Why Should I Trust You?

Bold, unfiltered, and uncompromisingly honest, Why Should I Trust You? is a weekly podcast that looks at the breakdown in trust for science and public health. It drops every Thursday, with occasional additional special episodes sprinkled in.

Hosted by Brinda Adhikari, the former executive producer of “The Problem with Jon Stewart” and a former TV news journalist; Tom Johnson, the former executive producer of “The Circus,” and also a former TV news journalist; Dr. Maggie Bartlett, a virologist and assistant research professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Dr. Mark Abdelmalek a skin cancer surgeon, a medical journalist and a dermatologist practicing in Philadelphia - each week we try to figure out what is behind this staggering collapse in trust and see if we can rebuild towards trust again.

Podcasting since 2025 • 72 episodes

Why Should I Trust You?

Latest Episodes

A Conversation w Dr. Kirk Milhoan, Chair of ACIP: On Sec. Kennedy, Trust & The Future of America’s Vaccines

Dr. Kirk Milhoan, chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), is our guest today. ACIP sets America’s vaccine policy, and since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the reins at HHS, it has been at the center of some of the most hea...

January 22, 2026 • Season 2 • Episode 6 • 1:15:50

Special Ep: A Conversation w Leading MAHA Activist Kelly Ryerson On the EPA & On the "Jump Ball" For Either Party

Today, we’re joined by Kelly Ryerson, known to many as the “Glyphosate Girl”. Ryerson is a leading grassroots voice inside the MAHA movement focused on environmental toxins, especially herbicides and pesticides, which she believes are putting p...

January 20, 2026 • Season 2 • Episode 5 • 1:06:25

Special Ep: On New Dietary Guidelines, Conflicts of Interest & Food Science w Nutrition Experts DeeDee Tobias, Kevin Klatt & Ty Beal

With the new federal nutrition guidelines out — and the old food pyramid effectively turned on its head — we dig into what this moment is really about. Where do MAHA and traditional nutrition experts actually agree on the new recommendations, a...

January 17, 2026 • Season 1 • Episode 4 • 1:13:02

Have Institutions - Including Public Health - Lost Touch w Working Class Americans? A Conversation w Vivek Chibber & Dr. Craig Spencer

Today, we’re joined by sociologist Vivek Chibber, the provocative scholar and social critic who has a pointed critique of the modern day Left. The host of the Confronting Capitalism podcast joins us and argues that their management of instituti...

January 15, 2026 • Season 2 • Episode 3 • 1:12:17

Special Ep: Denmark, Why Are We So Obsessed w You? A Conversation w Danish & American Doctors On Vaccines

We delve into the CDC’s move to recommend fewer vaccines in the childhood immunization schedule, one of the most significant steps taken by the Kennedy administration so far. The change is sparking strong reactions across the spectrum, and we a...

January 10, 2026 • Season 2 • Episode 2 • 53:33

See All Episodes