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.
Episodes
66 episodes
The Kids Are Not All Right. Should We Be Looking At Their School Day? A Conversation w NYT writer Jia Lynn Yang
**This will be our last episode in 2025! We will be back in early January 2026! Have a happy holiday season and a huge thank you for listening!!**Are our schools making our kids sick? Not because of moldy buildings or bad cafe...
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Season 1
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Episode 65
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58:58
The ACIP Turning Point: A Rallying Cry For A New Era of Public Health. A Talk w Drs. Craig Spencer, Rachael Bedard & Michael Mina
Welcome to a new era for public health. In the wake of RFK Jr.’s ACIP committee making its first major change to America’s childhood vaccine schedule—ending the universal Hepatitis B birth dose—we break down what this means, and what it doesn’t...
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Season 1
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Episode 64
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1:18:20
Dr. Francis Collins w MAHA Supporters & Public Health: A Conversation About Faith, Vaccines, & Trust in Experts
It’s a newsy week for public health and medicine, with potential changes to the childhood vaccine schedule and a senior health agency official raising alarming doubts about the safety of the COVID vaccine for children — claims public health vet...
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Season 1
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Episode 63
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1:38:18
Thanksgiving Day Special: We Each Talk About An Episode That Stuck With Us
**We taped this episode earlier this week. Happy Thanksgiving. ***On this Thanksgiving, we each reflect on an episode that struck us. We are so grateful to you, our listener community. We all care about our health, our country...
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Season 1
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Episode 62
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26:57
On Shared Reality, Epstein & Epistemic Collapse: A Conversation w Eliot Higgins, Emily Jashinsky & Astead Herndon
Today, we’re talking about a different kind of health: the health of our media and information diet. What information we consume, how we consume it, and whether today’s social media ecosystem has become so toxic that it threatens not o...
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Season 1
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Episode 61
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1:25:17
CHD Part 3 of 3: Reflections from the WSITY Team + Conversations w MAHA Parents About Being At CHD
In the final installment of our series from the Children’s Health Defense conference in Austin, we sit down for candid, face-to-face conversations with attendees. They share their life stories, talk about their thoughts on vaccines, on why RFK ...
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Season 1
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Episode 60
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1:14:00
Children's Health Defense Series Part 2 of 3: A Lively Conversation w Major MAHA Figure Del Bigtree
In part two of our three-part series from the Children’s Health Defense conference in Austin, we sit down with one of the most influential figures in the MAHA movement: Del Bigtree.A longtime ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Bigtree is a s...
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Season 1
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Episode 59
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1:03:34
Live from Children's Health Defense Part 1 of 3: A Conversation w Dr. Bret Weinstein, Dr. Pierre Kory and Dr. Craig Spencer
We’re on the road this week, coming to you from Austin, Texas, at the Children’s Health Defense 2025 conference. Yes, that Children’s Health Defense: the influential organization founded and once led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., ...
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Season 1
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Episode 58
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1:15:47
School Vaccine Requirements: Are We Even Talking About This The Right Way? A Conversation w Sociologist Jennifer Reich
School vaccine requirements have long been the backbone of America’s public health, keeping vaccination rates high for decades. Every state mandates that children be up to date on routine vaccinations to attend public school, and every state al...
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Season 1
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Episode 57
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1:06:53
Election Day Special: Public Health Needs to Get Off the Mat & Join the Political Fight. A Conversation w Dr. Craig Spencer
It’s Election Day in parts of the country, so we thought it was time to talk politics.Dr. Craig Spencer, from Brown University’s School of Public Health, penned a Substack last week that stopped us cold. In it, he makes a bold...
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Season 1
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Episode 56
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51:00
A Yale Researcher & A MAHA Organizer Team Up for East Palestine, Ohio: A Conversation w Nicole Deziel, Elizabeth Frost & Stuart Day
East Palestine, Ohio, became a national symbol of fear and mistrust after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed, resulting in a massive black plume filling the sky. Two years later, how are residents of this small community faring? Is their...
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Season 1
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Episode 55
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1:20:10
It's Not Me, It's My Algorithm: A Conversation w Claire Wardle About Breaking Through Our Echo Chambers
They’re the invisible forces steering what we see every day and shaping what we trust.Algorithms, now supercharged by AI, don’t just feed us information. They feed us emotion — suspicion, outrage, validation — and, maybe most dangerously, o...
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Season 1
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Episode 54
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1:00:18
Special Episode: A Conversation with MAHA Moms & Science Communicators About Autism
On this special episode—the latest in our series of conversations that bring together people who rarely talk to each other—we hear from different perspectives on autism in a no-holds-barred discussion about this pivotal mome...
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Season 1
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Episode 53
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1:32:02
How Big Is The Support For MAHA Really? The Numbers Are In! We Talk w Pollster Erica Seifert & MAHA Supporter Aaron Everitt
It’s been just over a year since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stood before a raucous Arizona crowd and asked, “Don’t you want a president who’s going to make America healthy again?”-- and with that, the MAHA era began.Now, for the firs...
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Season 1
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Episode 52
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1:13:01
Public Health Is Outgunned: A Conversation w Science Communicators Katelyn Jetelina and Jessica Steier
Today, we’re exploring the new world of health and science communication now that the old playbook is dead. The days of publishing a study and expecting to reach the public with it through legacy media or pointing people to health institutions ...
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Season 1
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Episode 51
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1:15:17
On Medical Freedom, DEI, RFK Jr. & Free Speech: A Conversation w Author Coleman Hughes
Coleman Hughes is a thinker, writer, podcaster, and author. You may know him from his Conversations with Coleman podcast with The Free Press, from appearances on CNN, Joe Rogan, and The View, or from his recent book, ...
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Season 1
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Episode 50
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58:05
Special: A Talk w Gen Z: Voices From MAHA, Public Health, Conservative, Liberal, Independent - On A Path Forward For Health In America
In our latest big conversation bringing together individuals who don’t always see eye to eye, we sit down with Gen Zers who care deeply about the nation’s health. Some are launching careers in public health, others are inspired by the MAHA move...
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Season 1
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Episode 49
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1:34:46
The President's Announcement On Tylenol & Autism: Discussing It w A Pregnant Mother & A Pediatrician
On today's episode, a remarkable moment in the Make America Healthy Again era. From the White House, the president urged pregnant women not to take Tylenol, saying it was linked to autism, before launching into a discourse on his personal fears...
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Season 1
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Episode 48
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1:10:35
The Hepatitis B Birth Dose Vaccine: Do We Need It? An Honest Conversation w Dr. Paul Offit & Dr. Michael Mina
It’s the very first shot a newborn gets—just hours after birth. Today, Secretary Kennedy’s new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Committee is reviewing whether it should remain so. We’re talking about the Hepatitis B “birth do...
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Season 1
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Episode 47
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1:21:41
Special Ep: A Lively Discussion w Farmers, Journalists, & Advocates -- MAHA & Others -- About Farming Our Country's Food
On today's episode, we are heading to the farm, which is where one of America's biggest debates is taking place over food, health, and who and what we trust.Modern agriculture feeds the nation and the world, but its tools raise tough que...
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Season 1
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Episode 46
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1:24:21
Special Ep: Following the Murder of Charlie Kirk, Is Engaging In Civil Disagreement Worth it? We Chat w Aaron, Elizabeth & Craig
It's been 24 hours since we learned about the shooting and murder of famed conservative activist and leader Charlie Kirk. We wanted to bring together some friends of the show, people we engage with frequently on the pod, to discuss what happene...
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Season 1
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Episode 45
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1:02:35
Kennedy's Health Plan for America + Do Black Americans Feel Seen By MAHA? A Conversation w Dr. Michael Forde
**We recorded this episode on Wednesday early morning. **The big MAHA report is out, a roadmap for how Kennedy and the Trump administration plan to tackle the chronic disease crisis impacting America's children. It’s a bold attempt to t...
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Season 1
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Episode 44
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1:10:21
A Conversation With The Three CDC Leaders Who Resigned In Protest & MAHA Supporters
Americans today are engaging in a great Rorschach Test over public health–and its results may determine our future.Are radical changes at the CDC and beyond moving us in the right direction for a healthier nation, or dangerously b...
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Season 1
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Episode 43
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1:59:21
How Corporations Fuel Our Chronic Disease Crisis: A Conversation w Public Health Researcher Anna Gilmore
Our guest today, researcher Anna Gilmore, recently went viral with a provocative revelation: just four products cause at least a third of all deaths worldwide. But behind the attention-grabbing headline is her deeper mission--exposing a complex...
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Season 1
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Episode 42
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39:50
A Conversation w Fox News Medical Correspondent Dr. Marc Siegel On mRNA, RFK Jr, & On Reaching People
His voice reaches millions of Americans who many in mainstream science and public health just don’t reach these days.He is Dr. Marc Siegel, the senior medical analyst for FOX News who recently argued that President Trump should be given ...
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Season 1
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Episode 41
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50:58