930 - Peace Building in a Polarized Public Health Landscape

Public Health On Call

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Novelcoronavirus, Health, Publichealth, Covid, Globalhealth, Coronavirus, News, Health & Fitness, Education, Medicine, Covid19, Science

4.8 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

About this episode:

As the United States grows more polarized along regional, political, and ideological lines, it is critical to resolve conflict civilly—particularly when it comes to pressing public health concerns that implicate all of us. In this episode: Peace building experts David Addiss and John Paul Lederach draw on their careers in conflict resolution and public health to share strategies for building relationships, restoring trustworthiness, and fostering solutions-oriented conversations to bridge ideological gaps.

Guest:

Dr. David Addiss, MPH, is a public health doctor whose career has involved migrant health, mountain medicine, neglected tropical diseases, research, philanthropy, and global health. He is the Director of the Focus Area for Compassion and Ethics at the Task Force for Global Health.

John Paul Lederach, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame and a Senior Fellow with Humanity United. He is widely known for the development of culturally-based approaches to conflict transformation and the design and implementation of integrative and strategic approaches to peace building.

Host:

Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Show links and related content:

A Recipe for Cooling Down American Politics—Washington Post
Facing Down a Civil War—www.johnpaullederach.com
Here To Understand: How Braver Angels Is Orchestrating Tough Public Health Conversations—Public Health On Call (June 2025)
Peacebuilding to Help Mend A Broken World—Public Health On Call (December 2023)

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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 jh.h.
0:22.6	That's public health question at jh.g.u.d. for future podcast episodes.
0:30.6	It's Lindsay Smith Rogers. Today, how can peace building be a framework for public health conversations?
0:38.7	John Paul Lederach, Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame and a senior fellow with Humanity United,
0:45.6	and Dr. David Addis, special advisor to the focus area for compassion and ethics or face at the Task Force for Global Health in Decatur, Georgia, talk with me about
0:56.5	their work in global health and peace building in some of the world's most violent and
1:01.3	intractable conflicts and how some of these concepts could be used in an increasingly
1:07.0	polarized America.
1:09.0	Let's listen.
1:10.1	John Paul Letterock and David Addis, thank you so much for joining us on Public Health on Call. Let's listen. John Paul Lederach and David Addis, thank you so much for
1:12.6	joining us on public health on call. Let's start with you, David. Could you introduce yourself and
1:16.8	tell us a bit about your work? Yes, my name's David Addis. I'm the director of the focus area for
1:22.8	compassion and ethics, or the acronym FACE, at the Task Force for Global Health in Atlanta.
1:29.2	I'm by background, I'm a medical epidemiologist.
1:32.3	I worked in migrant health as a physician for several years, and then became a medical
1:37.5	epidemiologist that centers for disease control.
1:39.8	And John Paul?
1:40.8	Yeah, John Paul Litterach, and I'm a professor emeritus from University of Notre Dame at the
1:46.6	Croc Institute for International Peace Studies and a senior fellow at Humanity United.
1:51.8	I've focused most of my life work on responding better to especially protracted in armed
	...

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