Global Health Matters

Who gets to read the science, and who pays for it? Fresh back from summer (tans included),  Garry Aslanyan and co-hosts  Catherine Kyobutungi and Ricardo Baptista Leite return for the fifth installment of The Inside Track. This time they're joined by special guest Ashley Farley, Senior Officer for Knowledge and Research Services in Global Health at the Gates Foundation, to dig into open access and the paywalls that keep research away from the people who need it most. They talk about why the Gates Foundation stopped paying article processing charges and the growth of Diamond Open Access. The pundits then pick apart Lithuania's controversial plan to send newly trained doctors to rural areas. They close with kudos for El Salvador eliminating trachoma, promising mRNA cancer vaccine results and the public health thinking behind Addis Ababa's makeover.

Related episode documents, transcripts and other information can be found on our website.

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 Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  
 
 All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.

"Trailblazers with Garry" is a series from Global Health Matters, where host Garry Aslanyan sits down with trailblazers — thinkers, leaders, and influencers shaping the future of global health — for short face-to-face conversations, available in both audio and video formats. It’s a chance to get to know the people behind the work and hear their perspectives on the current global health landscape.

For this episode, Garry sat down with Priti Patnaik, an independent investigative journalist and the founding editor of Geneva Health Files — a reader-funded newsletter that tracks the power and politics of global health. Founded in 2020, Geneva Health Files reaches 7,000 readers in 150 countries and has multiple contributors. In this conversation, Priti explains why global health cannot be understood disease by disease, and how her trade and finance lens reveals the money and power behind health decisions.  There GHF newsletter can be found here. 

Related episode documents, transcripts and other information can be found on our website.

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Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.  

In this video trailer, Host Garry Aslanyan shares a mid‑season update on Season 5 of Global Health Matters, highlighting the four types of episodes the show now offers — Signature deep‑dives, Dialogue interviews, Trailblazers recorded during his travels, and the newest format, The Inside Track. He also announces that video versions of two episode types will soon be available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube, encouraging listeners to keep watching and stay tuned for more content through 2026 and 2027.

We also thank you for listening to Global Health Matters. This short survey (about 8 minutes) will help us understand what is working, what we can do better, and what you would like to hear in Season 6. Your answers are anonymous unless you choose to leave your details at the end.

Related episode documents, transcripts and other information can be found on our website.

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Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.  

Building stronger health systems requires more than technical solutions. It requires understanding the people, relationships and power dynamics that shape health outcomes. As countries work towards more equitable and resilient health systems, how can gender and inclusion become central to research, policymaking and practice? And how can partnerships help ensure that evidence reflects the realities of the communities health systems are designed to serve?

In this episode of Guiding Research, Dr. Sam Oti, Senior Programme Specialist at Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), speaks with Professor Asha George, health systems researcher at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

Together, they explore why context matters, how lived experience should complement data, and why long-term partnerships are essential for creating sustainable change. The discussion highlights the importance of community participation, inclusive research and ensuring that those whose voices are too often overlooked are meaningfully involved in shaping health systems. Throughout the conversation, one question continues to emerge: Who is missing?

In this episode

• Gender and inclusion in health systems 
• Community participation and partnerships 
• Evidence, lived experience and policymaking 
• Equity and social justice Building people-centred and resilient health systems 

This episode forms part of the Guiding Research podcast series, produced by Global Health Matters in collaboration with Health Systems Global (HSG). The series explores the themes of the Health Systems Research (HSR) 2026 Symposium and brings together leading voices in health policy and systems research.

* HSG’s involvement in the production of these podcast episodes was supported by IDRC.

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Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.  

In May 2025, the world adopted a landmark agreement to prepare for future pandemics. It was the product of 3 years of negotiation across deep political divisions, including the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization. How did the countries with the smallest delegations build real influence at the table? How do health leaders keep people's health at the center of a deeply political process? And what does this achievement signal about cooperation in a divided world?

In this episode, host Garry Aslanyan explores these questions with two guests who bring deeply complementary perspectives. Anne-Claire Amprou is the French Ambassador for Global Health and co-chaired the intergovernmental negotiations that delivered the pandemic agreement. And joining her is Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin, Executive Director of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and former Minister of Health of Ethiopia, who helped build one African voice — 47 countries speaking together — during the negotiations.

Related episode documents, transcripts and other information can be found on our website.

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Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.  

Dialogues is a series from the Global Health Matters podcast that includes interviews with some of the world’s sharpest global health minds and brightest thinkers. The goal of each Dialogue is to go beyond the echo chambers that exist in global health and to have in-depth conversations with guests who have explored global health issues from their multi-disciplinary perspectives.

In this episode of Dialogues, host Garry Aslanyan speaks with Daisy Hernández about her personal experience with Chagas disease and the journey she undertook to understand it while writing her book. Daisy is an essayist, memoirist and journalist. Her work focuses on the intersections of race, ethnicity, immigration, class and sexuality. She is the author of “The Kissing Bug: A true story of a family, an insect and a nation’s neglect of a deadly disease” (Tin House, 2021), which won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and was named a top 10 nonfiction book of 2021 by Time magazine. This conversation reminds us, as global health professionals, to go beyond our public health silos and to present our work in a way that motivates experts, policy-makers and lay audiences towards greater action.

Related episode documents, transcripts and other information can be found on our website.

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Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.  

In global health, control means keeping a disease in check and accepting that some cases will remain. Zero is a different proposition altogether: it demands that every village, every community and every child is equally worth reaching. Only smallpox has ever been eradicated, and the diseases closest to that line are held back by conflict, funding pressure and fading public memory. So what does it take to lead an effort all the way to zero? How is commitment sustained across decades and changing governments? And what happens the day after certification, when the vector remains and imported cases still arrive?

In this episode, host Garry Aslanyan explores these questions with two guests who bring deeply complementary perspectives. Dr Jamal Ahmed is WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office Director for Polio Eradication and former Chair of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative's Strategy Committee, and has spent his career in polio eradication, from surveillance and laboratory systems to programme implementation. And joining him is Dr Stephen Vreden, Chair of the Committee for the Prevention of Re-establishment of Malaria in Suriname. The country was certified malaria-free by WHO in June 2025, the first country in the Amazon region to reach that milestone.

Related episode documents, transcripts and other information can be found on our website.

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Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.  

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming health systems, creating new opportunities to improve disease surveillance, diagnostics and decision-making. Yet as AI becomes more integrated into healthcare, important questions remain. How do we ensure these technologies are designed responsibly? How can they strengthen health systems without reinforcing existing inequalities? And what role should communities play in shaping the AI solutions intended to serve them?

In this episode of Guiding Research, Chaitali Sinha, Senior Programme Specialist in the Global Health Division at Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), speaks with Dr. Rose-Mary Owusuaa Mensah Gyening, Senior Lecturer at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana.

Drawing on her work developing responsible AI for vector-borne disease surveillance, Dr. Gyening discusses how artificial intelligence can support stronger health systems when communities are involved from the outset. The conversation explores why trust, transparency and inclusion are essential to responsible AI, how citizen science can improve health interventions, and why technology should strengthen-not replace-the people and systems at the heart of healthcare.

In this episode

• Responsible AI and health systems 
• Community participation and citizen science 
• Trust, ethics and data governance 
• AI for disease surveillance and preparedness 
• Building inclusive and equitable digital health solutions 

This episode forms part of the Guiding Research podcast series, produced by Global Health Matters in collaboration with Health Systems Global (HSG). The series explores the themes of the Health Systems Research (HSR) 2026 Symposium and brings together leading voices in health policy and systems research.

* HSG’s involvement in the production of these podcast episodes was supported by IDRC.

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Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.  

The Safeguarding Health in Conflict coalition recently published a report that documented 232 health workers killed, more than 700 incidents where health facilities were damaged and almost 300 health personnel kidnapped in 2022. 

This episode dives into the circumstances and risks health workers face in conflict settings. Host Garry Aslanyan speaks to a health worker who has been on the frontline of recent conflict in Sudan. Their testimony is discussed with Susannah Sirkin, former Director of Policy at Physicians for Human Rights, and Samer Jabbour, a cardiologist who has worked in the area of conflict in health since war broke out in his home country of Syria.

Related episode documents, transcripts and other information can be found on our website.

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Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.  

Across more than four decades, HIV has driven some of the most remarkable scientific progress — and most powerful activism — that global health has ever seen. Today, ending AIDS is within reach. Yet funding is being cut and political priorities are shifting. As the response shifts from emergency footing toward long-term, chronic care, what risks are being left behind? In this episode, host Garry Aslanyan explores this question and more with two guests who bring deeply complementary perspectives. Magda Robalo is a public health physician and President and co-founder of the Institute for Global Health and Development, who has served as Guinea-Bissau’s Minister of Health and as WHO Director of Communicable Diseases. And joining her is Marina Vergueiro, a Brazilian activist, filmmaker, poet and co-founder of LUSO+, the Lusophone Network of People Living with HIV, who has lived with HIV since 2012 and is one of Brazil's most outspoken voices for dignity and mental health in the HIV response.

Related episode documents, transcripts and other information can be found on our website.

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Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.