Project 2025 is Bad for Your Health

As HIV/AIDS ravaged the gay community in the 1980s, the federal government was slow to respond owing to anti-LGBTQ stigma. ACT UP–the “AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power”–sprang up to hold government officials, pharmaceutical companies, and society at large accountable. One offshoot of that movement was Gran Fury, which weaponized art and graphic design in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Abdul speaks with Jack Lowery, author of the “It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful,” about Gran Fury and its legacy.

5 Juli 202244min

Roe v. Wade — the Supreme Court Decision protecting reproductive rights in America for half a century — was dashed last week. Abdul sits down with Prof. Kate Shaw, co-host of Strict Scrutiny to answer your questions about the ruling and its implications for reproductive health. Then he interviews Attorney General Dana Nessel of Michigan — a state with a draconian abortion ban on the books — about how she and her colleagues are working to protect reproductive rights in that state.

28 Juni 20221h 18min

Another school shooting, more thoughts and prayers. But maybe this time its different. Abdul talks about the way that school shootings have shaped the lives, fears, and anxieties of a whole generation of young people. Then he sits down with John Woodrow Cox, author of “Children under Fire,” to talk about the blast radius of gun violence among children.

21 Juni 202248min

A global monkeypox outbreak has infected over a thousand people worldwide. Monkeypox is nowhere as transmissible as COVID, but the choices our public health system makes now could shape how many people could be infected in the long term. Abdul interviews Prof. Anne Rimoin, an infectious disease expert, about monkeypox, what it is, why it’s spreading, and how we should be thinking about in the wake of COVID-19.

14 Juni 202245min

It’s pride month – a moment when LGBTQ+ Americans ought to feel out and proud. And yet that is becoming harder to do in an America where politicians are attacking the community through discriminatory policies designed specifically to stigmatize and exclude. Abdul talks about the way that exclusionary policy shapes mental health and speaks with Heather Zayde, a mental health provider who specializes in LGBTQ+ mental health about the challenges the community is facing and what it will take to overcome them.

7 Juni 202234min

Not even two weeks since the white supremacist murder spree in Buffalo that took 10 lives at a grocery store, another gunman entered an elementary school and killed 19 kids and two teachers. It’s true, people kill people. But when they do, there’s a reason they usually use guns. It’s because they’re the most effective — particularly the ones meant for war. Abdul reflects on the back-to-back murders — and those the media doesn’t pick up. Then he talks to trauma surgeon and founder of gun reform advocacy organization This is Our Lane, Dr. Joe Sakran.

31 Maj 202239min

Mental health among young people is worse than it’s ever been. Millennials and Generation Z are the first generation whose financial outlook looks worse than the generations before it. But that’s not even what weighs heaviest on many young peoples’ minds — the notion that the very Earth on which we are building is in crisis causes a unique kind of existential dread. Abdul sits down with the Executive Director of the Sunrise Movement, Varshini Prakash to understand how climate anxiety may be affecting mental health among America’s young people.

24 Maj 202237min

Anti-abortion activists always try to depersonalize abortion, as if its some abstract issue that doesn’t involve real people. With the impending fall of Roe v. Wade, Abdul re-personalizes it. He speaks with obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Heather Irobunda about what the fall of Roe would mean for millions of people and how it would affect her practice.

17 Maj 202237min