Why Should I Trust You?

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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Today, we are delving into the subject of healthcare fraud.  The Trump administration has elevated it into a major political issue.
When it comes to Medicaid fraud specifically, do you see this administration's recent actions towards states such as Minnesota as a well-meaning push to take on the bad actors and lax state oversight that has allowed this taxpayer-supported safety net to be exploited? Or do you see it as a political talking point being used to suggest widespread abuse when there is not, to justify cutting that very safety net? Or is this an abhorrent scam for which we just don't see eye to eye on the solution? 
The truth is, your answer may depend on where you get your information, who you trust, and how you’ve experienced the system yourself.
In today’s episode, we dig into that divide. What do we actually know about healthcare fraud in America—and what is rhetoric versus reality? We bring together Trump and MAHA supporters, including a mother whose child was covered by Medicaid, along with a health reporter from Minnesota and experts on Medicaid program integrity, to ask: how big is the problem really, are we focused on the right issues, and what can we actually agree on?

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

Guests:
Jacqueline Capriotti, founder and CEO of Health Revolution USA, small business owner and mother of two adults with cystic fibrosis, worked on the Kennedy/MAHA campaign. 

Aaron Everitt, writer and Substacker for Besides the Revolution and House inHabit volunteered for Kennedy campaign. 

Eleanor Hildebrandt, reporter at the Minnesota Star Tribune, has covered the Medicaid fraud issue on the ground there in that state.

Andy Schneider, health policy expert at Georgetown’s McCourt School who served as a senior advisor at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services during the Obama administration.

Joel White, President of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage who served as the Staff Director for the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means.

Wilk Wilkinson, host of the Derate the Hate podcast and director of Media Operations for Braver Angels. 

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Today, we’re joined by Dr. Stephen Hoge, president of Moderna, the biotech company that helped make mRNA a household name during the pandemic, producing a vaccine taken by millions of Americans.
Now, Moderna is using that same technology to push into new frontiers, developing treatments for cancers like melanoma and lung cancer. While at the same time, mistrust of mRNA and of the pharmaceutical industry more broadly has only grown.
We discuss with Dr. Hoge his company's latest innovations in cancer treatment as well as an mRNA-based flu vaccine they are hoping to have available before the next flu season. We discuss what it's like to try and innovate using a platform that many Americans, coming off the pandemic experience, do not trust. And we talk about whether using mRNA as a tool against cancer might yield a different reception.  

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

Guest:
Dr. Stephen Hoge, President of Moderna
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It's an episode full of news: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s move to counter the federal judge who ruled his handpicked vaccine advisory committee lacked the expertise to guide U.S. vaccine policy. At the same time, the Trump administration has rolled out its new budget, a clear statement of priorities, with major increases in defense spending alongside deep cuts to medical research. And the EPA is stepping in with a new push to reduce microplastics in the nation’s drinking water.
We break it all down.
Then, the main event: the administration’s crackdown on what it calls “DEI” research has scuttled studies on racial health disparities. But that raises a deeper question: was the system working in the first place? The gap in life expectancy between Black and white Americans persists.
Our guest is health equity researcher Jerel Ezell. He’s critical of the current cuts but also of how this research has been done for years. So what does he think is broken? What needs to change? And what’s at stake if we get this wrong?

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

Guest:
Dr. Jerel Ezell, sociologist and public health researcher, he worked as an epidemiologist in Detroit and Chicago. He’s now an assistant professor in Infectious Diseases and Global Health at the University of Chicago, and has taught at Cornell and UC Berkeley. His research focuses on opioid use, environmental health, and the long-term human impact of crises like the Flint water crisis, with a growing emphasis on AI and equity.

The One Area Where Trump’s N.I.H. Cuts Might Actually Make Sense
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/opinion/health-disparities-nih.html
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We are taking a few days off! We'll be back with a new episode on Thursday April 16. We love our theme song, so here it is in full. Enjoy!

xo,
WSITY team
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