937 - Meet the Future of Public Health

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

🗓️ 25 August 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

About this episode:

Since the fifth grade, high schooler Nayesha Diwan has been fascinated by the world of public health. Throughout her childhood and teenage years, she has immersed herself in research and advocacy, delivering speeches at her state’s capitol and interning at an elite neurophysiology lab. In this episode: Nayesha explains how her mother’s cancer diagnosis drew her to public health and reminds us how complex and impactful the field can be.

Guest:

Nayesha Diwan is a rising high school junior with a passion for science, health care, and public health. She is a semifinalist for the USA Biology Olympiad exam and is currently researching the blood brain barrier and neurological disorders. Nayesha is the host of the Global Health Frontlines podcast.

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:

Global Health Frontlines—Spotify
Influence the Choice—www.influencethechoice.org

Transcript information:

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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.
0:30.5	Hey listeners, it's Lindsay Smith-Rogers, and today a conversation about the future of public health with the future of public health.
0:38.4	Naisha Devon is a rising high school junior and a public health advocate.
0:42.7	Her work includes serving on the UN's Global Youth Excellence in Leadership Program
0:46.9	and hosting her own podcast, Global Health Frontlines.
0:50.9	We talk about how her passion for public health started, what she's learned, and what she's most hopeful about for the future. Let's listen. Okay, so to start off, why don't you tell everyone your name and where you are right now? Yeah. Hi, I'm Naisha Devon, and I'm currently in Chicago, Illinois, doing an internship.
1:13.1	What's your internship?
1:14.6	I'm actually doing an internship at Northwestern about electro-neurophysiology and schizophrenia.
1:21.8	What is this? What do you do at this internship?
1:24.6	Actually, yesterday was my first day, but I get to observe how they test animals, cut open
1:31.1	animal brains.
1:32.0	I know that sounds gross, but then how they analyze each part of the brain and then make
1:36.7	real-life connections.
1:38.6	And then also all the calculations, like just yesterday, I got my own lab notebook.
1:43.8	So I learned how they record things, you know, in case the computer crashes and how even though technology is like so advanced, people in labs still stick to like the old fashioned methods of using paper and pencil.
1:57.0	It's amazing that you're getting this experience. And so tell us, are you doing this internship for school?
2:02.2	No. It was just because I'm really passionate about public health and neuroscience. I thought that I may not get an
2:10.8	opportunity like this again in the future because of the way funding has been cut. And I really wanted to learn more. I wanted to develop more
2:19.4	research skills because I'm a really curious person. I'm always I always want to know more and more
	...

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