Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 20
Date: 7/31/2026
Title:  Indiana has a surplus of billions (but none for summer meals for kids), keep avoiding bagged lettuce, and recent health law cases

00:00- Intro

00:35- Tracey is confused by NASCAR

1:35- 24 new members since last episode! Tell your friends to become GTC members!

2:29- Indianapolis one of the 5 least fit cities (out of 100)

5:02- Indiana flush with cash ($6 billion in reserves)

6:51- Despite this, we have opted out of Sunbucks for 2027 (which provides meals to low-income children over the summer)

9:05- 954 Cyclospora cases in Indiana. Don't eat bagged lettuce.

11:16- US has the highest annual measles cases already this year in 35 years but Indiana has no cases in 2026!

14:50- CDC nominee Erica Schwartz was less than impressive in her nomination hearing

16:27- House passes Sunshine Protection Act, which would make it dark most of the morning in Indiana

17:50- Department of Defense to test all 30-year-old soldiers for their testosterone levels, which is super weird. 

19:23- Interview with Jane Hartsock about Public Health-related court cases

52:07- Little things- Enjoy the last few days of summer with your kids, and discover your Indiana Statehouse candidates, find which ones align with your values, and donate to them (same for the Senate if that seat is up for election!) Email [email protected] if you need help with this!

54:09- Wrap-up

Elijah Bosslet provided editing assistance with this episode.

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 19
Date: 7/17/2026
Title:   Indiana ranks poorly (again), explosive watery diarrhea spreads, and the government doesn't want teens masturbating

0:00- Intro

1:18- Join Good Trouble and let friends know to join us too- help us get to 2,000 members

2:48- Indiana ranked as one of the 10 worst states in which to live, and CNBC pointed out how terrible child care is here as a cause

4:02- Indiana SNAP error rate rises a bit, but remains below the national average (and the state has to pay a penalty for this)

5:46- TPR report case, which we have followed for 2+ years, now resolved by the Indiana Supreme Court and TPRs will not be released (which is good)

8:09- Indiana Medicaid updates, including rollout of new work requirements, which necessitate that you work for 3 months before getting benefits. Which is dumb.

9:28- Medicaid patients now able to go to Planned Parenthood again in all states except Indiana

11:28- ACIP committee charter rewritten (again)

12:36- CDC Executive Advisory, Science and Operations unit planned, which will require political appointees to approve scientific publications by CDC, which is not how this works

14:30- Cyclospora and explosive watery diarrhea

19:00- ACA (Obamacare) premiums predicted to rise a double digit percentage again next year

20:50- Teen pregnancy prevention program grants cancelled and changed in ways that mirror moms.gov and teh federal government does not want you masturbating

24:33- Mifepristone safety study by FDA continuing and may be released this year?

26:10- Watch the World Cup and take social media off of your phone

27:48- Wrap up

Elijah Bosslet provided editing assistance with this episode.

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 18
Date: 6/26/2026
Title:  Indiana health prices go public, military flu outbreaks, and Title X on the chopping block

NEXT EPISODE WILL BE JULY 17

0:00- Intro

2:05- A new website shows you health care service prices at health care institutions in Indiana.

4:08- 40% of Hoosiers can't afford the cost of living

5:25- FDA VRBPAC approves the mRNA flu vaccine that the previous FDA vaccine czar refused to review.

8:07- Military removes a flu vaccine requirement- vaccine coverage goes from nearly 100% to 40%- huge outbreak at an air force base in Texas.  Stupid decisions yield predictably stupid results.

9:56- RFK, Jr pissed that a shitty vaccine study has been retracted

12:25- Ebola outbreak continues

13:09- 770,000 kids from 12 states no longer receiving SNAP (food) benefits

14:14- Rural health grant rules being changed mid-stream

15:43- Title X program lawsuit challenges changes to the Title X program (this is a good lawsuit)

17:18- Gabe reminds us that moms.gov exists, which is a terrible website

17:58- States losing a lot of money due to abortion restrictions- and Indiana is one of the biggest losers

19:24- Tracey teaches us all about the federal embryo adoption program, and recent problematic changes around the language of that program

21:53- Go team USA!!!!

Editing assisstance this week by Elijah Bosslet

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 17
Date: 6/19/2026
Title:  Indiana kids lose Medicaid, mifepristone panic, and Sen. Bohacek on medical marijuana

0:00- Intro

2:25- 20% less Indiana children enrolled in Indiana Medicaid today compared to a year ago

4:32- Fairbanks School of Public Health joins with Indiana Department of Health to form an academic health department partnership (yay!)

6:29- Indiana tries to reign in healthcare costs by limiting hospital charges to employer based programs starting July 1

7:57- Andre Carson files bill to make SunBucks a default opt-in program (likely in response to Indiana opting out the last 2 years for reasons that seem nefarious)

10:27- MAHA wants people to eat vegetable but the Department of Agriculture is cutting funding for fresh foods in their programs

11:47- Federal House Budget would cut two extremely successful health outcomes and implementation science programs

13:56- Indiana's attorney general wants to make sure the EPA is monitoring mifepristone in drinking water. Math tells us you would have to drink 233 lifetimes of water in a very short time to achieve 1/1000th of the therapeutic serum level

17:33- FDA mifepristone safety investigation starting in earnest

18:54- Interview with State Senator Mike Bohacek about his bill to legalize medical marijuana in Indiana

32:05- Join Good Trouble for a social meetup Tuesday June 23 at Half Liter in Broad ripple at 6 pm! And watch the US beat Australia in the World Cup!

32:56- Wrap up

Editing assistance on this week's episode provided by Elijah Bosslet

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 16
Date: 6/5/2026
Title:  "Nuclear family month" executive order 🙄, more vaccine policy chaos, and the political takeover of NIH grants

0:00- Intro

1:57- Infant mortality rate for Indiana steady but remains higher than the national rate

3:11- Indiana sues federal government over a proposed change to marijuana policy

5:10- June declared "nuclear family month" by Governor Braun, despite the fact that families look a lot of different ways, and only 18% of Hoosier households meet this definition

7:02- Many more tick bites this year so check yourself 

7:49- FSSA halts new ABA provider enrollment

8:33- HHS ACIP charter proposal pulled and ACIP is in shambles

10:30- New federal executive order sets the stage for major vaccine schedule changes

12:14- FDA report: no child deaths associated with COVID vaccine

13:03- Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo is the 3rd largest on record (not something to worry about, but not a good situation and any Americans who get ebola will not be treated in the United States (breaking from previous policy)

16:05- National smoking rate down to 9%!

17:13- Proposed rule change will make devastating changes to research grants in the United States (read the statement by Academy Health)

22:37- Go to a pride celebration and join GTC for the annual meeting on Monday June 8th on zoom!

24:23- Wrap up

Editing assistance on this episode by Elijah Bosslet

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 15
Date: 5/22/2026
Title:  USPSTF turmoil, moms.gov propaganda, and modernizing Indiana's HIV laws

0:00- Intro

1:33- Physician in charge of the Hantavirus oubreak has no public health experience but does have a podcast called "The Erection Connection"

2:30- United States Preventative Services Task Force quietly being dismantled

4:13- Marty Makary resigns as head of FDA- we now have no CDC director, no FDA director, no surgeon general

5:42- Nicole Saphier, nominee for Surgeon General, is a grifter

7:10- NIH doesn't have enough grant managers to pay out all the grants that have been awarded

8:34- Federal government had been holding up immigration visas for doctors but it looks like they are going back on that

9:38- Updates in abortion

12:08- Moms.gov is a really shitty website

14:36- New FSSA plan to attempt to reign in Indian Healthcare costs is a novel attempt to acheive this

18:30- Thoughts about legalizing marijuana in Indiana may be changing

19:57- Interview with Dr. Carrie Foote about the HIV Modernization Movement to reform scientifically outdated laws that criminalize Hoosiers living with HIV. 

35:00- Join Good Trouble for its annual meeting (on Zoom) on June 8!

35:53- Wrap up

This episode was edited by Elijah Bosslet.

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 14
Date: 5/8/2026
Title:  RFK doesn't want you using antidepressants, armed forces no longer require flu vaccine, and Tracey teaches us all about mifepristone

0:00- Intro

1:33- GTC is looking for an executive director!  More info here

2:11- Casey Means is out for Surgeon General, Nicole Saphier is in

3:20- 988 Hotline for LGBTQ+ youth in crisis, is being reinstated and a JAMA paper shows that it has saved a lot of lives

4:25- RFK, Jr wants people to stop using antidepressants

 5:58- Indiana Medicaid seeking return of $200 million of payments for attendant care providers

7:40- 400 new FSSA workers just to check eligibility with the new rules (holy crap)

9:23- 340B program changes will not apply to FQHC clinics (good news)

10:17- Audit of Marion County Office of Public Health and Safety not good

11:12- Indiana drops involvement in lawsuit regarding section 504 of Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (which is good) but for reasons that aren't great

12:04- Pentagon ends requirement for active duty military to be immunized against flu (which is bad policy)

13:37- COVID vaccine paper that HHS would not publish has been leaked and you can read it here

14:26- Tracey's primer on medication abortion and shenanigans by the 5th circuit court of appeals

 19:17- Ban on medicaid billing for Planned Parenthood up for grabs in Congress

20:09- Happy National Nurses Week!  And get to know the candidates in your district who won their primaries

21:02- Wrap up

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 13
Date: 4/24/2026
Title:  The PBM black box, Marion County’s dirty air, and the CDC’s vaccine slow-walk

0:00- Intro

2:00- The Good Trouble Coalition is hiring an executive director- look out for an email from GTC!

2:40- Governor Braun moves $200 million to the childcare development fund to provide more vouchers for daycare access

4:19- CDC delays release of MMWR report outlining COVID vaccine efficacy

5:24- Erica Schwartz nominated to run CDC- most reliable people think she is a good choice

6:33- ACIP charter revised by RFK, Jr to allow his "experts" to participate

8:15- RFK, Jr walks back his antivaccine stance to congress

9:54- Trump Administration dropped the court fight over major changes to NIH funding rates

11:15- American Lung Association's State of the Air report demonstrates Marion County failed all measures. Not good.

12:29- Indiana Supreme Court will hear the abortion ban challenge (and skip the appellate court)

13:15- Louisiana case challenging mifepristone now at the 5th circuit court of appeals and plaintiffs have asked for an injunction on its use without face to face visit

14:42- EPA releases list of Human Health Benchmarks for Pharmaceuticals that includes abortion and oral contraceptive medications

17:43- Interview with Veronica Vernon, Pharmacist and Butler Professor, about Pharmacy Benefit Managers and what in the heck they do

35:15- VOTE IN THE PRIMARY

36:06- Wrap up

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 12
Date: 4/10/2026
Title:  SCOTUS sparks conversion therapy controversy, ideology drives Title X changes, and Indiana’s $207M plan for rural health

0:00- Intro

1:15 - Join the Good Trouble Coalition Board

2:01- SCOTUS rules that Colorado cannot ban conversion therapy, but Gabe has complicated thoughts about this ruling

12:01- Dolly Parton's Imagination Library fully funded in all 92 Indiana counties

12:40- Tracey explains to all of us what Title X is and why new funding through Title X is bad

15:58- Match day just passed- we explain what that is and how match results demonstrate the mess that is payment incentives in medicine

21:05- Interview with Cara Veale, the CEO of the Indiana Rural Health Association about the Rural Health Transformation Grant

37:17- It is time to vote in the primary- between now and May 5th. Find your ballot and an early voting site at https://indianavoters.in.gov/

38:38- Wrap up

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 11
Date: 3/27/2026
Title:  Good news on opioid deaths, judge calls ACIP incompetent, and a historical look at tobacco use in Indiana

0:00- Intro

1:21- Good Trouble call for new board members

3:12 Opioid deaths down in Indiana (and all states)- good news!

4:09 Estimates suggest medicaid changes could drop up to 100,000 Hoosiers

5:04 Planned Parenthood to close two Indianapolis sites

6:01 Indiana lags in primary and preventative care

8:07 New report highlights likely fraud in autism therapy in Indiana (this story pissed Tracey off)

11:51 Administration misses deadline to nominate a new CDC director

12:54 Casey Means does not appear to have the votes to get out of committee for her Surgeon General nomination

13:26 Dramatic week for ACIP- Robert Malone picked up his ball and went home

16:11 Interview with Miranda Spitznagle, director of the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation

37:24 Little things/good vibes

38:21 Wrap up

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