Why Should I Trust You?

We are joined today by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, one of the country’s leading health reporters and a correspondent for The New York Times, covering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the MAHA movement.
In her words, Stolberg covers “the intersection of health policy and politics,” a job to which she brings decades of experience covering federal health agencies, Congress, and two presidencies as a White House correspondent for the Times. Before joining the Times, she shared two Pulitzer Prizes for reporting at The Los Angeles Times on racial unrest and an earthquake.
We talk with Stolberg about covering the MAHA movement and Kennedy, including the movement’s internal dynamics, the Secretary’s successes and setbacks at HHS, and fresh reporting on the resignation of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. In addition, we discuss what it’s like working as a reporter during a time in which trust in the mainstream media has fallen.
Finally, we take up the subject that sits at the center of our discussions about health today—the breakdown in trust in public health, and specifically in the federal health institutions she covers. The history of that breakdown is the focus of a book Stolberg is working on.

Hosts:
Brinda Adhikari
Tom Johnson
Maggie Bartlett
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek

Tom and I wrote a piece, check it out!
It's Time to Blow Up The Public Health Events Model:
https://whyshoulditrustyou.substack.com/p/its-time-to-blow-up-the-public-health

Guest:
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, correspondent for the New York Times, covering healthy policy and politics, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and MAHA. 
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The one thing Americans seem to agree on these days is that our systems need to change. 
But what actually creates meaningful change?
For some, it means tearing broken institutions down to the studs and rebuilding from scratch. For others, it means reforming those institutions while preserving expertise and what still works. Either way, the question remains: how do you turn shared values into sustainable, far-reaching change?
Our guest today, Greg Satell, author of Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change, has spent years studying how change actually happens. What drives people to adopt change? What are the classic mistakes that prevent movements from succeeding? And in the case of both the Make America Healthy Again movement and traditional public health — two groups that want Americans to be healthier — what are they getting right, and what are they getting wrong in their drive for change?
And then there’s us.
We began this podcast as a way to get some understanding of the collapse in public health, science, and medicine. Now, as we try to move beyond diagnosing the problem and toward fostering collaboration and action, what lessons does Satell have for us?
Hosts:
Brinda Adhikari
Tom Johnson
Maggie Bartlett (off)
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off)

Guest:
Greg Satell, entrepreneur, business executive, author Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change

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Tim Ryan, the moderate, 10-term Democratic congressman from Ohio's Rust Belt, has pushed for a different conversation for years: one that reimagines America’s approach to food and health.
Long before it had a name, Ryan was championing many of the ideas now fueling the “MAHA” movement: nutritious, “real” food (he wrote The Real Food Revolution back in 2014), regenerative agriculture, openness to alternative therapies, and a reassessment of the unhealthy systems taxpayer dollars continue to support. Then he watched the movement take off and align with the Republican Party.
In this episode, Ryan reflects on what it’s been like to see his long-held priorities suddenly gain traction. We ask about tensions around vaccines and whether MAHA’s alignment with MAGA is ultimately sustainable.
Most importantly, we dig into his message for Democrats: embrace a modern, forward-looking health agenda that meets Americans where they are—while also calling out Republicans for, in his view, policies that run counter to what MAHA claims to stand for.

Hosts: 
Brinda Adhikari
Tom Johnson
Maggie Bartlett
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek

Guest:
Former Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH), who served 10 terms in the United States House of Representatives.
Recent articles by Tim Ryan on MAHA and health politics in America:
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/republicans-believe-maha-backing-farm-bill

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/05/democrats-rfk-jr-maha-healthy-food

https://www.statnews.com/2026/04/28/microplastics-nanoplastics-health-epa-trump-arpa-h/

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Hosts:
Brinda Adhikari
Tom Johnson
Maggie Bartlett (producer)
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (seeing patients)

Guests:
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Alex Clark, TPUSA, MAHA
Del Bigtree, High Wire, ICAN
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Trust in higher education is slipping, with a growing number of Americans questioning whether universities are delivering value beyond their walls (and ivory towers).
Today, we’re joined by Daniel Crowley, who goes by Max. He is a behavioral scientist and endowed chair at Penn State. His argument: universities produce groundbreaking research, but too often it sits on a shelf, never reaching the decision-makers who could use it to improve lives.
That disconnect may help explain part of the decline in trust. Of course, many factors are driving that trend, from costs, to admissions practices, and perceptions of elitism, to name a few captured in a new report from Yale University.
Crowley believes that building better systems to translate research to everyone from members of Congress to local leaders to the public itself could help turn that trust slide around.

Hosts:
Brinda Adhikari
Tom Johnson
Maggie Bartlett (off)
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off)

Guest:
Daniel Max Crowley, director of the Prevention Research Center at Penn State University and a prevention scientist investigating how to optimize investments in healthy development and well-being.
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Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]