How do climate change, air pollution and toxic chemicals affect children’s health, and what can parents do to protect their families?

Robin Strongin talks with Liz Hurtado, senior manager for field engagement and partnerships at Moms Clean Air Force, where she also directs EcoMadres, its Latino engagement program. They discuss the health risks linked to wildfire smoke, extreme heat, plastics and petrochemical pollution, including concerns during pregnancy and childhood.

Hurtado explains why children are especially vulnerable and how some communities face greater exposure because they are located near highways, factories and industrial facilities. She also shares how Moms Clean Air Force and EcoMadres provide bilingual education, connect families with evidence-based resources and help parents turn concern into action.

Who controls your health data, and can you trust that it is accurate, secure and available when you need it?

Robin Strongin talks with Tina Grande, founder, president and CEO of the Healthcare Trust Institute; Terri Stewart, president and CEO of SYNCRONYS; and Connor Walsh, CISO and cybersecurity officer for the Americas at Siemens Healthineers. They discuss privacy, patient access and cybersecurity, including how errors can follow patients across health systems, the challenges facing rural communities and the growing use of AI in cyberattacks.

Robin also shares her struggle to correct her late husband Brian’s medical records when Parkinson’s disease was listed instead of Lewy body dementia. The experience shows how inaccurate data can affect patient care, public health research and the search for new treatments.

The guests also look ahead to the 2026 ADAPT Conference, where government leaders, health care organizations and patient advocates will address data access, privacy and trust.

WARNING: content deals with sexual violence/sexual trauma, self harm and suicide. We encourage listeners and visitors to take care of themselves—please decide if and when you are ready to listen and visit the site.

Dance gave Beth Braun a way to survive grief, process trauma and stay connected to herself. It later became the foundation for Esperanza Dance Project, a nonprofit that uses dance, education and peer advocacy to help young people understand sexual trauma, mental health challenges and the importance of asking for help.

In this conversation with Robin Strongin, Braun shares how her daughter’s experience with childhood sexual abuse led her to recognize the signs of trauma in her own students and confront her own history as a survivor. She explains how Esperanza Dance Project brings narrated performances, classroom resources and trained peer advocates into middle schools and high schools.

Braun also discusses the barriers she has faced when schools avoid difficult conversations, the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on students and the need to see disruptive behavior as a possible sign of pain. Her work gives young people a safe way to feel seen, heard and less alone while connecting them with trusted adults and support resources.

The conversation also examines the connection between movement, mental health and healing, and why the arts can reach people when words are not enough.

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After a career advocating for employers and healthcare policy, Neil Trautwein now describes himself as an advocate with a “client of one.” Diagnosed with ALS in July 2025, he is using his experience and policy background to push for research, treatment access and stronger support for people living with the disease.

In this conversation with Health Dame host Robin Strongin, Neil explains how early symptoms led to his diagnosis, how ALS has affected his mobility and daily life and why support from family, friends and advocacy groups has mattered. He also discusses the financial demands of ALS care, the value of multidisciplinary clinics and the effect the disease has on caregivers.

Neil shares his work with I AM ALS and the ALS Association, including efforts to reauthorize the ACT for ALS. The legislation supports research, data sharing and expanded access programs for patients who may not qualify for clinical trials. He also reflects on emerging treatments, the possible role of artificial intelligence in research and his hope that continued progress will lead to a cure.

It is a personal conversation about adapting to change, accepting support and choosing to remain engaged while living with a progressive disease.

Health Dame’s Robin Strongin sat down with Debbie Witchey, President & CEO of the Association for Behavioral Health & Wellness (ABHW) to talk about integrating behavioral and mental health with physical health, shifting treatment paradigms and advancing policies to improve mental health and substance use disorder services, raising awareness, and reducing stigma.

In this episode of Health Dame, Robin Strongin speaks with Dr. Chloe Bird, professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and program director of the Center for Research on Women’s Health, Sex Differences and Population Health at Tufts Medical Center.

Dr. Bird explains why women’s health research still lags behind,  how male bodies are still often treated as the default in medicine and why clinical trials must do more than simply include women. They discuss the need to study how diseases present in women, how women respond to treatment and how gaps in the evidence base affect diagnosis, care, policy, and precision medicine.

The conversation also looks at what it would take to make these gaps visible, measurable and harder to ignore. For Dr. Bird, better science on women’s health is not just about women. It is about improving healthcare for everyone.

Jarrett Brown was diagnosed with a type-2 meningioma in August 2024.  He went into brain surgery to remove a tangerine-sized tumor on the same day he was scheduled to take the LSAT. Just 28 days after the surgery, he took the LSAT and is now a second-year law student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Bowen School of Law. His stated reason for entering law school is that he wants to spend the rest of his life speaking for people who do not have a voice.

Before attending law school, Jarrett was a longtime food processing worker. Though he never played football, he likes to say he was a Green Bay Packer because he worked in a packing plant in Green Bay, WI.  During the nearly 20 years that he worked in food processing, Jarrett was a workers' rights advocate. He worked on his own, with unions, and with political organizations to advance the causes of individual workers, groups of workers, and the public.

Medical errors are estimated to be one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. So why is it still so hard for patients to know which hospitals are safest?

In this episode of Health Dame, Robin Strongin talks with Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, Shawn Gremminger, president and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, and Sue Sheridan, president and CEO of Patients for Patient Safety US.

Together, they discuss why Hospital Safety Grades matter, how patients and employers use quality data to make better decisions and what is at stake when transparency tools come under legal threat.

They also discuss a recent lawsuit affecting The Leapfrog Group’s hospital safety grades and why it could limit access to information patients and families rely on.

The episode looks at the human cost of medical errors, the role employers play in demanding safer care and why patients need trusted, accessible information before they are in crisis.

In this episode of Health Dame, Robin Strongin talks with Dr. Karen Remley, former CEO of the American Academy of Pediatrics, former commissioner of health for the Commonwealth of Virginia and former director of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.

Dr. Remley reflects on a career shaped by pediatrics, public health and emergency medicine, and discusses the progress that has helped more children live safer, healthier lives. She explains why prevention still matters, from vaccines and car seats to bike helmets, pool safety and safe sleep practices, and why those gains cannot be taken for granted.

The conversation also covers trust in medicine, misinformation, children with complex medical needs, the transition from pediatric to adult care, mental health, crisis communication and the role of families, communities and policymakers in protecting children’s health.

At its core, this interview is about what children need to grow, thrive and be surrounded by what Dr. Remley calls “a cocoon of love.”

What does it take to build a new voice for Latino health advocacy at a time when that voice is urgently needed?

In this episode of Health Dame, Robin Strongin speaks with Jeanette “Jet” Contreras, founder and executive director of the Organization for Latino Health Advocacy (OHLA). Jet shares why she launched the organization, how Latino communities are shaping the future of healthcare and why advocacy must start with listening.

The conversation covers youth mental health, community-based research, health insurance education, civic engagement, cardiovascular health and the importance of connecting policy in Washington with the people most affected by it.

Jet also talks about the young leaders helping guide the organization’s work, the role of trusted community spaces and why health advocacy is also about empowerment.