About… Vaccine Safety (with Dr. Jessica Malaty Rivera)
Tell Me More with Nicole Walters
Dear Media
4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 30 October 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Public Health at its core is about community. It is really about... our collective thriving. It's been turned into this idea of control and mandates and authority, when really it's very altruistic at its core."
Friend, there is SO much to talk about when it comes to the state of Public Health in our country right now. Thankfully, infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Jessica Malaty Rivera is here to break it all down with facts and compassion.
From the purpose and complexities of Public Health to vaccine safety and germ theory versus terrain theory, Dr. Rivera covers a lot of ground. If you're like me, you're going to come out of this chat feeling smarter and more compassionate for people that may live differently than you.
Don't miss this chat with Dr. Jessica Malaty Rivera and as always, thanks for being here with an open mind!
Find Dr. Rivera on IG: https://www.instagram.com/jessicamalatyrivera/
Let's keep this chat going in my DMs or over on Threads @NicoleWalters
Get the rest of the links and resources from this chat at https://nicolewalters.com/episode519 and WATCH this chat on YouTube at https://nicolewalters.com/youtube
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast is a Dear Media production. |
| 0:05.8 | Have you ever looked in the mirror and not recognized yourself? |
| 0:09.7 | Me fucking too. |
| 0:11.6 | Hi, I'm Caroline Baudino from Instagram Shop with Caroline and host of Coming In Hot. |
| 0:16.5 | This tough New Yorker, who swore she would never depend on a man, lives to wear all her jewels and look fabulous, let everyone else's expectations of being a mom, a wife, a daughter to Cuban parents take priority. |
| 0:28.1 | I finally put my oxygen mask on first and took the biggest bet of my life. |
| 0:33.4 | Join me every Monday on Coming in Hot to deep dive on finding your own happy tools and living your best life too. |
| 0:40.4 | Yes, we can. |
| 0:46.3 | Welcome to the Tell Me More podcast with Nicole Walters, the only podcast where I'm not seeking to make you think more like me, but to help you keep thinking for yourself. |
| 1:09.4 | Friends, I am so excited because today's guest is someone who has been on the front lines of science, truth, and keeping us all informed in moments when the world felt upside down. |
| 1:23.3 | Jessica Malady Rivera is an infectious disease epidemiologist and one of the clearest science communicators of our time. |
| 1:31.2 | You're so lucky, y'all. |
| 1:32.9 | You probably first came across her work because I know you're following her on Instagram during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when she helped lead the COVID tracking project at the Atlantic. |
| 1:53.7 | Now, she took complicated, often overwhelming data and then translated it in a way that was accessible, human, and deeply grounding. |
| 1:55.8 | It's like real people speak for us. |
| 2:04.5 | And this work landed her on Fortune's list of the world's 50 greatest leaders. But her impact goes far beyond COVID. She's also an incredible mom, a leader, and a fierce advocate for diversity in |
| 2:12.2 | science. I am so honored and super excited to welcome her here today. Jessica, thank you for being here with |
| 2:19.1 | us. Thank you, Nicole, for having me. That was so sweet. Oh my gosh. I can't even tell you. So I'm a science |
| 2:24.5 | nerd. Okay, everybody already knows this. But I have to ask you, if with everything that's happening |
| 2:30.0 | in this world right now, post-COVID, if that's even such a thing, are we ever post-COVID, |
| 2:34.6 | right? But with everything happening in this world right now, if there was one truth, right, |
| 2:39.2 | one thing that you wish you could zap into everyone's mind about science, about bugs, you know, |
... |
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