When we think of potentially dangerous and addictive drugs, most of us think about illegal substances like heroine or cocaine. And yet widely-prescribed drugs like Xanax, Ritalin, Adderall, and Vicodin are also addictive, but legal in the United States. Historian David Herzberg discusses the artificial distinction that has been created between addictive drugs and medicines … Continued
Times of emergency require difficult decisions and we’re told by the likes of Bill Gates that nuclear power is necessary to get the world off fossil fuels. Nuclear power boosters argue that new technologies have made nuclear reactors cheaper and safer. Scholar and scientist M.V. Ramana calls this a fiction. He asserts that nuclear power … Continued
Everyone knows what physicians do. We go to them when we’re sick, they examine us and prescribe a treatment. In this case, we’re the patient. But what happens when the patient isn’t a single individual, but a community, a society, a nation, or perhaps even the world? What happens when the healing that most needs to occur … Continued
On today’s show, I’ll spend the hour speaking to Stacy Malkan co-founder and managing editor of U.S. Right to Know – the nonprofit public health research group, recapping 2023 and giving us a preview of what’s in store for 2024.
Gene-guided healthcare has taken U.S. medicine by storm, promising precision, targeted treatments to myriad illnesses. It has also proved very profitable. James Tabery traces how genetic medicine vied within the federal government with another approach to healthcare — one emphasizing the social and environmental determinants of health, such as whether you live in a polluted … Continued
Everyone knows what physicians do. We go to them when we’re sick, they examine us and prescribe a treatment. In this case, we’re the patient. But what happens when the patient isn’t a single individual, but a community, a society, a nation, or perhaps even the world? What happens when the healing that most needs … Continued
Oakland’s Police Department has been a poster child for abusive and violent law enforcement. But award-winning journalist Darwin BondGraham argues that the OPD is exceptional only because of the scrutiny it’s received. He discusses the department’s history from the Red Scare of the 1920s to the Black Panthers in the 1960s to Occupy Oakland in … Continued
Most of us assume that our medical data is protected under U.S. law — but, as sociologist Mary Ebeling illustrates, that’s wrong. Even when we don’t collect it ourselves with fitness trackers and health apps, our most sensitive health information is gathered from across the web, and package and sold as data commodities by brokers … Continued
As Covid tragically illustrated, large numbers of Americans are in poor health and especially vulnerable to viruses and other pathogens. How did we get here? According to physician Robert Lustig, it started with the turn toward processed food, which has led to an ongoing national and global public health crisis, while enriching corporations and the … Continued
Covid has laid bare the inequities of our society and the dysfunction of our medical system, which focuses at great cost on disease-treatment rather than fostering health. So contends epidemiologist Sandro Galea. He argues that the pandemic provides an opening to rethink medicine, along with housing, wages, and racial and social inequality, and to treat … Continued
