America Dissected

Some Bad Mother Suckers with Stephanie Nolen

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode Description: Mosquitoes are responsible for upwards of half of all deaths in human history. Beyond being a simple nuisance, the diseases they ...

Rizzing Up Public Health? with Prof. Jerel Ezell

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Public health is really cool! Ok … maybe it’s cool to all of us who do it for a living. But to be honest, public health’s got a serious brand pr...

Activating Public Health with Dr. Shelley Hearne

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The truth should speak for itself. The problem is that it just doesn’t speak very loudly — we have to speak for it. Which is why public health has...

Red State Public Health with Drs. Judy Monroe and Lindsay Weaver

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Mailbag!

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

YouTuberculosis Advocacy with John Green

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

 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...

Dialyzing for Dollars with Tom Mueller

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dialysis is a medical miracle — vastly extending the lives of people with kidney disease. When it was first discovered, Congress rushed to assure th...

COVID Learning Loss with Prof. Thomas Kane

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

COVID was a generation-defining global trauma. Though the virus itself hit seniors hardest, the pandemic may have hit young people longest. Learning l...

Drowning to Swim with Mara Gay

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 r...

Humans in Eight Plagues with Prof. Jon Kennedy

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 t...

The In-Between with Hadley Vlahos

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 h...

The Injustice of Place with Prof. Luke Shaefer

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

What the HOKA? with Dr. Jordan Metzl

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You can’t miss them, HOKAs — those clunky athletic shoes with the thick foamy sole — are everywhere. But why? Abdul reflects on the broader juxt...

Sound Advice with Prof. Erica Walker

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Affirming Care with Dr. Kellan Baker

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 decontex...

The Rise of Doctors Unions with Dr. Lorenzo Gonzalez

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 cons...

Trooth Decay with Tooka Zokaie

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Putting a taste-less, odorless, colorless chemical in our water is among the most effective public health interventions known to humans. So why are th...

Pandora’s Gamble with Alison Young

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 Ch...

DrGPT with Dr. Eric Topol

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

ChatGPT set off a flurry of excitement — and anxiety — over the impact Artificial Intelligence will have on every aspect of society. One of the mo...

The Kids Are NOT Alright with Dr. Anthony Iton and Leslie Campos

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 deca...

MSG for You and Me with Yasmin Tayag

30 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 medic...

Break the Wheel with Attorney General Keith Ellison

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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, particul...

Mail Order Meds with Chris Hamby

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Treatment-specific online companies have exploded since the pandemic. But the ethics are… complicated. What happens when you can order a little unde...

Menopaused with Susan Dominus

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Menopause is the most ubiquitous experience nobody talks about. Pain, hot flashes, mental clouding — they’re a constellation of symptoms that wome...

Polling Public Health with Dr. Brian Castrucci

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 e...

We Need More Vaccines, Actually with Martha Rebour

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s World Immunization Week! Aside from basic plumbing, no public health intervention has saved more lives than vaccines. But misinformation, corpo...

Miffed about Mifepristone with Dr. Kristyn Brandi

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Access to the abortion medication mifepristone is in question after a dubious ruling from an ideological judge in Texas. Abdul lays out the dangerous ...

The $hittiest Episode with Rose George

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“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 w...

The Contagion of Liberty with Prof. Andrew Wehrman

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“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 hypocris...

The Synthetic Biology Future with Michael Specter

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Why Are Girls Hitting Puberty Younger? with Jessica Winter

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 acce...

The Weight Loss Wizard of Oz(empic) with Dr. Shauna Levy

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Semaglutide — sold as Ozempic or Wegovy – offers nothing short of a revolution for changing body weight with a medication. With A-list celebrities...

Private Equity vs. Public Health with Eileen O’Grady

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Across the country, healthcare chains have been buying hospitals up like properties on a Monopoly board — changing their names and shuttering hospi...

Public Health Workers Are NOT Okay with Elizabeth Holzschuh

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been a long three years since the COVID-19 pandemic began. And though the pandemic isn’t over — the public health workforce feels done. Pub...

Twice as Hard with Jasmine Brown

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Becoming a doctor is hard. Becoming a doctor when you face discrimination because of your race AND gender? Twice as hard. Abdul reflects on the obstac...

Caffeinated with Murray Carpenter

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Caffeine is the most important drug that no one is willing to label. Across its forms–whether coffee, tea, coke, or energy drinks–93% of Americans...

The Fate of Football (Players) with Garrett Bush

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last month, as millions watched a Monday Night Football game, Damar Hamlin, a safety on the Buffalo Bills football team, suffered a rare and potential...

Cooking with Gas with Rebecca Leber

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The rightwing ecosystem went up in flames a couple of weeks ago over gas stoves. Beyond the fact that burning stuff into our lungs is probably bad for...

Weight, Weight, Don’t Tell Me with Prof. Harriet Brown

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Obesity has tripled since 1970. And since, it’s spawned all sorts of trends, ostensibly to help folks eat less, exercise more, and lose weight. But ...

Under the Skin with Linda Villarosa

17 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

People of color, and particularly Black folks, suffer higher rates of disease in America. That has less to do with anything about personal characteris...

Making Your Resolutions Stick with Prof. Katy Milkman

10 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine setting a New Year’s Resolution — and actually achieving it! Living healthier and losing weight accounts for more than 40% of all New Year...

Holiday Mailbag!

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The weather outside is frightful! But the fire is so delightful! Since we’ve no place to go … Abdul’s about to nerd out on all of your health &a...

Ellen Needs Insurance with Ellen Haun

13 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Health insurance in America is anything but “sure.” Most Americans under Medicare age rely on their employment for their insurance — but that le...

Do you shower too much? with Dr. James Hamblin

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What would happen if you just … stopped showering? After all, we spend way more time washing than our ancestors ever did. Abdul reflects on the way ...

America’s First Paramedics with Kevin Hazzard

29 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Did you know that modern emergency medical services owe their origins to an all-Black paramedic team in Pittsburgh in the ‘60s? Author and former pa...

Public Health on the Ballot with Dr. Brian Castrucci

22 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Public Health was on the ballot in the 2022 midterm elections — and public health won! Abdul reflects on the politics of public health. He sits down...

A Tripledemic? with Dr. Katelyn Jetelina

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

RSV! Flu! COVID! It’s fall, and respiratory illnesses are raging. RSV, in particular, is filling up pediatric hospitals as it infects our society’...

From the Outside In with Jane Coaston

08 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

America Dissected comes to you LIVE from Boston at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. Abdul reflects on what brought him to public...

What the Fact with Dr. Seema Yasmin

01 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 wasn’t the only thing going viral. In fact, mis- and disinformation ultimately framed so much of societ...

Dissecting Dr. Oz

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Nobody quite represents the seedy underbelly of American medicine like Dr. Oz. His career is a living description of what happens when ego and greed g...

Adam Ruins Public Health with Adam Conover

18 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

So much of public health revolves around collective action — that is government working on our behalf to do things like fund biomedical research, re...

Racism is a Public Health Issue with Dr. Matías Valenzuela

11 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Following the murder of George Floyd in the context of the pandemic, communities across the country rushed to recognize the public health scourge of r...

Getting Myopic with Sarah Zhang

04 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

More than 50% of the thinking part of the human brain is dedicated to processing visual information. We are, in a word, visual beings. And yet around ...

The Gospel of Wellness with Rina Raphael

27 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Green juices, skincare, yoga. We all want to keep up with our health. But what happens when corporations, influencers, and snake oil salesmen prey on ...

Malcolm Gladwell on Why What You Don’t See Can Help You

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What would have happened if, like flouride, the COVID vaccine would have just been in the water? That’s one of the questions Malcolm Gladwell asks i...

ORGANized with Greg Segal

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Organ transplantation is one of the miracles of modern medicine. And yet the system that we use to manage is anything but miraculous. Organs are damag...

Quack to the Future

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Traditional science-based medicine has some gaps—but what happens when grifters and scammers take advantage? Dr. Abdul El-Sayed leads us inside the ...

Don’t Pay Attention with Casey Schwartz

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The pandemic drove major increases in depression, anxiety, and ADHD. But rates of ADHD–and its treatment–have been skyrocketing even before the pa...

Conceiving the Anti-Abortion Movement with Prof. Karissa Haugeberg

23 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The anti-abortion movement notched a terrible win six weeks ago. But reasserting the right to a safe, legal abortion nationwide forces us to go back i...

Negotiating Prescription Drug Prices with Prof. Aaron Kesselheim

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is a lot of things…including a healthcare reform bill. Along with extending healthcare subsidies for 13 million ...

Screening Sunscreen? with Amanda Mull

09 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s early August–it’s hot and sunny. And for many people, it’s sunburn season. But the long-term consequences of sun exposure can be a lot wo...

50 years after Tuskegee with Prof. Rueben C. Warren

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

50 years ago, it was discovered that the United States Public Health Service and the CDC–the federal government–had left nearly 400 Black men with...

Presidential COVID with Dr. Megan Ranney

26 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The president of the United States has COVID. Again. Abdul reflects on what this signals in the pandemic–and our politics. Then he sits down with Dr...

Big Leaky Tech with The Markup

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The fall of Roe has opened up the risk that authorities could use data from period tracking apps or internet searches in legal proceedings in abortion...

What the Discovery of Blood Flow Can Teach Us About Science Itself with Dr. Dhun Sethna

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For most of human history, people believed that blood flow was a one-way thing. The discovery that blood flowed two ways–that there was a circulator...

How AIDS Activists Weaponized Art to Fight a Pandemic with Jack Lowery

05 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 Coalit...

The Fall of Roe. Mailbag & Interview with Attorney General Dana Nessel

28 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Roe v. Wade — the Supreme Court Decision protecting reproductive rights in America for half a century — was dashed last week. Abdul sits down with...

The Kids Are Not Alright with John Woodrow Cox

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Another school shooting, more thoughts and prayers. But maybe this time its different. Abdul talks about the way that school shootings have shaped the...

Monkeypox! with Prof. Anne Rimoin

14 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A global monkeypox outbreak has infected over a thousand people worldwide. Monkeypox is nowhere as transmissible as COVID, but the choices our public ...

The mental health impact of anti-LGBT policies with Heather Zayde

07 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 politicia...

How many more kids have to die? with Dr. Joe Sakran

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 sch...

The Generational Dread of the Climate Crisis with Varshini Prakash

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mental health among young people is worse than it’s ever been. Millennials and Generation Z are the first generation whose financial outlook looks w...

Abortion is Healthcare with Dr. Heather Irobunda

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anti-abortion activists always try to depersonalize abortion, as if its some abstract issue that doesn’t involve real people. With the impending fal...

Throughline wants you to understand the “Everlasting Problem”

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

America’s healthcare system is broken — not because someone broke it, but because it was built haphazardly to begin with. But why was it built tha...

Insulinated From the Price of It with T1International

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Millions of people with diabetes simply can’t live without insulin. Discovered over a century ago, it’s patent was sold for $1. But today, pharmac...

Ai-Jen Poo Needs us to Care about Carers

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Millions of Americans work inside our homes–as carers and cleaners–taking care of the people and places we value most. Though they do the most imp...

Pain Points with Dr. Haider Warraich

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Millions of Americans live with chronic pain. But we have yet to fully contend with the impact pain has on people–and our ability to treat pain rema...

The Means of Consumption with Malik Yakini

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Food insecurity affects millions of Americans — a disproportionate number of them are Black. What are the consequences of the way we produce food in...

Seeking Refuge with David Miliband

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Nearly four million people have left Ukraine since Putin invaded their country. They need housing, food, and work. But so do the million who’ve fled...

Period Poverty with Lynette Medley

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Menstruation is a fundamental part of the physiology of nearly half of the people on Earth. But we don’t talk about it that way–it’s taboo, unsp...

Bracket Buster with Prof. Tim Fong

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Online sports betting has exploded over the past few years as 18 states have legalized it. Already a $70 Billion market, it’s projected to double in...

Daylight Shavings Time with Dr. Muhammad Adeel Rishi

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Spring forward has taken all the spring out of my step. It’s even worse from my four year old who’s super confused about why she has to wake up an...

State of the Pandemic with Dr. Don Burke

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

COVID really is over this time, right? Abdul reflects on the fact that public health is about what we do in the background when no one is paying atten...

On the Beaten Path with Dr. Shane O’Mara

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Who knew “take a hike” was really powerful health advice? Abdul reflects on the power of one of the most basic things humans can do. Then he speak...

People > Pathology with Prof. Celeste Watkins-Hayes

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Too often, we focus on the disease that affect people rather than the people those diseases are affecting. That failure to pay attention to people let...

The Sum of Us are Sick with Heather McGhee

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Public health requires us to believe that there is “a public” above and beyond ourselves as individuals. But who belongs to that public may matter...

The Black Maternal Health Caucus with Rep. Lauren Underwood

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most galling examples of inequity in America continues to be the stunningly high rate at which Black mothers die in pregnancy and childbirt...

The Court of Public Vaccination w/ Prof. Melissa Murray

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Your right to swing your first ends where my face starts. That principle captures the limits of our freedoms in this country. And the Supreme Court ha...

A different kind of public option?

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

President Biden ran on the idea of offering Americans a “public option” for health insurance — a government managed healthcare plan that would ...

CDC something wrong here?

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The CDC is the nation–perhaps the world’s–most preeminent public health agency. But it’s taken quite the beating throughout this pandemic. Fro...

The Innovation Gap with Prof. Shobita Parthasarathy

11 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Marginalized communities–including low-income and Black and brown folks, and women and LGBT people–are less likely to have reliable healthcare acc...

You’ve Got Mail with Guest Host Tre’vell Anderson

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Abdul and Guest Host Tre’vell Anderson answer everything you wanted to know (and maybe didn’t know you wanted to know) about public health, COVID-...

Healing Back...maybe? with Jonathan Cohn

21 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised action on President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, a sweeping package of legislation that would...

Patent Pending with Prof. Jorge Contreras

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 e...

Uh-Omicron

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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, Ameri...

Teeth with Mary Otto

30 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 t...

Cannabis Capitalism with Prof. David Jernigan

23 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 syste...

The Last Best Chance with Prof Jisung Park

16 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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...

The Contagion Next Time with Prof Sandro Galea

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 s...

Be-JUULed with Lauren Etter

02 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Decades of public health efforts turned America’s young people against smoking. And then JUUL made it cool again. Abdul speaks with Lauren Etter, au...