Why Should I Trust You?
Why Should I Trust You? is a bold, unfiltered, weekly look at the collapse of public trust in science, medicine, public health, and AI. Every Thursday, we dig into what's behind that breakdown and whether there is common ground beneath our division.
Described as "truly excellent" in The New York Times, WSITY has drawn attention across America's divides, from being mentioned on Joe Rogan's podcast to NPR. We host conversations that cross political and cultural lines, bringing people together with the experts they no longer trust. Hosted by Brinda Adhikari (former EP of The Problem with Jon Stewart), Tom Johnson (former EP of The Circus, former TV news journalist), Dr. Maggie Bartlett (virologist and assistant research professor, University of Texas Medical Branch), and Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (skin cancer surgeon and medical journalist).
Why Should I Trust You?
Inside A Rare Conversation Between MAHA Grassroots and Public Health Leaders
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In today’s episode: a conversation between two sides that don’t typically speak with each other—mainstream public health leaders and voices from the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. These groups often talk about each other, but rarely to each other.
Five MAHA members from their state chapter in Ohio. Five public health leaders. We had met and developed relationships with them over months of discussing their vision of health in this country. And a few weeks ago, we invited them to have a conversation with each other. They all agreed.
On today's episode, we play the conversation in three sections. Following each section, we are joined by the Dean of Yale School of Public Health's Megan Ranney and MAHA Ohio's Grassroots Coordinator Elizabeth Frost who were on the call, to dig into their reactions.
This dialogue comes at a critical moment for public health and science, as the Trump administration slashes funding and jobs in a sharp reorientation of America’s health agencies and scientific research infrastructure. The divisions between these two camps run deep—over vaccines, the role of government, over health itself, and the polarizing figure of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s current health secretary. Trust is eroding on all sides.
So we asked: what if we tried to bridge the gap? Do these sides actually have more in common than they think? Would they be willing to be open and honest with each other? Would they get stuck on the conversation over vaccines?
What you will hear is an important starting point -- with more conversations planned for the future.
Hosts:
Brinda Adhikari
Tom Johnson
Maggie Bartlett
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek
Guests:
MAHA Grassroots from Ohio:
Elizabeth Frost**
Nancy Fuller
Donald Wiggins
Daniel DeLuca
Mark Harris
Public health leaders:
Megan Ranney**
Reed Tuckson
Katelyn Jetelina
Craig Spencer
Paul Offit
**Were on the group zoom conversation with MAHA and public health as well as podcast guests today
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Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at questions@whyshoulditrustyou.net
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