Episodes

As we get ready to enjoy the Labor Day weekend, author Rowan Jacobsen is taking on dermatologists and the skin care industry. He explains that doctors have long told us to avoid sun exposure, in order to reduce rates of skin cancer. Yet the research indicates that moderate sun exposure leads to lower rates of many diseases, including heart attack, stroke, obesity, diabetes, dementia, depression, Parkinson’s, myopia, respiratory infections, certain cancers and autoimmune conditions.  

Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter talk to Jacobsen about his book “In Defense of Sunlight” and he explains his understanding of the science. They also get Jacobsen’s reaction to the statement from the American Academy of Dermatology, which says “many of the claims in this book are inadequately supported.”

We’re about four months away from the beginning of the new federal Medicaid rules on Jan. 1 (although some states are allowed to implement them earlier). Earlier, we heard from an Administration leader on efforts to support states with getting the paperwork in order.

Now, we have a guest providing a different perspective.

Feygele Jacobs, DrPH, MS, MPH, is the director of the Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health at George Washington University. “We estimated… that nearly 6 million community health center patients…would lose their coverage because of the mandatory work requirements. What we’ve estimated is that that decline in coverage for that group of patients means about $32 billion in lost revenue for health centers. That’s a whole lot of revenue.”   

Join hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter for this conversation that also touches on innovations in the community health center space.

Some people are turning to TikTok and Instagram before seeing or even going to health care providers. Who are these online influencers and who is looking at their content? Pew Research Center identified 6,828 individuals with at least 100,000 followers on YouTube, TikTok or Instagram that regularly post about health and wellness and analyzed their social media profiles. They paired this analysis with two surveys of U.S. adults that asked about their experiences with health and wellness influencers. Some of the key findings include: 

• Four-in-ten U.S. adults – and half of those under the age of 50 – say they ever get health and wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts
• About 4 in 10 of these influencers describe themselves as health care professionals; coaches and entrepreneurs are almost as common

 Co-hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter discuss the findings with Galen Stocking, the associate director of research on the Science and Society Team at Pew Research Center. Click now to understand the implications of this shift in how people get information about their health and well-being.

This past July was the warmest month on record across the contiguous United States. That’s giving Dr. Lisa Patel and her colleagues even more urgency in their climate change awareness work.  

Dr. Patel is the executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, which is focused on “mobilizing health voices for climate action.” But Dr. Patel and her colleagues recognize making the case requires thoughtful engagement.

“It’s not like your patients are going to come to you and say, ‘Teach me about climate change.’ What we need to do is infuse climate change into our counseling and guidance as it makes sense to do so.”

Co-hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter interview her on location at Aspen Ideas: Health, and discuss:

• How climate education can be incorporated into routine pediatric visits at two, four and six months
• Why rising temperatures are contributing to the spread of tick-borne diseases into regions where they were once uncommon
• How she approaches conversations with people who are skeptical about climate change

Click now for this very relevant conversation as the dog days of summer hit their stride.

When there’s a breaking health story, millions of people turn to CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Céline Gounder for her insights. Now, we’re learning about Dr. Gounder’s unique story, which includes co-founding International Health Group, which connects health care providers with opportunities to serve disadvantaged people around the world. 

On the news beat, Dr. Gounder has covered COVID, the Ebola outbreak, efforts to extend life and how humans benefit from “healthy buildings.”   

She points out to hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that viewers had declining trust in science even before the pandemic. She says they were asking, “How does science actually deliver something that helps you day to day? And I think this ties into a lot of the frustration with ‘Big Pharma.’ Is research leading to medical advancements but can I even afford them? Can I access them?”    

Dr. Gounder is also editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News and is a clinical associate professor of medicine and infectious diseases at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine. Learn more from this special conversation, recorded on location at Aspen Ideas: Health.

Dr. Elias Zerhouni, who used to lead the National Institutes of Health, has tough words for those trying to change some of its processes. He’s not in favor of a proposed rule that would switch who decides which federal grants get funded.

“What’s the intent here? What’s the good that will come out of this? Are political appointees better at deciding what science should be? I will tell you, it’s a resounding no,” Zerhouni says as he defends the current process that empowers government employees to make funding choices.

He’s also worried about the impact of immigration restrictions on U.S. medical innovation.  

Zerhouni’s book is titled “Disease Knows No Politics,” and he shares his perspective with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter on location at Aspen Ideas: Health. Zerhouni also takes us back to the George W. Bush administration and how he successfully navigated the politics and science of the embryonic stem cell debate.