Alcohol use is the fourth leading cause of death in the US, but there are evidence-based approaches to preventing alcohol misuse and deaths and treating use disorders. Dr. Cara Poland, an addiction medicine specialist at Michigan State University, talks with Stephanie Desmon about excise taxes, evidence of the harms of alcohol, and her personal connection to the topic. They also discuss the differences between misuse and disorders and challenging false notions around alcohol’s health protective effects.

Missed diagnoses account for 800,000 deaths or permanent disabilities among Americans every year. Johns Hopkins neurologist Dr. David Newman-Toker talks with Stephanie Desmon about the consequences of missed opportunities and diagnoses, especially for vascular events, infections, and cancers. They also discuss why solutions are complex and will require major efforts in terms of research and resources.

In the Dobbs decision, the SCOTUS majority hoped to return legal issues around abortion back to the states. But since overturning Roe v. Wade, a flurry of litigation has now put two consequential cases before the Supreme Court. Public health law expert Joanne Rosen talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about these two cases and the wide-ranging impacts they could have. They also discuss why abortion health care, largely an issue governed by individual states, keeps finding its way back into conversations about federal oversight.

When the FDA approved an RSV vaccine for infants in July of 2023, parents and pediatricians rejoiced. But product shortages and a patchwork of insurance coverage throttled the rollout, leaving many babies still unprotected this winter. Pediatrician and Internist Dr. Wendie Grader-Beck talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about her frustrations around implementation, and what needs to be done before the next RSV season for this lifesaving technology to fulfill its promise.

Thanks to policies like tobacco taxes, clean indoor air acts, and legislation to ban flavor additives, tobacco use is declining around the globe. But there’s still an enormous burden of death and disease from smoking, and rates of use are still particularly concerning among key groups like youths and Black Americans. Joanna Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control, talks with Stephanie Desmon about where the US stands on major policies like banning menthol, how New Zealand’s efforts to launch some of the most stringent policies in the world have fared under a new administration, and ongoing battles against tobacco industry lobbying tactics.

Tuesday, February 6 is the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting. Dr. Michele Decker, founding director of Johns Hopkins Center for Global Women’s Health and Gender Equity, and Dr. Nicole Warren, a nurse and an expert on the harmful practice of female genital cutting talk with Stephanie Desmon about the practice and its cultural roots, challenging long-standing cultural norms, and why this year’s Day of Zero Tolerance puts an emphasis on how collective action is needed to end the practice.. They also discuss the launch of the Center for Global Women’s Health and Gender Equity and the work the center hopes to accomplish in priority areas like eliminating gender-based violence and harmful practices like child marriage through research, training, and translation. Learn more: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/center-for-global-womens-health-and-gender-equity

How are updated COVID vaccines performing against severe and long COVID? What have we learned about COVID transmission that could help people calculate their risk in certain situations? Do we know more about when people might be most infectious? What’s the latest evidence on seasonality? And do we have any new answers about long COVID? Katelyn Jetalina, aka Your Local Epidemiologist, returns to the podcast to talk about what’s new in COVID research. Learn more here: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/

Professor Nancy Glass of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing studies violence against women and girls in humanitarian settings and conflicts around the world. She speaks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about key themes from this difficult work and how they apply to reports of the rape, mutilation, and murder of Israeli women and girls during the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. They also discuss what comes next for survivors. *Please note: This podcast was recorded several weeks ago. Earlier this week, the United Nations announced it was sending a team to Israel to investigate these reports. Also, please note that this is a difficult conversation that discusses sexual violence including rape.

With more widespread use of cannabis has come an uptick of reports of related psychotic symptoms, especially among youths and young adults. Dr. David Wolinsky, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins, talks with Stephanie Desmon about cannabis and the risk of psychosis and what is known (and not known) about how cannabinoids interact with our bodies. They also discuss who might be most at risk and some takeaways people can consider about cannabis use when the field of research is still so lacking about the benefits and risks.

More than 85,000 participants attended the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Dubai, better known COP28, which ended in December. The big news: a call to governments to speed the transition away from fossil fuels. Susan Joy Hassol, author and climate change communicator, tells Stephanie Desmon that the final agreement is a hollow disappointment misaligned with the urgency of the climate crisis. They discuss the “minefield” of the growing climate emergency and what global leaders should be doing to put meaningful action behind commitments to addressing it.