Public Health United

Learn about COVID19 directly from virologist Andy Pekosz. Andy is a professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and is the former President of the American Society for Virologists. Last week he presented to Congress on the pandemic and has been a great source of information on social media. Listen to the full podcast to learn more about COVID19 from Andy Pekosz.

Ms.Guerrero- Vazquez, Executive Director of Centro Sol, is a U.S. immigrant and combines both her lived experiences and professional skills to advocate for and empower Latinx communities in Baltimore city. Dr. Sarah Polk, Faculty Co-Director of Centro Sol, is a pediatric physician who identified the gap in quality of care at Johns Hopkins based on cultural barriers and was pivotal in the creation of Centro Sol. Dr. Polk says that “As healthcare providers, our insights into solutions are limited by our perspective... So we are blind to the potential solutions, and we are also blind to why some solutions would not be particularly helpful.” Listen to the full podcast to learn more about Centro Sol and how they are using community-based research and a research framework that emphasizes cultural competencies to advance the health of Latinos.

Dr. Sacoby Wilson is Director of the Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health (CEEJH) lab at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Wilson is a strong advocate for critically understanding the role that racism and other social determinants play in health outcomes. At his lab, Dr. Wilson empowers communities through thoughtful engagement in science. Dr. Wilson says that “Yes, I have a Ph.D., but I’m not the only person to be a scientist, anyone can be a scientist.” Listen to the full podcast to learn more about Dr. Wilson and his two-part approach to community-driven and community-based research.

Dr. Paul Yi and Dr. Haris Sair are both radiologists that co-direct RAIL, the Radiology and Artificial Intelligence Lab, which is a part of the JHU Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare. The purpose of this lab is to use innovations in machine and deep learning, to advance the field of radiology and improve doctor's caseload. Dr. Paul Yi describes the concept of “transfer learning” that they use in RAIL as “basically using algorithms that were used to train googles algorithms for image recognition, and then we apply that to radiology images.” Listen to the full podcast to learn more about how artificial intelligence is connecting doctors and engineers!

Mike Morrison is a current doctoral candidate in industrial- organization psychology at Michigan State University, where he has worked to reshape how we present posters at conferences. When speaking on how people interact with science, Mike Morrison explains that "information foraging says that when we pursue information, we go to a website, it seems like it's going to have the information we are looking for we pick through it a little bit and then when we determine its not going to give us that strong information sense, those berries, we just abandon it and go to another website.” Listen to our full podcast to learn more about #betterposter, and check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org/podcast.

Dr. Johannes Urpelainen is the Director and Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Professor of Energy, Resources and Environment at the Johns Hopkins Kreiger School of Advanced International Studies, as well as, the Founder Director of the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy. He is an author of books and peer-reviewed literature on energy policy, environmental governance, and global governance. He also aims to equip the next generation of leaders, through classes where instills in them analytical skills, as well as best practices in impactful international policy work. Dr. Urpelainen said that "We can always do more research on what is an optimal policy or an efficient policy or something like that, but in practice, policymakers face concrete decisions in a certain environment." Listen to the full podcast to learn more about translating research into effective policy. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org/podcast and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at PHUscicomm.

Dr. Gundula Bosh, Dr. Artuto Casadevall, and Brian Klaas are changing the way scientists learn with their R3 initiative. R3 is a Johns Hopkins graduate science initiative that stands for “rigor, responsibility and reproducibility” in scientific practice. Dr. Bosh says that “[ R3 teaches] a certain way of philosophical thinking about science in a very approachable and tangible manner. So that people also really know what to do with it. So it’s not just some abstract thinking, it’s really something that enables you and in the end what is philosophy? Philosophy is critical thinking.” Listen to the full podcast to learn about how R3 is advancing scientists education through teaching valuable skills such as science communication! Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org/podcast and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at PHUscicomm.

Alex Nathanson is spearheading an innovative approach to teaching communities about solar power, energy and aesthetics through Solar Powered Art. During this podcast, he explains how Solar Powered Art can be used in STEAM education, as well as, an equitable way to get people thinking about climate change solutions. Alex says that “to be able to address [ the different ways climate change will impact communities ] we need to be able to provide tools that are accessible for people to actually engage with resources and the experience of climate change in a local way.” Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at PHUscicomm.

Astrid Caldas is a climate change scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. During this podcast episode, she explains some of the best practices to get communities and politicians engaged and listening about climate change. In this episode, Astrid says that" [ We ] need to talk science in ways that speak to people, like about people's health, people's pocketbooks, people's core values, there's always something that will touch people." and check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram Facebook at PHUscicomm and drscicomm.

The Food Project is a hub in South West Baltimore aimed to empower youth through opportunities to learn, eat nutritious food, and develop practical life skills. Michelle Suazo is the Executive Director for The Food Project, and Dominic Nell is a farmer and educator who runs BeMoreGreen, a STEM program based out of The Food Project. Dominic Nell in the interview said: "These little humans, are going to be larger human later, and out investment or non-investment in them is going to affect us in some way shape or form." Listen to the full podcast to learn more about all of the inspiring work, being done at the food project.

Mike Reese is the Director of the Center for Educational Resources at Johns Hopkins University. Kelly Clark is the program manager for the Teaching Academy at Johns Hopkins University. Together they will explain some best practices and tips based on research in education to create classrooms with better learning outcomes. Mike in the interview said, “when you have students engaged in discussion and activities in class time, they tend to learn more and retain it longer.” Listen to the full podcast to learn more from Mike, Kelly, and Nina!

Dr. Naor Bar-Zeev is a pediatric infectious disease physician and statistical epidemiologist, currently working at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as a part of the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC). Vaccines are now a hot button topic in the news with the recent rise in vaccine-preventable diseases, so this podcast comes at a perfect time for those interested in communicating science, and specifically vaccine science to others. Though vaccine creation is a highly technical field Dr. Naor Bar Zeev speaks to the interconnected roles of different fields, and perspectives that are critical in shaping both vaccine research and dissemination. Dr. Naor Bar Zeev in the podcast says “words are really powerful things and words can give life, and words can take away life.” Listen to the podcast for the full story between Dr. Naor Bar Zeev and Dr. Nina Martin.

Euan Adie is a former genetics researcher with a passion for science communication. This interest in science communication lead Euan to previous roles as a project manager at Nature Publishing group, and later to Digital Science before he founded Altmetric in 2011. Altmetric is a data analytics company that works to reshape how scholars gain feedback and interact with the content they have created, going beyond just citations! Listen to Euan describe his career in science communication as well as the development of the field of Almetrics. For more information check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUscicomm and drscicomm

Less than five minute clip from Episode 66 with Dr. Mark O. Martin. Mark answers Nina's question: "If you were to give advice to a scientist whose main focus has not been teaching students, maybe they teach a course maybe they don’t, what would be your advice to them to improve engagement with students, and more broadly the public?" Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUscicomm and drscicomm.

Episode 66 with Dr. Mark O. Martin. Mark answers Nina's question: "If you were to give advice to a scientist whose main focus has not been teaching students, maybe they teach a course maybe they don’t, what would be your advice to them to improve engagement with students, and more broadly the public?" Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUscicomm and drscicomm.

"Everything starts with trust. If you are just starting to build trust during an outbreak, very difficult to accomplish anything." During times of [Ebola] outbreak, multiple public health players come together to fight off disease and save lives. But what happens when the community that you are trying to help revolts against the health officials? Dr. David Peters, Chair of the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, recounts the last 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak and how community engagement, along with acceptance of aggressive fluid treatment, was key to ending this massive epidemic.  Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUscicomm and drscicomm.

There are few individuals that I meet who I can say with 100% certainty have saved millions of lives through their rigorous scientific work. Dr. Stanley Plotkin is world renowned for his pioneering research and development of rubella vaccine, which is used almost exclusively around the world, including in the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) combined vaccine. In our latest episode, Dr. Plotkin reminisces about his contributions to vaccine development both in academic and industry, as well the fierce scientific competition between scientists to develop vaccines in the 20th century through today.  Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUscicomm and drscicomm.

A recent national survey in Nigeria revealed that only 33 percent of children received all three doses of the pentavalent vaccine (which include vaccines for Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, H. influenzae and Hepatitis B), well below the global World Health Organization goal of 90 percent. For comparison, the global average for children who have received all three doses is 85 percent. Kyla Hayford, PhD, is an Assistant Scientist at the Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center who works on improving surveillance of the effectiveness of vaccines and how to improve coverage rates in countries like Nigeria. In this podcast, we talk about better tests for estimating the effectiveness of vaccination (i.e. serological surveillance), the causes of lower coverage rates in Nigeria, and how to translate research into interpretable and useable material for policymakers. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUscicomm and drscicomm.

When I was at the bench doing science experiments, bioethics tended to be an afterthought for me; in public health--which is basically deciding for communities how to best promote well-being--bioethics is (or should be) at the core. Dr. Travis Rieder, our latest podcast guest, is a bioethicist at the Berman Institute for Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University and emphasizes that we should not be making public health policy without bringing in ethical and moral discussions. Using abortion as an example, Nina and Travis discuss how we can move policy and discussions forward in a respectful way in our deeply pluralistic Democracy and society, which tend to oversimplify public health issues into black and white camps that demonize the other viewpoint. We as a society need to move past these debates to find common ground so we can move forward and make progress. What's the common ground? Listen to find out! Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Although some listeners may be new to thinking about science communication, it's not at all a new field. Our latest podcast guest, Dr. John Durant, puts current science engagement practices in its historical context. John has been involved in science communication science the 1980's and is an expert in formulating and measuring best practices for science communication as Director of the MIT Museum in Boston. He has led the charge on many science engagement practices, including founding the International Science Festival Alliance and being the founding Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed publication, "Public Understand of Science". Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Translating science into policy is challenging, especially when it has to do with vaccinating pregnant women and other vulnerable populations. Our 60th podcast features Dr. Saad Omer (MBBS, PhD, MPH), vaccinologist at Emory University, who is also involved in several working groups to translate vaccine science into evidence-based policy at the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, The World Health Organization, and at the Pan American Health Organization. While Saad has a large research portfolio, he is most known for his trials to estimate efficacy and immunogenicity of maternal and/or infant influenza, pertussis, polio, measles and pneumococcal vaccines. In 2009, he was awarded the Maurice Hilleman award in vaccinology by the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases on his work on impact of maternal influenza immunization on respiratory illness in infants younger than 6 months- for whom there is no vaccine. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Science advocacy has been in the news a lot these past two years, but many are still wondering what's the best way to make an impact. I've been learning over the last several podcasts that the way to improve science engagement, acceptance, funding, and policy is to include the public in science and to get them to think of science as an important part of their life. Leah Pagnozzi, Bioengineering PhD Candidate at Cornell University, is doing just this with her 'Take A Politician To Work' Program. Leah gives politicians first hand experiences of how science is done, how cool science is, and how many different kinds of science there are by organizing lab tours to politicians. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink -- Leah would love for this science advocacy program to be spread to other campuses or institutions; get in touch with us at nina@publichealthunited.org if you'd like to be connected. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Is the world prepared for the next global health threat? In our latest podcast, Dr. Tom Inglesby, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security shares with us how the Center is helping the world prepare for health threats, both natural and manmade, with evidence based policy. Originally created by D.A. Henderson, well known for his Smallpox Eradication Campaign, the Center started in the late 90's/early 2000's to research, create and influence evidence-based policy in face of of major health threats like anthrax, SARS, and bird flu. Nina had tons of questions about how to know if policies made by the government are evidence-based or if they are pure fear-mongering (she in particular recalls all of the questions around the Ebola quarantines in 2014 and 2015). Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

How does Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) help speed up equitable access to life saving vaccines like rotavirus or HPV vaccines? Mary Carol Jennings, MD, on top of being drawn to community medicine, has always felt a calling for advocacy and bringing positive change to her surroundings. Even through her rigorous medical training, she made time for helping others at all stages of her career. At IVAC, Mary Carol is lead on two projects: RAVIN, an accelerator project for equitable access to rotavirus vaccine, and developing a new project on HPV vaccine access and advocacy. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

“As you may refer to a Dickens novel or a piece of artwork to help contextualize a cultural or lifestyle issue, so you could also bring your science to bear. When you’re looking at the world as a round, you probably want to bring in a scientific perspective, even if you’re not a scientist because that is how the world is.” Dan Glaser is all about crossovers. He is a neuroscientist and co-Director of Science Gallery London, located at King’s College London, where the main message is that art and science are intricately linked. Science Gallery is a space and project that was started in Dublin, Ireland and aims to make science a cultural event that targets 15-25 year olds from neighborhoods that wouldn’t typically be included in science or art campaigns. The exhibits are a testament to social justice and are co-created with the target audience, getting input from 15-25 year olds in the neighborhoods from before the topic is even chosen. Dan also writes a weekly column in The Observer where he gives current event news a scientific twist, like Brexit. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Six years ago, I was dating someone living in London. While he was at work, I would troll around London by myself and was pulled many times back to London's Natural History Museum (NMH), in particular to The Darwin Center and their very interactive exhibit. The NHM is much more than a museum: it is home to over 300 scientists who are publishing 700+ publications a year on the solar system, earth's geology and life, biodiversity, and sustainability. It also houses over 80 million specimens that span 4.5 billion years! Out latest podcast features John Jackson, Head of Science Communication and Policy at NHM. In the 1990's, NHM changed the way they approached the museum's exhibitions. Traditionally, scientists would take something that they were working on behind closed doors, put it in a display case and then go back to the lab. The major goal has now shifted to include the public in the process of science and to shape both research and exhibits with public engagement in mind. I'm still thinking about The Darwin Center five years later, so definitely a model worth learning about. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

I'm in London for work! And I snuck in two podcasts in my favorite neighborhood of museums and science spaces in Kensington. First of three was at the British Science Association with Chief Executive Katherine Mathieson. Too often the public feels very distant from science and the scientific process; the BSA is changing that by changing people's perceptions of science and making it into a fun, cultural process. They have many public engagement programs on, and one of my favorites is the British Science Festival. Listen to find out more! Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Who's doing a great job of collecting health data and translating it into engaging public health multimedia? For many in global health, the clear leader is the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle. Indeed, on my first day at work at IVAC, everyone was throwing around the IHME acronym around like it was PBnJ and definitely a lol moment if you didn't know what it stood for. Our latest podcast features Bill Heisel, Director of Global Engagement at IHME and a must know for all public health lovers. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

This week, Nina is joined by Advocacy and Communications Specialist Swati Sudarsan as they interview Kate O’Brien, Executive Director of the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC). Did you know vaccines are a tool for social justice? Kate looks beyond efficacy to share the economic, biologic, social, and political benefits that vaccines have to offer. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Dr. Peter Hotez, scientist and founding dean at the National School of Tropical Medicine, felt a calling to science and vaccine advocacy after the birth of his autistic daughter. On our latest podcast, Nina speaks with Dr. Hotez on vaccine hesitancy, the flip side of our last podcast on vaccine confidence. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

We had a transatlantic, bi-coastal three way Skype podcast last month with researchers Drs. Heidi Larson and Pauline Paterson who co-direct the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Heidi and Pauline are globally respected and known for this unique, extensive, and broad research into understanding how we can boost the global community's confidence in vaccines. A large piece of their work is profiling conversations from around the world and to pinpoint factors that lead to confidence or not. The other side of this coin is the term 'vaccine hesitancy' that describes why people do not feel confident in vaccines (a person can still vaccinate their child, but still be vaccine hesitant). Please note. Most of this podcast has good audio quality, however, due to the Skype connection, had a few moments of poor connectivity. The PHU wizards did their best to provide the best quality, please be patient as we continue to improve our Skype recording process.Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Our latest podcast guest, Laurie Garrett, is an award winning science journalist (she has won all three major journalism awards: the Peabody, the Pulitzer, and the Polk) and a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. I first heard about Laurie back in 2000 when I read her book, "The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance." Among many accomplishments, she's well known for chronicling the Ebola outbreak both in the 90's and more recently. In this episode, Laurie tells us some of her stories from the frontline of outbreak science journalism and some challenges she sees for the global community in preparing for the next pandemic. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Our latest guest is also the latest faculty addition to the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Dr. Monica Mugnier (big news: Monica won an 2016 NIH Early Independence Award which allowed her to skip the tradtional postdoctoral fellowship and become faculty right after completing her PhD work). Monica studies a kind of parasite, called a tropanosome, that causes the disease African Sleeping Sickness. They are very difficult to control for a vaiety of reasons, one of them being the focus of her work (and some very cool science) on how they can rapidly change their coats to avoid detection by our immune system (aka antigenic variation). Monica finds these parasites so cool to study because they break all of the rules (read: they don’t follow any of the classic biology rules that she learned in class). Lots of mystery and discovery! Monica and I have a great conversation on how to make a great science presentation (and how difficult it can be to strike the right amount of info, depending on your audience). We also discuss the challenges of conveying the importance of global health science research, especially when the illness primarily impacts people on a different continent. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Our latest guest, Dean Mike Klag, has served at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health for the past decade and has worked to keep the School at the forefront of both international and community health. Dean Klag describes the roots of our school, the largest and oldest school of public health and how, owing to its biomedical roots, it is unique in that it hosts three basic science departments as well as more classic public health fields like international health, epidemiology, policy, biotstats, and mental health. We also learn about how he got into public health and his major goals and accomplishments as dean. Dean Klag will be stepping down in June 2017. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

From his earliest days, Dr. Rush Holt has been interested in "how the world works (that's science) and how people get along (that's politics)." There are few who want to do both. Rush is one of the rare scientists who has served in Congress and has integrated 'science and society' into everything he's done. Hear about what it was like to be a scientist in Congress and how scientists should be communicating. Rush is currently the CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and was the U.S. Representative for New Jersey's 12 congressional district from 1999 to 2015. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Ellis Rubinstein always knew that he wanted to combine his seemingly distinct passions for reporting news and science. Before stepping into his current role as New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS)' President, he served as Editor of Science Magazine, the scientific journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In our latest podcast, he discusses how important it is for young scientists to be involved in AAAS and NYAS, and to not limit membership and activism to just those in their later careers as some other scientific societies do. Under his watch, the NYAS has the highest number of young scientists (including graduate and more junior students), thanks to the tremendous amount of work Ellis has done to promote career development, networking, and mentoring opportunities. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Nina teams up with her Communicating Science student, Arvin Saleh, and his advisor Dr. Emily Fisher to talk about the wave that's hitting undergraduate campus with the aim of improving science education and the way students learn. The latest methods employ active learning--strategies that put learning in the hands of the student. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Our latest guest, Dr. Meghan Moran, researches how the tobacco industry uses persuasive messaging on youths and teens--and how public health policy makers can use that knowledge to implement prevention campaigns. She also uses her expertise in persuasive communication to analyze why people are swayed by anti-vaccine messaging, and that it is not for the reasons we typically consider! Meghan is an Assistant Professor in Health, Behavior and Society Department at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Nina gets to do her favorite thing on the latest episode: talk about vaccines! Nina is back over at the International Vaccine Access Center with Director of Policy and Advocacy Communications Lois Privor-Dumm. Lois has been working on vaccine advocacy to bring life saving vaccines (like the one to prevent meningitis) to countries all over the world. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Special World Aids Day podcast! Our latest guest, Dr. Tom Quinn, was one of the first doctors working on HIV/AIDS here in the US in 1981 and still in the frontlines of combatting this global epidemic as Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, Associate Director for International Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a researcher at Johns Hopkins University, and a consultant at a long list of places like The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), World Health Organization (WHO). Truly a champion for public health. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Continuing on with the science communication and politics theme, Nina chats with Dr. Jenny Carlson, medical entomologist, about her trip down to Florida last summer to talk to citizens about the benefits of releasing genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes to combat mosquito borne diseases like Zika and Dengue. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter (PHUpodcast) and Facebook.

For people my own age, let's loosely say somewhere in your 30's, unintentional injury is the leading cause of death in the United States! In fact, one person is dying every three minutes from injury...And it's thought to cost us around $671 billion per year! Dr. Andrea Gielen is Director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Johns Hopkins and a very passionate person in general about getting the message out about how much injury is costing us each year--and all the many things we can do to help. The Center is also working on how to translate injury research into policy, and has many unique approaches worth hearing about. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter (PHUpodcast) and Facebook.

Happy Halloween! Four scientists get together on Halloween to talk about a spooky topic: the science views of the presidential candidates! The science communication show Public Health United welcomes Dr. Bill Moss (see our previous podcast together), Dr. Katherine Fenstermacher (Hopkins), and Kenny Shatzkes (Rutgers, Eagleton Fellow) to talk about their frustration while watching the debates, the lessons they've learned in communicating science and policy, and how scientists and policymakers need to collaborate and reach compromises to form better science policies. I cannot even count the number of laughs we all have together. Truly a fun and informative episode on science policy during this election season! FYI, the title of this special edition podcast is based on Harry Frankfurt's NYT best selling book, "On Bullshit" which details the difference between liars and bullshitters...listen to hear what the difference is and how destructive the latter can be! Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter (PHUpodcast) and Facebook.

We often hear about Vitamin D with words like sunshine and milk, but it may be a mystery as to how it works and what the best sources are in your diet. On the latest episode of the science communication show Public Health United, Nina chats with Johns Hopkins Vitamin D researcher Dr. Leigh Frame-Peterson on the importance of this essential nutrient, especially after bariatric surgery when your body is trying to repair itself. In case you didn't know (like Nina), bariatric surgery is surgery on the gastrointestinal tract in order to aid weight loss. There is a ton of misinformation on this--Leigh busts many of the myths out there and educates us on the public health importance of this tool to fight obesity and diabetes. On top of being very passionate about her work, she is also an active Twitter user and gave Nina some excellent tips on how to improve her Twitter engagement consistency. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter (PHUpodcast) and Facebook. Leigh can be found on Twitter at PhD_Leigh

Nina welcomes Dean Mike Ward on our latest podcast. Mike is the Associate Dean of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Nina and Mike share a love of fitness and have a fantastic time discussing fitness plans, keeping motivated over the longerm, and how to start getting fit again after illness (or any long break). Mike is also a certified personal trainer and can be found on twitter at mwfitconsult. Listen in to learn more about Nina's Comeback...Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter (PHUpodcast) and Facebook.

Although it doesn’t get as much attention as malaria and HIV, over 4,000 people die every day from tuberculosis (TB) according to the World Health Oganization. Our latest podcast guest, Dr. David Dowdy, Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, does cool and important, highly interdisciplinery research that combines medicine, infectious disease episdemiology, and health economics to combat TB. And to coodinate those diverse fields, he of course is a science communication superstar! We talk TB, scicomm, and mentoring. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter (PHUpodcast) and Facebook.

Do you feel a sense of urgency about all of these extreme weather events and their impact on our coastal systems (and hence us)? You should! Our latest guest, Dr. Bryan Piazza, tells us about the heartbreaking flooding in Louisiana that he's witnessed and what The Nature Conservancy has been doing about it. Bryan is director of freshwater and marine science at The Nature Conservancy in Louisiana and works on protecting our water and coasts with science, science communication, and policy. Bryan is basically the one stop shop for all of your problem solving needs! Nina and Bryan met at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science Bootcamp and share of love of using science to help others. Please check out our website for show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter (PHUpodcast) and Facebook.

"My people were out there, I just hadn't found them yet." Dr. Kris Lehnhardt, our latest podcast guest, is currently applying to be one of two new astronauts accepted into the Canadian Space Association (Canada's NASA) out of thousands of applicants. Kris, besides being amazingly passionate about space, is a pioneer in the field of Space medicine (think Beverly Crusher or Leonard "Bones" McCoy). Nina and Kris discuss how a growing group of doctors are finding their own path to serve patients where they are needed most in the missions to explore farther and farther into space. Get inspired with Nina.Please check out our website for show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter (PHUpodcast) and Facebook.

On our most recent episode of Public Health United, Nina chats with Ed Yong, science writer for The Atlantic and New York Times best selling author of: "I contain multitude's: the microbes within us and a grander view of Life." Tune in to hear about this wonderful storytelling of the microbiome, the role of journalists in communicating science, and insights into what science writing is all about. Ed also gives us some helpful tips on how to identify reliable sources of science info. Please check out our website for show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter (PHUpodcast) and Facebook.

Statistics is often misunderstood, according to our latest podcast guest Dr. Marie Diener-West, and is an extremely powerful tool--when used and interpreted correctly. Learn about the three biostatistics concepts that we all should know, but often don't, as Marie discusses how stats are presented in science news and answers all of the stats questions Nina has while doing her lab research. Marie is a Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health with dual appointments in Biostatistics and Ophthalmology. She is also the director of the Masters of Public Health Program at JHSPH and has won numerous awards for her teaching and mentoring skills. Please check out our website for show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter (PHUpodcast) and Facebook.

We travel across the globe (metaphorically speaking) to learn about HIV, malaria, and measles in our latest podcast with Bill Moss, epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins. Bill tells us about his most captivating and proud moments in his research (and medical) career spanning over Zambia, Baltimore, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India and New York City. Learn about the work that ultimately lead to policy changes by the WHO based on his co-infection model of HIV and measles. Please check out our website for show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter (PHUpodcast) and Facebook.