Why Should I Trust You?

Americans are mad as hell about healthcare costs. Premiums, deductibles, copays, prescription drugs, medical debt—the bills keep piling up, and voters are demanding relief. Politicians are offering big promises, from Medicare for All to restoring Medicaid and ACA subsidies to cracking down on fraud and waste. But how much of that would actually lower what Americans pay for healthcare—and how soon? Do we need sweeping political reforms, or are there practical ways to bring down patients' bills right now? And could the way we keep debating healthcare actually be protecting the status quo? We're joined by Cornell Univ...

As the midterms approach, a distinctive issue is animating races up and down the ballot in Iowa: rising cancer rates and growing concerns about the safety of the state’s drinking water.

Iowa has one of the highest cancer rates in the nation, and voters are asking hard questions about the state’s water, soil, and agricultural practices. With Election Day almost here, water has emerged as one of the top issues Iowa voters cite in polling.

This week, we’re joined by retired water scientist and Democratic candidate for Iowa agriculture secretary Chris Jones, and Io...

With the midterms just three weeks away, communities across the country are pushing back against the construction of new AI data centers. In a deeply divided America, opposition to these massive facilities is emerging across party lines: seven in ten Americans say they oppose an AI data center being built near them.

Today, we bring together Midwestern residents on the front lines of this fight, along with researchers examining the electricity demands and potential health impacts of these facilities. AI data centers promise jobs and investment, but they also raise very real questions about who bears the...

Our guest is Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic candidate for the Senate in Michigan, one of the key races in the battle for control of the Senate.

A physician and former public health director, El-Sayed is making health a centerpiece of his campaign. Along with advocating for Medicare for All, he’s unveiled a new agenda targeting pesticides, polluters, and microplastics, while expanding access to healthier food, issues that overlap with goals of the MAHA movement.

So can a progressive Democrat find common ground and build trust with MAHA voters? And how does he address concerns am...

Researcher and author Renée DiResta has spent years studying how influence works online, including the power dynamics that determine which voices get heard and which ones have influence.

In a new report she co-authored, DiResta not only digs into the transformation from old media to new, but also examines how institutions need to rethink their approach to communication. Which brings us to a bigger question: What happens when institutional authority itself is no longer enough to earn people’s attention or trust?

The old system, in which institutions such as universities, government agencies, think tan...

Today we ask: When it comes to spending taxpayer dollars on scientific research, how much should elected politicians decide what gets funded,  and how much should be decided by scientists and those who lead our health agencies? 

Where should the line be between supporting the best scientific questions and the ones that our elected leaders think are best?

Hosts:

Brinda Adhikari

Tom Johnson

Maggie Bartlett

Dr. Mark Abdelmalek

Guests:

Sudip Parikh, CEO of the American Association for th...

This year is shaping up to be the worst in three decades for measles cases. The biggest case count is in Pennsylvania, home to the country’s largest outbreak right now. At its center is Lancaster County and its large Amish community.

As you're likely aware, the outbreak has also become a political fight, with Governor Josh Shapiro and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. publicly clashing, even over how many deaths to count.

So what is that fight obscuring about what’s actually happening on the ground? And, widening out, what does this year’s rise...

AI’s story feels like it's gotten a lot scarier. Some people in the tech world building AI now say it poses a meaningful risk of catastrophic harm, or even human extinction. Others insist this kind of “doomerism” is wildly exaggerated—that the warnings amount to crying wolf, and that the real danger is slowing down and ceding our advantage to China.

What we do know is that the claims are enormous, sometimes even hard to fully believe or trust, the stakes range from disruptive to potentially existential, and nobody knows what comes next.

So rather t...

Charles Eisenstein was a senior adviser and speechwriter to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his 2024 presidential campaign and an early architect of the ideas that would help shape MAHA.

In a wide-ranging interview, Eisenstein talks about his heartbreak over how that campaign evolved and, in the wake of Kennedy’s speech at last week’s Republican midterm convention, how he views the possibility of a Kennedy presidential run in 2028. In that speech, the HHS Secretary said the foundational values of the Democratic Party he grew up in had “found a new home” in the Republican Party.

Eisens...

A debate has broken out in medicine and tech over what the role of AI should be. Is it a useful tool for doctors to consult when making a diagnosis, or, given studies now showing how powerful AI can be in diagnostics and other areas, should the field actually begin preparing for a not-too-distant future when what’s best for a patient is AI taking the lead in care?

To explore that question, we're joined by two leading voices in the debate: Dr. Robert Wachter, a leading voice on technology and medicine, who has called AI “the bigg...

It’s been two years since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed Donald Trump and forged an unlikely alliance between the Make America Healthy Again movement and MAGA. Now, as we head toward the midterms, with Kennedy campaigning for Republican candidates, we’re asking: What is MAHA now? Is it working? Is it a political force, a social force, or has it lost its way? 

To hear from supporters about where they see the movement heading, we’re joined by Zen Honeycutt, Aaron Everitt, Elizabeth Frost, Jeff Hutt and Mark Harris. Each has been deeply involved in or closely...

Has the Lindsay Clancy trial quickly become a proxy for something larger? — arguments about psychiatry and medication, motherhood and mental illness, personal responsibility, and whether our medical system is fundamentally failing the people who depend on it? 

And in choosing sides, are we at risk of turning one horrific case into evidence for conclusions that go far beyond what this particular tragedy can actually tell us?

We’re joined by two psychiatrists and an ER physician today to talk about all this. 

Hosts:

Brinda Adhikari

Tom Johnson

Magg...

That’s the challenge facing Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of the brand-new Bursky School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. It is the first major school of public health to open in the United States after the pandemic.

In the wake of COVID, with trust in public health fractured and many Americans viewing the field as partisan, Galea is advocating that his field engage rather than draw lines. He believes public health will be stronger if it listens to all sides and embraces disagreement while still advocating for its values. He argues that the st...

Dr. Debra Houry, the former CDC chief medical officer; emergency physician Dr. Craig Spencer; pediatrician and author Dr. Joel “Gator” Warsh; and MAHA supporter Nancy Fuller join us as we dig into President Trump’s brand-new executive order revamping the recommended schedule for vaccinating America’s children.

The order reduces the number of vaccines recommended universally for children from 17 to 11, calls for the MMR vaccine to be broken up into three separate shots, and directs the administration to explore spacing childhood vaccines out across separate visits. It also directs the Department of Justice to examine whether parents’ rights are...

What if one of the biggest public health debates of the next decade isn't about vaccines, Ozempic, or chronic disease? What if it's about air conditioning? The world’s temperatures are getting dangerously warmer. Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent with estimates that this summer the heat contributed to 10,000–14,000 deaths over just a few weeks. The United States suffers deadly heat waves too. But Europe experiences much higher heat-wave related death tolls. One major difference people are pointing to? Air conditioning. Americans have a LOT more of it than Europeans do.

Defenders of Europe's lower use of air...

Few figures in America are as polarizing as Dr. Anthony Fauci. To some, he is the veteran scientist who helped steer the nation through the COVID-19 pandemic. To others, he is the face of government overreach who suppressed the lab leak theory to avoid accountability for research funding decisions they believe contributed to the pandemic.

This week, those worlds collided in a Senate hearing room as the retired former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was subpoenaed to testify before an inquiry led by his longtime critic, Republican Senator Rand Paul. Fauci accused...

If a new pandemic struck tomorrow and scientists developed a vaccine in record time, would you take it? In this episode, we hear from a group of friends of the show and newcomers who describe themselves as vaccine-hesitant. Once broadly supportive of vaccines, they explain how their experiences during the pandemic changed their views. From concerns about mRNA technology and the speed of development to public health messaging and mandates, we explore how and why their perspectives changed, and trust was lost. While a large body of scientific research holds that the COVID vaccines were safe and significantly reduced...

Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Craig Spencer are two influential voices on health in America today, reaching very different audiences. And it's no secret that on many critical issues, they fundamentally disagree. Yet as a deadly Ebola outbreak unfolds in Central Africa, they find themselves agreeing on more than you (or they) might expect. 

In this episode, the two physicians discuss what allowed the outbreak to spiral, the geopolitical priorities that shape the world's response to outbreaks (too often reacting to crises rather than investing in preparedness), whether the dismantling of parts of America's global health infrastructure p...

We have a good one in store for you, we are recording it on Thursday morning, so you'll see it on here in the afternoon. Thanks for understanding and see you soon!

Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! 

Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

One year ago, the Trump administration dismantled USAID, America's largest foreign aid agency. The administration argued the agency had become wasteful, ideological, and ineffective. Critics warned the consequences would be measured in lives lost.

A year later, what actually happened?

We speak with two individuals who know the agency and aid landscape, inside and out: Andrew Natsios, who served as USAID administrator under President George W. Bush, and Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior USAID official under the Obama and Biden administrations.

Did the warnings about the human cost of cutting aid come true? What...

On the very day the Supreme Court handed a major legal victory to Bayer Monsanto, a ruling backed by the Trump administration but viewed by many in the MAHA movement as a betrayal, two regenerative farmers were invited to the Oval Office.

They expected to witness President Trump sign an executive order promoting the kind of farming they've spent decades championing: bringing the natural ecosystem back to the farm, and thus restoring soil health and reducing reliance on pesticides.

Instead, they found themselves in the middle of a last-minute policy debate involving President Trump, HHS...

It’s almost Independence Day, and we’re exploring one of the most influential political philosophies in America: libertarianism.

In the age of medical freedom and MAHA, libertarian ideas are helping shape debates over vaccines, public health, food regulation, and the role of government. But what exactly is libertarianism? Why has it become so persuasive to so many Americans? And where does today's movement depart from its roots?

Our guest is Katherine Mangu-Ward, Editor-in-Chief of Reason magazine, the country's leading libertarian publication.

We trace the history of modern libertarianism and its influence on toda...

Democratic Senator Cory Booker, Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine, MAHA leaders Zen Honeycutt and Kelly Ryerson, and former Congressman Tim Ryan join us to react to one of the Supreme Court's big decisions of the year as the High Court sides with Monsanto regarding glyphosate liability. 

Our panel today represents a powerful, impassioned, and yes, unusual alliance, given MAHA's union with the Republican Party and President Trump. Today, we hear their reactions to this major ruling.

With the Court ruling 7–2 that federal law gives the EPA the final say over pesticide warning labels, thousands of pen...

Fighting misinformation is seen as one of the defining challenges of our time. The term itself can be polarizing. And what if we're thinking about it all wrong?

In this episode, we speak with researchers Michael Simeone and Kristy Roschke, who recently published a peer-reviewed article in a journal in the Nature portfolio, proposing a new framework for understanding why misinformation spreads. Their central argument is a surprising one: misinformation doesn't spread simply because people are uninformed, uneducated, or unable to distinguish fact from fiction. It spreads because it provides value--a coherent explanation amidst...

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is our guest today.

He oversees the government programs that provide health coverage to nearly half of all Americans and account for roughly a quarter of federal spending.

At this moment of enormous change, what does Dr. Oz see as his mission?

Alongside Vice President JD Vance, he has been tasked with rooting out fraud. He argues this effort, along with changes to Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Act, will strengthen thesafety net and preserve it for the Americans it...

Senator Cory Booker joins us for a conversation about our dire chronic health crisis, the corrosive effects of corporate money in our politics, the power of making healthy food affordable, and our taxpayer-subsidized systems that fuel our chronic disease epidemic. These are issues he's been sounding the alarm on for years. Today, the New Jersey Democrat has a new message for his own party: rather than resist the supporters of MAHA, it's time to stand with them.

Long before MAHA, Booker was raising the very concerns now at the heart of the movement. But while much...

Today, we're widening our lens to take on AI and trust because just like public health, science, and medicine, AI is becoming a trust minefield. As trust in institutions, experts, and Big Tech continues to erode, AI is arriving with enormous promises and profound uncertainties. (And don't worry—we're not taking our foot off the gas on trust and health. We're just doing more!)

AI now has us confronting fundamental questions about winners and losers, promises of medical breakthroughs versus warnings of widespread job displacement, and whether the new technology encourages us to offload difficult thinking or fr...

Parkinson’s Disease is rising worldwide. It is the fastest-growing neurological disease in the world and is being called a “slow-motion epidemic.” And there is no cure. 

So what’s driving the increase? There are several culprits, including a body of research associating exposure to the farm herbicide Paraquat. Paraquat is banned in 70 countries. At the same time, in America, the EPA and other major reviews say the evidence still falls short of proving a direct causal link.

We speak with one of the nation’s leading Parkinson’s researchers, Dr. Ray Dorsey, along with a man living...

We’ve got a major news-driven episode today, focused on two stories that hit home for two big parts of our audience: MAHA and public health.

First, the political earthquake rocking MAHA: Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie's defeat in his primary after a full-force effort by President Trump and MAGA. Massie was beloved by many in MAHA as an independent-minded fighter willing to challenge both parties and powerful interests. Where does this leave the MAHA-MAGA alliance? 

Then we turn to the outbreaks of Ebola and Hantavirus. How is the group processing the emergence of these outbreaks, esp...

We are joined today by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, one of the country’s leading health reporters and a correspondent for The New York Times, covering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the MAHA movement.

In her words, Stolberg covers “the intersection of health policy and politics,” a job to which she brings decades of experience covering federal health agencies, Congress, and two presidencies as a White House correspondent for the Times. Before joining the Times, she shared two Pulitzer Prizes for reporting at The Los Angeles Times on racial unrest and an earthquake.

We talk with Stolbe...

The one thing Americans seem to agree on these days is that our systems need to change. 

But what actually creates meaningful change?

For some, it means tearing broken institutions down to the studs and rebuilding from scratch. For others, it means reforming those institutions while preserving expertise and what still works. Either way, the question remains: how do you turn shared values into sustainable, far-reaching change?

Our guest today, Greg Satell, author of Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change, has spent years studying how change actually happens. What d...

Tim Ryan, the moderate, 10-term Democratic congressman from Ohio's Rust Belt, has pushed for a different conversation for years: one that reimagines America’s approach to food and health.

Long before it had a name, Ryan was championing many of the ideas now fueling the “MAHA” movement: nutritious, “real” food (he wrote The Real Food Revolution back in 2014), regenerative agriculture, openness to alternative therapies, and a reassessment of the unhealthy systems taxpayer dollars continue to support. Then he watched the movement take off and align with the Republican Party.

In this episode, Ryan reflects on what it’s...

Hosts:

Brinda Adhikari

Tom Johnson

Maggie Bartlett (producer)

Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (seeing patients)

Guests:

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)

Alex Clark, TPUSA, MAHA

Del Bigtree, High Wire, ICAN

Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! 

Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Trust in higher education is slipping, with a growing number of Americans questioning whether universities are delivering value beyond their walls (and ivory towers).

Today, we’re joined by Daniel Crowley, who goes by Max. He is a behavioral scientist and endowed chair at Penn State. His argument: universities produce groundbreaking research, but too often it sits on a shelf, never reaching the decision-makers who could use it to improve lives.

That disconnect may help explain part of the decline in trust. Of course, many factors are driving that trend, from costs, to admissions practices, an...

Today, we are delving into the subject of healthcare fraud.  The Trump administration has elevated it into a major political issue.

When it comes to Medicaid fraud specifically, do you see this administration's recent actions towards states such as Minnesota as a well-meaning push to take on the bad actors and lax state oversight that has allowed this taxpayer-supported safety net to be exploited? Or do you see it as a political talking point being used to suggest widespread abuse when there is not, to justify cutting that very safety net? Or is this an abhorrent scam f...

Today, we’re joined by Dr. Stephen Hoge, president of Moderna, the biotech company that helped make mRNA a household name during the pandemic, producing a vaccine taken by millions of Americans.

Now, Moderna is using that same technology to push into new frontiers, developing treatments for cancers like melanoma and lung cancer. While at the same time, mistrust of mRNA and of the pharmaceutical industry more broadly has only grown.

We discuss with Dr. Hoge his company's latest innovations in cancer treatment as well as an mRNA-based flu vaccine they are hoping to have av...

It's an episode full of news: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s move to counter the federal judge who ruled his handpicked vaccine advisory committee lacked the expertise to guide U.S. vaccine policy. At the same time, the Trump administration has rolled out its new budget, a clear statement of priorities, with major increases in defense spending alongside deep cuts to medical research. And the EPA is stepping in with a new push to reduce microplastics in the nation’s drinking water.

We break it all down.

Then, the main event: the administration’s crackdown on w...

We are taking a few days off! We'll be back with a new episode on Thursday April 16. We love our theme song, so here it is in full. Enjoy!

xo,

WSITY team

Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe! 

Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Today, we’re diving into a new Netflix documentary, The Plastic Detox, which follows six couples trying to conceive and what happens when they attempt to reduce plastic exposure in their daily lives.

We’re joined by two of the scientists featured in the film: Dr. Shanna Swan of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, a leading researcher on endocrine-disrupting chemicals and reproductive health, and Dr. Jasmine McDonald of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, an epidemiologist who studies how environmental exposures may shape long-term health.

Take a look around your home...

With the midterm elections approaching, health care is emerging as a central issue. So today, we’ve gathered a group of top-notch pollsters to help us understand where Americans’ heads are right now when it comes to health.

Yes, this is about rising health care costs—a visceral concern and a growing factor in the upcoming elections—driven in part by expiring ACA subsidies and potential Medicaid cuts. But it’s also about nutrition, school lunches, ultra-processed foods, and pesticides. This isn’t the old “for or against Obamacare” debate. The lines are shifting, and MAHA sits right in the mid...