The Ongoing Transformation

Fungi are ubiquitous in nature—in fact, you’re likely breathing in fungal spores as you read this. Most fungi are harmless to healthy people. But changes in the global climate, in human settlement patterns, and even in our own body temperatures have made fungal pathogens an increasing health threat.On this episode, host Jason Lloyd interviews Angel Desai, an infectious disease specialist and associate professor at the University of California Davis Medical Center. Desai and George R. Thompson III cowrote “Foiling the Growing Threat of Fungal Pathogens” in the Winter 2025 Issues. Desai discusses what fungal pathogens are, why they are becoming more dangerous, and how the public health community can respond. Resources: Learn more about fungal pathogens by reading Angel Desai and George R. Thompson III’s Issues article, “Foiling the Growing Threat of Fungal Pathogens.” Angel Desai and Maimuna S. Majumder’s October 2020 Issues article, “How Contact Tracing Apps Could Help Prevent COVID-19 Super-Spreader Events,” offers lessons about contact tracing and disease surveillance that can be applied to future outbreaks. How can wildfire smoke spread disease? Read Leda N. Kobziar and George R. Thompson III’s “Wildfire Smoke, a Potential Infectious Agent” in Science to learn more. Check out “Infectious Diseases in a Changing Climate” by Matthew C. Phillips, Regina C. LaRocque, and George R. Thompson III in JAMA to read more about the impact of climate change on infectious diseases.

More than half of US states have legalized cannabis for recreational or medical use. Regulations on cultivation, production, and marketing vary from state to state, and most of these policies were developed without a robust public health strategy. Because it is not federally legal, Washington has provided only limited guidance to states on how to control the variety of cannabis products on the market. What’s more, the dazzling arrays of gummies, vapes, and chocolates are available with much higher concentrations of THC (the psychoactive component of cannabis) than have been previously available.A recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, Cannabis Policy Impacts Public Health and Health Equity, examines the connections between public health and marijuana legalization. On this episode, host Sara Frueh talks to Yasmin Hurd, vice-chair of the report committee, Ward-Coleman Chair of Translational Neuroscience, and director of the Addiction Institute at  Mount Sinai. They discuss the research on the complex landscape of modern cannabis products, what’s known about their public health impacts, and strategies policymakers could use to minimize harms. ResourcesRead the National Academies’ report, Cannabis Policy Impacts Public Health and Health Equity.Visit the Hurd Lab and Addiction Institute websites to learn more about Yasmin Hurd’s work on addiction.

“People always say, ‘Well, if I could only do one art form, what would it be?’ And I always say dance.” —Susan Magsamen In our podcast miniseries Music and Health, we’re exploring how music impacts our minds, bodies, and communities. In this installment, we’re learning about the power of dance. Host J. D. Talasek is joined by David Leventhal and ConstantinaTheofanopoulou. Both began their careers as dancers and use dance to inform their current work. Leventhal is a program director and one of the founding teachers of Dance for PD, a program that offers people with Parkinson’s disease research-backed dance classes. Theofanopoulou is a research assistant professor at Rockefeller University. Her research focuses on understanding the neuroscience of complex sensory motor behaviors. They discuss how dance is helping patients regain movement abilities, and what neuroscience research says about dance as a form of healing. This series is produced in collaboration with Susan Magsamen and Leonardo journal.Resources:  Listen to the first episode of the mini-series, Music and Health: The Creative Arts and Healing, featuring Renée Fleming and Susan Magsamen.  Visit the Dance for PD website to learn more about the program, and find classes in your area or virtually.  Learn more about Constantina Theofanopoulou’s research by visiting her website. 

Asheley Landrum, an associate professor at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School, dives into the murky waters of misinformation in science. She discusses how misinformation affects everything from vaccines to grocery choices, emphasizing the need for trust in scientific institutions. Landrum highlights the role of local journalism and credible sources in combatting misinformation, while also revealing how reality TV can blur the lines between fact and fiction. Expect insights into both the psychological mechanisms of misinformation and practical solutions to address this pressing issue.

From lullabies to movie soundtracks to workout playlists, music has the capacity to change how we feel. But what is the evidence that music’s effects can transform physical health? On our new podcast miniseries, Music and Health, we’ll explore the power of music to heal our minds, bodies, and even communities.  On the first episode of this series, host J. D. Talasek is joined by Renée Fleming and Susan Magsamen. Fleming is an opera soprano, actress, and long time advocate for the healing powers of the arts. She recently edited a book called Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness. Magsamen founded the International Arts + Mind Lab, and created the NeuroArts Blueprint. They discuss health and arts research, current initiatives to use the arts to heal, and how this vital approach to care can be expanded.  This series is produced in collaboration with Susan Magsamen and Leonardo journal. Resources Read Renée Fleming’s book, Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, to learn more about how music and the creative arts are being used for health. The book was also recently reviewed in Issues by Susan Fitzpatrick, who called Fleming’s introduction “beautifully written, providing a lyrical and comprehensive summary of the main ideas in the book.”  Learn more about Susan Magsamen’s work by visiting the International Arts + Mind Lab website, and check out Magsamen and Ivy Ross’s book, Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us.  Visit the NeuroArts Blueprint website to find information on how the creative arts impact the brain. You can also find more information about and apply for the Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator Award.  Visit the Sound Health Initiative website to learn more about the partnership between the National Institutes of Health and the Kennedy Center to research the potential of music to treat a wide range of conditions.  Listen to the Real Young Prodigys’ song “Where My Bus At” and learn more about how the song helped inspire change in Louisville. Thank you to the Real Young Prodigys for allowing use of their song in this episode! 

In Alaska, reindeer are much more real than the fantasy animals that pull Santa’s sleigh. Introduced to Alaska from Siberia by the US government in the 1890s, reindeer were part of a strategy to solve food shortages among the Native peoples after the gold rush. Today, reindeer provide food security and economic opportunities for the Alaskan Native community. Even more so than farming, reindeer herding requires a deep understanding of the needs of Indigenous communities and academic science—as well as how to navigate and influence local, state, and federal policies. On this episode, host Lisa Margonelli is joined by Jacqueline Hrabok and Bonnie Scheele of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’s High Latitude Range Management program to learn more about the interplay of science, policy, and community in reindeer herding.  This is our final episode of 2024. We’ll be back in late January for an interview with opera singer and actress Renee Fleming and neurology professor Susan Magsamen on the intersection of music, art, and health. And we would love to explore more local science policy issues in our upcoming episodes! Write to us at podcast@issues.org about any policy developments happening near you.  Resources: Learn more about the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ High Latitude Range Management program.  Visit Bonnie Scheele’s reindeer farm at the Midnite Sun Reindeer Ranch website and Facebook page. 

The word "bureaucracy" conjures up images of red tape and long lines at the DMV, not cutting-edge innovation. But some of the most significant scientific and health innovations of the past century have actually come from scientist-bureaucrats at government research institutes.  On this episode, host Jason Lloyd is joined by Natalie Aviles, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia and author of An Ungovernable Foe: Science and Policy Innovation in the US National Cancer Institute. Aviles explains what the National Cancer Institute does and how the mission and culture of the agency have enabled its scientist-bureaucrats to conduct pioneering cancer research, such as the invention of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine.  Resources: Check out Natalie Aviles’s book, An Ungovernable Foe: Science and Policy Innovation in the U.S. National Cancer Institute, to learn more about the NCI.  Read “How Federal Science Agencies Innovate in the Public Interest” at Issues.org to learn more about the development of the HPV vaccine and the importance of agency discretion. 

New York City is the perfect place to understand the importance of modern engineering, but the most valuable lessons won’t be found at the Empire State Building or in Central Park. To truly discover what makes modern life tick, you have to look at the unloved, uncelebrated elements of New York: its sewers, bridges, and elevators.  On this episode, host Lisa Margonelli talks to Guru Madhavan, the Norman R. Augustine Senior Scholar and senior director of programs at the National Academy of Engineering. Madhavan wrote about the history of this often-overlooked infrastructure in a trilogy of Issues essays about New York City’s history. He talks about how the invention of the elevator brake enabled the construction of skyscrapers and how the detailed “grind work” of maintenance keeps grand projects like the Bayonne Bridge functioning. He also highlights the public health and sanitation-centered vision of Egbert Viele—the nearly forgotten engineer who made New York City livable.  Resources:  Read Guru Madhavan’s New York Trilogy: “The Greatest Show on Earth” about the invention of the elevator brake. “The Grind Challenges” about the Bayonne Bridge and maintenance grind work.  “Living in Viele’s World” about the contrast between Egbert Viele’s and Frederick Law Olmsted’s competing visions of New York City. Learn more about the invisible work that undergirds modern life by checking out Madhavan’s latest book, Wicked Problems: How to Engineer a Better World.  Read the 2019 article Madhavan cites about how engineering benefits society.  Lisa mentioned riding on a tugboat pushing a barge full of petroleum, but she misremembered!  The repairs were then occurring on the Goethals Bridge, not the Bayonne. Here’s the whole story of “A Dangerous Move” from the New York Times. 

The United States spends more on healthcare than any other high-income country, yet we have some of the worst population health outcomes. Our health care system is designed in such a way that racial and ethnic disparities are inevitable, and the differences are extreme: the life expectancy difference between white women and black men is over a decade. How can we fix the system to ensure health care equity for all?  A new National Academies report called Ending Unequal Treatment: Strategies to Achieve Equitable Health Care and Optimal Health for All tackles this question. Building on a 2003 report on racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, the new report finds that little progress has been made in closing those equity gaps over the past two decades. On this episode, host Sara Frueh talks to Georges Benjamin, cochair of the report committee and executive director of the American Public Health Association. They discuss how the health care system creates disparities and how we can fix them.  Resources:  Read the National Academies reports on health care inequality: Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care (2003), and Ending Unequal Treatment: Strategies to Achieve Equitable Health Care and Optimal Health for All (2024)

Check the end of any recent study, and there will be a list of study funders and disclosures about competing interests. It’s important to know about potential biases in research, but this kind of transparency was not always the norm. Understanding bias in research and helping policymakers use the most reliable evidence to guide their decisions is a science in itself. Lisa Bero, a professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, has been at the forefront of understanding how corporate funding biases research and how to assess what scientific evidence is reliable. She talks to host Monya Baker about her investigations into the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries, techniques industries use to shape evidence to favor their products, and the importance of independent research to inform policy.  Resources:  Read The Cigarette Papers to learn more about Lisa Bero and others’ investigations of the tobacco industry.  See this analysis of industry documents about insider knowledge of health effects of PFAS and related chemicals.  Visit the Cochrane Library to find more systematic reviews of clinical research.  Learn more about Adrian Traeger’s investigation of spinal cord stimulation research by reading Corporate Influences on Science and Health—the Case of Spinal Cord Stimulation. Read Lisa Bero’s summary of how industry forces suppress unfavorable research.  Lisa Bero and others are developing a tool to screen for signs of fraud in clinical research. Learn more about it in The Conversation.