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
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.
Jan 4, 2022 • 46min
You’ve Got Mail with Guest Host Tre’vell Anderson
Abdul and Guest Host Tre’vell Anderson answer everything you wanted to know (and maybe didn’t know you wanted to know) about public health, COVID-19, and the year ahead.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Dec 21, 2021 • 43min
Healing Back...maybe? with Jonathan Cohn
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised action on President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, a sweeping package of legislation that would transform the American social experience. Along with critically important investments like universal childcare and paid family leave, the version that passed the House includes a slew of healthcare reforms. Abdul speaks to Jonathan Cohn, National Correspondent at HuffPost, and author of The Ten Year War, about the fight over protecting the Affordable Care Act, about the potential impact of the legislation.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Dec 14, 2021 • 33min
Patent Pending with Prof. Jorge Contreras
Imagine someone could patent your arm, or your mouth. Well, for a long time, someone could patent a part of the human body, a DNA sequence. That all ended in 2013 with a landmark supreme court case. But it illustrates how science, business, and law intersect—in ways that shape our health today. Abdul speaks with Prof. Jose Contreras, Law Professor and Author of the new book, The Genome Defense.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Dec 7, 2021 • 32min
Uh-Omicron
Omicron has now made landfall in the US. We are learning more about the variant every day—good, bad, and ugly. We turn to Dr. Angie Rasmussen, America Dissected’s resident virologist to get into the nitty-gritty and help us understand what it means for us and the future of the pandemic.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Nov 30, 2021 • 38min
Teeth with Mary Otto
Because of an accident of history, we think of our teeth as being wholly separate from the rest of our bodies. They even have different doctors. But teeth really are the entryway to the body, and the state of oral health in America says a lot about our inequities in general. Abdul talks to Mary Otto, journalist and author of Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America. Abdul also offers his perspective on the current COVID-19 surge and the new Omicron variant.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Nov 23, 2021 • 35min
Cannabis Capitalism with Prof. David Jernigan
The movement to legalize cannabis has marked some major wins, helping us better understand its benefits and addressing the way it's been used to systematically over-police and incarcerate Black and brown people. And yet cannabis is big business, as venture-backed companies have swooped in to monetize newly legal cannabis, putting their bottom line ahead of public health concerns. Abdul talks to Prof. David Jernigan, author of a new book on the public health implications of cannabis.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Nov 16, 2021 • 50min
The Last Best Chance with Prof Jisung Park
Our health is inevitably tied to the health of our planet. At COP26, the world’s leaders tried to save it—but did they do enough? We speak to Prof. Jisung Park, an environmental economist, about how climate change is shaping inequality, and about what we hoped for and what we got from COP26.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
