Public Health

Dr. Farmer worked to improve health care in the developing world. He died in Rwanda Feb. 21, on the grounds of a hospital and university he helped establish. Originally broadcast in 2011.

An Alabama native, Flowers has been awarded a MacArthur fellowship for her work on behalf of rural Americans living without proper sewage treatment. She says the hookworm study was a "smoking gun," that highlighted the sanitation and environmental problems the rural poor face.

As head of New York City's correctional health services, Dr. Homer Venters spent nine years overseeing the care of thousands of inmates in the jails on Rikers Island. Though he left Rikers in 2017, what he witnessed on the job has stayed with him.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha exposed the lead high lead levels in Flint, Michigan's tap water, using the medical records of children with the levels of lead in their blood. The state tried to discredit her research. She persisted.

In her new book, Pandemic: Tracking Contagions from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond, Shah discusses the history and science of contagious diseases. She notes that humans put themselves at risk by encroaching on wildlife habitats. "About 60 percent of our new pathogens come from the bodies of animals," she says.

n the 1800s, the Thames River was thick with human sewage and the streets were covered with horse dung, the removal of which, according to Lee Jackson, presented an "impossible challenge."

The novel is about a flavor chemist who tests a sweetener on lab rats and monkeys and finds side effects the company covers up. Author Stephan Eirik Clark says he was inspired by Fast Food Nation.

New York Times correspondent Elisabeth Rosenthal is spending a year investigating why American medical bills are so much higher than in other developed countries.

Many people who live close to gas drilling sites complain of serious illnesses. But there are few concrete data to help explain why they're getting sick. Investigative reporter Abrahm Lustgarten says weak industry regulations also make it hard to establish a clear connection between gas drilling and health effects.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Linda Greenhouse examines the public discourse that led to the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. She details the various legal briefs presented by both sides of the abortion debate to the court — and explains the newest challenges facing the legislation today.

Journalist Maggie Mahar, author of Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Healthcare Costs So Much, has studied the economics of U.S. health care and drawn a few conclusions. She weighs in on the current debate on a health-care system overhaul.

The New Republic senior editor Jonathan Cohn discusses power players of health care reform, including the insurance lobby, the pharmaceutical lobby, the American Medical Association and Congress.

Fear and paranoia often take hold when a disease threatens to become an epidemic. Dr. Marc K. Siegel is the author of the new book Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic.

Barry's new book is The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History. In 1918, the influenza virus emerged, and in the next year killed millions of people. He writes "before that worldwide pandemic faded away in 1920, it would kill more people than any other outbreak of disease in human history." Scientists are still trying to figure out why the virus spread so rapidly and killed so efficiently. The story has relevance today as scientists believe we are due for another flu pandemic.

Jonathan Mann, M.D. talks about the connection between health and human rights. Mann is the director and one of the founders of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center For Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was the founding director of the World Health Organization's Global AIDS Program from 1986-1990.

Violence prevention expert Deborah Prothrow-Stith. She's encouraged America to look at violence as a public health emergency. Stith says that instead of stitching up bullet wounds and returning people to the streets, we should teach violence prevention. Stith, assistant dean at Harvard School of Public Health, received the World Health Day Award in 1993. Stith co-wrote a book on violence called "Deadly Consequences" (Harper Collins) and a health textbook, "Health Skills for Wellness".

Dr. Barry Bloom teaches at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He was chair of the Tuberculosis Committee of the Special Programme for Vaccine Development at the WHO. He'll talk with Terry about the the return of tuberculosis fueled by poverty, homelessness, and AIDS.

Donald Drake is a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer whose work often focuses on medical issues. Last week the Inquirer published his seven-part series on the homeless and the mentally ill, "The Forsaken." Drake spent over a year researching the topic, and has also written a musical drama, "Crazy People," based on his research. [The series would later be short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize.] Drake joins the show to discuss street people and the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. Drake will also answer listener calls.

Maggie Kuhn is on of the co-founders of the Gray Panthers -- an advocacy group for older Americans. Dr. John Fryer is a professor of psychology and community health at Temple University and a community activist. They discuss the Gray Panthers and the issues older people face.