from w nyc studios it's brian lear a daily politics podcast it's tuesday june 7th dr memmett oz yes we're going to talk about

dr oz who we haven't in this whole election cycle,

or maybe ever come to think of it on the Brian Lerr show. The Turkish-American heart surgeon,

who hosted a popular daytime TV show for many years, right? In case you missed it over the weekend,

he is now officially the GOP Senate candidate in Pennsylvania. After the recount, his opponent conceded.

He has Trump's endorsement, as many of you know. And one reason the doctor is so popular,

despite the many critics who say he promotes unscientific therapies and alleged cures,

is his many appearances on Oprah Winfrey's long-running daytime talk show.

So joining me now are historians Kelly Jackson, who's a professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley,

and Leah Wright-Rigur, who's a professor of history of Johns Hopkins.

They are co-hosts of a new podcast called Oprah Demics, like Oprah and Academics.

Get it?

They have a special episode now called the Oprah Oz Conundrum in which they explore Oprah's

role in giving Dr. Oz a platform what he became.

And they ask whether or not she has any responsibility to speak out against

his candidacy for Senate, if she opposes it, or thinks he's been a quack, or whatever she thinks

about him now. So Dr. Jackson, Dr. Riguhr, welcome to WNYC. Thank you. Thanks for having us.

Now, since you host this podcast together, I'm going to let you two sort out who's better

position to answer which question. But give us the deep background on Dr. Oz because maybe

some of our listeners don't even know that before he was a staple on Oprah Winfrey's daytime show,

he was a surgeon at Columbia University with a very good reputation as a heart surgeon.

So how did Oprah meet Dr. Oz and what sort of impression did he make on her?

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