How and why have certain methods, topics, and assumptions been favored by public health throughout history, and how has that shaped the truths we know today?

Merlin joins Salma to discuss how history provides the framework to understand how specific moments in time have shaped the research preferred by public health, illustrating that these priorities are not timeless but shift according to time-bound contexts. They use the Toxic Docs project as a prime example to highlight the value of archival data, showing how once-secret corporate records can expose the interference of industry interests on scientific activities and knowledge building. Shifting focus, they also examine the risks associated with the field's over-reliance on federal funding and the importance of understanding the legal and legislative frameworks governing these resources to better protect public health initiatives from political tensions and policy shifts. Finally, they discuss the friction between community knowledge and institutional expertise, emphasizing that neither "communities always know best" nor "experts are always right" serves as a sufficient answer.

About the guest:

Merlin Chowkwanyun, PhD, MPH is the Donald H. Gemson Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health. Their research is focused on the history of health, with an emphasis on community and environmental health, racial inequity, and social activism for health.

Notes:

Acronyms mentioned in this episode include:

• DEI = Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• MAHA = Make America Healthy Again
• NIH = National Institutes of Health
• RWJF = Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• TSCA = Toxic Substances Control Act

Useful resources:

• Toxic Docs: Toxicdocs.org

Host: Dr. Salma Abdalla

Editors: Catalina Melendez Contreras

Marketing: Kinkini Bhaduri

Music: Eden Avery / Melting Glass from Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/2fqOXWpHab/

The views and opinions expressed by the guest in this episode do not necessarily reflect those of their institution, the funders, or the podcast team.

What is the relevance of history, and individual stories, when framing current public health research and practice?

Rebecca and Salma discuss the role of population-level history, and individual stories, in public health as part of the active tools for framing and translating research and interventions. To illustrate this, they use a historical case from 18th century Bologna and show how authority over the body and knowledge has shifted across time, and whose stories get remembered or erased. Similarly, they analyze examples from the 1348 plague, the 1918 influenza, and Covid to explore the long history of mistrust in medical authority. Overall, they make the case for the routine integration of humanists, artists, and historians into public health institutions, and argue for the potential of performance and the arts as tools for reshaping public health narratives and behavior.

About the guest:

Dr Rebecca Messbarger is Professor of Italian and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Italian at the Washington University in St louis Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, and has a secondary appointment as Professor of Public Health at the Bursky School of Public Health. Rebecca researches the Italian Enlightenment, with a focus on the role of women in civic and academic life, and the intersections of anatomy and art, and medicine and religion.

Notes:

Acronyms mentioned in this episode include:

• AIDS = Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Useful resources:

The Eye: A Medical Humanities Podcast — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-eye-a-medical-humanities-podcast/id1814000357

Host: Dr. Salma Abdalla

Editors: Catalina Melendez Contreras

Marketing: Kinkini Bhaduri

Music: Eden Avery / Melting Glass from Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/2fqOXWpHab/

The views and opinions expressed by the guest in this episode do not necessarily reflect those of their institution, the funders, or the podcast team.

This episode is a re-run of the Ideas Matter podcast episode “The Future of Science and the Replication Crisis” hosted by Dean Sandro Galea, Co-Director of the Building Better Ways of Knowing initiative, in conversation with Professor John Ioannidis. The original episode was released by Ideas Matter on May 19, 2026.

This episode begins with a discussion of Dr. Ioannidis’ paper about how most research findings cannot be replicated. Following the argument of this paper, Dean Galea and Dr. Ioannidis unpack the structural and statistical forces—incentives, funding, tenure, and conflicts of interest—that drive this replication challenge, and highlight the progress that has been made despite these challenges, using genetic epidemiology as an example. They also discuss the pandemic, and how it served as a stress-test for science, requiring disciplines to show their capacity to rapid response but also promoting low-quality research.

Forward-facing, Dean Galea and Dr. Ioannidis discuss the role of AI and LLMs in both improving and potentially deteriorating science, including the rise of fake papers and the privatization of knowledge, they formulate what success for science might look like in 20-30 years, debate how scientists should handle controversy and pushback, and highlight the of humility in science and remaining open to being wrong.

If you have ever questioned whether science is getting things right, this conversation will give you both an honest answer and reasons for cautious optimism.

About the guest:

John Ioannidis is the George E. and Lucy Becker Professor of Medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and Professor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University. His research focuses on improving research methods and practices to generate more reliable, trustworthy, and useful evidence. He is among the most cited scholars in Clinical Medicine, Social Sciences and Psychiatry/Psychology, and is the author of the most-accessed article in the history of Public Library of Science.

Notes:

Acronyms mentioned in this episode include:

AI = Artificial Intelligence

LLM = Large Language Models

Useful resources:

Ioannidis JPA. Why Most Published Research Findings Are False. PLoS Med. 2005;2(8):e124. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124

Host: Dr. Salma Abdalla

Editors: Ryan Rhea and Catalina Melendez Contreras

Marketing: Kinkini Bhaduri

Music: Eden Avery / Melting Glass from Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/2fqOXWpHab/

The views and opinions expressed by the guest in this episode do not necessarily reflect those of their institution, the funders, or the podcast team.