PHEC 480: Making Public Health Make Sense

How would you explain public health to someone who has never heard of it? In this episode, Dr. Huntley sits down with four Master of Public Health candidates from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC): Emily Burdette, Keara Hagerman, Cania James, and Taylor Simon. Each of them answers that question with a fresh, everyday picture, from a car that runs best with routine maintenance, to a ball pit everyone shares, to a spider web held together by threads you never notice until one snaps. Along the way, they share the work that fuels their passion, including violence intervention, protecting fertility options for young cancer patients, car seat safety for kids, and at-home HIV testing research in Nairobi, Kenya. You will walk away with simple, memorable ways to talk about public health with your own friends and family, plus a big dose of hope from a new generation of leaders who are ready to stir the pot. Resources ▶️ Join the PHEC Podcast Community ▶️ Visit the PHEC Podcast Show Notes ▶️ DrCHHuntley, Public Health & Epidemiology Consulting

What happens when someone who uses opioids finally feels ready for help at 10 o'clock at night? In this episode, Dr. Huntley sits down with Dr. Jeffrey Hom, an internal medicine physician and the Medical Officer for Science and Policy in the Substance Use Services section of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Dr. Hom shares how years of volunteering at one of San Francisco's busiest soup kitchens showed him how closely food, housing, and health are tied together, and how that lesson still guides his work today. You'll hear how a late-night telehealth line for people experiencing homelessness grew into a drop-in clinic with more than 10,000 visits in just two years, and how a campaign called Living Proof invites San Franciscans in recovery to tell their own stories (and even co-author the research about it). Dr. Hom also opens up about the policy efforts that didn't succeed, what they taught him about coalitions and timing, and why the rules at your own clinic, school, or workplace may be the most powerful place to start making change. Resources ▶️ Join the PHEC Podcast Community ▶️ Visit the PHEC Podcast Show Notes ▶️ DrCHHuntley, Public Health & Epidemiology Consulting

What happens when three different people tell you a job is meant for you, and you laugh off every one of them? Dr. Michelle Taylor returns to the podcast on her one-year anniversary as Commissioner of Health for the Baltimore City Health Department, and she shares the surprising chain of conversations that carried her from her hometown of Memphis to Baltimore. Dr. Huntley and Dr. Taylor also celebrate the wins that rarely make headlines, including a coordinated overdose response in which every single person survived and a long-running program that is helping close the gap between how many Black and white babies in Baltimore live to see their first birthday. Dr. Taylor closes with heartfelt advice about investing in your people and protecting your own well-being so you can keep doing the work you love. Press play for a hopeful reminder that good things are happening in public health, and that the right people around you can open doors you never imagined. Resources ▶️ Join the PHEC Podcast Community ▶️ Visit the PHEC Podcast Show Notes ▶️ DrCHHuntley, Public Health & Epidemiology Consulting

Can you draw public health? Brian Castrucci, DrPH, President and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, has asked thousands of people to try, and even the most seasoned professionals come up stumped. In this episode, Dr. Castrucci joins Dr. Huntley to share how a last-minute invitation to a seminar on gun violence launched a 30-year career that has taken him from local health departments to national philanthropy. He explains why the skills you build (he calls it your Batman utility belt) will carry you through every career turn, and why he believes the future of public health depends on clear communication, strong partnerships, and smart policy. If you have ever struggled to explain your work to family and friends, or wondered how public health can rebuild trust during a pivotal election year, this conversation will leave you with fresh ideas and plenty of hope. Resources ▶️ Join the PHEC Podcast Community ▶️ Visit the PHEC Podcast Show Notes ▶️ DrCHHuntley, Public Health & Epidemiology Consulting

What happens when a podcast that has published a new conversation every Tuesday since 2017 decides to try something it has never done before? In this solo episode, Dr. Huntley pauses to reintroduce herself to new and longtime listeners, sharing how her work as an epidemiologist and entrepreneur spans consulting with nonprofits (primarily tribal nations), hosting two podcasts, and now writing a book. She opens up about the excitement and nerves of holding advance copies of The Public Health Consultant: Expertise, Entrepreneurship, Greater Impact, which publishes December 15, 2026, with Johns Hopkins University Press. Then she announces a first in PHEC history, as a new voice steps up to introduce guests and topics beginning with the very next episode. Tune in to find out who it is, and learn how you can meet Dr. Huntley and the PHEC team in person at the APHA Annual Meeting in San Antonio, where you might even become part of a live recording.     Resources ▶️ Join the PHEC Podcast Community ▶️ Visit the PHEC Podcast Show Notes ▶️ DrCHHuntley, Public Health & Epidemiology Consulting  

What does it actually take to explain public health when the field itself feels like it's under attack? In this special roundtable episode, Dr. Huntley brings together three public health professionals, Dr. Belina Shaw, Jenna Paladino, and Ashley Peterson, for a real time conversation about how they translate their work into language that friends, family, and coworkers can actually understand. From a psychiatrist turned "doctorpreneur" connecting financial stress to physical health, to a healthcare lobbyist explaining access through the lens of who pays for it, to a health education specialist building worksite wellness programs from the ground up, each guest shares the analogies and stories that help public health click for the people around them. Along the way, they get honest about job loss, funding cuts, and what it looks like to keep serving communities when the systems around you are shifting. This is a conversation about creativity, resilience, and why public health belongs in every room, no matter who is in it. Resources ▶️ Join the PHEC Podcast Community ▶️ Visit the PHEC Podcast Show Notes ▶️ DrCHHuntley, Public Health & Epidemiology Consulting  

What happens when a twist of fate turns an emergency physician into one of the most influential voices in American public health? In this episode, Dr. Huntley talks with Georges C. Benjamin, MD, who has spent the past twenty four years with the American Public Health Association, about the winding path that took him from military medicine, to health commissioner in Washington, D.C., to health secretary in Maryland, and eventually to his role today. Dr. Benjamin shares candid stories along the way, explains why public health is political even while staying nonpartisan, and describes how APHA is building coalitions and holding decision makers accountable during a challenging moment for the field. He also looks ahead to this year's APHA Annual Meeting in San Antonio and why it matters for the public health community to gather together. It's a conversation full of history, honesty, and hope for what's next in public health.   Resources ▶️ Join the PHEC Podcast Community ▶️ Visit the PHEC Podcast Show Notes ▶️ DrCHHuntley, Public Health & Epidemiology Consulting  

Meghan Jernigan spent her childhood in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma driving over an hour just to reach the nearest Indian Health Service hospital. That drive shaped everything that came after. Dr. Huntley talks with Meghan, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, about the unlikely path from a theater degree at Oklahoma State to two decades of work in tribal epidemiology, research, and now federal relations for the Washington State Department of Health. They dig into why storytelling and relationship building matter as much as data when you're translating federal rulemaking into something communities can actually use. At the center of the conversation is a landmark data sharing agreement between Washington State and two federally recognized tribes, one that's reshaping who gets to hold and interpret their own health information. Meghan also talks wildfire season, measles outbreaks, and what it takes to keep a state health department steady while the ground keeps shifting beneath it. This one's about power, trust, and communities finally telling their own story with their own data.   Resources ▶️ Join the PHEC Podcast Community ▶️ Visit the PHEC Podcast Show Notes ▶️ DrCHHuntley, Public Health & Epidemiology Consulting  

Cleveland's smoking rate was double the national average — and it wasn't an accident. Tobacco companies targeted Black neighborhoods, low-income communities, and youth with free menthol cigarettes as smoking dropped everywhere else. Dr. David Margolius spent years watching the fallout as a primary care physician before taking that fight to Cleveland's Department of Public Health. The result: smoking rates cut nearly in half, lead poisoning down by a third. He and Dr. Huntley talk about what it actually takes to move numbers like that — and why public health has to stop working in the shadows.   Resources ▶️ Join the PHEC Podcast Community ▶️ Visit the PHEC Podcast Show Notes ▶️ DrCHHuntley, Public Health & Epidemiology Consulting  

A sidewalk. A nine-hour ER wait. Two very different stories, one question: what does "public health" actually mean? Oluoma Eze and Savaiz Siddiqui join Dr. Huntley to unpack the parts of healthcare nobody explains well — the housing, the waiting rooms, the policy decisions made about us, usually without us. Real stories. No jargon. Just a better way to talk about the system that shapes our lives long before we ever see a doctor.   Resources ▶️ Join the PHEC Podcast Community ▶️ Visit the PHEC Podcast Show Notes ▶️ DrCHHuntley, Public Health & Epidemiology Consulting