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He's a very unusual human, don't you think, Clement?

Stitcher.

When it comes to public health, the first year of the second Trump administration has been an unusually busy one and unusually controversial. Most of this has run through Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services. In just the past few weeks, Kennedy overhauled the government's recommendations for childhood vaccines and revised the so-called food pyramid, promoting animal proteins especially, while downgrading ultra-processed foods, refined carbohydrates and added sugars.

Kennedy's policies affect several agencies under his purview, including the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has had a busy year of its own, approving new treatments for several rare diseases, including cancers, as well as for rheumatoid arthritis and HIV. The agency also approved a non-opioid pain medicine, the first of its kind in many years. The next few years may be even busier.

He has been on Freakonomics Radio a few times in the past, and he made a brief appearance in last week's episode about brain supplements. McCary was a longtime surgical oncologist and professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University. He's also done a lot of health policy research. He's published hundreds of papers and three books that critiqued the American healthcare system. Running the FDA is McCary's first job in government, and he knows it's a big one.

What's interesting is just how timely the conversation feels right now. It's always good to get an insider's view from an institution like the FDA. So today, as we continue our Freakonomics Radio guide to getting better, Marty McCary on food recommendations, drug approvals, public health, and what people in the White House like to call Trump derangement syndrome.