Better Off

In a special bonus episode, recorded a day before Juneteenth was made a federal holiday, we listen in on a conversation between Opal Lee, an activist and teacher often called the "grandmother of Juneteenth," and Harvard University professors Annette Gordon-Reed and Evelyn Hammonds.

Guests:

Opal Lee, Activist

Annette Gordon-Reed, Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Harvard University; author, On Juneteenth

Evelynn Hammonds, Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and Professor of African and African-American Studies, Harvard University

For a full transcript of this episode or to watch the full conversation, visit our website. 

Subscribe via your favorite podcast app.

Music in this episode:

Ketsa – Sabre

Ketsa – Onwards Upwards

This spring, public health officials have been laser-focused on getting more Americans vaccinated against COVID-19. So why do racial disparities persist around vaccination? And once more Americans are vaccinated, how do we ensure that Black and Latino families aren’t left vulnerable to future public health crises? In the latest episode of Better Off, Mary Bassett talks about the historical roots of health inequities, and the big changes needed to close those gaps.

Guest: Mary T. Bassett, director of the François Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University.

For a full transcript of this episode, visit our website. Subscribe to get new episodes of Better Off in your podcast feed every other Wednesday.

Read more about Mary Bassett's work, as well as the latest news from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at hsph.harvard.edu/news.

Music in this episode:

Ketsa – Sabre

Blue Dot Sessions – Lupi

Blue Dot Sessions – The Caspian Sea

Blue Dot Session – An Oddly Formal Dance

Ketsa – Onwards Upwards

When Aaron (Ari) Bernstein met his first pediatric patient infected with COVID-19, he realized that this little girl's health was connected to an infected bat on the other side of the world. Climate change and deforestation have made it easier for new pathogens to spread across the globe. On this episode of Better Off, Ari Bernstein explains how protecting the environment could also secure the future of our own species.

Guest: Aaron (Ari) Bernstein, Interim Director of The Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE).

More about climate and health

• Harvard Chan C-CHANGE
• Climate Optimist newsletter

In the 1980's, there were millions of cases of Guinea worm disease across the globe, mostly in rural Africa. Donald Hopkins, MPH '70, has spent 40 years working to eradicate this painful and debilitating disease – and he's had remarkable success. Last year, there were only 27 cases worldwide. In the latest episode of Better Off, Donald Hopkins talks about eradicating a disease that many people thought wasn't worth fighting.

Watch the inaugural Donald Hopkins Scholars Lecture.

Learn more about The Donald Hopkins Predoctoral Scholars Program.

More about Donald Hopkins:

Fierce Optimism, Harvard Public Health Magazine, 2018

The Eradicator: Donald Hopkins

Guest: Donald Hopkins, MD, MPH '70,  former director of all health programs at The Carter Center, currently the special advisor for Guinea worm eradication at The Carter Center.

For a full transcript of this episode, visit our website. Subscribe to get new episodes of Better Off in your podcast feed.

Read more about the latest news from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at hsph.harvard.edu/news. 

The technology that is helping us combat COVID-19 is also poised to help us tackle tough infectious and non-infectious diseases. Immunologist Sarah Fortune explains how these vaccines work, and how the mRNA platform could transform the prevention and treatment of deadly diseases.

In this episode of "Better Off," Harvard Chan School immunologist Sarah Fortune takes on common misconceptions about COVID-19 vaccines, and discusses the ways that mRNA technology could be used to create vaccines for diseases like TB and cancer.

Guest: Sarah Fortune, John LaPorte Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Chair, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

For a full transcript of this episode, visit our website. Subscribe to get new episodes of Better Off in your podcast feed every other Wednesday.

Read more about Sarah Fortune's work, as well as the latest news from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at hsph.harvard.edu/news. 

Music in this episode:

Ketsa – Sabre

Blue Dot Sessions – St. Augustine Red

Blue Dot Sessions – Solear Interlude

Blue Dot Sessions – Ewa Valley

When Antón Castellanos Usigli was asked to help bring younger LGBTQ people into a Brooklyn clinic for sexual health services, he thought it would be a piece of cake. But after his first attempts failed, Antón turned to the one place where young people talk about sex every day: dating and hookup apps.

In this episode of "Better Off," DrPH student Antón Castellanos Usigli talks about creating positive conversations about sexual health, and the parallels between sex education and the public health messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Guest: Antón Castellanos Usigli, DrPH student, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

For a full transcript of this episode, visit our website. Subscribe to get new episodes of Better Off in your podcast feed every other Wednesday.

Read more about Antón Castellanos Usigli's work, as well as the latest news from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at hsph.harvard.edu/news. 

Music in this episode:

Ketsa – Sabre

Podington Bear – Am-Trans

Blue Dot Sessions – Sylvestor

Ketsa – Onwards Upwards 

We’re better off when kids are resilient

Are kids going to be okay when the pandemic is over? That’s the question on many parents’ minds as remote learning continues, and friends and family remain six feet apart. Better Off talks with psychologist and researcher Archana Basu about kids’ mental health and the COVID-19 crisis.

Guest: Archana Basu, Research Scientist, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

For a full transcript of this episode, visit our website. Subscribe to get new episodes of Better Off in your podcast feed every other Wednesday.

Read more about Archana Basu’s work on mental health as well as the latest news from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at hsph.harvard.edu/news. 

Music in this episode:

Ketsa – Sabre

Blue Dot Sessions – Taoudella

Blue Dot Sessions - Topslides

Ketsa – Onwards Upwards 

Better Off talks with Harvard Chan School's Howard Koh about lessons learned from the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, also known as swine flu, and how the incoming administration can use those lessons to respond to COVID-19.

Guest: Howard Koh, Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

For a full transcript of this episode, visit our website. Subscribe to get new episodes of Better Off in your podcast feed every other Wednesday.

What do you think of the incoming Biden administration's plan to respond to COVID-19? Share your thoughts with us on Twitter and Instagram. 

Read more about Howard Koh's work on health policy, along with all the latest news from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at hsph.harvard.edu/news. 

Music in this episode:

Ketsa – Sabre

Blue Dot Sessions – St. Augustine Red

Blue Dot Sessions – Pxl Eventuat

Ketsa – Onwards Upwards

Until the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us didn't think about indoor air very much, if at all. But healthy buildings expert Joseph Allen has been studying indoor air for years. He says that since we spend 90% of lives inside, we need to do more to make our offices, homes, and schools places where we can breathe easy.

Guest: Joseph Allen, Associate Professor of Exposure Assessment Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

For a full transcript of this episode, visit our website. Subscribe to get new episodes of Better Off in your podcast feed every other Wednesday.

Has your office, school, or apartment building made changes since the pandemic? How have those changes affected your health? Share your thoughts with us on Twitter and Instagram. 

Read more about Joseph Allen’s research along with all the latest news from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at hsph.harvard.edu/news. 

To read reports from Joseph Allen and his colleagues, visit ForHealth.org.

Music in this episode:

Ketsa – Sabre

Blue Dot Sessions – Milkwood

Blue Dot Sessions – Calisson

Ketsa – Onwards Upwards

How can we make our families, communities, and our world a little bit better during the COVID-19 crisis, and beyond?  That's the question we're asking on Better Off, a new podcast from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In each episode of Better Off, host Anna Fisher-Pinkert will introduce you to the people who are hunting down solutions to current public health challenges, and innovating to solve public health problems that we haven’t even imagined yet.

Subscribe to Better Off wherever you get your podcasts. First episode coming soon!

Visit our website for a transcript of this trailer.