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
55 episodes
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
Bonus Episode! A Conversation w Former FDA Chief David Kessler. Did He Just Give RFK Jr a Tool to Fight the Food Industry?
Our guest today is David Kessler, the former FDA commissioner who once devised a strategy to take on Big Tobacco. Now, he’s back with a bold game plan for MAHA and President Trump to challenge the makers of ultra-processed foods.While ma...
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Season 1
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Episode 40
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42:30
MAHA-Public Health Conversation #6: On Food, On Nutrition, On Government, & On the Shooting at the CDC
In this special episode of Why Should I Trust You?, we're taking on the all-important topic of food with members of the Make America Healthy Again movement, along with a panel of seasoned experts in food and nutrition scienc...
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Season 1
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Episode 39
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1:58:04
Sunday Special: A Conversation w Neil deGrasse Tyson & Scott Hamilton Kennedy On Science, Tribalism and Truth
Welcome to a special episode of Why Should I Trust You? We’re joined by Neil deGrasse Tyson and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy. There may be no more recognizable figure in science today than Tyson: a...
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Season 1
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Episode 38
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53:06
A CDC Director-palooza: A Candid Conversation w Two Former CDC Chiefs Drs. Tom Frieden & Mandy Cohen
Is the CDC finally being fixed—or intentionally dismantled?Wherever you fall on that divide—long-overdue reform or something more alarming—seismic changes are underway at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.HHS Secretary R...
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Season 1
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Episode 37
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1:13:26
Special: Leading MAHA Activist Zen Honeycutt, On Her Anger At the EPA + On Cuts to Science. Is This What MAHA Wants?
We are joined by Zen Honeycutt, the founder of Moms Across America and a leading voice in the MAHA movement. She’s an outspoken force of nature on a range of issues that she sees as negatively impacting the health of children. Ther...
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Season 1
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Episode 36
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37:56
What's A Conspiracy Theory Anyway? We Talk UFOs, Gov't Secrets & Journalism w Two WSJ Reporters
With the Jeffrey Epstein saga dominating the conversation for weeks now, it feels like we’re roasting in a summer of conspiracy theories.And given how conspiracy and cover-up play a recurring role in the story we’re exploring about the b...
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Season 1
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Episode 35
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1:08:39
Kevin Hall Is Still Ultra Processing: On Leaving NIH, On MAHA, On Food in America
Kevin Hall is regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on the impact of food on our health. A former NIH scientist, he led some of the most eye-opening studies on the connections between ultra-processed foods and overeating, obesity, and ...
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Season 1
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Episode 34
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1:18:51
A Revealing Conversation btwn MAHA, Doctors & Journalists On Trust In Media, In RFK Jr & In Experts
What happens when you bring a group of MAHA advocates together with journalists and public health communicators and ask: When it comes to the media, who do you trust for your information and why? What about doctors? What about Sec. Kennedy? Thi...
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Season 1
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Episode 33
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2:01:34
A Conversation w Dr. Francis Collins On Reforming NIH, Cuts to Research, MAHA, & On Trust
On today’s episode, we’re joined by Dr. Francis Collins, the former head of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Collins has spent his career pushing the frontiers of science — from discovering genes linked to deadly diseases to leading the h...
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Season 1
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Episode 32
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46:43
Lessons From the 1980s AIDS Crisis and Applying It To Today: A Conversation w Dr. Reed Tuckson
When COVID hit, public health leaders often said, “There was no playbook.” But was that really true?Decades earlier, during the AIDS crisis, America’s public health system went through a trial by fire—learning hard lessons about...
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Season 1
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Episode 31
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36:59
Fired ACIP Members Speak To Us On the Future of Vaccines + Dr. Michael Mina On A 'Code Red' Moment
Why is a little-known CDC advisory committee meeting today making big headlines?Because Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just fired every single member—replacing them with his own hand-picked team.The committee in question...
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Season 1
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Episode 30
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1:23:31