This is Fresh Air.

I'm Dave Davies, Infra Terry Gross, who's off this week.

It's no secret there are problems with health care in America, and it's no surprise that

black people have poorer health outcomes in the United States than whites, given disparities

in income, wealth, and insurance coverage.

Our guest, Linda Villarosa, is an author and journalist who's been writing about the

intersection of race and health for years.

She says for a long time she thought poverty was the explanation for why blacks were less

healthy than whites.

But over time, her thinking has changed.

She now believes something else is making black people sicker, and that something is racism.

In a new book, she argues that while poverty certainly matters in health, studies show that

black people suffer long-term health effects from the daily stress of living in a racist

society, and that the health care system itself is infected with racial bias among providers,

administrators, and policymakers.

Linda Villarosa is a journalism professor at the City University of New York, the author

of two previous books and a contributor to the 1619 project.

Her writing on race and health has appeared in the New York Times magazine since 2017.

Her new book is Under the Skin, The Hidden Told of Racism on American Lives and on the

Health of Our Nation.

Well, Linda Villarosa, welcome back to Fresh Air.

Thank you.

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