Tens of thousands of people got sick this summer from a foodborne illness outbreak that was preventable. In today’s episode, Ken speaks with Sarah Sorscher, director of regulatory affairs for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, about the cyclospora outbreak sweeping the U.S.

The outbreak is a direct symptom of years of underinvestment and recent cuts to public health infrastructure by the Trump administration. From the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions’ shrinking FoodNet surveillance program to the thousands of Food and Drug Administration and Health and Human Services staff lost to layoffs and early retirements, Sarah lays out how the systems meant to catch contamination early have been dismantled.

It’s happening under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his unfulfilled Make America Healthy Again promises on food chemicals and a food safety loophole, synthetic dyes and defining "ultra-processed food. And it begs the question: Why are the people who promised to fix the food system are the ones gutting the agencies built to protect it?

For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:

CSPI's synthetic dyes commitments tracker

The Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic memo on the FRESH Act

Politico’s: USDA cyclospora research projects shelved amid funding cuts and relocations

Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.

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"Ask where the landfill is, and you'll find where the Black people live." That's what Vernice Miller-Travis' grandmother told her. Vernice Miller-Travis helped write the report that first proved, with data, what Black communities had always known: Hazardous waste sites are not randomly distributed; they're concentrated in communities of color.

She has spent decades building the environmental justice movement, co-founding WE ACT for Environmental Justice, leading environmental justice grantmaking at the Ford Foundation, and founding the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Environmental Justice Initiative.

Miller-Travis, who is Ken’s guest today, now serves as executive vice president for environmental and social justice at Metropolitan Group, working with communities and institutions on the racial and economic conflicts that persist in our environment due to regulatory inaction.

For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:

https://www.metgroup.com/

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Dr. Georges Benjamin is the CEO of the American Public Health Association, with 25 years at the helm of one of the most respected public health institutions in the U.S. And he’s Ken’s guest today.

At the beginning of 2025, Benjamin made an appearance on Ken’s livestream during Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 's Senate confirmation hearing to be health secretary. At the time, Benjamin warned what could happen with RFK Jr. as the national head of public health.

Fast forward to today, America faces its worst measles outbreak in 35 years, with over 2,300 cases and counting. Taylor Farms, already potentially linked to a deadly E. coli outbreak, is at the center of a massive Cyclospora outbreak tied to contaminated lettuce sickening thousands.

Benjamin unpacks how we got here, what RFK Jr. gets wrong, why Make America Health Again was never going to get the support it needed from Republicans and why gutting public health infrastructure has consequences.

For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:

https://www.apha.org

Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.

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Everyday we rely on governmental regulatory systems and animal testing to tell us if the chemicals we’re exposed to will or won’t hurt us. But what if AI could help us get more ethical and more accurate answers and avoid animal testing altogether?

In today’s episode, Ken is joined by Dr. Thomas Hartung, Ph.D, a professor at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose work spans the fields of environmental health, engineering, molecular microbiology, and immunology. Hartung’s team are developing cutting edge tools in the world of toxicology: AI and human stem cell models that help us understand our genetic reactions to chemicals and, ultimately, make our lives safer.

Hartung argues that AI has the power to analyze vast data sets of untested or undertested chemicals, “cocktail” combinations, and even different exposure rates and frequencies. All these variations can give us a much more nuanced understanding of the chemicals that permeate our lives, potentially reshaping how chemicals are assessed and regulated.

For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/faculty/2308/thomas-hartung

https://caat.publichealth.jhu.edu/

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1119989

Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.

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Menopause affects every woman who lives to midlife, and yet it is understudied and undertreated – a research gap that many attribute to medical bias.

In today’s episode, Ken is joined by Dr. Lauren Petrick, an environmental health scientist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she leads the Petrick Lab. She recently published a study, “Impact of Environmental Exposures on Menopausal Symptoms,” that synthesizes evidence from studies linking everyday chemical exposures – like phthalates, phenols, heavy metals, air pollution, and pesticides – to a wide range of menopausal symptoms. These symptoms range from hot flashes and mood changes to sleep disruption and beyond.

As a midlife woman, Petrick brings a personal lens to her research, which suggests that the phthalates in your plastic containers, the fragrances in your personal care products, and the air quality in your neighborhood may all be connected to the symptoms women experience during perimenopause and menopause.

She argues that perimenopause and menopause are a critical “window of susceptibility” to environmental exposures - much like pregnancy and puberty.

For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:

Dr. Petrick’s study: Environmental Exposures on Menopausal Symptoms

Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.

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From the day we’re born, our bodies contain a constant mix of chemicals. But our regulatory system only targets these substances one at a time. Current policies don’t adequately account for the health threats of mixtures, when two or more chemicals combine inside us.

In today’s episode, Ken talks about chemical mixtures with Dr. Jabeen Taiba, who recently published a study called, “Exploring the Joint Association Between Agrichemical Mixtures and Pediatric Cancer.”

From the study: “We observed a statistically significant positive association between 32 agrichemicals,” which were all pesticides, “and overall pediatric cancer and subtypes, and the strength of the association was slightly stronger among brain and CNS cancers compared to overall cancer.”

Dr. Taiba is a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Nebraska’s Water, Climate, and Health program. She's trained as a multidisciplinary researcher, with a background in epidemiology, and has robust experience in clinical research, public health, and large data sets. She and Ken delve into what happens when chemicals mix and how this impacts our most vulnerable: children.

EWG has been studying mixtures since the early 2000s. But chemical companies only test one chemical at a time in its purest form. With more scientists like Dr. Taiba, we’re hopeful that can change.

For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:

The Halifax Project

Dr. Jabeen Taiba’s study

Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.

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Do you ever feel a sense of personal responsibility for plastic pollution? That reaction is no accident - it’s the result of a decades-long public relations strategy designed to shift blame away from the industries driving the problem.In today’s episode Ken talks with award-winning environmental journalist and author Beth Gardiner. Her new book, “Plastic Inc. The Secret History and Shocking Future of Big Oil’s Biggest Bet,” reveals why Big Oil is responsible for the global plastic pollution problem.

Beth traces the full arc of the oil and plastic industry’s political strategy as well as the origins of plastic recycling as a PR opportunity rather than an environmental solution.

Against the backdrop of weakening environmental safeguards and shifting regulatory priorities, the episode asks a pressing question: how do we hold some of the most powerful industries on the planet accountable for a crisis they helped create?

For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:

Buy Beth Gardiner’s book

Beth Gardiner’s website

Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.

@kencookspodcast

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There is an ongoing lawsuit between the American Academy of Pediatrics v. Robert F Kennedy Jr., head of HHS. The lead attorney of the lawsuit challenging the HHS vaccine policy changes is Ken’s guest today.

Richard H Hughes VI is a professor at George Washington University Law School as well as a partner at Epstein Becker Green. In addition to the American Academy of Pediatrics, Hughes’ law firm also represents the American College of Physicians and the American Public Health Association.

Richard breaks down the legal framework behind the lawsuit against Kennedy, including the effort to dismantle and remake the ACIP advisory committee, the broader implications for federal vaccine policy, and the growing erosion of public trust in pediatricians, vaccines, and public health institutions.

For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:

Find the court docket for the case American Academy of Pediatrics v. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. here

And Judge Brian Murphy’s ruling here that opens with an adaptation of a famous quote from the late astronomer and scientist Carl Sagan: “Science, like law, is far from a perfect instrument of knowledge…nevertheless, science is still the best we have.”

Richard Hughes, Professorial Lecturer in Law

New York Times: Kennedy, in His Own Words: Flu, Diabetes, Autism and More

Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.

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