Good Medicine

What happens when a doctor trained to fight HIV in rural Uganda takes charge of public health for the largest city in America? In this episode of Good Medicine, Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna sits down with Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the 44th Health Commissioner of New York City, whose path ran from trailing his immigrant neonatologist mother through Chicago's ICUs to delivering AIDS treatment alongside mentors...

What if the impossible is just an argument waiting to be lost? Dr. Jim Kim — co-founder of Partners In Health alongside Paul Farmer, former president of the World Bank, former president of Dartmouth College, and former head of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization — joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna and Vikram Bhaskaran for a sweeping conversation that traces the birth of the modern global health mo...

What does it look like to be in the room — and sometimes at the center of the fire — for every major public health crisis of the last 50 years? Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and advisor to seven U.S. Presidents, joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna for a sweeping conversation that spans a Brooklyn pharmacy, the first AIDS wards, the Situatio...

What does it actually take to fix a broken health system — and what happens when the progress you've built starts to unravel? Dr. Mandy Cohen, former CDC Director, former Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and longtime leader at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna for a wide-ranging conversation on what it means to lead...

What if some of the most important forces in medicine have nothing to do with science? Dr. Anupam "Bapu" Jena—Harvard Medical School professor, practicing internist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and co-author of the bestseller Random Acts of Medicine —joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna to explore the hidden variables quietly shaping patient outcomes every day. Bapu is a physician-economist in the tr...

What does it take to cure drug-resistant tuberculosis in a Lima resource-limited community, help reshape global HIV treatment policy, and then pivot to harnessing enterprise AI for the world's largest health systems? Dr. Kedar Mate has done all three. As the former president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and a co-founder of Qualified Health, Dr. Mate has spent his career prov...

What if the greatest risk in modern medicine isn't AI—but the fact that nobody is tracking whether our treatments actually work? Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, former Director of the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, and newly elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna to make the case for a true learning health system—one where ever...

What happens when the people responsible for protecting public health are sidelined by politics? Dr. Demetre Daskalakis—former CDC division director, White House deputy coordinator for the national mpox response, and newly appointed chief medical officer at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center—has spent three decades at the intersection of infectious disease, activism, and policy. In this episode,...

Why does a $30 generic cost $900 at your pharmacy? Mark Cuban—entrepreneur, Shark Tank host, and founder of the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company—joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna to expose the hidden economics strangling American healthcare. Cuban breaks down his trust formula (transparency divided by self-interest), explains how high deductibles have turned hospitals into subprime lenders, and reveals...

What if the most effective longevity hack isn’t a supplement or a cold plunge, but a simple dinner party? Dr. Zeke Emanuel, oncologist, bioethicist, and key architect of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna for a candid look at the intersection of medicine and politics. Dr. Emanuel reveals the gritty reality of passing legislation, explaining why "politics beats policy&q...

What does it take to protect health at the scale of an entire city—or the world? Dr. Tom Frieden, former Director of the CDC and NYC Health Commissioner, operates at this massive scale. In this episode, he joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna to dismantle the "invisible" threats shaping modern medicine, from the "pus bucket" TB wards of 1990s New York to the high-pressure White House Situation Room during...

What happens when the President-elect of the American Medical Association becomes a patient overnight? In this episode, Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna sits down with Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, a longtime Flint-based ENT surgeon and incoming AMA President who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor. Dr. Mukkamala shares the harrowing moment his symptoms began during a public speech and his rapid transition from...

This week, Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna sits down with neuroscientist Dr. Ben Rein to unpack the physiological harm of loneliness and the neuroscience of social connection. They discuss how isolation creates chronic inflammation, why social media can erode empathy, and how building social connection creates cognitive reserve to protect our brains as we age. New episodes are released every other week, whe...

This week, Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna sits down with Chelsea Clinton—vice chair of the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Health Access Initiative—to unpack maternal health in America, the confusion around emergency-room care laws, and the risks of research funding cuts. They talk about what restrictive statutes are doing to patients and providers, how to support clinicians on the front lines, and the prac...

As doctors, we navigate an increasingly complex healthcare landscape filled with administrative burden, regulatory pressures, and systems that often get in the way of patient care. Yet we persist because of what drew us to medicine in the first place: the privilege of healing, the joy of collaboration with brilliant colleagues, and the front-row seat to innovation. Good Medicine is a podcast about...