Why Should I Trust You?

Brinda Adhikari, Tom Johnson, Maggie Bartlett, Dr. Mark Abdelmalek
  • 4.5 (118)
  • 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. 5H AGO

    The Most MAHA Democrat We've Met: A Conversation w Former Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) On A New Politics in America

    Tim Ryan, the moderate, 10-term Democratic congressman from Ohio's Rust Belt, has pushed for a different conversation for years: one that reimagines America’s approach to food and health. Long before it had a name, Ryan was championing many of the ideas now fueling the “MAHA” movement: nutritious, “real” food (he wrote The Real Food Revolution back in 2014), regenerative agriculture, openness to alternative therapies, and a reassessment of the unhealthy systems taxpayer dollars continue to support. Then he watched the movement take off and align with the Republican Party. In this episode, Ryan reflects on what it’s been like to see his long-held priorities suddenly gain traction. We ask about tensions around vaccines and whether MAHA’s alignment with MAGA is ultimately sustainable. Most importantly, we dig into his message for Democrats: embrace a modern, forward-looking health agenda that meets Americans where they are—while also calling out Republicans for, in his view, policies that run counter to what MAHA claims to stand for. Hosts:  Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Maggie Bartlett Dr. Mark Abdelmalek Guest: Former Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH), who served 10 terms in the United States House of Representatives. Recent articles by Tim Ryan on MAHA and health politics in America: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/republicans-believe-maha-backing-farm-bill https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/05/democrats-rfk-jr-maha-healthy-food https://www.statnews.com/2026/04/28/microplastics-nanoplastics-health-epa-trump-arpa-h/ 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

    1h 16m

  2. APR 30

    The Movement v Monsanto: Our Conversations w Rep. Thomas Massie (R), Sen. Cory Booker (D) & MAHA Influencers Alex Clark & Del Bigtree

    Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Maggie Bartlett (producer) Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (seeing patients) Guests: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) Alex Clark, TPUSA, MAHA Del Bigtree, High Wire, ICAN 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

    46 min

  3. APR 26

    Sunday Special: As Higher Ed Research Falls Short on Impact, Here’s a Fix. A Conversation w Behavioral Scientist Daniel Max Crowley

    Trust in higher education is slipping, with a growing number of Americans questioning whether universities are delivering value beyond their walls (and ivory towers). Today, we’re joined by Daniel Crowley, who goes by Max. He is a behavioral scientist and endowed chair at Penn State. His argument: universities produce groundbreaking research, but too often it sits on a shelf, never reaching the decision-makers who could use it to improve lives. That disconnect may help explain part of the decline in trust. Of course, many factors are driving that trend, from costs, to admissions practices, and perceptions of elitism, to name a few captured in a new report from Yale University. Crowley believes that building better systems to translate research to everyone from members of Congress to local leaders to the public itself could help turn that trust slide around. Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Maggie Bartlett (off) Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off) Guest: Daniel Max Crowley, director of the Prevention Research Center at Penn State University and a prevention scientist investigating how to optimize investments in healthy development and well-being. 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

    57 min

  4. APR 23

    The Healthcare Fraud Debate: Are We Actually Mad At the Same Thing? A Convo w Trump/MAHA Supporters + Medicaid Experts

    Today, we are delving into the subject of healthcare fraud.  The Trump administration has elevated it into a major political issue. When it comes to Medicaid fraud specifically, do you see this administration's recent actions towards states such as Minnesota as a well-meaning push to take on the bad actors and lax state oversight that has allowed this taxpayer-supported safety net to be exploited? Or do you see it as a political talking point being used to suggest widespread abuse when there is not, to justify cutting that very safety net? Or is this an abhorrent scam for which we just don't see eye to eye on the solution?  The truth is, your answer may depend on where you get your information, who you trust, and how you’ve experienced the system yourself. In today’s episode, we dig into that divide. What do we actually know about healthcare fraud in America—and what is rhetoric versus reality? We bring together Trump and MAHA supporters, including a mother whose child was covered by Medicaid, along with a health reporter from Minnesota and experts on Medicaid program integrity, to ask: how big is the problem really, are we focused on the right issues, and what can we actually agree on? Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Maggie Bartlett Dr. Mark Abdelmalek Guests: Jacqueline Capriotti, founder and CEO of Health Revolution USA, small business owner and mother of two adults with cystic fibrosis, worked on the Kennedy/MAHA campaign.  Aaron Everitt, writer and Substacker for Besides the Revolution and House inHabit volunteered for Kennedy campaign.  Eleanor Hildebrandt, reporter at the Minnesota Star Tribune, has covered the Medicaid fraud issue on the ground there in that state. Andy Schneider, health policy expert at Georgetown’s McCourt School who served as a senior advisor at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services during the Obama administration. Joel White, President of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage who served as the Staff Director for the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means. Wilk Wilkinson, host of the Derate the Hate podcast and director of Media Operations for Braver Angels.  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

    1h 29m

  5. APR 17

    Special Ep: A Conversation w the President of Moderna, Dr. Stephen Hoge On Building Back Trust Post-Covid

    Today, we’re joined by Dr. Stephen Hoge, president of Moderna, the biotech company that helped make mRNA a household name during the pandemic, producing a vaccine taken by millions of Americans. Now, Moderna is using that same technology to push into new frontiers, developing treatments for cancers like melanoma and lung cancer. While at the same time, mistrust of mRNA and of the pharmaceutical industry more broadly has only grown. We discuss with Dr. Hoge his company's latest innovations in cancer treatment as well as an mRNA-based flu vaccine they are hoping to have available before the next flu season. We discuss what it's like to try and innovate using a platform that many Americans, coming off the pandemic experience, do not trust. And we talk about whether using mRNA as a tool against cancer might yield a different reception.   Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Maggie Bartlett Dr. Mark Abdelmalek Guest: Dr. Stephen Hoge, President of Moderna 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

    57 min

  6. APR 16

    Why a Health Equity Researcher Says His Field Is A Broken “Industrial Complex”: A Conversation w Dr. Jerel Ezell

    It's an episode full of news: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s move to counter the federal judge who ruled his handpicked vaccine advisory committee lacked the expertise to guide U.S. vaccine policy. At the same time, the Trump administration has rolled out its new budget, a clear statement of priorities, with major increases in defense spending alongside deep cuts to medical research. And the EPA is stepping in with a new push to reduce microplastics in the nation’s drinking water. We break it all down. Then, the main event: the administration’s crackdown on what it calls “DEI” research has scuttled studies on racial health disparities. But that raises a deeper question: was the system working in the first place? The gap in life expectancy between Black and white Americans persists. Our guest is health equity researcher Jerel Ezell. He’s critical of the current cuts but also of how this research has been done for years. So what does he think is broken? What needs to change? And what’s at stake if we get this wrong? Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Maggie Bartlett Dr. Mark Abdelmalek Guest: Dr. Jerel Ezell, sociologist and public health researcher, he worked as an epidemiologist in Detroit and Chicago. He’s now an assistant professor in Infectious Diseases and Global Health at the University of Chicago, and has taught at Cornell and UC Berkeley. His research focuses on opioid use, environmental health, and the long-term human impact of crises like the Flint water crisis, with a growing emphasis on AI and equity. The One Area Where Trump’s N.I.H. Cuts Might Actually Make Sensehttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/opinion/health-disparities-nih.html 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

    59 min

  7. APR 9

    No Episode This Week! We're Taking a Week Off. But Here is Our Full Theme Song!

    We are taking a few days off! We'll be back with a new episode on Thursday April 16. We love our theme song, so here it is in full. Enjoy! xo, WSITY team 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 min

  8. APR 2

    Is Our Overuse of Plastics Causing Fertility Issues? A Conversation w Dr. Shanna Swan and Dr. Jasmine McDonald

    Today, we’re diving into a new Netflix documentary, The Plastic Detox, which follows six couples trying to conceive and what happens when they attempt to reduce plastic exposure in their daily lives. We’re joined by two of the scientists featured in the film: Dr. Shanna Swan of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, a leading researcher on endocrine-disrupting chemicals and reproductive health, and Dr. Jasmine McDonald of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, an epidemiologist who studies how environmental exposures may shape long-term health. Take a look around your home, and if you’re anything like us, you’ll see plastic everywhere. Food wrappers, toothbrushes, detergents, carpets, it’s woven into nearly every part of daily life. So what impact is all of this plastic having on us? And more specifically, is it playing a role (and if so, how big a role) in our falling birth rates? Many plastics contain chemicals known as endocrine disruptors. What do we know about how that might be impacting us? And, impacting a couple's ability to have a baby.  Hosts: Brinda Adhikari Tom Johnson Maggie Bartlett (off) Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (off) Guests: Dr. Shanna Swan, reproductive health epidemiologist, professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Jasmine McDonald, molecular epidemiologist, professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Sources: The Plastic Detox https://www.netflix.com/title/82074244 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

    58 min
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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
    92
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Why Should I Trust You?
  • Show Website
    Why Should I Trust You?

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