The Entangled Health Podcast

Crows recognize individual faces. They remember who threatened them and who helped them, and they pass that knowledge to their young, to their flock, across generations. A crow you wronged once will tell crows who've never met you to watch out. A crow you consistently fed will bring you small gifts in return. They have community memory, just like the communities we serve as health and social justi...

We see the mushroom and think that's the whole organism. But the mushroom is just the visible fruiting body. The real organism is the mycelium, a vast underground network connecting root systems, sharing nutrients, sending chemical signals across the forest floor. Most of what keeps the forest alive is invisible. In this episode, we talk about the work nobody puts on a slide deck and the gifts of...

Cedar doesn't bloom and disappear. She stands, shelters, and heals, and the whole forest depends on it. In this episode, we talk about what it takes to build narrative practice that doesn't burn out, dry up, or blow over when leadership changes or funding shifts. Cedar grows slowly, roots deeply, and provides shelter year-round. Her fallen needles feed the soil. Her oils protect her without aggres...

Beavers are ecosystem engineers. Their dams create wetlands, improve water quality, support biodiversity, and benefit species they'll never meet. That's the argument for narrative infrastructure at its most expansive. In this episode, we talk about why a single story is not a strategy. Rather, a story bank and healthy narrative infrastructure create conditions for stories to do their work across t...

Most organizational partnerships and coalition storytelling efforts fail because they're modeled on extraction, not reciprocity. The Three Sisters give us the antidote. The Three Sisters is a traditional Indigenous agricultural system developed primarily by the Haudenosaunee, at least 3,000 years old. Corn, beans, and squash planted together in the same mound. Corn grows tall and provides structur...

Circulation without infrastructure is just wandering. In this episode, we meet the orb weaver spider, referred to in many Indigenous traditions as Grandmother Spider, and explore what her web-building teaches us about narrative infrastructure. The orb weaver doesn't start with the pretty spiral. She starts with structural threads connecting far-off but key anchor points. Then she builds outward, t...

The most powerful coordination doesn't come from a single leader running the show. It comes from circulation, from service, from organisms doing their work and creating conditions for the whole ecosystem to thrive. In this episode, we kick off the Wild Lessons series by looking at what bees can teach organizations trying to build trust with communities, coordinate across coalitions, and move from...

In this episode, we shift the lens from organizations to communities. When institutions move quickly communities often experience something very different: Listening fatigue Extractive storytelling Broken feedback loops Policy and operational choices that don’t reflect their needs Story-driven strategy does not require slowness. In fact, it will make you faster, more efficient, and more impactful,...

In this episode of The Entangled Health Podcast, we explore the hidden cost of urgency inside organizations. In public health, philanthropy, nonprofits, and health systems, urgency is often rewarded. Grant deadlines. Political pressure. Board expectations. Media cycles. The need to show impact now. But urgency and strategy are not the same thing. And when it comes to storytelling, community engage...

What happens when an organization carves out 2-3 hours for genuine conversation about storytelling? In this episode, we explore the StoryLab session: a structured visioning process that meets organizations exactly where they are and helps them see where storytelling could take them.  We break down the four lenses of listening that shape every session (listening, capacity, budget, and operations),...

Public health doesn’t fail because we’re missing one solution. It fails because we keep treating complex systems like they can be fixed in parts. In this episode, I introduce the Swiss Cheese Model of Public Health—a framework for understanding why health outcomes depend on multiple, imperfect layers working together, and why people keep falling through the cracks when those layers aren’t aligned....

In rural communities, the standard metrics often miss what matters most. So how do health organizations build trust and make the case for their work when the data tells an incomplete story? In this episode, I sit down with Chelsey Canavan, my client at the Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity at Dartmouth, to explore how storytelling has become central to their work. We discuss why rural healt...

What if the best strategic mind for your organization isn't the one with the sharpest certainty—but the one most comfortable in the unknown? This episode explores why doula skills are strategy superpowers, and why the work of birth and the work of story are fundamentally the same. 🔗 Stay Connected Take the Quiz → Discover where your organization most needs storytelling Let's connect on LinkedIn L...

Most health and justice organizations still treat storytelling as a comms task—something you gather for a campaign or report. But when narrative becomes part of the organizational body, everything shifts. In this episode, we explore the real Before → After transformation that happens when organizations start to deeply listen, center lived experience, and build story into their strategic infrastruc...

Today’s guest is Dorian Johnson — a health communicator, strategist, and storyteller whose work challenges the traditional, top-down ways public health has been taught to “message” to communities. Instead, Dorian pushes us to see communication as relationship, as accountability, and as a form of practice that must be rooted in listening. Together, we explore: What traditional health communications...

We’re taught to simplify things, but what if simplicity in our work creates a false reality? In this episode, we explore how embracing complexity leads to more effective, human-centered strategy. Learn why storytelling isn’t just a communication tool—it’s how we return to truth, design from reality, and create programs that actually serve. 🔗 Stay Connected Take the Quiz → Discover where your orga...

Bridges and roads aren’t the only infrastructure that matters. In this episode, we unpack how lasting health and justice are built through relationships, trust, and story. Hit play to explore the concept of “relational infrastructure,” the role of community wisdom in system design, and how organizations can shift from service delivery to true ecosystem building. 🔗 Stay Connected Take the Quiz → D...

From extraction to hero narratives, explore the most common storytelling mistakes organizations make—and the practices that build trust instead of eroding it. 🔗 Stay Connected Take the Quiz → Discover where your organization most needs storytelling Let's connect on LinkedIn Lean more about how we can work together at https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health Reach out with questions and in...

Learn how to integrate storytelling into existing operations to avoid overwhelm, increase impact, and make strategy sustainable—plus a look inside my Story Lab Sessions. 🔗 Stay Connected Take the Quiz → Discover where your organization most needs storytelling Let's connect on LinkedIn Lean more about how we can work together at https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health Reach out with quest...

Discover how grounding organizational strategy in lived experience creates buy-in, trust, and transformation that data alone can’t deliver. 🔗 Stay Connected Take the Quiz → Discover where your organization most needs storytelling Let's connect on LinkedIn Lean more about how we can work together at https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health Reach out with questions and inquiries at mbarney@...

Discover what becomes possible when we listen to complexity in health and justice organizations. 🔗 Stay Connected Take the Quiz → Discover where your organization most needs storytelling Let's connect on LinkedIn Lean more about how we can work together at https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health Reach out with questions and inquiries at mbarney@entangledhealth.com

The Entangled Health Podcast explores what is possible when we honor story as strategy. The show is hosted by Madison Murphy Barney, a public health storyteller and strategist. With her Master’s in Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Madison has worked with federal ministries of health, leading hospitals and healthcare systems, billion-dollar foundations, teaching hos...