Health In All Matters University of Minnesota School of Public Health

In this final episode of the series, we talk with two people who helped create this podcast: MPH student Tricia Alexander and Assistant Professor Kumi Smith. Starting out with a news clip of George Floyd’s murder, the episode focuses on how and why they believe we can persevere and win the struggle against racism. Their insightful comments cap the series’ exploration of racism and public health and offer hope for an awakened country.

In Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “What is your life's blueprint?” speech, he says to young people who may face limitations, “But we must keep moving. We must keep going.” In this episode, we talk with the head of a 140-year-old community organization, a public health researcher, and the artistic director of the historic Penumbra Theater about what drives them and their work challenging centuries of segregating color, power, and opportunity in this country.

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service, casts a long shadow over the Black community when it comes to eroding trust in the healthcare system. Adding to this distrust are the obvious health inequities Black, Indigenous, and people of color experience, including disproportionate death rates from COVID-19. In this episode, we explore the role of public health in building back trust and improving health with these communities.

A Black boy in the U.S. has a nearly 1-in-3 chance of going to prison in his lifetime. For a white boy, it’s roughly 1 in 23. Some believe the “cradle-to-prison pipeline” for Black men is a forgone conclusion; others push back. What’s undeniable is that going to prison has a devastating impact on the health of individuals and their families. In this episode, we explore how to change the incarceration trajectory for Black youth and increase opportunities for health.

Where we live is intimately linked to our health — the life expectancy of a child born in a poor neighborhood can be 20 to 30 years shorter than a child born in an upscale neighborhood just a few miles away. For decades, we have used practices and policies for “strategic segregation,” concentrating poverty and people of color in the most unhealthy areas of a city. In this episode, we explore this legacy and how we can create better opportunities for housing and health.

George Floyd’s murder was one blow too many in a 400-year history of callous and inhumane treatment of Black Americans. It sparked international outrage and to date, roughly 130 U.S. states, cities, and counties have declared racism a public health emergency. But what does an emergency really mean for an injustice that has been ongoing for centuries? That’s what we explore in this first episode of our new series.