The 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act marked a major change in health insurance coverage and care for millions of Americans. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra talks with Stephanie Desmon about the remarkable changes “Obamacare” has brought about, why it’s important for all Americans not to take these for granted, and the next set of challenges in mending a health care system that’s still too focused on treatment of complications, not prevention.

More than 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and more than 3 billion are living without safe sanitation systems. For World Water Day, Ken Conca, a professor of international relations at the School of International Service at American University, joins the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the state of the world’s water. They discuss how some of the biggest challenges to water access and quality are political and legal, rather than technical, in nature. They also discuss how water, which knows no jurisdictions, can bring people and nations together. Learn more: https://www.un.org/en/observances/water-day

Menopause: inevitable, stigmatized, mysterious, and bringing a broad range of symptoms and experiences. Dr. Martha Hickey, a menopause researcher at the University of Melbourne, talks with Stephanie Desmon about a new Lancet series on menopause. They discuss how ageism and sexism come into play, the vast array of experiences women may have, and how individual circumstances can impact symptoms. They also talk about why it’s time to stop referring to menopause as a medical disorder and think more broadly about the need to provide better support and high-quality information for women during this life transition. Learn more: https://www.thelancet.com/series/menopause-2024

Four years after the early days of the pandemic, how are hospitals thinking about infection control, how much has changed, and to what degree have things returned to “normal”? Dr. Lisa Maragakis, the head of infection control at Johns Hopkins Hospital, returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about this “post-pandemic phase” and why health care has not fully recovered from pandemic disruptions.

A new report models projections of the human costs of conflict in Gaza over the next six months across several scenarios. Paul Spiegel, director of the Center for Humanitarian Health, and Tak Igusa, professor of Civil and Systems Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the project they developed with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. See the full report here: https://gaza-projections.org/

In his new book Within Reason: A Liberal Public Health for an Illiberal Time, Dean Sandro Galea of the Boston University School of Public Health challenges closed-mindedness and invective in public health.  In this special, extended bonus episode, Dr. Galea and his friend and colleague Dr. Josh Sharfstein discuss—and debate—the fairness of his critique.

Condoms were once an essential part of the public health toolkit to fight HIV and STIs. But over the last decade, and coinciding with the rise of medication that prevents HIV infection, condom use among men who have sex with men has declined. Steve Goodreau, an expert in mathematical modeling and HIV and STIs at the University of Washington, talks with Stephanie Desmon about his research on declining condom use and why public health should be doing more to tout the advantages of what was once one of the most ubiquitous tools in safer sex. Read his op-ed here: https://journals.lww.com/aidsonline/citation/9900/bringing_back_condoms.458.aspx

Health misinformation is rampant—online and through rumors—but there are steps people can take to help stamp them out. Aishwarya Nagar and Tara Kirk Sell from the Center for Health Security are co-authors of a new playbook aimed at helping public health practitioners, medical professionals, and health communicators recognize and respond to health-related rumors and misinformation. They talk through some specific tactics with Lindsay Smith Rogers and also discuss how we can all help improve our own health information literacy. Learn more: https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/2024/center-launches-new-practice-oriented-playbook-for-addressing-health-misinformation

When Sue Baker started her research career in the 1960s, there was no field devoted to injury prevention despite accidents being a leading cause of death in the US. In honor of Women’s History Month, Stephanie Desmon talks with injury prevention pioneer Baker about her half century of research looking at everything from aviation safety to hot dog choking deaths, and her hands-on approach to research which included getting her pilot’s license, working in a medical examiner’s office, and driving a commercial truck.

The CDC announced new isolation guidelines last week that bring COVID-19 in line with recommendations for other viral respiratory diseases. Virologist Dr. Andy Pekosz returns to the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about what this means in the contexts of vaccines, variants, and protecting the most vulnerable.