Health & Veritas
Howard Forman and Harlan Krumholz, two Yale physician-professors, discuss the latest news and ideas in healthcare and seek out the truth amid the noise.
Produced with the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of Public Health. New episodes are available every Thursday.

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Episodes
- PodcastEpisode 51Duration 33:06
Taking the Pulse
Howie and Harlan check in on new research and health issues in the news, including studies on colonoscopies and the timing of hypertension medication, the state of the monkey pox and polio outbreaks, and the wave of legislation restricting treatment of trans youth.
- PodcastEpisode 50Duration 35:13
Dr. Ania Jastreboff: The Revolution in Obesity Medication
Howie and Harlan look at the plunging cost of sequencing an individual genome, and the problem of concussions among athletes at all levels. And they’re joined by Dr. Ania Jastreboff, a Yale obesity specialist, to discuss the dramatic results from a new class of drugs that target the brain’s system for regulating body fat.
- PodcastEpisode 49Duration 31:13
Ingrid Nembhard: Improving Healthcare Organizations to Improve Health
Harlan discusses the problem of “financial toxicity”—how medical bills can wreak havoc in vulnerable patients’ lives. Howie reflects on the protests in Iran and the precariousness of the freedoms we enjoy in the United States. And they are joined by Ingrid Nembhard of the University of Pennsylvania to discuss her work on the organizational factors that shape patient care.
- PodcastEpisode 48Duration 30:53
Jonathan Rothberg: The Scientist-Entrepreneur
Howie and Harlan react to President Joe Biden’s declaration that the pandemic is over. Then they’re joined by Jonathan Rothberg, a Yale-trained scientist who has created new methods for sequencing DNA and founded a series of successful biotech companies.
- PodcastEpisode 47Duration 36:56
Dr. Jeremy Faust: Is COVID Over? It's Complicated.
Howie and Harlan discuss the confusion over COVID therapeutics, even among professionals. Then they're joined by Dr. Jeremy Faust, a researcher, emergency physician, and public voice on COVID and other issues—as well as an active choral conductor. They discuss his unusual path, the state of the pandemic, and the importance of understanding “excess mortality.”
- PodcastEpisode 46Duration 33:55
Dr. Esther Choo: The View from the Emergency Department
Harlan outlines his new study tracking excess mortality over the course of the pandemic in the highly vaccinated state of Massachusetts; Howie discusses how the Inflation Reduction Act will tackle drug prices. They're joined by Dr. Esther Choo to talk about life as a doctor on social media and the crisis facing emergency departments.
- PodcastEpisode 45Duration 16:33
Beating the Outbreaks
Monkeypox, polio, and COVID-19 have all received the World Health Organization’s rarely used global health emergency designation. Howie and Harlan offer a needed sense of proportion alongside health information, updates on research, and policy developments for the grim trio of diseases.
- PodcastEpisode 43Duration 31:11
Teresa Chahine: The Social Entrepreneur’s Guide to Making Change
Howie and Harlan are joined by Teresa Chahine, the Sheila and Ron ’92 B.A. Marcelo Senior Lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship at Yale SOM. They discuss how social entrepreneurs use an interdisciplinary, iterative, community-centric approach to innovation to create self-sustaining solutions to problems in public health and other areas.
- PodcastEpisode 42Duration 35:20
Jennifer Miller: Scoring the Ethics of Pharma Companies
Howie and Harlan discuss Harlan's large new study tracking the trajectory of patient safety in hospitals, and consider how individuals should respond to the latest COVID-19 variants. They're joined by Jennifer Miller, a Yale bioethicist and the director of the Good Pharma Scorecard, which evaluates the performance of pharmaceutical companies on measures like the transparency of clinical trials and the accessibility of medicines.
Links:
“New Federal Study Evaluates the Safety of US Hospitals and the Answer Is…”
“Trends in Adverse Event Rates in Hospitalized Patients, 2010-2019”
Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM.
Howie and Harlan talk with Dr. James Hamblin, a journalist and a lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health. They discuss his approach to communicating about public health, his prescient February 2020 article on COVID-19, and why he’s quit taking showers.
Links:
James Hamblin: The Body
“You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus”
Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM.
Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.