Why Should I Trust You?

Brinda Adhikari, Tom Johnson, Maggie Bartlett, Dr. Mark Abdelmalek
  • 4.4 (131)
  • News Commentary
  • Updated Weekly

Bold, unfiltered, and uncompromisingly honest, Why Should I Trust You?  is a weekly podcast that looks at the breakdown in trust for science and public health. It drops every Thursday, with occasional additional special episodes sprinkled in. Hosted by Brinda Adhikari, the former executive producer of “The Problem with Jon Stewart” and a former TV news journalist; Tom Johnson, the former executive producer of “The Circus,” and also a former TV news journalist; Dr. Maggie Bartlett, a virologist and assistant research professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Dr. Mark Abdelmalek a skin cancer surgeon, a medical journalist and a dermatologist practicing in Philadelphia -  each week we try to figure out what is behind this staggering collapse in trust and see if we can rebuild towards trust again. 

  1. 1d ago

    What Is MAHA Right Now -- Is It Working? A Conversation About the Future of MAHA w A Group of Its Supporters

    It’s been two years since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed Donald Trump and forged an unlikely alliance between the Make America Healthy Again movement and MAGA. Now, as we head toward the midterms, with Kennedy campaigning for Republican candidates, we’re asking: What is MAHA now? Is it working? Is it a political force, a social force, or has it lost its way?  To hear from supporters about where they see the movement heading, we’re joined by Zen Honeycutt, Aaron Everitt, Elizabeth Frost, Jeff Hutt and Mark Harris. Each has been deeply involved in or closely aligned with MAHA, including several who worked on Kennedy’s presidential campaign. They represent very different priorities and hold different views of where the movement has gone. Some remain committed; others have grown disillusioned or walked away.  We’re also joined by former Congressman Tim Ryan, a longtime Democrat, who held MAHA-congruent positions on food and agriculture years before MAHA was a slogan on a hat. Where does he see the movement going from here?    And then there’s the bigger question: If roughly four in ten Americans support many of the aspirations behind MAHA, what does that foreshadow for the future of our politics? Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Maggie Bartlett Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off) Guests: Zen Honeycutt, Moms Across America Jeff Hutt, former National Field Director, Kennedy Campaign Aaron Everitt, former Kennedy Campaign volunteer Elizabeth Frost, MAHA Ohio Mark Harris, former Kennedy campaign supporter former Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe!  Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at questions@whyshoulditrustyou.net

  2. Aug 27

    What Lindsay Clancy's Story Does & Doesn't Tell Us About How We Care For Patients: A Conversation w Drs. Julia Riddle, Anne Zink & Bryan Shapiro

    Has the Lindsay Clancy trial quickly become a proxy for something larger? — arguments about psychiatry and medication, motherhood and mental illness, personal responsibility, and whether our medical system is fundamentally failing the people who depend on it?  And in choosing sides, are we at risk of turning one horrific case into evidence for conclusions that go far beyond what this particular tragedy can actually tell us? We’re joined by two psychiatrists and an ER physician today to talk about all this.  Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Maggie Bartlett Dr. Mark Abdelmalek Guests: Dr. Julia Riddle, a reproductive psychiatrist and researcher focused on reproductive mental health. She is an Assistant Professor at the UNC Center for Women's Mood Disorders, where she runs a clinic for patients.  Dr. Anne Zink, emergency medicine physician and public health leader who served as Chief Medical Officer for the State of Alaska before and during the pandemic. Senior Fellow at the Yale School of Public Health Dr. Bryan Shapiro, a psychiatrist at UC Irvine Medical Center, treating outpatients and training primary care physicians & nurse practitioners on prescribing psychiatric medications.  He is the Medical Director at Outro, a company in which he has a financial stake, and which works to safely taper patients off antidepressants. Resources: National Maternal Mental Health Hotline: 1-833-TLC-MAMA National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline .  Call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org For training MDs/DO/NPs/PAs: https://ncrptraining.org/  NCMatter Access Line Toolkits: https://www.med.unc.edu/ncmatters/provider-tools/toolkits/ OB Tool kits: https://www.mcpapformoms.org/Toolkits/Toolkit.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 PSI international: https://postpartum.net Postpartum Support International 1-833-943-5746 Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe!  Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at questions@whyshoulditrustyou.net

  3. Aug 20

    "It's Time For a New Public Health Led By Radical Engagement": A Conversation w Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean of WashU Bursky School of Public Health

    That’s the challenge facing Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of the brand-new Bursky School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. It is the first major school of public health to open in the United States after the pandemic. In the wake of COVID, with trust in public health fractured and many Americans viewing the field as partisan, Galea is advocating that his field engage rather than draw lines. He believes public health will be stronger if it listens to all sides and embraces disagreement while still advocating for its values. He argues that the strategy is to widen the tent rather than shrink it, without compromising science or principles, or engaging with bad-faith actors. The approach raises a critical question: as public health endures crippling funding cuts, vaccine policy is in turmoil, Medicaid faces major spending reductions, and trust in scientific expertise is low, is this the time for public health to reach across the divide, or resist and fight?  Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Maggie Bartlett Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off this wk) Guest: Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean of the Bursky School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis.  Substack: https://sandrogalea.substack.com/ Author of Why Health? What We Need to Think About When We Think About Health Purple Public Health: https://healthierfutureslab.org/research/purple-public-health Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe!  Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at questions@whyshoulditrustyou.net

  4. Aug 13

    Public Health, Docs, MAHA Mom React to Trump's Vaccine EO: We Speak w Drs. Deb Houry, Craig Spencer, Joel Warsh + Nancy Fuller

    Dr. Debra Houry, the former CDC chief medical officer; emergency physician Dr. Craig Spencer; pediatrician and author Dr. Joel “Gator” Warsh; and MAHA supporter Nancy Fuller join us as we dig into President Trump’s brand-new executive order revamping the recommended schedule for vaccinating America’s children. The order reduces the number of vaccines recommended universally for children from 17 to 11, calls for the MMR vaccine to be broken up into three separate shots, and directs the administration to explore spacing childhood vaccines out across separate visits. It also directs the Department of Justice to examine whether parents’ rights are being protected in states that do not offer religious exemptions from school vaccination requirements. So…what exactly happened yesterday? Does it actually change anything? How are frontline doctors and MAHA supporters processing the President’s controversial comments at the signing ceremony? Is this latest effort to overhaul the schedule heading straight back to the courts? And how might this high-profile move affect the nation’s growing health polarization and eroding trust in public health? Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Maggie Bartlett Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (on call) Guests: Dr. Debra Houry, former Chief Medical Officer, CDC; emergency physician Dr. Joel "Gator" Warsh, pediatrician, Integrative Pediatrics; substack author Between a Shot and a Hard Place Dr. Craig Spencer, ER physician, professor Brown School of Public Health Nancy Fuller, MAHA supporter, mother to a son with autism and epilepsy Sources: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/07/public-health-maha-rfk/688014/?gift=jf1JNTlPW3HiCUoNqhv9pL4QDDQrO5E0bwhsoINyCrk https://drgator.substack.com/p/breaking-trump-just-tried-to-rewrite Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe!  Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at questions@whyshoulditrustyou.net

  5. Aug 6

    The Heat Is Killing Us. So Why Are We Beefing About Air Conditioning? We Chat w Noah Smith, Thomas Chatterton Williams & David Wallace-Wells

    What if one of the biggest public health debates of the next decade isn't about vaccines, Ozempic, or chronic disease? What if it's about air conditioning? The world’s temperatures are getting dangerously warmer. Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent with estimates that this summer the heat contributed to 10,000–14,000 deaths over just a few weeks. The United States suffers deadly heat waves too. But Europe experiences much higher heat-wave related death tolls. One major difference people are pointing to? Air conditioning. Americans have a LOT more of it than Europeans do. Defenders of Europe's lower use of air conditioning argue that simply installing more AC isn't the answer. Critics say: this has gone too far. Too many people are dying. Just get air conditioning already. But beneath this debate are some very big questions: What do we owe one another in a warming world? What does adaptation look like? And who bears the costs when our solutions create new problems? Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson (off) Maggie Bartlett Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off) Guests: Noah Smith, economist, publisher of Noahopinion substack. Thomas Chatterton Williams, staff writer The Atlantic,, author of Summer of Our Discontent and Self Portrait in Black and White. David Wallace Wells, writer/columnist, The New York Times.  Author The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming.  Related articles by our guests: Europe's Resistance to Air Conditioning is Driving It Insane: Noah Smith https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/europes-resistance-to-ac-is-driving The Overlooked Reason Why Europe Doesn't Have AC: Thomas Chatterton Williams https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/europe-heat-wave-air-conditioning/687729/ We Need to Retrofit the Planet. The Heat Wave Proves It: David Wallace Wells https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/opinion/heat-wave-europe-america.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe!  Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at questions@whyshoulditrustyou.net

  6. Jul 30

    A Conversation w Katelyn Jetelina & David Wallace-Wells: On Anthony Fauci & the National Covid Reckoning That Never Happened

    Few figures in America are as polarizing as Dr. Anthony Fauci. To some, he is the veteran scientist who helped steer the nation through the COVID-19 pandemic. To others, he is the face of government overreach who suppressed the lab leak theory to avoid accountability for research funding decisions they believe contributed to the pandemic. This week, those worlds collided in a Senate hearing room as the retired former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was subpoenaed to testify before an inquiry led by his longtime critic, Republican Senator Rand Paul. Fauci accused the senator of having an "unhinged obsession" with him and seeing him sent to jail before invoking his Fifth Amendment right and declining to answer questions. Senator Paul, in turn, accused Fauci of deception and of refusing to accept responsibility. In today's episode, we ask: Why, six years after the pandemic began, are we still talking about Anthony Fauci? Was this hearing a legitimate effort to uncover new facts about COVID-19's origins, assign accountability and learn from the past, or was it driven by political point scoring and vengeance?  Joining us are Dr. Katelyn Jetelina of Your Local Epidemiologist and David Wallace-Wells of The New York Times to unpack what remains one of the most consequential and bitter public health debates of our time. Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Maggie Bartlett Dr. Mark Abdelmalek Guests: Katelyn Jetelina, founder and CEO of Your Local Epidemiologist David Wallace-Wells, columnist and opinion writer, The New York Times Jetelina on Fauci: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/its-time-to-leave-the-man-alone Wallace-Wells on Fauci: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/24/magazine/dr-fauci-pandemic.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe!  Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at questions@whyshoulditrustyou.net

  7. Jul 23

    "I Used to Trust Vaccines. In the Next Pandemic, I Wouldn't." Five Americans Explain What Changed

    If a new pandemic struck tomorrow and scientists developed a vaccine in record time, would you take it? In this episode, we hear from a group of friends of the show and newcomers who describe themselves as vaccine-hesitant. Once broadly supportive of vaccines, they explain how their experiences during the pandemic changed their views. From concerns about mRNA technology and the speed of development to public health messaging and mandates, we explore how and why their perspectives changed, and trust was lost. While a large body of scientific research holds that the COVID vaccines were safe and significantly reduced severe illness and death, we examine why that evidence remains unpersuasive to them today, just as it was during the pandemic. Finally, we tackle what that means for their trust in the broader medical and public health community today. Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Maggie Bartlett Dr. Mark Abdelmalek Guests: Aaron Everitt, Ft. Collins, Colorado Jeff Hutt, Corpus Christi, Texas Lori O'Connell, Darlington, Pennsylvania Daniel DeLuca, Athens, Ohio Theresa Dixon, Frederick, Maryland Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe!  Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at questions@whyshoulditrustyou.net

  8. Jul 16

    A Conversation w Dr Robert Malone and Dr Craig Spencer: On Ebola, On ACIP, On Malone's Break w MAHA and On Kennedy

    Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Craig Spencer are two influential voices on health in America today, reaching very different audiences. And it's no secret that on many critical issues, they fundamentally disagree. Yet as a deadly Ebola outbreak unfolds in Central Africa, they find themselves agreeing on more than you (or they) might expect.  In this episode, the two physicians discuss what allowed the outbreak to spiral, the geopolitical priorities that shape the world's response to outbreaks (too often reacting to crises rather than investing in preparedness), whether the dismantling of parts of America's global health infrastructure played a role, and what America's role should be in supporting global public health going forward. Dr. Malone also opens up about his break with the MAHA movement and its leadership, and where he disagrees with the administration's approach to global public health. Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Dr. Mark Abdelmalek Maggie Bartlett (producer) Guests: Dr. Robert Malone, physician, vaccine researcher.  Dr. Craig Spencer, physician, public health professor Brown School of Public Health. Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe!  Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at questions@whyshoulditrustyou.net

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About

Bold, unfiltered, and uncompromisingly honest, Why Should I Trust You?  is a weekly podcast that looks at the breakdown in trust for science and public health. It drops every Thursday, with occasional additional special episodes sprinkled in. Hosted by Brinda Adhikari, the former executive producer of “The Problem with Jon Stewart” and a former TV news journalist; Tom Johnson, the former executive producer of “The Circus,” and also a former TV news journalist; Dr. Maggie Bartlett, a virologist and assistant research professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Dr. Mark Abdelmalek a skin cancer surgeon, a medical journalist and a dermatologist practicing in Philadelphia -  each week we try to figure out what is behind this staggering collapse in trust and see if we can rebuild towards trust again. 

Information

  • Creator
    Brinda Adhikari, Tom Johnson, Maggie Bartlett, Dr. Mark Abdelmalek
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    112
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Why Should I Trust You?
  • Show Website
    Why Should I Trust You?

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