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
84 episodes
A Polling-palooza: Is Health the Driving Issue of These Midterms? A Conversation w Pollsters from KFF, Navigator Research + A MAHA Supporter
With the midterm elections approaching, health care is emerging as a central issue. So today, we’ve gathered a group of top-notch pollsters to help us understand where Americans’ heads are right now when it comes to health.Yes, this is a...
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1:17:05
Special Ep: Meet the Democrats Working w MAHA: A Conversation w Reps. McGovern & Pingree w MAHA Activist Kelly Ryerson
Today, we explore an unlikely alliance.The Make America Healthy Again movement is nearly always associated with MAGA and the Republican Party. But on one issue, the political lines are being scrambled. It is Democrats in Congress, and no...
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Season 2
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Episode 16
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1:02:12
ACIP Chair Dr. Kirk Milhoan Returns to Talk Court Order Stopping Their Work + A Group Conversation On Covid Vax Injuries
In today’s episode, Dr. Kirk Milhoan, the chair of the influential ACIP, returns to our show. In a wide-ranging conversation, we discuss his reaction to major news this week: the federal judge issuing a preliminary order pausing his committee’s...
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Season 2
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Episode 16
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1:48:09
Measles in America: Who Actually Are the Unvaccinated? A Conversation w Health Workers from Spartanburg, SC and West Texas
Measles has returned to the United States in a way we haven’t seen in more than a quarter-century. The outbreak in South Carolina follows one in West Texas last year, threatening the measles-free status the U.S. achieved in 2000.In today...
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Season 2
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Episode 15
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1:07:46
Why Should We Trust GLP-1s? An Honest Conversation About Fighting Chronic Disease w Drs. Dhruv Khullar, Rachael Bedard & Mariela Glandt
GLP-1 drugs are being hailed as “miracle” treatments for obesity and diabetes, two of the biggest drivers of America’s chronic disease crisis. Nearly 30 million Americans say they’re taking one, and early signs suggest they may be changing not ...
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Season 2
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Episode 14
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1:09:08
A Conversation with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya: On the NIH, CDC, Funding, DEI & His Vision For Doing Science
Our guest today is Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Director of the National Institutes of Health and acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.As he leads the world’s largest biomedical research enterprise and no...
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Season 2
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Episode 13
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1:02:01
"We're Not Going Anywhere": Major MAHA Voices Zen Honeycutt, Kelly Ryerson & Jenna McCarthy On the Glyphosate EO + the Future of MAHA
In the wake of the President's executive order on glyphosate, the herbicide widely used on American farms and long derided by MAHA, there is intense focus on the movement. People are asking whether the wheels are coming off, whether this is the...
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Season 2
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Episode 12
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55:47
Special Ep: What the Heck Just Happened with Moderna & the FDA? A Conversation w The Atlantic's Ben Mazer
Now, some of you may have heard the recent headlines that the FDA refused to review Moderna’s application for its new flu vaccine … a vaccine that uses mRNA technology. And then a few days ago, the agency has REVERSED course. We had...
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Season 2
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Episode 11
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51:54
A Conversation w A Group of Black Women - From Public Health, Medicine & MAHA - About Health & Mistrust In America
Today, we bring together a group of Black women with a wide range of perspectives — from mainstream public health and medicine to MAHA and everything in between — for a candid conversation about their health, their lived experiences, and their ...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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1:36:05
A Conversation w Invivyd's Marc Elia + Dr. Michael Mina: On Monoclonal Antibodies, Treatment v Prevention, and Giving Patients Options
You might remember monoclonal antibodies from the height of the pandemic, when President Trump and later Joe Rogan revealed they'd been treated with them for COVID. On today's episode, we dive into monoclonal antibodies--the science, the hopes,...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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1:06:12
A Conversation w Dr Sue Kressly, AAP: On Tension w HHS, Boycotting ACIP, Pharma Influence and On a Path Forward
In today’s episode, we focus on a battle underway between two institutions that have long worked side by side. On one side: the Department of Health and Human Services. On the other: the American Academy of Pediatrics. Right now, these two orga...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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57:18
A Conversation w Bret Weinstein, Craig Spencer, Rachael Bedard & Aaron Everitt: On Minneapolis, Covid, Tyranny & Shared Values
The deadly shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis has become a flashpoint in the national conversation. It feels like an inflection point. Today, we’re joined by evolutionary biologist and influential podcaster Bre...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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1:54:49
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...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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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...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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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...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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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...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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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...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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53:33
MAHA Supporters Talking w Doctors: On the New Vaccine Schedule, On Informed Consent & On Being a Doctor in America Today
Welcome to Season 2! As the new year gets underway, we’re looking inside America’s exam rooms. We’ve brought together a group of traditional, allopathic doctors across multiple specialties and a group of MAHA supporters. With break...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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1:25:34
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