This is Science Friday. I'm Flora Lichten. I don't need to tell you that public health policy is a confusing mess right now.

Layoffs and shakeups at major government agencies, funding uncertainty, skepticism about vaccines, experts, and institutions. All of this has left some scientists and

epidemiologists doing some soul searching and asking the most basic questions about their

role and relationship with the public, which is why we wanted to talk to Dr. Erica Walker,

an epidemiologist at Brown University,

who has a perspective on how to do public health better.

Erica studies the relationship between community health and environmental exposures.

She started off studying noise pollution, and after finding that her research wasn't serving

people as she hoped it would, she pivoted.

She broadened her scope to include other sources of pollution like water and became more focused on how to include people in her research in the hopes of being more impactful.

Today we're going to hear that story.

Erica, welcome to Science Friday.

Thank you for having me. It's so great to be here.

I heard that your path into public health got started with noisy neighbors upstairs. Tell us the story. So like I basically

lived in this basement apartment. I was a starving artist and that apartment was my studio. And it had been quiet up until this family moved

upstairs for me and they had these two small kids that ran across their floor which is my ceiling

for like 24 hours a day and it sounds like elephants heavy elephants for like 30 pound kids

I don't know how they managed to sound like heavy elephants.

As the parent of heavy elephant, small children, I know how they do.

So I realized that I was going nowhere.

I would call my landlord.

You know, I would complain directly to my neighbors.

...