1046 - "The Service is the Message": A Conversation with New York's Commissioner of Health
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2026
⏱️ 19 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
About this episode:
Appointed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani earlier this year, Dr. Alister Martin is developing creative ways to make life healthier and more affordable for New Yorkers. In this episode: Dr. Martin shares how his office is meeting problems head on, finding innovative ways to connect with neighbors, and serving through a public health trust deficit.
Guest:
Dr. Alister F. Martin, MPP, is the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He is also an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the founder of A Healthier Democracy.
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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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 jhhhu.edu. |
| 0:23.8 | That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:31.1 | Hey listeners, it's Lindsay Smith-Rogers, and today we're talking about the affordability agenda for public health. Dr. Alistair Martin is the new |
| 0:40.2 | health commissioner of New York City. He joins Dr. Josh Sharfstein to talk about how the health department |
| 0:45.3 | is working to advance Mayor Mamdani's vision of an affordable New York and inspire greater trust |
| 0:51.2 | in public health in the process. Let's listen. Dr. Alastair Martin, it is great to |
| 0:56.3 | have you on public health on call. You are the new Health Commissioner of New York City. How is today going? |
| 1:02.5 | Josh, it's wonderful to be back on the pot, by the way. It's great to see you again and great to be in |
| 1:07.6 | conversation with you. I'm doing great. You know, it's just, as I've been sharing |
| 1:11.9 | with folks recently, this is the best job I've ever had, quite frankly. I think that there's so |
| 1:18.0 | much good that we can do for the people of New York in this moment that we're in with this new mayor, |
| 1:23.7 | this transformative mayor, transformative time. And so we're really excited to be able to push |
| 1:28.3 | on some of the boundaries and try to do some transformative work in public health. That's great. |
| 1:33.1 | Now, we know each other in part because you've appeared on the podcast before. But could you |
| 1:37.4 | introduce yourself a little bit to our audience? Absolutely. So I actually was born and spent my |
| 1:44.0 | early childhood right here in Queens, |
| 1:46.2 | a couple miles off the street from where I am right now in our Long Island City office. |
| 1:51.3 | I grew up in a place called Jackson Heights. My mom was a Haitian immigrant, and she was actually |
| 1:56.3 | a nurse in a program that I now oversee, a program called Nurse Family Partnership. |
| 2:02.5 | In my experience, watching my mom growing up was seeing my mom pack her little gold Chevy |
... |
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