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
27 episodes
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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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
Inside A Rare Conversation Between MAHA Grassroots and Public Health Leaders
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, ...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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1:45:50
Can Dems Be the Party of Health in an Age of RFK Jr.’s MAHA? A Conversation w Sen. Maggie Hassan
During RFK Jr.'s confirmation hearing back in January, many voices competed to be heard. But one cut through the noise: Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire — a Democrat, a policymaker, and the mother of a son with Cerebral Palsy. Her emotion...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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45:44
How to Reach People in Today's New Media Amid a Crisis of Mistrust. A Conversation with Emily Jashinsky
We’re joined by Emily Jashinsky, co-host of Counterpoints with Ryan Grim. Formerly with The Federalist and The Hill, Emily now serves as DC correspondent for UnHerd and hosts Undercurrents TV. She’s ...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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53:43
A Writer's Journey w a Rare Disease Led Her to Champion Obamacare & Democrats. Why She Is Now a MAGA Supporter.
In today’s episode, we speak with Evan Barker, a writer, podcaster, and former Democratic staffer and fundraiser who, in 2024, voted for Donald Trump. Raised in a working-class community by her mother, Barker's family lived paycheck to paycheck...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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47:38
Special Ep: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Marks on Vaccine Safety, Trust, and the True Scope of the Measles Outbreak
Nation's Top Vaccine Regulator Just Ousted, Dr. Peter Marks: "Measles is NOT leveling off". This is in direct contrast to Secretary Kennedy's statement just yesterday that the nation's measles outbreak is under control.
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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1:10:50
Wendell Potter, A Health Insurance Exec Turned Whistleblower, On Blowing Up Our System
On today's episode, we tackle a topic that sparks more fear, frustration, and mistrust than perhaps any other: health insurance. From denied claims to endless bureaucratic red tape and the dread of sky-high out-of-pocket costs, it's no wonder s...
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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57:19
What's the End Game? We Talk Massive Remaking of HHS with Gov't Reformer Jennifer Pahlka
Health and Human Services chief RFK Jr. unleashed much-anticipated cuts this week, bringing the total to 20,000 jobs slashed from our nation’s premier health institution. This follows cuts in money for state public health agencies and funding f...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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52:42
America’s Funding Cuts Chaos + Are We the Next No-Lockdown Sweden? We Chat with Anders Tegnell
Our team first takes on the drastic funding cuts shaking the medical, scientific, and public health communities before turning to a provocative question: What if, during the next pandemic, we avoided strict lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and wide...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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59:54
On Measles: Vaccines vs Vitamin A. Plus, What Marion Nestle Says Public Health Is Getting Wrong
Amid a deadly measles outbreak, a fresh battle has erupted, pitting mainstream public health against MAHA, infectious disease against chronic disease, and Vitamin A against vaccination. It's a fight that hinges on a fundamental question: Is you...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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1:03:16
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Big Pharma? We Ask a Bioethicist
"Big Pharma" — two words that Americans love to hate. When asked about the pharmaceutical industry, most of the country responds with a mix of anger and suspicion, using terms like "corporate capture," "revolving door," and "profits over people...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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1:11:19
Censorship vs. Science: The Fight Over Free Speech That Is Tearing Us Apart
During incoming NIH secretary Dr. Jay Bhattacharya's confirmation hearing this week, he vowed to "establish a culture of respect for free speech in science & scientific dissent at the NIH"; he went on to call dissent "the very essence of sc...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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1:23:21
MAGA + MAHA: How Will This Work Exactly? We Speak With Journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon
With measles cases spreading and reports of the first measles death in 10 years, all eyes are on the new health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, in what is his first real public health test. He said the measles outbreaks were not unusual. Accor...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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1:12:54
Measles, Pharma and Mistrust: A Conversation with MAHA Moms and Dr. Paul Offit
This week, in his first speech addressing the Department of Health and Human Services as its new chief, RFK Jr. said the path to the country earning back trust was through transparency. As Kennedy was saying these words to a p...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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1:00:15
Is it True You Can't Sue a Vaccine Manufacturer? We Ask a Vaccine Legal Scholar
A major source of mistrust in public health today is the belief that you can't sue a vaccine manufacturer if you suffer an adverse reaction. Many ask: Why should I trust vaccines if I can't hold vaccine makers accountable? For them, it sounds u...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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46:18
A CIA Declaration, Subpoenas, & Fauci’s Pardon: Why the Lab Leak Debate is Still Raging On
With the CIA now siding with the "lab leak" theory, President Trump reportedly considering cuts to “risky” virus research, Republican Senator Rand Paul firing off subpoenas, and President Biden’s pre-emptive pardon of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the fie...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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1:10:57
RFK Jr. Testifies, MAHA Flexes, and Public Health Panics
With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifying to become Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary, optimism and joy are coursing through the ascendant Make America Healthy Again movement, while fear and confusion are taking hold in American public he...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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1:04:06
The Trump and (Likely) RFK Jr. Era is Here. And Paul Offit Won't Back Down.
Amid a blitz of public health-related executive orders issued by President Trump since Monday alone, including one that will pull America out of the WHO, comes news that a date has finally been set for RFK Jr's highly-anticipated confirmation h...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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1:14:56
Special Episode: A Conversation with Dr. John Ioannidis
Special episode alert! Dr. John Ioannidis: Critical of the Covid response, praiseful of vaccines, and hopeful data will rebuild our broken trust. Dr. John Ioannidis is a renowned epidemiologist at Stanford ...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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56:47
Why We Can't Stop Talking About Ivermectin
Ivermectin is in the spotlight again -- thanks to Joe Rogan, Mel Gibson, and even some related legislation making its way around the country. Moreover, people we are speaking with who mistrust mainstream science regularly bring it up as an exam...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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1:06:48