Defunding Public Health? One County Tried. It Didn’t Go Well.
Ottawa County, Michigan made national news last year after a MAGA take over of its County Commission. Their first major act? To try to defund their public health department. Abdul reflects on the impending risk of this across the country. Then he sits down with Adeline Hambley and Marcia Mansaray, the leaders of the Ottawa County Health Department to learn what happened — and what they did next.
20 Feb 202457min
How Cars Got More Deadly
More pedestrians are dying in auto accidents. Abdul reflects on the public health challenges that cars pose in general. Then he sits down with Dr. Deborah Kuhls, a trauma surgeon who studies pedestrian fatalities to understand why and how to stop it.
13 Feb 202446min
Sickle Cell and All the Diseases We Choose to Ignore
Sickle Cell Disease is a debilitating genetic disease that almost exclusively affects Black folks. While genetic breakthroughs have made a cure possible, the high price tag may keep them away from people who need them. Abdul reflects on the way that society shapes the scientific questions we ask — and whose diseases we take seriously. Then he interviews Dr. Titilope Fasipe, a pediatric hematologist who treats sickle cell disease — and has lived with the disease her whole life.
6 Feb 202456min
A Public Health Catastrophe in Gaza
In less than four months, more than 25,000 people have been killed by Israeli bombardment in Gaza. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of devastation. Abdul reflects on how the way we talk about this will shape how the international community values human life. Then he interviews Dr. Tanya Haj-Hasan, a pediatric intensive care doctor with Doctors without Borders and creator of the social medial channel “Gaza Medic Voices.”
30 Jan 202445min
Has Public Health Lost Its Way? This Public Health Dean Thinks So.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a crucible for America’s public health institutions. It brought out their best — and worst. And many of us didn’t like what we saw. Abdul sits down with Prof. Sandro Galea, Dean of the Boston University School of Public Health to talk about his new book, Within Reason, in which Galea argues that the pandemic uncovered an “illiberal,” even, at times, authoritarian, strain within.
23 Jan 202458min
America’s Drug Policy Czar Breaks Down the Fentanyl Crisis
Over the past decade, Fentanyl, a cheap, hyper-potent, and synthetic opiate has accelerated the opioid pandemic already ravaging the country. Abdul reflects on the way that our atomized, lonely communities left us vulnerable to opioid addiction and fentanyl and sits down with Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of National Drug Control Policy to talk through the history of the opioid epidemic, fentanyl, and how the federal government is working with local communities to solve it.
16 Jan 202447min
New Year, New You?
America’s most common New Year’s resolutions focus on health–weight loss, fitness, or something else. While almost all of them focus on physical health, they all run through our mental health. Abdul reflects on how essential health is to everything else we do. Then he sits down with psychiatrist and author Dr. Jud Brewer to understand the mind-body axis and how mastering it can help us nail down those resolutions.
9 Jan 202454min
Words Matter. Especially in Public Health.
It’s not only what you say — it’s how you say it. And that’s often where public health gets it wrong. Our producer Emma Illick-Frank talks to a recovered anti-vaxxer about what ultimately brought him around. Then Abdul talks to Jessica Malaty Rivera, an epidemiologist and health communicator, about how far humility and accessible language can go to protecting health.
19 Dec 20231h 1min
