Public health has never been more political than it is today — and unfortunately, that’s often made it partisan, too. Which is what makes the 1500% increase in local public health funding by the state of Indiana — a state with Republicans controlling both houses of the Indiana State Assembly and the governorship — so important. Abdul reflects on the danger of allowing public health to become a partisan issue. Then he sits down with Dr. Judy Monroe, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation, and Dr...
Oct 03, 2023•52 min
How worried should you be about B.A.2.86? When is it time to get another COVID shot? Is there any future for Medicare for All? We asked for your most pressing public health questions on Twitter, Facebook, and Discord. From unique COVID situations to the future of healthcare in America, Abdul delivers answers to each and every one of your questions.
Sep 26, 2023•1 hr 4 min
Tuberculosis is one of the worst murderers in the history of the world. It remains that way today — even though we have diagnostics and treatments that should have helped to decimate it. The challenge? The greed of the corporations that hold those technologies hostage to fees that low-income people and countries can’t afford. Abdul reflects on the disease of poverty. He interviews bestselling author and YouTuber John Green about his quest to mobilize his platform to hold those corporations accou...
Sep 19, 2023•59 min
Dialysis is a medical miracle — vastly extending the lives of people with kidney disease. When it was first discovered, Congress rushed to assure that it was covered by Medicare. And then big business got involved. Abdul reflects on the way that American capitalism disembodies healthcare. Then he speaks with Tom Mueller, author of “How to Make a Killing,” about the excesses of dialysis corporations in America.
Sep 12, 2023•48 min
COVID was a generation-defining global trauma. Though the virus itself hit seniors hardest, the pandemic may have hit young people longest. Learning loss continues to affect young people today. Abdul reflects on the nature of learning loss and its implications for the future of public health interventions. Then he talks to economist Prof. Thomas Kane about the long term impacts of COVID on learning loss and what parents, teachers, and schools can do to catch up.
Sep 05, 2023•55 min
Drowning is an epidemic in America. And like so many other public health challenges, it’s what happens when we over-privatize a public good. Abdul reflects on the human right of water. Then he speaks with New York Times journalist Mara Gay, author of a recent series on drowning in America.
Aug 29, 2023•51 min
We’ve all lived through a pandemic now. But did you know that so much of our pre-pandemic lives was the result of … pandemics? Abdul reflects on the marvel that for so many of us, the risk of dying of an infectious disease is so low — and why we’re at risk of losing that. Then he sits down with Prof. Jon Kennedy, Co-Director of the Center for Public Health and Policy at Queen Mary University in London and author of the new book “Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues.”
Aug 22, 2023•53 min
Dying … is not a topic most of us like to talk about. But we probably should, considering that all of us are going to do it someday. But how do we have those conversations — and why don’t we when it matters most? Abdul reflects on our odd relationship with the one thing all of us will do. Then he speaks to Nurse Hadley Vlahos, a hospice nurse, and author of the new book “The In-Between.”
Aug 15, 2023•50 min
One of the biggest mistakes we make in health is to mistake healthcare for public health. More tests or treatments simply can’t make up for the ways that the air you breathe, the water you drink, or the school you went to shape your health trajectory. Abdul reflects on the powerful role of place in public health. Then he sits down with Prof. Luke Shaefer, Director of Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy and co-author of a new book, “The Injustice of Plac...
Aug 08, 2023•1 hr 6 min
You can’t miss them, HOKAs — those clunky athletic shoes with the thick foamy sole — are everywhere. But why? Abdul reflects on the broader juxtaposition between fitness and health. Then he sits down with Dr. Jordan Metzl, a sports medicine physician and founder of “Iron Strength,” a New York City-based fitness community, to talk about fitness, why we carry so much baggage about it, and … those HOKA shoes.
Aug 01, 2023•52 min
Think about your favorite place. Chances are you thought about how it looks — but not necessarily how it sounds. Sound is all around us, so constant that we often ignore it. But it turns out that sound can have serious implications for our health. Abdul breaks down the ways sound can shape our health. Then he sits down with Prof. Erica Walker, an epidemiologist who studies sound and health to understand more about sound’s health implications, and the inequities that so often shape the different ...
Jul 25, 2023•1 hr
What is gender-affirming care — and why is the far right trying to ban it? Abdul reflects on the way misinformation intended to flatten and decontextualize gender-affirming care has been critical to driving a cycle of hatred against trans people. Then he talks to Dr. Kellan Baker, the Executive Director of Whitman-Walker Institute and an expert on gender-affirming care about what it is, the impact of bans, and what everyone who believes in freedom can do to push back.
Jul 18, 2023•1 hr 1 min
For most of America’s medical history, the idea of a doctors’ union has been an oxymoron. Doctors were management, rather than labor. But the consolidation of healthcare over the past several decades has taken power away from doctors while forcing them into inhumane situations. The pandemic brought those challenges to a rolling boil, particularly for residents–trainee physicians who are the lifeblood of hospitals. That’s prompting resident physicians around the country to unionize for fairer wag...
Jul 11, 2023•56 min
Putting a taste-less, odorless, colorless chemical in our water is among the most effective public health interventions known to humans. So why are there so many conspiracy theories about fluoride? Abdul reflects on the low-key importance of oral health. Then he sits down with Tooka Zokaie, Senior Health Policy Analyst for the California Dental Association to talk about fluoridation and its detractors.
Jun 27, 2023•50 min
We don’t have definitive proof of how COVID-19 emerged. But several agencies in the US Intelligence community have concluded that a leak from the Chinese government-run virology research institute just miles from where it was first discovered is the likely source. And lab leaks happen more often than you probably think. That last part is something we don’t talk about enough. Abdul reflects on scientific safety–and the governance and transparency we need to protect it. Then he interviews Allison ...
Jun 20, 2023•52 min
ChatGPT set off a flurry of excitement — and anxiety — over the impact Artificial Intelligence will have on every aspect of society. One of the most important disruptions that AI will impose is on health and healthcare. Abdul reflects on the power, promise, and peril of AI. Then he sits down with Dr. Eric Topol, one of healthcare’s foremost futurists and author of “Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare More Human,” to discuss it.
Jun 13, 2023•59 min
The pandemic took a major toll on the mental health of young people. But truth be told, mental illness had been rising among young people for the decade before that. Abdul reflects on the causes of mental illness in young people. Then he sits down with Leslie Campos, a youth organizer and entrepreneur and Dr. Anthony Iton, Senior Vice President at the California Endowment, to discuss the rise in teen mental illness and its causes.
Jun 06, 2023•56 min
Food is life. But just like lives, some foods are valued more than others — some are told they don’t belong. So what happens when the entire medical establishment becomes a part of that exclusion? That’s exactly what happened to MSG, a flavor enhancer common in many Asian cuisines. Abdul reflects on racism through food and the ways that health can be weaponized against certain kinds of foods. Then he sits down with Yasmin Tayag, staff writer at The Atlantic, to talk about how recent studies may ...
May 30, 2023•42 min
The murder of George Floyd three years ago set off an uprising at the very core of who we are as a country over the treatment of Black folks, particularly at the hands of the police. Abdul reflects on the legacy of that uprising two years on. Then he sits down with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the man responsible for bringing Floyd’s murderers to justice and author of a new book about the trial and police violence.
May 23, 2023•1 hr 6 min
Treatment-specific online companies have exploded since the pandemic. But the ethics are… complicated. What happens when you can order a little understood treatments in the mail? What happens when those treatments are habit forming? Abdul explores the explosion of treatment-specific online companies and talks to Chris Hamby, a reporter at the New York Times, about his recent reporting on online ketamine therapy.
May 16, 2023•48 min
Menopause is the most ubiquitous experience nobody talks about. Pain, hot flashes, mental clouding — they’re a constellation of symptoms that women are routinely told are “normal.” Abdul reflects on the costs, to individuals and society. Then he sits down with Susan Dominus, a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine, whose recent piece on menopause treatment has forced doctors to rethink their recommendations.
May 09, 2023•57 min
There are two central challenges to public communication: knowing how you're perceived and knowing who you’re not hearing back from. We don’t do either well in public health. Abdul reflects on these challenges and what they mean for public health. Then he sits down with Dr. Brian Castrucci, President and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation to talk about the results of a Morning Consult poll they commissioned.
May 02, 2023•55 min
It’s World Immunization Week! Aside from basic plumbing, no public health intervention has saved more lives than vaccines. But misinformation, corporatism, and disinvestment are keeping them from those who need them most. Abdul reflects on the consequences of COVID for global vaccination efforts. Then he talks to Martha Rebour, Executive Director of Shot@Life about the effort to vaccinate the world.
Apr 25, 2023•44 min
Access to the abortion medication mifepristone is in question after a dubious ruling from an ideological judge in Texas. Abdul lays out the dangerous implications of the ruling. Then he talks to Ob/Gyn and family planning specialist Dr. Kristyn Brandi about the mifepristone, the case, and the implications for providers like her and their patients.
Apr 18, 2023•50 min
“Public health is a load of crap!” Not quite. More like, “Public health is about a load of crap!” Abdul talks about how separating the water we crap in from the water we drink is literally the foundation of public health. Then he interviews Rose George, author of “The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste” about everything having to do with $hit.
Apr 11, 2023•1 hr
“Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” That’s for damn sure when it comes to vaccinations. Abdul reflects on the hypocrisy at the heart of the anti-vaxxer movement. Then he chats with Prof. Andrew Wehrman, historian and author of “The Contagion of Liberty,” about the role of smallpox inoculation in revolution-era America.
Apr 04, 2023•59 min
What happens when we can program our biology like we do software in a computer? Humanity’s finding out. It means we can translate a virus’s genome into a vaccine in less than a year, like we did to create the COVID mRNA vaccines. But it also means that anyone sitting in their mom’s basement can download that genome, too. Abdul reflects on the possibilities and pitfalls, then he interviews Michael Specter, Staff Writer at The New Yorker, about his new audiobook about synthetic biology’s future, “...
Mar 28, 2023•54 min
Puberty is awkward. But that’s, in part, because we continue to feed the stigma around it. Now, puberty is happening earlier for girls, a trend accelerated by the pandemic. Abdul reflects on what that means for public health. He speaks with Jessica Winter, an editor at the New Yorker, who wrote about this trend to understand why it’s happening and how we can make the experience easier.
Mar 21, 2023•51 min
Semaglutide — sold as Ozempic or Wegovy – offers nothing short of a revolution for changing body weight with a medication. With A-list celebrities racing to get their hands on them, these new treatments pose critical questions about the very nature of body weight, obesity, and their relationship to health. On the one hand, it and similar drugs offer a relatively safe, very effective way to drop body fat. On the other, to what end? Abdul sits down with Dr. Shauna Levy, an obesity medicine doctor,...
Mar 14, 2023•49 min
Across the country, healthcare chains have been buying hospitals up like properties on a Monopoly board — changing their names and shuttering hospitals in rural communities. What’s driving this? The corporate influence on healthcare. Private equity firms with no expertise in healthcare have gotten into the game of consolidation, too, buying up clinics, healthcare companies, and community hospitals and stripping them for their parts. Abdul talks about the consequences and interviews Eileen O’Grad...
Mar 07, 2023•57 min
