Even in an administration filled with unorthodox characters, think Tulsi Gabbard and Pete Hexeth,

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, stands out.

He is more famous, more popular, and more influential than any of his cabinet peers.

He is also the most important figure in American health and science today.

Tonight, a close look at Kennedy's battles with the medical establishment

and the agencies he himself overseas.

Next.

This is Washington Week with the Atlantic.

Good evening and welcome to Washington Week.

When the Atlantic staff writer Michael Shearer asked Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to sit for a series of interviews about his life, his views, and his many, many controversies, the secretary staff warned him against it.

The so-called establishment press, they said, would never allow itself to be impressed with Kennedy's revolutionary ideas about American health and science.

But Kennedy, to his credit, let Shearer ask him anything. The result is this month's Atlantic

cover story, which provides what I think is the most revealing look at Kennedy's robust effort

to undermine and even overthrow whatever is left of the American medical consensus.

Michael Shearer joins me tonight,

as do two other reporters who know more about Kennedy and about the American government's

enormous health infrastructure than almost anyone else. Dan Diamond, a White House reporter

at the Washington Post, and Julie Rovner, the chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News.

Thank you all for being here, Michael. Thank you for writing this story.

It's a very long story. Boil it down in 30 seconds if you could.

Tell us, you know, after spending months with RFK Jr., multiple interviews, a lot of travel.

What did you learn about this person who was lot of travel. What did you learn about this person, who was very famous already?

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