About this podcast
Why Should I Trust You? is a bold, unfiltered, weekly look at the collapse of public trust in science, medicine, public health, and AI. Every Thursday, we dig into what's behind that breakdown and whether there is common ground beneath our division.
Described as "truly excellent" in The New York Times, WSITY has drawn attention across America's divides, from being mentioned on Joe Rogan's podcast to NPR. We host conversations that cross political and cultural lines, bringing people together with the experts they no longer trust. Hosted by Brinda Adhikari (former EP of The Problem with Jon Stewart), Tom Johnson (former EP of The Circus, former TV news journalist), Dr. Maggie Bartlett (virologist and assistant research professor, University of Texas Medical Branch), and Dr. Mark Abdelmalek (skin cancer surgeon and medical journalist).
Episodes
The newest 20 of 123 episodes
- Can Americans Come Together to Fight the Next Pandemic? | WSITY Live at WashU Bursky · 1 h 48 min · Season 2 Episode 55Could America handle another pandemic? And what would we do differently this time? For our first-ever live taping of Why Should I Trust You?, recorded at Washington University's…
- Americans Are Mad As Hell About Healthcare Costs. What’s Actually Standing In the Way of Lower Bills? · 1 h 14 min · Season 2 Episode 54Americans are mad as hell about healthcare costs. Premiums, deductibles, copays, prescription drugs, medical debt—the bills keep piling up, and voters are demanding relief…
- Why Is There So Much Cancer In Iowa? A Conversation w Chris Jones, Democratic Ag Candidate & MAHA Supporter Courtney Hunt · 57 min · Season 2 Episode 53As the midterms approach, a distinctive issue is animating races up and down the ballot in Iowa: rising cancer rates and growing concerns about the safety of the state’s drinking…
- What's Actually Behind Our National Rage Over Data Centers? A Conversation w Community Organizers & Researchers · 1 h 19 min · Season 2 Episode 53With the midterms just three weeks away, communities across the country are pushing back against the construction of new AI data centers. In a deeply divided America, opposition…
- Special Ep: Our Conversation w Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed: On Challenging Trump & RFK Jr. While Reaching Their Supporters · 29 min · Season 2 Episode 52Our guest is Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic candidate for the Senate in Michigan, one of the key races in the battle for control of the Senate. A physician and former public health…
- Institutions Are Losing the Battle for Attention. Here’s How to Get Back in the Arena: A Conversation w Researcher Renée DiResta · 1 h 5 min · Season 2 Episode 51Researcher and author Renée DiResta has spent years studying how influence works online, including the power dynamics that determine which voices get heard and which ones have…
- Special Ep: Who Gets to Decide What Science Gets Funded? Inside the Fight Over NIH: A Conversation w Sudip Parikh & Michael Green · 1 h 4 min · Season 2 Episode 50Today we ask: When it comes to spending taxpayer dollars on scientific research, how much should elected politicians decide what gets funded, and how much should be decided by…
- Measles Is Spreading: Beyond the Fighting, What's Helping People On the Ground? We Talk w a Midwife, a Doctor, a Public Health Leader & a Journalist · 1 h 20 min · Season 2 Episode 49This year is shaping up to be the worst in three decades for measles cases. The biggest case count is in Pennsylvania, home to the country’s largest outbreak right now. At its…
- Experts Say AI Could Kill Us. Why Should We Trust Them? A Conversation w Jennifer Reich, Stephen Witt & Rachael Bedard · 1 h 20 min · Season 2 Episode 48AI’s story feels like it's gotten a lot scarier. Some people in the tech world building AI now say it poses a meaningful risk of catastrophic harm, or even human extinction…
- RFK Jr.’s Former Campaign Adviser Charles Eisenstein: On MAHA & The Kind of Candidates America Needs · 1 h 4 min · Season 2 Episode 47Charles Eisenstein was a senior adviser and speechwriter to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his 2024 presidential campaign and an early architect of the ideas that would help shape…
- What Happens If Your AI Is the Better Doctor? A Conversation w Dr. Robert Wachter & Dr. Dhruv Khullar · 1 h 12 min · Season 2 Episode 46A debate has broken out in medicine and tech over what the role of AI should be. Is it a useful tool for doctors to consult when making a diagnosis, or, given studies now showing…
- What Is MAHA Right Now -- Is It Working? A Conversation About the Future of MAHA w A Group of Its Supporters · 1 h 15 min · Season 2 Episode 45It’s been two years since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed Donald Trump and forged an unlikely alliance between the Make America Healthy Again movement and MAGA. Now, as we head…
- What Lindsay Clancy's Story Does & Doesn't Tell Us About How We Care For Patients: A Conversation w Drs. Julia Riddle, Anne Zink & Bryan Shapiro · 1 h 16 min · Season 2 Episode 44Has the Lindsay Clancy trial quickly become a proxy for something larger? — arguments about psychiatry and medication, motherhood and mental illness, personal responsibility, and…
- "It's Time For a New Public Health Led By Radical Engagement": A Conversation w Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean of WashU Bursky School of Public Health · 58 min · Season 2 Episode 43That’s the challenge facing Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of the brand-new Bursky School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. It is the first major school of public…
- Public Health, Docs, MAHA Mom React to Trump's Vaccine EO: We Speak w Drs. Deb Houry, Craig Spencer, Joel Warsh + Nancy Fuller · 1 h 11 min · Season 2 Episode 42Dr. Debra Houry, the former CDC chief medical officer; emergency physician Dr. Craig Spencer; pediatrician and author Dr. Joel “Gator” Warsh; and MAHA supporter Nancy Fuller join…
- The Heat Is Killing Us. So Why Are We Beefing About Air Conditioning? We Chat w Noah Smith, Thomas Chatterton Williams & David Wallace-Wells · 1 h 6 min · Season 2 Episode 41What if one of the biggest public health debates of the next decade isn't about vaccines, Ozempic, or chronic disease? What if it's about air conditioning? The world’s…
- A Conversation w Katelyn Jetelina & David Wallace-Wells: On Anthony Fauci & the National Covid Reckoning That Never Happened · 1 h 1 min · Season 2 Episode 40Few figures in America are as polarizing as Dr. Anthony Fauci. To some, he is the veteran scientist who helped steer the nation through the COVID-19 pandemic. To others, he is…
- "I Used to Trust Vaccines. In the Next Pandemic, I Wouldn't." Five Americans Explain What Changed · 1 h 30 min · Season 2 Episode 39If a new pandemic struck tomorrow and scientists developed a vaccine in record time, would you take it? In this episode, we hear from a group of friends of the show and newcomers…
- A Conversation w Dr Robert Malone and Dr Craig Spencer: On Ebola, On ACIP, On Malone's Break w MAHA and On Kennedy · 1 h 26 min · Season 2 Episode 38Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Craig Spencer are two influential voices on health in America today, reaching very different audiences. And it's no secret that on many critical issues…
- What Happened w USAID? Rhetoric, Reality & Real World Impact w Former USAID Leaders Andrew Natsios & Jeremy Konyndyk · 1 h 27 min · Season 2 Episode 37One year ago, the Trump administration dismantled USAID, America's largest foreign aid agency. The administration argued the agency had become wasteful, ideological, and…
