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Dick Metcalf has been shooting since kindergarten, a member of the NRA since middle school. He’s been studying, writing, and teaching about firearms for over 40 years. But Metcalf’s long career as a columnist with Guns & Ammo magazine came to an abrupt halt in late 2013 after he penned a column that explored the line between firearm regulation and Second Amendment infring...
If we just do enough yoga, cleanse with the optimal juice fast, and buy products designed to help us meditate or foster positive thinking, we’ll feel better. That, at least, is what the $650 billion wellness industry wants us to believe. But what’s making us ill, argues Kerri Kelly, author of American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal, can’t be cured by...
Over the past decade, levels of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide have increased dramatically, but the causes are more nuanced than the headlines suggest. This session unpacks the data and real-world learnings to shed light on the changes — at the policy, family, school, and community levels — that have the most potential to improve kids’ well-being.
Every day, 91 Americans die following an opioid overdose. The misuse of opioids such as prescription pain relievers, heroin, and fentanyl is a national crisis, with a profound impact on social and economic well-being and on the public health. Although effective treatments for opioid addiction do exist, they are sorely underutilized. Potential therapies to help curtail the...
The recent leaps of science—sequencing the human genome, advancing the world-changing technology of CRISPR, deepening knowledge of the brain—owe much to Francis Collins’s brilliant mind and steady hand. Who better, then, to talk about what transformative discoveries come next? Genomics, immunotherapy, precision medicine, new uses for mRNA technology, and other interdiscipl...
A passion for food — growing it, cooking it, and eating it — has become one of the favorite pastimes of countless people. Did it all begin with James Beard? Learn why that claim is made in the new PBS American Masters documentary, James Beard: America’s First Foodie. Following the film, Corby Kummer, food writer for The Atlantic, will lead a panel discussion with two of Am...
The rapid rise of retail health presents traditional provider organizations with many challenges as they shift beyond a facility-based care model to one more closely aligned with patient expectations for convenience, affordability, and a personalized, consumer-oriented journey. It also introduces vast opportunities to leverage emerging technologies and care models to impro...
Many of the people doing today’s most consequential environmental work — restoring America’s grasslands, wildlife, soil, rivers, wetlands, and oceans — would not call themselves environmentalists; they would be too uneasy with the connotations of that word. What drives them is their deep love of the land — they feel a moral responsibility to preserve their heritage and ens...
Through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Insurance Program, and the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides or oversees health coverage for more than 150 million people across the country. With $1.5 trillion in annual healthcare spending, CMS plays a key role in shaping the direction of the US...
The United States is experiencing a critical shortage of healthcare workers—with labor market data showing a 3.2 million worker deficit by 2026. The growing crisis is causing disruptions across the healthcare landscape, but novel care models and new technology show promise in revolutionizing care delivery. How are hospitals leveraging existing technology and teams to reima...
Today’s kids are facing a mental health crisis unlike any before them, with rates of severe loneliness, anxiety, and depressive episodes reaching new heights. It’s an urgent concern with far-reaching impacts, especially for those in historically marginalized communities who too often do not have access to the help they need. How can organizations leverage their scale to ma...
Cancer is on the rise in Africa, with the World Health Organization predicting that by 2020, it will take the lives of one million people a year across the continent. The most common forms of the disease in Africa -- breast, cervical and prostate cancers -- are also the most treatable, but drugs have been in scarce supply, and the price of treatment remains a huge obstacle...
As the nation’s top doctor, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy helps to advance the health and well-being of all Americans. He has described the growing youth mental health crisis in America as the “defining public health crisis of our time” and warned that social media carries a “profound risk of harm to the mental health of children and adolescents.” Murthy has also highlig...
The Zika virus, first identified among humans in 1952 in Uganda, began spreading across the Americas and the Caribbean in 2015. Locally-acquired cases on the continental US are imminent. Considered a public health emergency by the World Health Organization, Zika can cause microcephaly and other severe brain defects in newborns and has been associated with Guillain-Barre sy...
More than $2.7 trillion worth of food, medical products, and tobacco, representing 20 percent of every dollar spent by US consumers, is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Always in the public eye, and often summoned to explain its actions to Congress, the FDA is as likely to be lauded as lambasted for its swift authorization of COVID-19 vaccines, its deci...
Join Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Kai Ryssdal, host of “Marketplace,” for a conversation about where health care goes from here. While the public debate is still to repeal or not to repeal, the fact is that the Affordable Care Act is part of the lives of millions of Americans, whose health care security depends on it. The key questions we...
Despite high demand for nutritious foods, many Americans experience gaps, challenges, and barriers when it comes to access and agency over their nutrition. How can the public and private sector work together to unlock and advance a more inclusive state of nutrition for all? Presented by Danone
Courts play a pivotal role in determining what health services American receive, and how they are paid for. That’s been apparent in the challenges to the Affordable Care Act and it will be evident as advocates respond to the restrictive new abortion laws being passed in multiple states. The judicial system is also deeply involved in decisions that affect commerce, many of...
Few health and social welfare policy issues escape the oversight of the US Department of Health and Human Services, second in size only to the Department of Defense. Prescription drug costs, access to reproductive health services, national and domestic public health threats like COVID-19, and the epidemic of loneliness are all within its purview. As it implements the healt...
Development in the Global South is fundamentally about dignity – the dignity of people, of planet, and of all life. In a new anthology by the Aspen New Voices Fellows, the authors offer a balanced view of global health and development, presenting a fresh perspective in an increasingly polarized world. Hear them tell stories of their quest for dignity and share engaging ins...