America Dissected
Incision Media LLC
Wellness isn’t just about mindfulness, exercise, or the right skin routine. Science, politics, media, culture, tech — everything around us — interact to shape our health. On America Dissected, Drs. Abdul El-Sayed and Katelyn Jetelina cuts into what really makes us sick — be it racism, corporate greed, or snake oil influencers — and what it'll take to heal it. From for-profit healthcare to ineffective sunscreens, America Dissected cuts deeper into the state of health in America. New episodes every Thursday. Want to know where to start? Here are some fan-favorite episodes to search: Cannabis Capitalism with David Jernigan; Weight Weight Don’t Tell me with Harriett Brown; Black Scientists Matter with Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 15, 2022 • 35min
Daylight Shavings Time with Dr. Muhammad Adeel Rishi
Spring forward has taken all the spring out of my step. It’s even worse from my four year old who’s super confused about why she has to wake up an hour earlier every day. But beyond the annoyance and the lack of sleep, what are the long term health consequences of Daylight Savings Time? We speak with Dr. Adeel Rishi, lead author of a position paper from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine on Daylight Savings Time. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Mar 8, 2022 • 37min
State of the Pandemic with Dr. Don Burke
COVID really is over this time, right? Abdul reflects on the fact that public health is about what we do in the background when no one is paying attention–and how now is not the time for public health leaders to take a breather, but to get ahead of the next variant. Abdul sits down with Dr. Don Burke, a global infectious disease expert, to walk through various scenarios for where we go from here.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Mar 1, 2022 • 35min
On the Beaten Path with Dr. Shane O’Mara
Who knew “take a hike” was really powerful health advice? Abdul reflects on the power of one of the most basic things humans can do. Then he speaks with Neuroscientist and author Shane O’Mara about his book “In Praise of Walking,” about the power of a walk, and why so many of us rediscovered it during the pandemic.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Feb 22, 2022 • 43min
People > Pathology with Prof. Celeste Watkins-Hayes
Too often, we focus on the disease that affect people rather than the people those diseases are affecting. That failure to pay attention to people lets the disease take more than their health, it lets it take their identities. But we can stop it. Prof. Celeste Watkins-Hayes studies the ways that women with HIV negotiate their illness and how it shapes their lives. She joins Abdul to talk about her work, her book “Remaking a Life,” and about what it can teach us about rethinking how we respond in times of health crises like COVID-19. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Feb 15, 2022 • 36min
The Sum of Us are Sick with Heather McGhee
Public health requires us to believe that there is “a public” above and beyond ourselves as individuals. But who belongs to that public may matter even more for what we’re willing to do provide that public. In her book “The Sum of Us,” author and organizer Heather McGhee shows how racism has destroyed collective efforts–from swimming pools to insurance pools–in America. She joins Abdul to talk about what that means for public health and the pandemic.You can find "The Sum of Us," now in paperback, wherever you shop for books.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Feb 8, 2022 • 39min
The Black Maternal Health Caucus with Rep. Lauren Underwood
One of the most galling examples of inequity in America continues to be the stunningly high rate at which Black mothers die in pregnancy and childbirth and Black babies die before during their first year of life. Abdul reflects on how structural inequity continues to take mothers’ and babies’ lives. Then he talks to Rep. Lauren Underwood, Chair of the Black Maternal Health Caucus and sponsor of the “Momnibus” package to eliminate these disparities.Baby 2 Baby: https://baby2baby.org/Star Legacy Foundation: https://starlegacyfoundation.org/BabyQuest Foundation: https://babyquestfoundation.org/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Feb 1, 2022 • 39min
The Court of Public Vaccination w/ Prof. Melissa Murray
Your right to swing your first ends where my face starts. That principle captures the limits of our freedoms in this country. And the Supreme Court has long held the precedent that people could be required to be vaccinated to protect the public from disease. But a recent ruling against workplace vaccine mandates may upend that. We speak with Prof. Melissa Murray, NYU Law professor and host of “Strict Scrutiny,” a podcast about the supreme court, about that, the retirement of Justice Breyer, and more.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Jan 25, 2022 • 33min
A different kind of public option?
President Biden ran on the idea of offering Americans a “public option” for health insurance — a government managed healthcare plan that would operate in parallel to private insurance. But what if we extended “public options” beyond health insurance to, say, pharmaceuticals or increased public investment in clinics and hospitals? Dana Brown is the Director of Health and Economy at the Democracy Collaborative and has been writing about just that. She joins Abdul to talk about it.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Jan 18, 2022 • 43min
CDC something wrong here?
The CDC is the nation–perhaps the world’s–most preeminent public health agency. But it’s taken quite the beating throughout this pandemic. From flawed tests to unclear guidance to political tampering, the agency’s mistakes continue to mount. How did this happen, and how do we make sure it doesn’t happen again? Abdul talks about how public health mistakes happen and speaks with Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC Director under President Obama about the past, present, and future of the once-storied agency. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Jan 11, 2022 • 36min
The Innovation Gap with Prof. Shobita Parthasarathy
Marginalized communities–including low-income and Black and brown folks, and women and LGBT people–are less likely to have reliable healthcare access in America. But it’s not just that, they’re less likely to have treatments tailored to the health challenges they’re more likely to face. That innovation gap, that’s a function of the way we fund research and the process by which innovations go to market, namely patents. Abdul reflects on the innovation gap and speaks w/ Professor Shobita Parthasarathy, an expert on science and technology policy about how to solve it.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
