Health is not an individual responsibility—it is shaped by environmental and social conditions. That’s been an important lesson of the pandemic and is the premise of Dayna Bowen Matthew’s new book, Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America.

Today, she joins Wednesday host Carousel Bayrd to talk about how structural racism, inequality, and social comorbidities affect health outcomes not only for individuals but entire populations—and what we can do about it.

Dayna Bowen Matthew is Dean and Harold H. Greene Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School. She has also held many public policy roles, including serving as senior adviser to the Office of Civil Rights for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as a member of the health policy team for Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.

Her books include Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care (NYU Press, 2015) and Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America (NYU Press, 2022).

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