American Journal Of Public Health Podcast

The November 2019 AJPH podcast is out here: https://am.ajph.link/POD_November2019. The US system of insurance is at a crossroads. Will it continue to grow incrementally or are we on the brink of a profound transformation in which all of the existing financing institutions are canceled and replaced by a single system? This complex machine was built progressively and underwent many social and political battles. The population coverage has improved in quantity and quality over time but remains a combination of sometimes contradictory systems and, importantly, it leaves out 30 million people without health insurance. My guests are Prof Jonathan Oberlander (University of North Carolina) and Dean Sherry Glied (New York University)

Since the first sale of African captives in 1619, North America has had about 250 years when slavery was legal and 150 years during which slavery was abolished. In this podcast I discuss whether this slavery past has left an imprint on public health in the United States. I also trace the mechanisms for which the impacts of this history can still be observed today. My guests are Thomas LaVeist, Dean of the Tulane School of Public Health, and Susan Reverby, historian of public health at Wellesley College, MA.

Regional Editor of AJPH, Professor Stella Yu, reviews some articles recently published in the June Supplement, July and August issues of AJPH, including: population mental health, science and industry, US food and nutrition policy, and interventions to reduce ageism against older adults. The guest presentation is on Protecting Universal Health Coverage in Non–United Nations Member States: Lessons from Taiwan”.

This is the SEPTEMBER 2019 podcast of the American Journal of Public Health. I review what happened in public health over the last 12 months as reflected in the columns of the journal and in its monthly podcast. I replay some snippets of old podcasts, AND conclude with statistics about the journal’s performance last year.

Last week the Supreme Court has prevented the Census Bureau from adding a question about the citizenship of the respondents in the coming 2020 US census. But the decision has not entirely clarified what will happen next year in terms of participation. I review the importance of the census for public health and what is at stake next year with my two guests, Prof Margo Anderson,(Uni of Wisconsin Milwaukee), and Prof Nancy Krieger (Harvard School of Public Health.)

Regional Editor of AJPH, Professor Stella Yu, reviews some articles recently published in the April to June issues of AJPH, including: National Public Health Week, protecting immigrant health, public health workforce issues, maternal and child health topics, despair among US adults entering midlife, 50 years after the publication of Our Bodies, Ourselves, and tribute to Dr. Elizabeth Fee. The guest presentation is on Injury prevention in China: government–supported initiatives on the leading causes of injury-related deaths.

This month I discuss the role of science in assessing public health risks associated with industrial products, reviewing two cases prominently featured in the news recently: ovarian cancers linked to asbestos present in talc powder, and glyphosate contained in the herbicide Roundup associated with cancer and neurological troubles. I address the complex relationships between corporations and governmental agencies when consumers’ public health comes into question with David Rosner, historian, Columbia University, Howard Rodenberg, a former health officer in Kansas, and Jonathan Samet, Professor and Dean at the Colorado school of Public Health.

"Our Bodies, Ourselves" was conceived in 1969 as a self‐help guide about health written by women for women. Most of the listeners who were at least teenagers in the sixties are familiar with the book but younger people are less likely to have ever read it, perused it, or even seen it. So is "Our Bodies, Ourselves" history or does it still have a role to play in today’s world? My interviewees are Judy Norsigian, Sally Guttmacher, and members of the 2019 AJPH Student Think Tank Jay Balagna, Shanae Burch, Emily Dalton, Jeremy Wang, and Caitlin Williams.

This month we tackle a major crisis occurring in the governmental public health workforce, in state and local health departments. With JP Leider I review the massive wave of retirement that will slash a third of the workforce, with Karen DeSalvo I discuss what needs to be done to adapt the workforce to the current needs and challenges of public health 3.0, and with Katie Sellers we discuss how PH-WINS is conducted and what it tells us about the current interests and needs of the workforce.

As you may know National Public Health Week (#NPHW) occurs every year during the first full week of April. The mission of Week is to showcase the importance of public health in our daily life and promote its strengthening. The theme for 2019 is “For science. For action. For health.” I have invited scientists and policymakers to talk about how they can base policymaking on scientific evidence, how they can communicate the evidence to make it available for the public health actors, and, as a result, how they can proactively advance the health of the public.

Regional Editor of AJPH, Professor Stella Yu, reviews some articles recently published in the January to March issues of AJPH, including: Editor’s Choice on AJPH podcasts, pain management, issues facing American health workers; opioid related mortality; fast food children’s menu improvements; and public health and the faith community. The guest presentation is on Rates and Medical Necessity of Cesarean Delivery in the Era of the Two-Child Policy in China. Supplement issues on health disparities and health promotion research.

A multifaith team of guest editors, led by Ellen Idler, and comprising Anwar Khan, Jeff Levin, and Tyler VanderWeele, has assembled a set of articles illustrating how faith-based organizations have contributed to public health at the local, state, or global levels. I further discuss if the mission of public health is compatible with views expressed by some religious congregations that appear to contradict the fundamental principles of equity and health. My interviewees are Ellen Idler (Emory), Bill Foege (Emory), Rob, Pyne (St Norbert) , and Mimi Kiser (Emory).

This pod discusses a paper by Himmelstein and Venkataramani about the prevalence of low income and of poverty among female health care workers in the US and estimates the ability of a minimum wage of $15 to improve the condition of the currently 1.7 million female health care workers who live in poverty. My interviewees are: Kayty Himmelstein, one of the authors; Mandy Rae Hartz from the Healthcare Workers Council of the United Steel Workers; Henrie Treadwell who is with Community Voices in Atlanta; and Paul Leigh, who is a labor and health economist in Davis, California. Who are the health care workers? How prevalent are low wages and poverty among them? Is the culprit the health care industry or more generally gender and racial inequity? Finally, if the minimum wage was raised to $15 per hour, what would be the impact for health care workers, and also for US workers in general.

Regional Editor of AJPH, Professor Stella Yu, reviews selected articles recently published in AJPH, including: (10/18) Influenza Epidemic; Tobacco Crop Substitution in China; PRAMS Studies; Lung Cancer Screening; (11/18) Lead Poisoning; Parent-Based Intervention to Improve Child Restraint Use Among Kindergarteners in China(guest presentation); (12/18) Fighting the Health Challenges of Diabetes in Hong Kong: A Window Into Mainland China(guest presentation)

The dramatic epidemic of opioid addiction and death by overdose has obscured the fact that millions of people suffer from pain, need to be treated, but are denied access to care. The two problems of pain management and opioid addiction are intricate and the situation has grown out of control, there is little or no evidence to support an alternative approach, and the possible solutions are years away from being even implemented. My interviewees are Richard Bonnie, Mark Rothstein, Mark Schumacher, and Daniel Carr.

Regional Editor of AJPH, Professor Stella Yu, reviews some articles recently published in the December issue of AJPH, including: Editor’s Choice on Public Health Voices from China, The 20 most important and most preventable health problems of China (guest presentation); Comparing US and China’s shifting health challenges; and On health priorities, BRICS countries and equity.

Is there a risk for the epidemic of legal and illegal opioid consumption to extend to Mexico? Is this risk only a Mexican problem or would a Mexican epidemic have consequences in the United States too? My interviewees are Dr. David Goodman-Meza, from the Division of Infectious Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, Professor Larry Palinkas, Chair, Department of Children, Youth and Families, at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work of the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, and Professor Steffanie Strathdee, Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences, at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

We have arrived at the 100 year anniversary of the deadly Great Influenza pandemic of 1918, often unfairly referred to in our collective memory as the Spanish Flu. Are we better prepared against the next deadly influenza epidemic? Opinions in public health diverge. My interviewees are Michael Greenberger (Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland), Barbara Jester (Battelle contractor at CDC) and Mark Rothstein, Associate Editor of AJPH.

Regional Editor of AJPH, Professor Stella Yu, reviews some articles recently published in AJPH, including: (7/18) Gun violence; Systemic Review and Meta-analysis of IPV Studies; Health Challenges and Opportunities of Aging China (guest presentation) ; (8/18) Short Term Adverse Effects of Austerity Policies on mortality risks; Could Social Bots Pose a Threat to Public Health? ; Early Childhood Caries in 193 United Nations Countries, 2007–2017; (9/18) Child Maltreatment; Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Workplace Violence against General Practitioners in Hubei, China (guest presentation).

In this October podcast we discuss lung cancer screening. It is currently recommended that specific categories of heavy smokers be screened for lung cancer using low dose cat scan. However, some occupational exposures also cause lung cancer, as asbestos and radiations. I interview Dr Steven Markowitz from the Worker Health Protection Program (Queens College, CUNY), Fred Carpenter, a participant of the program who screened positive for lung cancer, and Dr David Weissman, Director of the Respiratory Health Division, at NIOSH.