Special Episode: Dr. Homer Venters & Outbreak Behind Bars

This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Health & Fitness, Science

4.8 • 17.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

[Content warning: self-harm, suicide, violence]

In this day and age, we are equipped with an abundance of tools and knowledge to fight the spread of disease. Yet what good does that toolkit do if we lack the resources or the will to implement it where it is needed? One area of great need is our correctional facilities, our prisons, jails, immigration detention centers, and juvenile detention centers. In these settings, communicable disease is often allowed to spread unchecked, leading to high rates of morbidity and mortality. Meaningful change is needed, but what might that look like? In this week’s TPWKY book club episode, Dr. Homer Venters joins us to discuss his latest work, Outbreak Behind Bars: Spider Bites, Human Rights, and the Unseen Danger to Public Health. As the former Chief Medical Officer of the New York City jail system and through his current role as a federal monitor of health services in several jail and prison settings, Dr. Venters has extensive firsthand knowledge of the barriers that prevent adequate medical care to be delivered to these populations. And he has evidence-based solutions. Tune in for a necessary discussion of this humanitarian crisis.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is exactly right.
0:06.1	The courtroom isn't just about justice. It's about power and money and some truly bizarre loopholes.
0:10.7	I'm Michael Foote. And I'm Melissa Malbranche, and we've got a brand new show called Brief Recess, Illegal Podcast.
0:15.5	Every week, we talk about wild tales from court, trials gone wrong, and cases and rulings that shape our world.
0:57.0	Today we're going to be talking about stolen antiquities, all the weird things Melissa found at in a state sale, the crazy conversations I had with the bouncer and J.K. Rowling. We make the complicated clear and the serious, surprisingly fun. From the exactly right network, new episodes of Brief Recess drop every Thursday. Watch Brief Recess on YouTube. Listen to Brief Recess on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The The Hi, I'm Erin Welsh, and this is this Podcast Will Kill You. You're tuning in to the latest
1:31.2	episode of the TPWKY Book Club series, where I chat with authors of popular science and medicine
1:38.0	books about their latest work. We have covered some great books and topics so far this season, from the history of phage
1:46.2	therapy to the origins of language, from the exciting science of regenerative medicine,
1:51.9	to the surprising reality that everything truly seems to be tuberculosis.
1:57.0	And we've got more book club episodes on the way.
2:00.4	If you'd like to check out the full list of books that we've covered this season and past seasons,
2:05.3	as well as get a sneak peek at the ones we've got coming up,
2:08.7	head over to our website, this podcast will kill you.com.
2:12.3	Under the extras tab, you'll find a link to our bookshop.org affiliate page,
2:16.8	which has a bunch of TPWKY book lists,
2:20.7	including one for this book club series. This is a great place to find gift ideas for the book lovers
2:27.5	in your life. Seriously, check in on these lists regularly because I'm always updating them.
2:33.4	As always, we love hearing from you all
2:36.1	about these episodes and about our other episodes. So if you have anything that you'd like to share,
2:41.5	reach out through the contact us form on our website. Two last things before moving on to the
2:47.2	book of the week. First, please rate review and subscribe. It really does help us out.
2:52.9	And second, you can now find full video versions of most of our newest episodes on YouTube.
	...

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