Dr. Mauda Monger is a lifelong resident of Jackson, Mississippi. She is also a community advocate and public health professional. She talks with Dr. Sharfstein about how the water crisis is the most visible sign of a profound decline in her hometown and perhaps could help bring about a brighter future. Dr. Monger runs an initiative for young women of color in Jackson called the S-H-E Project. Learn more

Unhealthy, fast, and cheap foods are often marketed to Black Americans who suffer from higher rates of obesity and other non-communicable health problems. Dr. Shiriki Kumanyika, a research professor at Drexel University and the founder of the Council of Black Health, talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers about Operation Good Food and Beverages, a project supported by the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, which advocates for better food policies and encourages youth to embrace healthy eating as a radical act. Learn more.

Former CMS Director Andy Slavitt has achieved major wins for health in the private and public sectors. Slavitt talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about lessons learned from the ACA and COVID-19 responses, whether or not our government is up to the major health challenges of today, and why public health "gets recognized in years and decades, not days and weeks." Also - we want to hear from you!

Historic rainfall in Jackson, Mississippi overwhelmed the already fragile water system leaving thousands of residents without water weeks later. Dr. Richard Mizelle, an environmental historian at the University of Houston, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the crisis that was decades in the making, who is most at risk without clean water, and how environmental racism poses deadly threats to communities across the US. Also - We want to hear from you!

Since the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade, many states have passed restrictive, confusing, and sometimes contradictory laws impacting health care. Dr. Jack Resneck, Jr, the new president of the American Medical Association talks with Stephanie Desmon about the challenges physicians are facing when making critical decisions with patients about often lifesaving health care, the threat of a "mass exodus" of practitioners from states with more restrictive laws, and who ultimately pays the highest price for the "egregious allowance of government in the exam room." We want to hear from you!

The Inflation Reduction Act contains some major changes for both Medicare and drug pricing with the potential to save Americans billions of dollars in drug costs. Hopkins health policy expert Jerry Anderson, who has spent decades working on Medicare issues, talks with Stephanie Desmon about the changes, why they took so long, and what still needs to be worked out. Also - we want to hear from you! PublicHealth.jhu.edu/PublicHealthOnCall/Survey

Throughout COVID-19, the FDA has been among many government agencies charged with communicating lifesaving information. Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how the politicization of the pandemic raised the stakes for the FDA and how the agency is learning to adapt in an age of rampant misinformation. They also discuss the FDA's consideration of bivalent vaccines for authorization and what's next for the pandemic response.

Dr. Mark Gendreau, an emergency department physician in Boston, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the marvels of airplane ventilation, the transmission of diseases like flu, measles, and SARS in airplanes, the overall risk for COVID-19, and how travelers can more safely navigate the riskiest "choke points" during air travel.

Dr. Carolyn Sufrin joins the podcast to talk with Dr. Sharfstein about the implication of overturning Roe vs Wade for a special population—people who are incarcerated. Dr. Sufrin is an obstetrician/gynecologist and a researcher on reproductive health at Johns Hopkins.

The first case of paralytic polio in New York in decades has focused attention on a devastating virus with a long and terrible history. Olakunle Alonge, an associate professor of international health at Johns Hopkins, who's worked on polio eradication efforts around the world, speaks to Josh Sharfstein about what's behind the rise in cases and how the world can defeat polio—forever.