Healthy Communities Online

Originally broadcast April 22, 2025 Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the U.S. will phase out the remaining eight artificial food dyes from America’s food supply within two years. This is a move that leading nutritionist and author Marion Nestle, Ph.D., has long advocated for. “Conversations on Health Care” hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter spoke to her before today’s news conference. She says, “I’m all for getting bad chemicals out of the food supply,…

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Originally broadcast April 17, 2025 The U.S. healthcare system could save up to 500,000 lives and $1.5 trillion a year by embracing the right technology, says Dr. Robert Pearl, a Stanford University professor and a noted healthcare influencer. Pearl, who co-authored his new book “ChatGPT, MD” with the help of generative AI, says the tech’s strength lies in its access to the entirety of medical knowledge. “We shouldn’t think of [generative AI] as just another AI tool. This is as…

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Originally broadcast April 10, 2025 Eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes founded his eponymous Medical Institute over 70 years ago devoted to “unlocking the fundamentals of biology and building an open, inclusive future for science.” Some say Howard Hughes Medical Institute is bringing its founder’s vision into the future with its one-of-a-kind Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia. On this 281-acre parcel of land, integrated teams of lab scientists and tool-builders pursue a small number of scientific questions with potential for transformative…

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Originally broadcast April 3, 2025 Roughly 85% of respondents to a survey cited by Michael Sapienza, CEO of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, say they would rather do their taxes than get a colonoscopy. “We need to do a better job of talking to the public about the barriers,” Sapienza tells “Conversations on Health Care” hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter. Sapienza, whose mother died of the disease at age 58, says people may be less than excited to do the…

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Originally broadcast March 27, 2025 Two young innovators are leading a movement that proves food isn’t just fuel—it’s medicine. In this episode of “Conversations on Health Care,” Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter talk with Christian Heiden, founder of Levo International, and Alissa Wassung, executive director of the Food is Medicine Coalition, about how their work is shaping the future of healthcare through food. For Heiden, hydroponic farming offers an innovative way to get fresh, nutritious food into the hands of…

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Originally broadcast March 20, 2025 Mary Bono has left the halls of Congress, but she’s still winning with her efforts to stop the misuse of both prescription and illegal drugs. Bono, co-founder and chair of Mothers for Awareness and Prevention of Drug Abuse, wants to see a focus on solutions from lawmakers. With a greater presence of fentanyl in the drug supply, “everything [has] changed because there’s no longer time for experimentation,” Bono says. “‘One pill can kill’ is a [Drug…

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