First Opinion Podcast

Host Pat Skerrett talks with Walter Isaacson, a journalist, historian, and author about his First Opinion, “CRISPR rivals put patents aside to help in the fight against Covid-19.” It was adapted from his latest book, “The Code Breaker,” about the revolutionary gene editing tool known as CRISPR and the transcontinental rivalry it spawned.

In today’s episode of STAT’s “First Opinion Podcast,” host Pat Skerrett speaks with Dr. Haider Warraich, a physician, writer, and clinical researcher.  They break down an argument Warraich made in a recent First Opinion, “Hospitals need to earn their tax-exempt status,” which details his first experience with the American healthcare system after training in Pakistan, and how he came to see its flaws.

This week on "The First Opinion Podcast," Pat Skerrett talks with Catherine Mezzacappa and Ruth Faden about the long-standing reluctance to test and administer new vaccines, including those for Covid-19, in people who are pregnant.

In June 2020, after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, Lauren Powell, who was then the executive director of Times Up Healthcare, wrote a searing essay for STAT's First Opinion. “My nightmare: Covid-19 meets racism meets the killing of a Black person by police."

In this episode, Skerrett and Powell take a deep dive into that essay, talk about what it’s like coping with the Covid-19 pandemic in Richmond, Va., whether she took to the streets in the Black Lives Matter protests, and finding Black joy in the time of coronavirus.

In the inaugural episode of STAT’s “First Opinion Podcast,” founding editor Patrick Skerrett talks with Jay Baruch, an emergency physician, professor of emergency medicine at Brown University's Warren Alpert School of Medicine, and terrific story teller.

Introducing our newest podcast from STAT: The First Opinion podcast.