the role of the CDC, the Covid response, vaccine mandates, and the role of government in general. Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark AbdelmalekGuests:Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at CDCDr. Debra Houry , the CDC's former Chief Science and Medical OfficerDr. Dan Jernigan, former Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at CDCElizabeth Frost, MAHA Ohio, ran Kennedy grassroots in OhioAaron Everitt, video essayist, substack Besides the Revolution, frequent contributor to House InHabitTracy Hollister, former Deputy Elector Director for Kennedy campaign, public policy researcher, MAHA advocateTravis Tripodi, consultant in the health technology industry; libertarian; MAHA and Kennedy supporterThanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Our guest today, researcher Anna Gilmore, recently went viral with a provocative revelation: just four products cause at least a third of all deaths worldwide. But behind the attention-grabbing headline is her deeper mission--exposing a complex, corporate-driven system that fuels poor diets, worsening health, and our chronic disease crisis. To avoid regulation and keep government subsidies flowing, Anna says industry bankrolls and skews scientific research, while working to convince us that our poor health is all our fault. With MAHA’s momentum and focus on food, what’s her advice for the movement? Will MAHA’s current approach of calling for voluntary changes be enough? Ultimately, is capitalism incompatible with health?Hosts:Brinda AdhikariTom JohnsonMaggie BartlettDr. Mark Abdelmalek (off this week)Guest;Anna Gilmore, professor of Public Health and Director of the Tobacco Control Research Group and the Co-Director of the Center for 21st Century Public Health at the University of Bath in England.Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]