Imagine someone could patent your arm, or your mouth. Well, for a long time, someone could patent a part of the human body, a DNA sequence. That all ended in 2013 with a landmark supreme court case. But it illustrates how science, business, and law intersect—in ways that shape our health today. Abdul speaks with Prof. Jose Contreras, Law Professor and Author of the new book, The Genome Defense. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Dec 14, 2021•33 min
Omicron has now made landfall in the US. We are learning more about the variant every day—good, bad, and ugly. We turn to Dr. Angie Rasmussen, America Dissected’s resident virologist to get into the nitty-gritty and help us understand what it means for us and the future of the pandemic. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Dec 07, 2021•32 min
Because of an accident of history, we think of our teeth as being wholly separate from the rest of our bodies. They even have different doctors. But teeth really are the entryway to the body, and the state of oral health in America says a lot about our inequities in general. Abdul talks to Mary Otto, journalist and author of Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America. Abdul also offers his perspective on the current COVID-19 surge and the new Omicron vari...
Nov 30, 2021•38 min
The movement to legalize cannabis has marked some major wins, helping us better understand its benefits and addressing the way it's been used to systematically over-police and incarcerate Black and brown people. And yet cannabis is big business, as venture-backed companies have swooped in to monetize newly legal cannabis, putting their bottom line ahead of public health concerns. Abdul talks to Prof. David Jernigan, author of a new book on the public health implications of cannabis. For a transc...
Nov 23, 2021•35 min
Our health is inevitably tied to the health of our planet. At COP26, the world’s leaders tried to save it—but did they do enough? We speak to Prof. Jisung Park, an environmental economist, about how climate change is shaping inequality, and about what we hoped for and what we got from COP26. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Nov 16, 2021•50 min
Were we set up to fail? And how does our failure affect the most vulnerable people in society? Abdul reflects on the nature of prevention itself. He speaks with Prof. Sandro Galea, Dean of the Boston University School of Public Health and author of the new book “The Contagion Next Time.” For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Nov 09, 2021•35 min
Decades of public health efforts turned America’s young people against smoking. And then JUUL made it cool again. Abdul speaks with Lauren Etter, author of “The Devil’s Playbook,” about how a tool designed to help people quit hooked a whole new generation to nicotine. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Nov 02, 2021•42 min
Coming to you LIVE from the American Public Health Association’s annual conference in Denver, Colorado, we’re talking about how even talk about public health. We’ll talk to Dr. John Douglas, Director of Colorado’s largest health department about what he’s learned about how we talk about public health in a polarized moment and how it’s shaped his work and the future of his health department. Then we speak with messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio about what’s working—and what’s not—in messaging aro...
Oct 26, 2021•1 hr 2 min
CRISPR is one of those bio-scientific breakthroughs that has the potential to change society. Abdul talks about what makes CRISPR so important and speaks with Carl Zimmer, science journalist at the New York Times, about how this discovery is already changing society and about his new book “Life’s Edge: The Search for What it Means to Be Alive.” For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Oct 19, 2021•34 min
Densely-populated with lots of turn-over, cities are perhaps the worst place to be in a pandemic. And yet in the latter half of the COVID-19 pandemic, people living in cities have been safer than their rural and suburban counterparts. Abdul explores why cities matter when it comes to public health. Then he speaks with Katrina Forrest, co-Executive Director of the CityHealth initiative and Chrissie Juliano, Executive Director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, to discuss the threats and opportun...
Oct 12, 2021•30 min
PrEP — or “pre-exposure prophylaxis” — has been a game changer in HIV prevention, that is, for people who can access it. But Big Pharma has, once again, put its profits over its patients. Abdul talks about the latest in HIV prevention and speaks with James Krellenstein an AIDS activist and co-founder of PrEP4All. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Oct 05, 2021•37 min
Abortion bans don’t stop abortions, they just make them less safe. Not only does Texas’s Draconian new abortion ban violate the reproductive rights of millions of people in Texas, it empowers abortion bounty hunters to do what government should not. Abdul talks about the dangerous precedent Texas’s law sets, and speaks with Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood about what comes next. Take Crooked's listener survey: crooked.com/survey For a transcript of this episode, ple...
Sep 28, 2021•29 min
The COVID-19 vaccines have put the FDA front-and-center in our national COVID-19 response. Between the lag for full COVID-19 vaccine approval, the approval of a questionable new Alzheimer’s drug, and the booster it’s worth asking where the FDA goes from here. Abdul talks to Dr. Scott Gottleib, former FDA Commissioner and author of a new book about the pandemic. Take Crooked's listener survey: crooked.com/survey For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Sep 21, 2021•45 min
Native American tribes were among the hardest hit by COVID-19, losing tribal elders to the virus—and with them irretrievable pieces of their culture and heritage. But no group in America has done more to assure their communities are vaccinated and protected. We speak to Rebecca Nagle, activist, journalist and host of Crooked Media’s This Land podcast about how Native American tribes took on the collective responsibility of vaccinating their communities and what our country can learn from them. T...
Sep 14, 2021•32 min
This week, we commemorate the 20th anniversary of September 11. The securitization at home and the “war on terror” that followed fundamentally reshaped our country and those in which our country made war. War is the antithesis of public health. We speak with Zarlasht Halaimzai, an Afghan woman who founded the Refugee Trauma Initiative, which takes on the human fallout of violence and displacement, about the lasting consequences of America’s war on terror. Take Crooked's listener survey: crooked....
Sep 07, 2021•38 min
As children head back to school, masks should be on the shopping list. But, despite CDC recommendations, in many states they won’t be. Abdul talks about the critical work of protecting children in schools and speaks with Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, one of America’s most powerful teacher’s unions about worker safety in the pandemic and in our schools. Take Crooked's listener survey: crooked.com/survey For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.c...
Aug 31, 2021•33 min
As football season approaches, Abdul talks about his years on the field and his growing ambivalence to the sport in the face of new research about its health consequences.He interviews Prof. Kathleen Bachynski, author of “No Game for Boys to Play” about the public health impact of football. Take Crooked's listener survey: crooked.com/survey For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Aug 24, 2021•38 min
Nobody has come to represent the role of science in taking on this pandemic quite like Dr. Anthony Fauci. He joins Abdul for their second conversation about where we’ve been, where we are now, and how to face down anti-science trolls, even when they come in the shape of US Senators. Take Crooked's listener survey: crooked.com/survey For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Aug 17, 2021•29 min
Why is the delta variant a game-changer? Abdul dissects how the delta variant has changed our approach to COVID-19—and what could be in store. He speaks with America Dissected’s resident virologist Dr. Angie Rasmussen about why the delta variant is so transmissible and how it should change our approach to COVID-19 in general. Take Crooked's listener survey: crooked.com/survey For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Aug 10, 2021•41 min
We can’t talk about infrastructure without centering climate—and we can’t talk about climate without centering structural racism. Abdul dissects the indelible link between infrastructure, climate, and health. He interviews Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Climate Policy Director at the Roosevelt Institute (and a long time friend!) about that link, and what this moment should teach us about where our public policy should go from here. Take Crooked's listener survey: crooked.com/survey For a transcript of this...
Aug 03, 2021•36 min
Abdul dissects the FDA’s disastrous decision to approve the new Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab despite the evidence that it fails to improve symptoms—and its aftermath and implications for the future of Big Pharma. He speaks with Professor Aaron Kesselheim, a prescription drug policy expert and a former member of the FDA Advisory Panel, who resigned at the FDA ignored the panel’s overwhelming opposition to approve it the drug. Take Crooked's listener survey: crooked.com/survey For a transcript of t...
Jul 27, 2021•36 min
Abdul breaks down the risks--and rewards--inherent in holding an international athletic competition in the middle of a pandemic. He speaks with four-time US Olympic swimmer and gold medalist Peter Vanderkaay about the Olympic experience and how this summer’s Olympics might be different.
Jul 20, 2021•27 min
Abdul dissects why our society makes it so hard for people with mental illness to get care. Then he interviews comedian and performer Wayne Brady about his experience with mental health and what he thinks it will take to end the stigma around mental illness. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Jul 13, 2021•38 min
Abdul dissects the various ways that people with mental illness are stigmatized, marginalized, and oppressed in our society. Then he talks to Dr. Ashwin Vasan, President and CEO of Fountain House, a nonprofit organization focused on creating safe and welcoming spaces for people with serious mental illness, about their work to make mental health the next social justice issue. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Jul 06, 2021•39 min
We bring back an episode from Season 1 that remains relevant today: The Opioid Crisis has wreaked havoc across America, taking lives and devastating families, neighborhoods, and communities. But this isn’t the first time we’ve suffered a deadly drug crisis. In today’s episode, Abdul tells the tale of two crises: the opioid epidemic of today and the crack epidemic of the 1980s, contrasting the government’s and media’s responses to these crises—and what they tell us about the nature of drug use an...
Jun 22, 2021•27 min
Abdul dissects the critical role of trust in public health--and how the pandemic challenged it. He interviews Andy Slavitt, a former Obama health official and former member of the Biden COVID-19 Task Force on going from an outside commentator on the pandemic to the White House and what he learned about COVID-19 from inside the belly of the beast.
Jun 15, 2021•37 min
Abdul dissects the incentives that drive Big Pharma and how they tend to get in the way of getting medications to those who need them most. Then he interviews Priti Krishtel and Tahir Amin of the Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge about their work to take on the pharmaceutical industry and deliver vaccines to the world. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Jun 08, 2021•41 min
Abdul dissects the politics underneath Texas’s new anti-choice bill. Then he speaks with Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights about the wave of anti-abortion legislation sweeping the states, and what they mean for the fight over Reproductive Rights in the US. For a transcript of this show, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Jun 01, 2021•40 min
Abdul dissects health inequities to understand why America’s focus on healthcare rather than public health is part of the problem. Then he speaks with Professor Ibram X. Kendi, author of the New York Times Bestseller “How to be an Anti-Racist” about taking on racism in public health and healthcare. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
May 25, 2021•40 min
Abdul cuts into how the climate of misinformation and politicization forced us to change the way we talk about science. Then he sits down with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, and a 20-year veteran of medical journalism, to learn how the pandemic changed his perspective on his work. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
May 18, 2021•44 min
