America Dissected

Throughout this series, we’ve considered how the straining relationship between science and government has led to a variety of public health issues, from the rise of superbugs to the epidemic of loneliness. Here, we take our scalpel to the most obvious problem of them all: the American healthcare system itself. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed talks with Lisa Cardillo whose scary brush with the healthcare system helps us deconstruct the business of American healthcare, where all of us are both the product and the consumer.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.

Do you ever go to a bakery and become utterly paralyzed by all the possibilities in the display case? A chocolate chip muffin sounds good, but so does a croissant. Are they gluten free? Made fresh daily? Unraveling the 2020 candidates’ healthcare plans can sort of feel the same way, just a whole lot more daunting. In this final episode of America Dissected (we’re crying too), Dr. Abdul El-Sayed walks us through each of the major healthcare plans, including Medicare-For-All, the public option, and Medicare-for-America to help us assess how each of these plans would have helped Lisa (or not). Finally, Dr. El-Sayed speaks with Friend of the Pod Ady Barkan, an inspiring activist who wants every American to have the right to lead a full, healthy life.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.

Today, many of us can take it for granted that our grandparents will live through our childhood— and that our children might get to meet them. Not that long ago, though, that wasn't so common. Not just because our grandparents didn't used to live that long, but because so many babies died before their first birthday. In most American communities, infant mortality is a thing of the past. But not in all of them. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed takes us to Detroit to dissect American life expectancy— to understand why it's declining and why it may never have been as high as it should have been in the first place.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.

The Flint Water Crisis dominated national headlines when it emerged in 2016—focusing national attention on the hazards of lead poisoning. Newark, New Jersey is facing a similar crisis today. But Flint and Newark are only the tip of the iceberg of an epidemic of lead poisoning facing urban communities across the country. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed visits Flint to speak with Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician and researcher who uncovered the Water Crisis to understand how Flint’s history shaped the government failures that led to the crisis—and how distrust can devastate public health for poor, marginalized communities all across the United States.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.

We all spend time, money, and energy to "take care of ourselves." We exercise, eat right, and meditate. But what if we can't actually do it alone—what if being healthy is more about taking care of each other? Our world feels more connected than ever before. And yet, we feel more alone. Depression, suicide, and overdose have skyrocketed. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed addresses how disinvestment in the spaces that bring us together, like public parks, swimming pools, and libraries, has helped shape a slow-moving epidemic of loneliness. We break down the consequences of this social isolation, and consider what we can and should do about it.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.

The Opioid Crisis has wreaked havoc across America, taking lives and devastating families, neighborhoods, and communities. But this isn't the first time we've suffered a deadly drug crisis. In today's episode, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed tells the tale of two crises: the opioid epidemic of today and the crack epidemic of the 1980s, contrasting the government's and media's responses to these crises - and what they tell us about the nature of drug use and structural racism in America.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.

Winter means snow, cuddly rom-coms...and brutal head colds. Nothing a little Z-Pak won’t fix...WRONG. That’s exactly what the superbugs want you to do. Our antibiotic misuse is contributing to the global rise of an unseen, deadly force: antibiotic-resistant superbugs. We hear from a mother and daughter with direct experience with these terrifying new strains of bacteria. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed then explains how the pharmaceutical industry’s broken incentives and the government’s failure to change them have left us without the new antibiotics we need to take them on—putting us behind in the arms-race against these highly-evolved killers.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.

American scientists are on the leading edge of drug research and development—often funded by taxpayer dollars. So why are we overpaying for life-saving drugs? How did we get to this point? Dr. Abdul El-Sayed walks us through the story of the Hep-C drug Sovaldi to lay bear the inner workings of the pharmaceutical industry—and its glaring flaws.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.

We almost eradicated measles in the U.S., but anti-vaxxers had to go and ruin it for everyone. WTF? Dr. Abdul El-Sayed walks us through the history and science of vaccines and the growing anti-vax movement. We meet the people affected, like Ethan Lindenberger, an 18-year-old who defied his anti-vax mom to get vaccinated.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.

Traditional science-based medicine has some gaps—but what happens when grifters and scammers take advantage? Dr. Abdul El-Sayed leads us inside the underbelly of the cult of wellness. Dr. Jen Gunter, Twitter’s “Resident Gynecologist,” helps us understand modern quackery—and how we can apply scientific principles to make our best health decisions.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.