the NUANCE // a community health podcast.

Dr. Yuria Celidwen, PhD is a native of Indigenous Nahua and Maya descent, born in Chiapas, Mexico. She received a Ph.D. and focuses on the intersection of Indigenous studies, cultural psychology, and contemplative science. From her work, she is uncovering Indigenous contemplative practices from the world, and finding their place in contemplative studies. She works at the United Nations to support international humanitarian efforts for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Her specific concentration is the advancement of Indigenous peoples’ rights and the rights of the Earth. She also teaches Indigenous epistemologies and spirituality and her work pioneered the Indigenous contemplative experience within contemplative studies. Medicine Explained is 501(3)(c) organization dedicated to increasing health literacy - by meeting people where they're at on social media and podcasts. It's run by Dr. Daniel Villavecer MD, MS and Dr. Amanda d'Almeida MD, MPH. Please contact us if you would like to help us continue to produce free educational content for everyone. 

Dr. Kinari Webb, MD graduated from Yale University’s School of Medicine with honors and completed her residency in family medicine at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez, California. She then founded Health In Harmony an international nonprofit dedicated to reversing global heating, understanding that rainforests are essential for the survival of humanity. Based on information gleaned from a year spent traveling around Indonesia, Health In Harmony’s project, ASRI, was sited in Sukadana, on the border of Gunung Palung, in 2007. The key focus of the work has always been radically listening to communities and responding to the needs they identify. She speaks regularly on topics ranging from the health and future of the forest, community involvement and social capital, healthcare in the global south and the link between human and environmental health. She is the author of the inspiring book Guardians of the Trees: A Journey of Hope Through Healing the Planet: A Memoir.

Jonas Attilus MD, MPH is a Psychiatry Resident at University of Minnesota and Brendan Johnson is a 3rd going on 4th year medical student University of Minnesota Medical School. They are both part of the Social Medicine On Air team,  a podcast where they explore the field of social medicine with healthcare practitioners, activists, and researchers. Social medicine hopes to work for a world of justice and health - especially for the most marginalized - and connects clinical care to the deeper causes of health and illness. Social medicine team: Jonas Attilus, Sebastian Fonseca, Raghav Goyal, Brendan Johnson, Leila Sabbagh, and Poetry Thomas. https://linktr.ee/jonasattilus?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=30bd906d-7bcf-4e64-8f7a-bef5edf4d1d7

Adrienne Katner is an Associate Professor in Environmental and Occupational Health at LSU-Health School of Public Health. Her research focuses on evaluating how effective federal drinking water regulations and prevailing public health guidelines are in reducing water contaminant exposures. Her efforts to evaluate New Orleans water lead levels, and to raise awareness of the issue of lead in water after pipe replacements garnered national media and government attention. Prior to entering academia, she conducted research at the National Cancer Institute's Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch. She has a broad background in public health, with specific training in exposure and risk assessment; and environmental public health policy. For the past few years Dr. Katner has been working extensively with various communities to investigate declining private, urban and rural drinking water systems. Dr. Katner has also investigated air pollution issues associated with highways in the New Orleans Treme community with the community group Claiborne Corridor Alliance; and air pollution issues associated with industry along the Industrial Corridor lining the Mississippi River in St. John and St. James Parishes.

Harleen Marwah, MD MS founded Medical Students for a Sustainable Future in 2019 to bring together medical students for a collaborative effort to act on climate. She is a pediatric resident. Marwah was selected as one of the 2021 Grist 50 Fixers and earned the 2020 Health Care Without Harm Emerging Physician Leader Award in recognition of her work founding and leading Medical Students for a Sustainable Future. Prior to medical school, Dr. Marwah collaborated with the United Nations on the Paris Climate Agreement, attending the COP20 in Lima, Peru and the COP21 in Paris, France. During medical school, she continued her active engagement at the intersection of health and climate change through research, curriculum reform, and advocacy.

In today’s conversation we chat with Rhiannon Osborne, a student doctor, climate & health justice activist, and researcher in health inequalities. She leads local, national and international work on equitable access to vaccines, the intersection of planetary and human earth, and capitalism’s health injustices. She speaks and writes on global health justice, energy transitions, and health systemss. Her work has been featured by the Financial Times, The Independent, The Guardian, NowThis, UN Women, and the World Health Organisation.

Dr. Nicholas Norwitz obtained his PhD at Oxford University and is now pursing his MD at Harvard Medical School. His research expertise is ketosis and brain aging; however, he has published scientific papers on topics ranging from neuroscience to heart disease to gastrointestinal health to genetics to bone health to diabetes. Nick’s passion for Food as Medicine is founded in a personal history, which he shares with us in this conversation.

Andrew Goldstein MD, MPH (@AndrewMakeTweet) is an assistant professor at NYU who practices primary care at Bellevue, especially for those with high medical need and experiencing homelessness. His medical activism has focused on healthcare, immigration, climate, gun violence, and vaccine apartheid.

Dr. Anjali Niyogi completed her MD/MPH from Tulane University School of Medicine and School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She is a Hospitalist at University Hospital where she teaches medical students and residents. Dr. Niyogi serves as an adjunct professor at Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine where she teaches topics in Health and Human Rights.Dr. Niyogi has continued her work in global health with clinical and educational experience in Ghana, Uganda, Jamaica, Ethiopia and most recently with Central American refugees in Mexico and Syrian, Iraqi, and Afghani refugees in Greece. Dr. Niyogi is one of the founders and co-directors of the Resident Initiative in Global Health at Tulane. In 2015, Dr. Niyogi founded the Formerly Incarcerated Transitions (FIT) Clinic, which provides continuity of care for acute and chronic medical conditions to persons recently released from incarceration. She is a trained member of the Physicians Human Rights' (PHR) Asylum Network and conducts evaluations for asylum seekers in Louisiana. She is co-founder of the Forensic Asylum Clinic in New Orleans.

Anne Rolfes began her career in Nigeria, collaborating with local communities to address oil companies’ destruction of the Niger Delta. She returned to Louisiana in 2000 and collaborated with women along Cancer Alley to found the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Anne was born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana where many people made their fortunes from the oil industry. She has seen the wealth and the poverty created by oil production and seeks a phase out of fossil fuels in her lifetime.