Testifying in front of Congress is often a bruising process for lawmakers, and Wednesday’s hearing was no exception for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who faced questions on cuts to his department, his stance on vaccines and a measles outbreak in the United States.

But with Donald Trump’s second term in full swing, just how far has the former presidential candidate got in his quest to ‘Make America Healthy Again?’

Justin and Marianna chat with Sheryl Gay Stolberg who covers health policy for the New York Times to find out how he’s trying to transform America’s health and why not everyone thinks he’s succeeding.

HOSTS:

- Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter

GUEST:

- Sheryl Gay Stolberg, correspondent based in Washington covering health policy for The New York Times.

GET IN TOUCH:

- Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB

This episode was made by Purvee Pattni with Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Dafydd Evans. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app.

You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers.

US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155

Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including The Global Story, The Today Podcast, and of course Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below.

The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd