Dr. McCarray, welcome back to Smarter News.

Welcome to the FDA, Jenna.

It's very excited to be here.

I was thinking back on how many years we've done interviews together in a lot of different settings. Yes. I know. Our most recent one was in 2021. We're going to talk a little bit about that. So we've had a couple years, but it's the first time at the FDA, and congratulations with your role. Well, thanks a lot. You're kind of a pioneer in

journalism. You've been in the business for a while, and you're doing your own thing, and I'm glad to see it so successful. Well, thank you. I was doing it before it was cool, Dr. Meagher. You were. You were doing it before. Everyone's doing it. How's the job going? How do you like this position? It's great. It's a tremendous responsibility. You know, the FDA regulates 20% of the U.S. economy, and it's everything. It's mangoes coming

across the borders. It's CAT scan machines. It's tobacco products and what's in vape stores.

It's drugs and devices and wearables. So it's a massive organization.

It's right here.

This is the FDA.

You can see our scientists are diligently working right now.

We have a great culture, a great community.

They're setting up the farmer's market if people can see that.

So it's a great place to work.

Word on the street from my limited time in the FDA is that you actually really like the cafeteria.

Is that true?

Well, I've always said I love the hospital cafeteria, not because of the food and hospitals.

It's pretty pathetic, actually, but because I could interact with patients and other doctors,

and it was a sort of social retreat.

So here's the same thing. This is the opportunity I have to meet so many of the staff and pharmacists and docs at the FDA is in the cafeteria. Well, that's where I want to do my next investigative report because I really want to see. You know, what's actually in the FDA cafeteria? That's where they're really. Oh, is it? It's much healthier. Yeah, we've made major changes. You know, I know we have a lot of topics to cover today. We're going to cover a lot of grounds.

I'm very grateful to talk to you this week. Some topics we expected. Some are new topics that just came up in the news.

But I was thinking about this as we were driving here, how journalism and health care share a common problem, which is a lack of trust from the public.

And over the years at Smarter News, I've talked about how we can report a story perfectly, but still miss the point.

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