Hey everyone, welcome to a very special episode of the podcast.

Today I'm joined by our nation's top doctor, US surgeon general Dr. Murphy.

Welcome.

Thanks so much, Gael.

I'm really glad we're going to have this conversation.

Me too.

So Dr. Murphy, to start off, you're heavily prioritizing mental health in your tenure.

You've sounded the alarm on the youth mental health crisis.

So I really want to know why now?

Well, Gael, mental health has been something that's been important to me for a long time.

I had the privilege of serving a surgeon general earlier in the Obama administration and during

that time I was seeing all across the country that people were really struggling with their

mental health.

And it reminded me of my experiences as a doctor caring for patients, where I saw so many

people also struggling with depression, with anxiety, with loneliness.

And the truth is I wasn't just observing this, but for many parts of my life, I was going

through this myself, struggling with my own mental health.

And especially when I was younger, I didn't know how to describe that or make sense of that.

And I certainly didn't know how to talk to other people about it.

And I felt this real sense of shame about it.

And it was during my time as a surgeon general that I realized that I wasn't the only one

who had been feeling like that.

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