Sandro Galea

Welcome to Ideas Matter, a podcast hosted by WashU.

I'm Sandro Galea.

In health, everything is connected.

This is true at the population level.

I think innovation comes from communities that have to imagine something better.

And I see that happening.

I'm Sandro Galea.

I have been talking with Dr. Gita Maker-Clark about integrative health.

The only question is how.

Our guest today, Dr. Sandro Galea, describes this point in time as our post-war moments in public health.

His new book, Why Health? What We Need to Think About When We Think About Health, examines the values that underpin the work of public health as a means to determining a way forward.

Dr. Galea is the Dean of the Burski School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis, and we had a great conversation about politics, disagreements, MAHA, and more.

[intro music] Welcome to Ideas Matter, a podcast hosted by WashU.

I am Sandro Galea.

Barbara Kingsolver wrote, "If I can tell you one thing about Appalachians, let it be this: we are people made of community." This runs counter to how rural Americans can be depicted, as somehow lacking agency, living on the social and economic edge.

A people made of community are a people rooted in the bonds that strengthen and support, that give life meaning in its fullest sense.

Like, we're just people.

[laughs]

I'm Sandro Galea.

I have been talking with Elizabeth Currid-Halkett about rural America beyond the caricature.

In the end, none of these organizations tell people that the science behind their policies is controversial, and they might be flat wrong.

Ronald Bayer, David Merritt Johns, and Sandro Galea said it best in their article, Salt and Public Health.

After a careful consideration of the debate over salt, we have concluded that the concealment of scientific uncertainty is a mistake that serves neither the ends of science nor good policy.

So, should you go out and