Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode

Julia Belluz, co-author of "Food Intelligence: The Science of How Food Both Nourishes and Harms Us," joins Ken to dismantle everything you think you know about nutrition, metabolism and weight loss. Julia is an award-winning health journalist, contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and former senior health correspondent at Vox. She's a Knight Science Journalism Fellow from MIT and currently lives in Paris, France.Julia explains why our struggles with food aren't personal failures. They are the predictable result of living in toxic food environments designed to make us overeat. Drawing on decades of nutrition science research conducted with co-author Kevin Hall at the National Institutes of Health, she reveals what people get wrong with food despite thinking they’re doing it right. Julia compares France's deliberate cultivation of healthy food environments to America's chronic disease crisis. She discusses California's groundbreaking legislation defining ultra-processed foods, the promise and failures of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s "Make America Healthy Again" agenda, and why we need systemic change to how we approach food.For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:Food Intelligence: The Science of How Food Both Nourishes and Harms UsEWG's food policy work California's ultra-processed food lawKen Cook Is Having Another Episode every other [email protected]@environmentalworkinggroup

Something unprecedented just happened at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A newly reconstituted advisory committee voted to recommend delaying hepatitis B vaccination for most babies. The vote overturns a 30-year policy that led to a massive decline in infant infections.In today’s episode, Ken talks with former CDC Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Dr. Demetre Daskalakis. Daskalakis spent decades fighting on the front lines of America's toughest public health battles. He brought HIV testing to the communities that needed it most. He stopped a meningitis outbreak in its tracks and he led the national Mpox response. He left the CDC in August.Demetre breaks down the recent shake-up at the CDC and why the best sign that federal public health efforts are working are that they’re not in the news – unlike today.For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:Dr. Demetre’s InstagramKen Cook Is Having Another Episode every other [email protected]@environmentalworkinggroup 

Are you susceptible to cult-like thinking? According to author Jane Borden, everyone might be, especially Americans.In today’s episode, Jane talks with Ken about how the Pilgrims and Puritans essentially founded America as a "high-control doomsday group" and that those patterns never went away.In her book, "Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America," Jane identifies the warning signs: worship of a charismatic leader who can't be criticized, apocalyptic crisis narratives, conspiratorial thinking that explains away inconvenient facts, and promises to return to a "pure" past. Sound familiar?The “Make America Great Again” and “Make America Healthy Again” movements check many of these boxes even while acknowledging that the health threats many Americans face are very real. Are we addressing those threats through evidence and accountability, or through cult-like devotion to leaders who promise easy answers?For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:Jane Borden’s WebsiteKen Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week. @kencookspodcast www.ewg.org @environmentalworkinggroup

The longest U.S. government shutdown in history just ended and millions of Americans are about to pay for it. Health insurance premiums are set to double, SNAP food benefits were frozen for 42 million people and Democrats caved without securing protections for either.In today’s episode, Ken sits down with Liz Hamel, vice president and director of public opinion and survey research at health policy research organization KFF, about her groundbreaking research on the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement. A Washington Post/KFF poll reveals surprising contradictions: Most MAHA parents vaccinate their kids but trust Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine information. These parents want more government regulation of food but support deregulating raw milk and they're more worried about fluoride than gun violence. As the government shutdown fallout continues and with basic health protections at risk, this conversation explores how divided Americans are over what they want for their children's health.For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:Washington Post - Who Supports RFK Jr’s MAHA KFF/The Washington Post Survey of Parents: Polling Insights on the MAHA MovementKen Cook Is Having Another Episode every other [email protected]@environmentalworkinggroup

In today’s episode Ken and Lindsay Dahl talk about how we regulate chemicals, protect public health and decide product safety. Lindsay has more than two decades of environmental health work in the private and public sector. She’s the author of "Cleaning House: The Fight to Rid Our Homes of Toxic Chemicals,” that discusses why environmental health has always been a bipartisan issue, despite today's polarized politics. She emphasizes the importance of holding all elected officials accountable, regardless of party, on their environmental health records. Lindsay addresses the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, noting that Republican women joining the fight against toxic chemicals represent a continuation of decades-long grassroots organizing, not something new. She warns that voters who supported President Donald Trump based on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's promises need to hold the administration accountable as it rolls back air quality regulations, protections from the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS  and other environmental safeguards. Lindsay is an incredible science communicator and encourages people to cut through social media disinformation to engage meaningfully with environmental health issues through their votes and advocacy.For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:Cleaning House: The fight to rid our homes of toxic chemicalsLindsay Dahl’s SubstackKen Cook Is Having Another Episode every other [email protected]@environmentalworkinggroup