1035 - The Epic Struggle for Public Health
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
About this episode:
Public health efforts have led to tremendous gains throughout history—and sparked backlash. That's the argument made by Michelle A. Williams in her new book "The Cure for Everything The Epic Struggle for Public Health and a Radical Vision for Human Thriving." In this episode: why community interventions often go underappreciated, the economic benefits of a healthy society, and the tension between medicine and public health.
Guest:
Michelle A. Williams, ScD, is a professor of epidemiology and population health at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also the co-author of "The Cure for Everything: The Epic Struggle for Public Health and a Radical Vision for Human Thriving."
Host:
Dr. Josh Sharfstein is distinguished professor of the practice in Health Policy and Management, a pediatrician, and former secretary of Maryland's Health Department.
Show links and related content:
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The Cure for Everything: The Epic Struggle for Public Health and a Radical Vision for Human Thriving—Penguin Random House
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"On Going Backwards": A New HIV/AIDS Epidemic?—Public Health On Call (May 2025)
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Recognizing W.E.B. Du Bois and His Seminal Work on Racism and Health—Public Health On Call (February 2022)
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Transcript
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| 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 jhh.edu. |
| 0:23.8 | That's public health question at jh.u.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:31.1 | Hey listeners, it's Lindsay Smith-Rogers, and today we have another book club episode for you. |
| 0:35.7 | Dr. Michelle Williams is a professor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University |
| 0:40.9 | and the former dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. |
| 0:45.2 | She speaks with Dr. Josh Sarstein about her new book, The Cure for Everything, |
| 0:49.7 | the epic struggle for public health and a radical vision for human thriving. |
| 0:53.8 | Let's listen. Dr. Michelle Williams, |
| 0:56.1 | thank you so much for joining me in public health on call today. Just read your great new book, |
| 1:01.6 | A Cure for Everything, and I'm so delighted to be able to talk to you about it. How are you? |
| 1:06.4 | I'm doing well. Thank you for asking, Josh, and thank you for inviting me on your podcast. |
| 1:11.1 | You're very welcome. We're really glad you're here. You know, I love this book because most people |
| 1:17.6 | in our field, and you're a giant in the field of public health, when they turn to writing, |
| 1:22.6 | they write very narrowly. They focus on one particular issue. Scientific paper often is forced to be very, |
| 1:30.4 | very specific. But in this book, you take a step back. You're talking about the sweep of public |
| 1:36.3 | health history, the past, the present, it's personal, it's political, it's really an interesting book. |
| 1:44.1 | What led you to write it? |
| 1:45.8 | That's a great question, Josh. I wrote this book because I kept running into people who kept saying that the attacks public health institutions and the workforce was facing during the pandemic was unprecedented. |
| 1:58.7 | And I wanted people to appreciate that that wasn't true, that there had been a long |
| 2:03.7 | history of when public health is successful, they come after us. Well, let's talk about that history a |
... |
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