Public Health On Call

Having honest conversations with kids about the climate crisis doesn't have to be distressing. Climate scientist Heather Price talks with Stephanie Desmon about her work with www.talkclimate.org, an organization that collects age- and developmentally appropriate resources for talking about climate change with people of all ages, from birth to adult.

With huge parts of the eastern seaboard covered in a thick hazy smoke from Canadian wildfires, we're re-releasing an episode from September 2020 with air pollution expert Dr. Kirsten Koehler. In this episode, Dr. Koehler and Dr. Josh Sharfstein discussed how the massive West Coast forest fires raging at the time were affecting people's health. Their conversation about particulate matter and its impacts on respiratory health, and how to protect yourself, is just as relevant today in yet another air quality emergency.

With the expiration of the COVID-19 emergency, how prepared are states for another crisis? Dr. Nadine Gracia, president and CEO of Trust for America's Health, returns to the podcast to discuss a 2023 report assessing states' performance in key areas related to emergency preparedness—including infectious disease, natural and artificial disasters, and bioterrorism. You can find individual state reports at www.tfah.org.

What happens when homeless encampments are swept away? Dr. Joshua Barocas, an infectious disease physician at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about a new study that simulates the true cost of "move along" orders and encampment "clean ups"—including infectious disease outbreaks, hospitalizations and deaths. They then discuss the short-term and long-term implications of these findings.

Who is making decisions about how to spend more than $50 billion in proceeds from opioid-related litigation? Christine Minhee, lawyer and founder of opioidsettlementtracker.com, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about tracking the complex cashflow state by state, and her hopes that the website will challenge more jurisdictions to share just how they're spending dollars intended for tackling the opioid epidemic. http://publichealth.jhu.edu/subscribe

Renowned journalist Barkha Dutt, dubbed the "Indian Anderson Cooper," has spent her career reporting from conflict zones about gender equity and violence against women. In the last few years, she expanded her beat and traveled around India during COVID talking with people about their pandemic experiences. Dhutt recently sat down in the studio with Lindsay Smith Rogers for an expansive conversation about her career and what's next. You can watch the video of the conversation on YouTube.

In a special episode, two brand-new graduates of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about their dissertation research involving mental health. Jaimie Shaff, DrPH, talks about her work examining the mental health of people who are multiethnic and multiracial, and who are routinely left out of data sets or lumped in with "other." Bianca Smith, PhD, discusses her research using geospatial analysis to examine the relationship between housing discrimination and Black mental health in metro Detroit. Get even more public health news from our twice-weekly Expert Insights newsletter:http://publichealth.jhu.edu/subscribe

Dr. Raj Panjabi, one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2016, is a physician, professor, epidemiologist, entrepreneur, and public servant currently serving on the White House National Security Council. Dr. Panjabi speaks with Stephanie Desmon about growing up in Liberia and his experience working in West Africa during the first Ebola crisis, preparing for the next pandemic, and his advice for this next generation of public health graduates. Get even more public health news from our twice-weekly Expert Insights newsletter: http://publichealth.jhu.edu/subscribe

From origin to Warp Speed, COVID-19 proved to be a national disaster the likes of which hadn't been seen since 9-11. Lead writer of "Lessons from the COVID War" and former 9-11 Commission leader Philip Zelikow talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about why COVID was a much more complicated issue, competing explanations of what went wrong, where innovation and success actually occurred, and what needs to be done to prevent another disaster like this from happening again. Get even more public health news from our twice-weekly Expert Insights newsletter:http://publichealth.jhu.edu/subscribe

After 9/11, mental health workers in New York City found themselves overwhelmed with requests to provide treatment to kids and their families. In response, clinical psychologist Laura Murray and her colleagues developed the Common Elements Treatment Approach, or CETA, which helps providers address multiple problems and symptoms using a customized plan of evidence-based therapies. Dr. Murray talks with Stephanie Desmon about the program's applications in conflict zones like Ukraine, and its promise in bolstering mental health programs in the US.