Why Should I Trust You?

Dr. Kirk Milhoan, chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), is our guest today. ACIP sets America’s vaccine policy, and since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the reins at HHS, it has been at the center of some of the most heated public health debates.
A pediatric cardiologist, Air Force veteran, and physician who has dedicated his life to helping sick children around the globe, we’ll ask Dr. Milhoan about his philosophy on vaccines, how he approaches vaccine policy for American children, and whether ACIP can operate independently of political pressure. We’ll also explore the massive changes that HHS has just been made to America's childhood vaccine schedule. Was ACIP consulted? And, finally, what does he see as his committee’s role in rebuilding public trust?

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

Guest:
Dr. Kirk Milhoan: pediatric cardiologist; chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices; co-founder For Hearts and Souls
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Today, we’re joined by Kelly Ryerson, known to many as the “Glyphosate Girl”. Ryerson is a leading grassroots voice inside the MAHA movement focused on environmental toxins, especially herbicides and pesticides, which she believes are putting public health at risk. Her fight comes at a volatile moment: the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a pivotal case that could sharply limit Americans’ ability to sue pesticide makers, Congress is debating industry liability shields, and a major glyphosate safety study has just been retracted.
We ask Ryerson whether MAHA’s environmental wing is gaining real traction or hitting a wall. With the Midterms approaching, she has threatened to mount primary challenges against Republicans who side with industry on liability protections, raising questions about the future of the MAHA–MAGA alliance. And how much is the Trump administration and this EPA an ally in her fight, or are they operating under very different priorities?

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

Guest:
Kelly Ryerson, educator, speaker, activist, "Glyphosate Girl" on Instagram; co-founder American Regeneration
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With the new federal nutrition guidelines out — and the old food pyramid effectively turned on its head — we dig into what this moment is really about. Where do MAHA and traditional nutrition experts actually agree on the new recommendations, and where do they sharply diverge? How has industry influenced past guidelines, and is it exerting a similar influence on the new ones? How should we understand the bold messaging about ending the “war” on protein and “healthy” saturated fats? And despite the heated rhetoric, is there real common ground here that could help rebuild trust?
We’re joined by nutrition experts with a wide range of perspectives — plus a dose of MAHA — to unpack what these guidelines really mean for both our health and our confidence in the institutions behind them.
Hosts:
Brinda Adhikari
Tom Johnson
Maggie Bartlett
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off)

Guests:
DeeDee Tobias, a nutrition and obesity epidemiologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. 
Kevin C. Klatt is a phD and a registered dietitian. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto.
Ty Beal, is a nutrition scientist at GAIN–the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition–and host of The Ty Beal Show. Dr. Beal was a scientific review author for the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, part of the advisory team under the Trump administration
Elizabeth Frost, a grassroots organizer, she leads MAHA Ohio, worked for the Kennedy campaign,  co-founder of a political consulting company called Independent Force

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Today, we’re joined by sociologist Vivek Chibber, the provocative scholar and social critic who has a pointed critique of the modern day Left. The host of the Confronting Capitalism podcast joins us and argues that their management of institutions—including academia, media, the Democratic Party, and even public health—is completely out of touch with the lives and struggles of working and middle-class Americans. We discuss how this disconnect is fueling the widespread distrust of experts and institutions today, as well as Chibber's critique of the MAHA movement and its alliance with MAGA. 
We also speak with public health professor and emergency physician Craig Spencer to explore how these critiques play out in the health space —on public health, cuts to scientific research, and the shrinking safety nets under the Trump administration. Finally, we discuss what, if anything, can be done to rebuild trust within communities that feel left behind, keying off of polling showing dramatic bipartisan support of the idea that good healthcare is a human right.

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

Guests;
Vivek Chibber,  sociology professor at NYU who studies capitalism, class, and social theory. He is a contributor to Jacobin magazine and editor of Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy. Currently co-host of podcast Confronting Capitalism.
Dr. Craig Spencer, associate professor at Brown University School of Public Health, an ER doctor, has also worked for Doctors without Borders

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We delve into the CDC’s move to recommend fewer vaccines in the childhood immunization schedule, one of the most significant steps taken by the Kennedy administration so far. The change is sparking strong reactions across the spectrum, and we aim to understand why it’s happening, what evidence is being used to justify it, and what the potential consequences could be for children, parents, and public trust.
The administration says it looked to models abroad, particularly Denmark, where fewer vaccines are recommended. So we invited two Danish physicians who know their country’s vaccine policy and practice, along with a friend of the show, Dr. Michael Mina.
We ask: Is Denmark — a far smaller country with universal health care — really a good model for U.S. vaccine policy? Was this change grounded in gold-standard science? Or, as mainstream public health warns, does it increase risk for American children, even though all vaccines remain available and covered? And what, if anything, can the U.S. learn from countries that recommend fewer vaccines?

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

Guests:
Dr. Eskild Petersen, an infectious disease specialist who worked 14 years at the Statens Serum Institut moving back into clinical ID in 2003. Since 2024 adjunct professor at PandimiX Center, Roskilde University, Denmark. Leading author of "Infectious Diseases, A Geographical Guide (Rutledge 2024) and editor in chief of the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Lone Graff Stensballe, a consultant pediatrician and expert in pediatric infectious diseases, with over 20 years of clinical experience at the pediatric department of Denmark’s National University Hospital. She is Professor of Pediatric Vaccinology and Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Copenhagen. Since 2018, she has served as Chair of the Research Ethics Committees in Denmark. 
Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and immunologist and physician. Over the course of his career, he’s been an associate professor at Harvard Medical School as well as the TH Chan School of Public Health. In the height of the pandemic, he led America’s Test to Treat program, which connected home testing to treatment options. He’s been a scientific advisor for health start-ups and has served on high-profile boards. 

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