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
46 episodes
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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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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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
The Medicaid Axe is About To Fall. We Asked a Group of MAHA, MAGA & Independent Parents to Weigh In
In today’s episode, what do a group of MAHA, MAGA, and independent moms and dads of children with disabilities think about the changes Republicans in Congress are hashing out right now for Medicaid, as they push to pass President Trump’s “One B...
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Season 1
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Episode 29
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1:37:26
Why Does the Phrase “mRNA” Rip Americans Apart? We Chat w Nobel-Prize Winning Scientist Drew Weissman
It’s the four letters that changed our lives: M-R-N-A.Hailed as a modern medical miracle that delivered the life-saving COVID vaccine in record time, mRNA now fuels one of the most polarizing debates in public health. Critics see it as a da...
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Season 1
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Episode 28
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1:05:12
Special: MAHA Georgia & Public Health In a Spirited Discussion On the Legacy of the Covid Vaccine
On today's special episode, a raw and unflinching conversation between MAHA advocates from Georgia and a group of veterans from public health. The discussion dives straight into one of the biggest drivers of mistrust in publi...
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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1:20:46
Can Nuance On Raw Milk Boost Vaccine Uptake? A Conversation On Data & Messaging w Emily Oster
We’ve heard it—and you’ve probably heard it too: critics of public health say the way health advice is delivered is a big part of why trust is plummeting. The critique goes like this: experts and institutions often take complicated, nuanced dat...
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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50:53
Searching for the Causes of Autism: A Conversation with Two Moms, Alison Singer and Nancy Fuller
Few topics crystallize our current breakdown in trust more than autism. And with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s renewed push to find its cause, autism isn’t just back in the national spotlight—it’s fueling a debate that’s dividing communities.S...
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Season 1
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Episode 25
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1:20:54
On Trust in Biden, Media, Politicians & On Aging: A Conversation with CNN's Jake Tapper
Today, we’re joined by CNN's Jake Tapper, who along with Axios' Alex Thompson, are authors of the new book Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. Their reporting is sending shockw...
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Season 1
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Episode 24
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58:35
Special: MAHA Meets w Public Health, the 2nd Conversation: On RFK Jr., Vaccines, Corporate Influence, & More
In today’s episode — the second installment of our conversation between MAHA and Public Health — we bring together veteran public health leaders and grassroots activists from Ohio’s Make America Healthy Again chapter, two sides that allegedly d...
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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1:34:02
Why Americans Are Turning to the Paranormal—and What That Says About Trust, w Author Matt Hongoltz-Hetling
Do you believe in ghosts? The paranormal? Hold that thought. Believe it or not, it ties directly into the themes of our show.Trust in our institutions is crumbling—from government and media to higher education, and yes, even medicine, sc...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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49:11
Special Ep: We Talk COVID.Gov, Lab Leaks & Raccoon Dogs w Paul Offit, Maciek Boni & David Wallace Wells
In this special episode, we dig into the origins of the pandemic. Has America decided it began with a lab leak? Is the debate over?The Trump administration says yes, launching a new government website asserting that Covid originated in a...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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1:21:48