1004 - The State of Obesity in the U.S.
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 2 February 2026
⏱️ 17 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
About this episode:
Following decades of surging adult obesity rates, numbers have leveled out since 2022. But with GLP-1s dominating culture, nutrition guidelines shifting, and funding for chronic diseases vanishing, the state of obesity is set to undergo even more change. In this episode: J. Nadine Gracia returns to Public Health On Call to talk about the latest State of Obesity report from Trust for America's Health.
Guests:
Dr. J. Nadine Gracia, MSCE, is the president and CEO of the Trust for America's Health, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public health policy, research, and advocacy organization that promotes optimal health for every person and community.
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.
Show links and related content:
-
State of Obesity Report 2025 : Better Policies for a Healthier America—Trust for America's Health
-
RealFood.gov—U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
-
Dismantling CDC's chronic disease center 'looks pretty devastating' to public health experts—STAT
Transcript information:
Looking for episode transcripts? Open our podcast on the Apple Podcasts app (desktop or mobile) or the Spotify mobile app to access an auto-generated transcript of any episode. Closed captioning is also available for every episode on our YouTube channel.
Contact us:
Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.
Follow us:
-
Here's our RSS feed
Note: These podcasts are a conversation between the participants, and do not represent the position of Johns Hopkins University.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh. |
| 0:21.6 | jh.edu. |
| 0:23.8 | That's public health question at jh.u.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:31.0 | It's Lindsay Smith Rogers. |
| 0:32.9 | Today, a look at the state of obesity in the U.S. |
| 0:36.1 | J. Nadine Grosia, president and CEO of Trust for America's Health, |
| 0:39.9 | joined Stephanie Desmond to discuss her organization's recent report on obesity, |
| 0:44.3 | which paints the landscape for a chronic disease that impacts the health of at least one and four Americans. |
| 0:49.6 | They touch on ultra-processed food, GLP-1s, structural barriers to healthy eating, |
| 0:55.4 | and cuts that threaten the progress that's been made. Let's listen. Nadine, Grascia, thanks so much for joining me. |
| 1:01.2 | Stephanie, it's a pleasure to be with you. I wanted to talk about your organization's recent |
| 1:05.9 | report on the state of obesity. And I'm wondering if you could just sort of start, where are we with obesity |
| 1:11.4 | currently in this country? Well, you know, obesity continues to be really an important public health |
| 1:17.6 | issue for the nation. If we look really over the past decades, in the last two decades, |
| 1:22.8 | the rates of adult obesity have increased by 32%. The rates of obesity among children |
| 1:28.5 | has increased by 52%. |
| 1:30.5 | And we just see a population-wide increase |
| 1:33.5 | in rates of obesity. |
| 1:35.1 | In the report that we most recently released, |
| 1:38.3 | it showed nationally that about 40% of adults have obesity, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.