The Global Health Politics Podcast

Joseph Harris
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  • SOCIAL SCIENCES
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

Hosted by Joseph Harris, the Global Health Politics podcast features intimate, one-of-a-kind conversations with leading scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and activists working on critical issues in global health.

  1. JAN 28

    Season 2, Episode 9: New York Times Best- Selling Author John Green on Global Health Injustice and Tuberculosis

    Send us a text In this episode, Joseph Harris sits down with New York Times best-selling author John Green to talk about his new book, Everything is Tuberculosis. Best known for novels, like Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns, which have been turned into Hollywood movies, in his latest book Mr. Green turns his attention to a disease for which we have a cure, but which still kills over a million people a year, most in poor countries. They talk about what moved him to write this book, his work on the board of Partners in Health, and his advocacy for addressing global health injustices.

    31 min

  2. 12/30/2025

    Season 2, Episode 8: Madhu Pai on Global Health Inequality

    Send us a text In this episode, Joseph Harris sits down with one of the most prominent voices in global health today, Dr. Madhu Pai. Dr. Pai is a medical doctor and Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology & Global Health at McGill University and the Associate Director of the McGill International TB Centre in Montreal. In this wide-ranging conversation, they talk about tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, the climate crisis, the roots of global health injustice, the recent foreign aid cuts, Global North-Global South inequalities, and moves to decolonize global health.

    54 min

  3. 11/30/2025

    Season 2, Episode 7: Thurka Sangaramoorthy on Immigration and Health

    Send us a text In this episode, Joseph Harris sits down with American University anthropologist Thurka Sangaramoorthy to discuss her work on immigration and health. They talk about her work with Haitian immigrants in South Florida that was the subject of her first book; her work at the CDC and book on rapid ethnographic assessments; her new book - Landscapes of Care: Immigration and Health in Rural America on how immigrants navigate healthcare challenges in rural Maryland; the field of anthropology; and her recent experience working as Refugee Coordinator for the State Department's response in Sudan and South Sudan.

    55 min

  4. 10/30/2025

    Season 2, Episode 6: James Pfeiffer on Debt, Austerity, and Decolonization

    Send us a text In this long-awaited episode, originally recorded in Fall 2022, Joseph Harris sits down with Dr. James Pfeiffer, Professor of Global Health and Anthropology at University of Washington. They talk about global health work in Mozambique; World Bank and IMF structural adjustment programs; debt and austerity and their impact on development; and the movement to decolonize global health.

    46 min

  5. 09/28/2025

    Season 2, Episode 5: Claire Decoteau on the COVID-19 Emergency and the Failure of Pandemic Response

    Send us a text In this podcast episode, Joseph Harris sits down with University of Illinois-Chicago Professor of Sociology Claire Decoteau. They discuss her latest book - Emergency: COVID-19 and the Uneven Valuation of Life - which explores how and why the city of Chicago failed to protect its most vulnerable citizens in its pandemic response. In the process, they explore the changing landscape of global health and sociology and the implications for democracy and health.

    52 min

  6. 08/29/2025

    Season 2, Episode 4: The Community Health Impact Coalition's Campaign to Professionalize Community Health Work Globally

    Send us a text Many health systems around the world rely on community health workers (CHWs) who play vital roles in health promotion, disease prevention, and primary care. While CHWs in some countries are not paid or receive only small stipends and operate without a great deal of support, guidance, or professional standards, one global movement is trying to change that. In this episode, Joseph Harris sits down with Dr. Lennie Bazira - a medical doctor and Policy Director for the Community Health Impact Coalition (CHIC) - and Jannet Otieno - a community health worker in Kenya. CHIC's membership includes thousands of CHWs and dozens of health organizations in 60+ countries who are working to make professional CHWs the norm worldwide by changing guidelines, funding, and policy. They discuss the important work community health workers do and the challenges involved in making change.

    59 min

  7. 07/31/2025

    Season 2, Episode 3: Jenny Trinitapoli on HIV/AIDS and Epidemics of Uncertainty

    Send us a text In this episode, Joseph Harris sits down with University of Chicago sociologist Jenny Trinitapoli. They discuss her new book, An Epidemic of Uncertainty, which explores how young adults negotiate relationships, sex, and childbearing in the context of the AIDS epidemic in Malawi, one of the world's hardest hit nations. Her landmark book draws attention not only to the uncertainty young people face in relation to their HIV status (nearly 60% of the women studied reported that they did not know if they would be infected with HIV in the next two years), but the profound uncertainty they experience in their everyday lives, having to navigate challenges that include food shortages, adequate shelter, and lightning strikes.

    54 min

  8. 06/29/2025

    Season 2, Episode 2: Victor Roy Explains How Finance Controls the Price and Value of Medicine

    Send us a text In this episode, Joseph Harris sits down with University of Pennsylvania physician and sociologist Victor Roy. They discuss the issues that are at the core of Dr. Roy's new book, Capitalizing a Cure: How Finance Controls the Price and Value of Medicines, which is available for free online through open access. The discussion covers the financialization of healthcare and medicine and the impact that finance has had on drug pricing and access, including for Hepatitis C treatment, which has a $90,000 price tag but costs just $100 to manufacture. An important thread explores the need to follow the money in global health research and the Health and Political Economy Project, which Dr. Roy directs.

    52 min
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Hosted by Joseph Harris, the Global Health Politics podcast features intimate, one-of-a-kind conversations with leading scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and activists working on critical issues in global health.

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