According to Thomas Goetz — a journalist, entrepreneur, and host of the new podcast “Drug Story” —  “there are over 3,000 drugs behind a typical pharmacist counter.” And behind each drug is a story.

On “Drug Story,” which debuted in January, Goetz picks one drug and examines its history, the disease it treats, and how it intersects with society and public health. “In every drug, every medication, there is a much larger story to tell about health and medicine and society and business and economics,” he told me on this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast.”

We talked about Ambien, Ozempic, and how drugs attempt to treat the ways modern life is incompatible with the human body; how his thinking about weight loss drugs has changed over the years; and much more — including my ill-fated attempts to feed a baby salmon puree to stave off fish allergies.

Brinda Adhikari and Tom W. Johnson launched “Why Should I Trust You?” in 2025. Since then, they’ve hosted big names from MAHA, the Trump administration, the anti-vaccine movement, and traditional health. They also bring on everyday Americans trying to keep their families healthy while navigating a confusing information ecosystem. “Everyone, when they come on the show, no matter what their quote unquote, expertise, they're all equals. Everyone gets time to speak,” Adhikari said.

On this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” host Torie Bosch speaks with Adhikari and Johnson about their show’s goals and the criticism they’ve received from public health and MAHA alike.

According to Isaac Rose-Berman, a fellow at the American Institute for Boys and Men, the skyrocketing popularity of sports betting is a burgeoning public health crisis, especially for young men.

While men and women are roughly equally represented at the casino, with “sports betting you’re talking, you know, 85-90% of the users” are men, according to Isaac.

That results in two problems from a public health perspective: the financial cost, which can lead to depression, anxiety, and even suicide, and the compulsive behavior that pulls people out of their normal lives.

Siegel, who is a physician and a senior medical analyst at Fox News, has recently published a new book, “The Miracles Among Us: How God's Grace Plays a Role in Healing,” in which he tells stories of unexpected — miraculous, he says —recoveries.

On this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” host Torie Bosch speaks with Siegel and Francis Collins — former director of the National Institutes of Health and the author of “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.” They discuss the intersection of faith and science, particularly the ways that some Christian communities have increasingly become skeptical of medicine like vaccines.

Earlier this year, when headlines announced that a child with a different rare disease, known as Baby KJ, had been treated using CRISPR in a major breakthrough, Celena, a neuroscience Ph.D. candidate, found that many in the PURA community had major questions, with comments like “This happened in just six months. When will this be available for our PURA kids?” appearing on Facebook groups.

Celena and STAT reporter Jason Mast joined the podcast to discuss why CRISPR for PURA syndrome is particularly difficult, what it’s like to be both a rare disease parent and a scientist, and how crucial parents are to research.

Together, they crisscrossed North Dakota, hosting listening sessions on health-related topics that went well beyond vaccines.

On this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” host Torie Bosch spoke with Sandy and Josh about their work and the lessons it offers others in public health.

Nancy Hopkins knew Watson better than most, having first worked with him when she was just an undergraduate. She is a retired MIT professor known for her work on zebrafish as a cancer model, and for her advocacy on behalf of women in science.

Today, she is trying to reconcile her “lifelong friend,” the Watson one who encouraged her and other women to go into molecular biology, with the one who emerged late in life.

“CPR has been represented in the media and TV shows and all of these other places as a relatively innocuous intervention with high rates of success from which people recover with little problem,” Jason Wasserman said on this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast.” In fact, it can be physically damaging—broken ribs, punctured lungs — and painful. And for patients who are already medically frail, it often fails.

So sometimes, particularly with patients clearly at the end of life, doctors might do something that isn’t often discussed outside of medical circles: the slow code. That’s when they intentionally move slowly, or don’t put as much effort into CPR as would be necessary to revive someone.

On this episode of the podcast, guest host Alex Hogan spoke with Wasserman and Parker Crutchfield about a recent special issue of the journal Bioethics that they edited on the slow code and a related op-ed they wrote for First Opinion. They discussed the ethical conundrum of the slow code, the response to their work from medical professionals, and why it’s particularly important to have this discussion now.

“Beyond the physical or material harms that can be associated with CPR,” Wasserman said, “we can think about what we might call dignitary harms, just harms of disrespect to the person and to the body. And I think these are especially poignant when we’re talking about futile or medically inappropriate CPR that we’re doing.”

Their conversation was also based on a recent episode of the new video series “STATus Report.”

Be sure to sign up for the weekly “First Opinion Podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get alerts about each new episode by signing up for the “First Opinion Podcast” newsletter. And don’t forget to sign up for the First Opinion newsletter, delivered every Sunday.

Berkley is the former head of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a co-founder of COVAX, and author of the new book “Fair Doses: An Insider’s Story of the Pandemic and the Global Fight for Vaccine Equity.” On this episode of the podcast, we discussed what went right and wrong with the response to Covid — and preparing for the next pandemic.

Eberts was intrigued. For $7,300 (and out of a sense of altruism), he joined a study on a shigellosis vaccine that required him to be exposed to the bacteria that causes the disease.

On this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” we speak with Eberts, who is now on the board of the nonprofit 1Day Sooner, and Jill Fisher, a professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina. We discussed how pay for healthy volunteers works, why institutional review boards are reluctant to raise rates, and the ethical conundrums that come with paying people to get sick.

On this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” Besser joined to discuss vaccine policy, reaching out to conservative media, finding common ground with MAHA, the connection between democracy and health, and more.

“I used to think that I couldn't be surprised,” he said, “but it seems like just about every day something comes out of the Department of Health and Human Services that to me is absolutely against the best interests of people's health, makes no sense, and yet it keeps on coming.”

On this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” Rankin, oncologist Samyukta Mullangi, and host Torie Bosch discuss difficult choices around cancer care, how oncologists should respond to patients who don’t want recommended treatment, and the emotional weight this all puts on patients, families, and doctors alike.

McSweeney, aka Doctor Noc, is a social media influencer with 4 million followers across platforms and a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences and immunology. This week he joins First Opinion Podcast host Torie Bosch to talk about his approach to cutting through the noise of social media with real, honest science.

This fall, the podcast will continue to bring you thoughtful, challenging, personal, and provocative ideas from the smartest thinkers in medicine. Among others, you’ll hear from someone who willingly contracted dysentery, two people who spearheaded a successful pro-vaccine campaign in a red state, and a PhD with almost 2 million followers on Instagram.

Follow Say More wherever you get your podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/SayMore?sid=stat

Years later, they were living in Brooklyn with their young son when Anna was diagnosed with breast cancer. The morning after the phone call that changed their lives, “We saw cameras on the table, looked at each other, and I think we both just understood instantly that this was something we both were going to need to lean on to help get through it,” Jordan told me on this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast.”

This conversation was inspired by their dual First Opinion essays, in which each discusses how the photographs said what they could not put into words.

Technology now offers a solution to this problem in the form of the AI ambient scribe, which records the encounter between physician and patient and then generates the summarizing note for the patient’s file.

On this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” I spoke with two doctors, one who has embraced the AI scribe and another who is reluctant to use it. While part of me hoped they would have a knock-down, drag-out debate, it was instead a deeply thoughtful conversation about privacy, patient-physician rapport, burnout, and much more.

Today’s medical students don’t have to go into cemeteries themselves, but schools still struggle to find cadavers that are both ethically sourced and affordable. So many are deciding to forgo the use of cadavers to teach students about human anatomy.

First-year medical student Nadir Al-Saidi was disappointed to learn that his school was going to join that group. He joins the podcast to discuss what he has learned in the cadaver lab, and why technology can’t replace the real thing.

Ted Johnson, who chairs the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the Emory School of Medicine, says that playing along is not only OK; it’s often the best thing for both the patient and the caretaker. In the past three years, Johnson and his colleagues have trained 1,500 care partners on how to use basic improv skills.

Meanwhile, children’s hospitals report large numbers of vacancies in many pediatric subspecialties.  All of this is particularly worrisome given the rise in measles cases.

On this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” Faith Crittenden, a pediatric endocrinology fellow, and Jared E. Boyce, an M.D.-Ph.D. candidate who is interested in entering pediatrics, share the many reasons for the shortage. There’s the money — pediatricians are paid less than many other doctors, which can be a deal-breaker if you’re graduating with $200,000 in loans.

Intrigued by both the public and scientific confusion over airborne infection, he began examining history. Eventually, he realized, “I’m writing about life in the air, and it turns out to have this incredible history that goes back many centuries and involves all sorts of people.”

That led to his latest book, “Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe,” which he discussed with guest host and STAT science writer Megan Molteni on this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” which is back for a new season.

But according to Karp, what made him struggle — undiagnosed ADHD — also became his “super power,” giving him an ability to hyper-focus, connect emotionally in different ways, and think creatively. Now, he emphasizes the importance of neurodiversity and interdisciplinary approaches in his own lab, and he also tries to talk to students and parents about how ADHD can be a strength.

“The nipple solution is actually very elusive,” Randi said. “Surgical nipples tend to flatten. Tattoos fade. Or they still don't have dimension. The … prosthetic nipples that were around when we started, they looked really fake, and they'd fall off. And that's really kind of a deal breaker.”

After Brian made one for Randi, the two of them decided to offer the service to others. Today, they make affordable, realistic nipples for dozens of people a year, largely reaching potential customers through word of mouth.

One of their sons, Justin, recently chronicled their work in his new documentary “Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory,” now available for rent or purchase on streaming platforms. (Watch the trailer here.)

But Christine Dehlendorf wants people to remember that as important as Election Day is, it won’t be the end of discussions about reproductive health. Dehlendorf is a family physician and professor of family and community medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and directs the Person-Centered Reproductive Health Program. Recently, she co-authored a First Opinion arguing that primary care providers and family physicians should have more training in providing abortion care.

So the first five episodes of the fall 2024 season of the “First Opinion Podcast” will grapple with the campaign and its intersection with health, medicine, and the life sciences. I’ll speak with experts on issues that have come up on the campaign trail, topics that candidates should focus on, and what a second Trump or first Harris administration might hold. Think of it as “First Opinion Podcast Hits the Trail,” perhaps, except I’m staying home in the swing state of Pennsylvania fending off campaign texts.

For the debut episode, I spoke with Kathleen Kelly Daughety, vice president of campaigns and civic engagement for Inseparable, a mental health advocacy organization with a strong focus on policy.

Corbett-Helaire, an assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston and a Freeman Hrabowski Scholar at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, joins "The First Opinion Podcast" this week to discuss her experience helping roll out the first Covid-19 vaccines in the midst of the pandemic. She also addresses her desire to close the gap between public health experts trying to end disease and people who genuinely fear harm from vaccines.

Diana DeGette, a Democrat who has represented Colorado's 1st Congressional District in the House of Representatives since 1997, and who has co-chaired the House's Pro-Choice Caucus since 2000, joins the podcast this week to discuss how the Supreme Court's 2022 decision has affected American health care and politics. She believes the decision has actually awakened voters to the idea that they need to protect their access to health care.

Judith Cole, a nurse practitioner, and addiction psychiatrist Arthur Robin Williams join the podcast this week to speak about these specific challenges, including the reality that federal law allows for child protective services to be called when people receiving legal effective treatments for addiction have given birth. Despite medications like methadone being fully safe during pregnancy, they continue to carry a stigma that can result in trauma for both birth parents and newborns.

Esvelt is a biologist and MIT professor whose work has included altering the genes of mice to prevent the spread of Lyme disease. In a recent First Opinion essay, he wrote about how easy and inexpensive it has become to order genetic components that could be used to create harmful pathogens or toxins and how the biotech industry and government agencies must strengthen safety precautions to prevent this.

Esvelt sat down with host Pat Skerrett to chat about the amazing things genetic technology can accomplish when used correctly, as well as the dangers of such technology in the hands of someone with bad intentions.

In this episode, Zivot speaks with host Torie Bosch about what it means for death to be cruel, why he believes the state has no business using medicine to kill.

Don’t forget to sign up for the First Opinion newsletter to read each week’s best First Opinion essays.

Be sure to sign up for the First Opinion newsletter to read each week's best First Opinion essays.

Mara's husband, Jesse Summers, was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer in 2021. It went into remission — but earlier this year, a test searching for disease recurrence came back weakly positive, suggesting that the cancer might be back but might not be. It put Jesse and Mara into a sort of limbo as they waited to see what the result meant.

The conversation is based on their co-authored First Opinion, "How medical schools are failing students who need mental health care."

But excited delirium is not an evidence-based medical diagnosis. The American College of Emergency Physicians recently withdrew a 2009 white paper endorsing the concept, and California has banned it as a cause of death. Other states may follow suit. This week, we are joined by emergency phyisicians Utsha G. Khatri and Brooks Walsh, who speak about why the "excited delirium" label is both unnecessary and dangerous. 

Check out our episode of Color Code about "excited delirium" as well as a previous episode of the First Opinion Podcast on the topic. And sign up for the First Opinion newsletter.