Public Health On Call

Earlier this month, a WHO group declared that aspartame, a synthetic sweetener found in everything from breath mints to diet sodas, is a possible carcinogenic. While more data is needed to confirm the link, there is research showing that artificial sweeteners are not, as we thought, "metabolically inert" and do actually impact our gut health which can impact our overall health. In this episode fro...

Virologist Dr. Andy Pekosz returns to the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about shots, shots, shots! Updated COVID vaccines, how the flu vaccine might perform this year, and a new RSV vaccine are all in the mix. They discuss when each of these vaccines may roll out and how there's potential to head off another "tripledemic" winter.

After last year's "tripledemic" of flu, COVID, and RSV, we're all wary of what this coming year might bring. Infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. David Dowdy returns to the podcast to talk with Lindsay Smith Rogers lessons learned, what can be expected as of right now, and potential impacts from new vaccines and treatments, like the game-changing antibody that protects kids from RSV, are entering...

There's a paradox in sci-fi movies: Even in the most futuristic, technologically advanced societies depicted in film, main characters often die because of a lack of basic medical care. Two movie fans, Johns Hopkins ICU physician Dr. Jack Iwashyna and his son, Sage , talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about some scenes in the Star Wars and Aliens franchises and how they can be used to appreciate the gap...

For Disability Pride Month, Dr. Stephanie Van , a Johns Hopkins rehabilitation physician and founder of YouTube's @‌ThisAbilityClinic , talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers about her work as a pain management specialist and disability advocate. They discuss how she helps patients with newly acquired disabilities and what she's learned about the disability community in the process, as well as what needs...

In early June, a major Ukranian hydroelectric dam was destroyed. The situation is incredibly complex with widespread fallout and the potential for long-term public health risks. WHO incident manager Dr. Heather Papowitz talks with Stephanie Desmon about why the situation is so precarious, what the major concerns are, and how humanitarian efforts are coordinated and prioritized.

Over the last decade, research has established strong connections between hearing loss and cognitive decline in older people. Now, a new study presents compelling evidence that hearing aids could actually help slow that decline, especially for people at risk of dementia. Dr. Frank Lin , director of the Cochlear Center for Hearing & Public Health at Johns Hopkins, talks with Stephanie Desmon about...

In the last decade, a record number of pedestrians were killed by cars. The problem is complex and lacking a singular cause or solution. Jeff Michael , now a researcher at the Johns Hopkin Center for Injury Research and Policy, spent 30 years with the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration. He talks with Stephanie Desmon about the rise in pedestrian deaths and some of the possible causes, l...

Many lifetime mental health issues emerge during adolescence, but equipping youths with strategies and skills to work through trauma, anxiety, and depression can be key to preventing problems from snowballing. Johns Hopkins Center for Adolescent Health director Dr. Tamar Mendelson talks with Stephanie Desmon about working with Baltimore City schools to develop a successful program called RAP Club...

With 64 million people enrolled, billions of dollars in payouts, and millions of clinicians and health systems in the mix, it's hard to see how Medicare policies translate to the doctor's office or the bedside. But Medicare director Dr. Meena Seshamani , an ear, nose, and throat surgeon and a health economist, is working to change that. Dr. Seshamani talked with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about improving...

Public health has a long history of activism in social movements and new overlaps took hold in the last few years with COVID-19 and social unrest. In Vital Talks, a podcast from Vital Strategies, Shelley Hearne returns to the podcast along with former Bloomberg School deans Al Sommer and Mike Klag and colleagues to consider the challenges of the current moment and talk about how the field of publi...

Shortages of lifesaving drugs—the result of failures at every step of complex supply chains—have far-reaching impacts on patients, providers, and the broader field of medicine. Hopkins oncologist Dr. Amanda Nickles Fader and policy researcher Dr. Mariana Socal talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the broader systems problem resulting in the shortages of a vast range of drugs and how it's changing t...

A new committee in Maryland is charged with a big undertaking: investigating deaths by suicide to help inform prevention efforts. Mental health expert and committee member Dr. Holly Wilcox talks with Stephanie Desmon about how they'll gather data, which includes psychological autopsies, digital health care records, social service agency data and more, and gives some examples of how similar committ...

Philanthropy is a critical part of global public health but funding cycles, donor preferences, and other systems can fundamentally impact organizations and cause mission creep. Vital Talks, a podcast from Vital Strategies, digs into current funding trends and features conversations with leaders from the Lwala Community Alliance and the Center for Effective Philanthrophy about hopes for a better fu...

Mosquitoes are excellent hunters. Anopheles gambiae —the mosquito in sub-Saharan Africa that spreads malaria—in particular loves to feast on humans and, it turns out, relies heavily on peoples' scent to track them. Hopkins researcher Conor McMeniman talks with Stephanie Desmon about his team's new study looking at the molecular components of human scent that are most attractive to mosquitoes, and...

Alcohol plays an outsize role in gun deaths and a new study finds that alcohol misuse can be a better predictor of future violence than any other risk factors. Josh Horwitz and Silvia Villarreal of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions talk with Lindsay Smith Rogers about this connection and a set of new recommendations that include limiting access to guns for people with alcohol-rel...

Dr. Phyu Phyu Thin Zaw was a research scientist at Myanmar's ministry of health before she emigrated to teach global health at Hong Kong University. After the military coup in 2021, she and many of her friends and colleagues felt unsafe returning to Myanmar and some even had their passports blacklisted. Thin Saw talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about her experience, what happens when doctors and res...

Workplace wellness goes beyond safe offices to consider how employees can live healthy and productive lives at home while being focused on work at work. Hopkins health and productivity management expert Ron Goetzel talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers about this unique aspect of public health where the business community and public health collaborate on the psychosocial, organizational, and environment...

Active shooter and lockdown drills are part of a broader spectrum of emergency preparedness but there are differing levels of effectiveness and risks. Katelyn Jetelina , aka "Your Local Epidemiologist," talks with Stephanie Desmon about the benefits and real harms of these activities and why she does have hope that we will make progress with gun violence solutions, though at a "snail's pace." They...

Redlining and other discriminatory practices represent structural racism in housing. Efforts to counter the legacy of this injustice include voucher programs that help people move out of areas of poverty into "opportunity neighborhoods." Hopkins researcher Craig Pollack talks with Stephanie Desmon about evidence that these programs improve childhood asthma. They discuss opportunities to help peopl...

In the frenzy of research for COVID-19 prevention and treatment, there were many disagreements about what really did—or didn't—work. The nature of the debates reveals a broader problem in how data are interpreted in medicine. Dr. Arturo Casadevall and Dr. Josh Sharfstein discuss the nature of evidence and Dr. Casadevall's new paper, Misinterpretation of Clinical Research Findings and COVID-19 Mort...

Having honest conversations with kids about the climate crisis doesn't have to be distressing. Climate scientist Heather Price talks with Stephanie Desmon about her work with  www.talkclimate.org , an organization that collects age- and developmentally appropriate resources for talking about climate change with people of all ages, from birth to adult.

With huge parts of the eastern seaboard covered in a thick hazy smoke from Canadian wildfires, we're re-releasing an episode from September 2020 with air pollution expert Dr. Kirsten Koehler .  In this episode, Dr. Koehler and Dr. Josh Sharfstein discussed how the massive West Coast forest fires raging at the time were affecting people's health. Their conversation about particulate matter and its...

With the expiration of the COVID-19 emergency, how prepared are states for another crisis? Dr. Nadine Gracia , president and CEO of Trust for America's Health, returns to the podcast to discuss a 2023 report assessing states' performance in key areas related to emergency preparedness—including infectious disease, natural and artificial disasters, and bioterrorism. You can find individual state rep...

What happens when homeless encampments are swept away? Dr. Joshua Barocas , an infectious disease physician at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about a new study that simulates the true cost of "move along" orders and encampment "clean ups"—including infectious disease outbreaks, hospitalizations and deaths. They then discuss the short-term and long-ter...