Why Should I Trust You?

Senator Cory Booker joins us for a conversation about our dire chronic health crisis, the corrosive effects of corporate money in our politics, the power of making healthy food affordable, and our taxpayer-subsidized systems that fuel our chronic disease epidemic. These are issues he's been sounding the alarm on for years. Today, the New Jersey Democrat has a new message for his own party: rather than resist the supporters of MAHA, it's time to stand with them.
Long before MAHA, Booker was raising the very concerns now at the heart of the movement. But while much of his party has greeted MAHA with suspicion and hostility, Booker is making a different argument: Democrats should find common ground wherever possible.
So where, exactly, does he see common ground with MAHA? Can Democrats work with the movement while fiercely disagreeing on vaccines and other critical issues? And how does he answer critics in his own party who see MAHA not as a health movement but as an extension of MAGA?
Today, as he pitches a new coalition: why should MAHA trust him?  And why should his own party?

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

Guest:
Senator Cory Booker, D-NJ

New to us? Check out these three episodes to get a taste! 

Inside A Rare Conversation Between MAHA Grassroots and Public Health Leaders
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-should-i-trust-you/id1788335471?i=1000706783000

The Hepatitis B Birth Dose Vaccine: Do We Need It? An Honest Conversation w Dr. Paul Offit & Dr. Michael Mina
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-should-i-trust-you/id1788335471?i=1000727322530
A Conversation with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya: On the NIH, CDC, Funding, DEI & His Vision For Doing Science
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-should-i-trust-you/id1788335471?i=1000751774699
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Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at questions@whyshoulditrustyou.net

Today, we're widening our lens to take on AI and trust because just like public health, science, and medicine, AI is becoming a trust minefield. As trust in institutions, experts, and Big Tech continues to erode, AI is arriving with enormous promises and profound uncertainties. (And don't worry—we're not taking our foot off the gas on trust and health. We're just doing more!)
AI now has us confronting fundamental questions about winners and losers, promises of medical breakthroughs versus warnings of widespread job displacement, and whether the new technology encourages us to offload difficult thinking or frees us to think more deeply. And right in the middle of all these questions is the generation coming of age at the same time as AI.
So, today, we've gathered Gen Zers, high school students, college students, recent graduates, young professionals, and people entering the trades. We discuss the issues surrounding AI, especially its impact on education and work, which are already shaping their lives.
How do they see the opportunities and risks of AI? What excites them? What worries them? Ultimately, what kind of future do they want to build and what kind of lives do they want to lead?
Hosts:
Brinda Adhikari
Tom Johnson
Maggie Bartlett
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek

Guests:
Elizabeth Frost
Khushi Patel
Sawyer Everitt
Bryson Craven
Rotimi Kukoyi
Matt Geistler
Keren Michelle-Asare
Rohan Licht
Michael D. Green

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Parkinson’s Disease is rising worldwide. It is the fastest-growing neurological disease in the world and is being called a “slow-motion epidemic.” And there is no cure. 
So what’s driving the increase? There are several culprits, including a body of research associating exposure to the farm herbicide Paraquat. Paraquat is banned in 70 countries. At the same time, in America, the EPA and other major reviews say the evidence still falls short of proving a direct causal link.
We speak with one of the nation’s leading Parkinson’s researchers, Dr. Ray Dorsey, along with a man living with Parkinson’s after decades during which he says he was exposed to Paraquat.
But this story goes beyond one chemical or one disease. It’s about how we should make decisions regarding health amidst conflicting perspectives over science, data, warning signs, and painful lived experiences.

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

Guests:
Steve Brandenburg, worked for 30 years as a producer on a video team in the agricultural industry. He has since been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He  hosts a podcast called “The Secret Life of Parkinson’s".
Dr. Ray Dorsey, neurologist and one of the country's leading researchers on Parkinson's disease. He is the Director of the Center for the Brain and Environment with Atria Health and Research Institute.

Research on Paraquat and Parkinson's

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21269927/

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra2401857?utm_source=openevidence

https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/paraquat-pesticide-parkinsons-disease#:~:text=A%20common%20pesticide%20called%20paraquat,can%20cause%20the%20movement%20disorder

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11491592/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S147444222500287X

EPA on Paraquat and Parkinson's

https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/paraquat-dichloride
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We’ve got a major news-driven episode today, focused on two stories that hit home for two big parts of our audience: MAHA and public health.
First, the political earthquake rocking MAHA: Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie's defeat in his primary after a full-force effort by President Trump and MAGA. Massie was beloved by many in MAHA as an independent-minded fighter willing to challenge both parties and powerful interests. Where does this leave the MAHA-MAGA alliance? 
Then we turn to the outbreaks of Ebola and Hantavirus. How is the group processing the emergence of these outbreaks, especially after this administration dismantled USAID, which long supported disease surveillance and relief in hot spots, including the site of the current Ebola outbreak? 

Hosts:
Brinda Adhikari
Tom Johnson
Maggie Bartlett
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off)
Guests:
Aaron Everitt, video journalist, writer Besides the Revolution, House InHabit, former Kennedy campaign volunteer.

Elizabeth Frost, co-founder MAHA Ohio, Independent Force Consultants, former Kennedy campaign grassroots organizer.

Jeff Hutt, former National Field Director for the Kennedy campaign; former spokesperson for the MAHA PAC.
Dr. Nahid Bhadelia,  infectious disease physician, Associate Professor at Boston University School of Medicine,  founding director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Policy and Research.

Dr. Craig Spencer, emergency medicine physician and Associate Professor at Brown University School of Public Health.
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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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Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at questions@whyshoulditrustyou.net