Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.

If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh.

.edu.

That's public health question at jh.u.

For future podcast episodes.

Today, white people are dying in custody.

I speak with Dr. Roger Mitchell, the former chief medical examiner of the District of

Columbia. Dr. Mitchell has observed that when it comes to understanding the reasons for deaths in

custody, the usual rules of autopsies and death investigations don't always seem to apply.

He's leading the charge to understand more about what's happening.

Let's listen.

Dr. Roger Mitchell, thank you so much for joining me in public health on call.

Most people may not be aware of the strong connection between public health, my field, and forensic

pathology, your field.

Can you talk a little bit about what a forensic pathologist does?

Josh, it's so great to be here with you on your podcast. I'm really excited.

Forensic pathology, in short, we signed death certificates.

We determine cause and manner of death, particularly in violent or sudden and unexpected deaths.

And anybody that has done public health work knows that we rely heavily on the death certificate

to understand the burden of disease and why people may be dying from injury or disease.

So the connection is quite clear between forensic

...