883 - How An Advocate is Thinking About Family Planning
Release Date: 04/16/2025
883 - How An Advocate is Thinking About Family Planning
Public Health On Call
About this episode: Innocent Grant is a family planning advocate from Tanzania. In this episode: How Grant’s experiences approaching mis- and disinformation about sexual and reproductive health at home are now helping him to frame this work as the U.S. threatens to cut a portion of its global funding of family planning. He also discusses the threats to major progress in outcomes like maternal mortality and the economic empowerment of young families—and how advocates can find common ground rooted in evidence. Guest: is a family planning advocate and an MSPH student at the Johns Hopkins...
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882 - Personnel Cuts at the CDC
Public Health On Call
About this episode: In the early months of the new administration, several thousand CDC employees were dismissed, were asked to leave, or resigned. In this episode: what we know about these personnel losses, a look at some critical programs that may no longer exist, and concerns about what this means for America’s health. Guest: served as Deputy Director for Science and Public Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2000-2003 and has had a long career in global and public health strategies. Host: Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the , an editor for , and...
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881 - The Building H Index: Ranking Consumer Products By Their Impacts On Our Health
Public Health On Call
About this episode: Consumer products from auto makers to housing developers to streaming and food delivery services all have impacts on our health. In this episode: A look at the Building H Index, which calculates a health score for these products and services and makes recommendations to companies about how to make their products healthier. Note: Building H is a program of the nonprofit Public Health Institute and the Index does not receive any funds from the companies that are rated. Guest: is a cofounder of the Building H Index. Host: is vice dean for public health practice and community...
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880 - “The FDA As We’ve Known It Is Finished”
Public Health On Call
About this episode: Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services abruptly fired around 10,000 employees, 3,500 of which were within the FDA alone—an organization of around 18,000 total employees as of January 2025. In this episode: A look at the work of the FDA and how it may be hampered by such significant cuts, and how patients may be among those most impacted. Guest: served as the FDA Commissioner under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Host: is vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a faculty...
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879 - The Impacts of Terminating COVID-era Funding for States
Public Health On Call
About this episode: The Department of Health and Human Services’s abrupt termination of $11 billion in health funding to states has interrupted projects across the country. In this episode, a look at one state—Connecticut—where the state with federal approval had been using the funding to upgrade aging technology and respond to urgent threats like measles. Note: This conversation was recorded prior to a federal judge’s issuing of a temporary restraining order blocking the cuts—for now. Guest: is the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health. Host: is...
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878 - Opioid Use Disorder Treatment in the ER
Public Health On Call
About this episode: People come to the emergency department seeking all kinds of urgent care. What if they could also get treatment for opioid addiction? In this episode: a look at how one rural hospital started prescribing buprenorphine to ER patients, and how scaling up treatment while reducing stigma at hospitals across the US is now helping thousands of patients every year. Guest: is an emergency department and addiction medicine PA at Marshall Medical Center in Placerville, California. Host: is vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg...
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877 - Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
Public Health On Call
About this episode: For 25 years, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has been a global effort to purchase and distribute lifesaving vaccines to the poorest of countries and help them build up their health systems. Now, it’s the latest chop in a blitz of proposed federal funding cuts to global health. In this episode: an overview of Gavi’s innovative model that buys vaccines for 50% of the world’s children and has prevented around 19 million deaths, and the catastrophic potential if the U.S. withdraws its financial support. Guest: is the former CEO of , the Vaccine Alliance. He is a senior...
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876 - Preventing Mpox Transmission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Public Health On Call
About this episode: Amidst an ongoing outbreak of a deadly clade of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs has been part of the response team. Working with local partners, CCP has developed community outreach and strategic communications campaigns to help protect people, reduce transmission, and get the outbreak under control. When USAID funding was abruptly canceled, the program was granted a waiver to continue work. But now, as the waiver faces expiration, the program’s future is uncertain which could put the DRC, Africa, and even...
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875 - Tradeoffs: Why Many Republicans Think Shrinking Medicaid Will Make It Better
Public Health On Call
About this episode: As a follow up to our recent episode titled The Potential Impacts of Cuts To Medicaid, we’re partnering with our friends at the Tradeoffs podcast. Guest hosts Dan Gorenstein and Ryan Levi, longtime health reporters, take a deeper look at why many Republicans believe a smaller Medicaid program would be a better Medicaid, what proposed cuts might look like, and the challenges Republicans may face in trying to get cuts passed in Congress. Guests: is the executive producer and host of the and an adjunct senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the...
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874 - The Potential Impacts of Cuts To Medicaid
Public Health On Call
About this episode: Medicaid helps make health care accessible to millions of adults and children in the U.S. In this episode: a look at the potential impacts of federal budget cuts on states, hospitals, physicians, and the beneficiaries themselves. Guests: is an expert in health policy and a professor in and at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. is an expert in policy relating to the care of persons with complex health needs and disabilities, in , and director of the . Host: Stephanie Desmon, MA, is a former journalist, author, and the director of public...
info_outlineAbout this episode:
Innocent Grant is a family planning advocate from Tanzania. In this episode: How Grant’s experiences approaching mis- and disinformation about sexual and reproductive health at home are now helping him to frame this work as the U.S. threatens to cut a portion of its global funding of family planning. He also discusses the threats to major progress in outcomes like maternal mortality and the economic empowerment of young families—and how advocates can find common ground rooted in evidence.
Guest:
Innocent Grant is a family planning advocate and an MSPH student at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Host:
Stephanie Desmon, MA, is a former journalist, author, and the director of public relations and communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, the largest center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
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