Explore
Search results
We know the success of our economy depends in large part on a vibrant, market-based economic system. But markets, by their nature, don’t deal effectively with many issues. We must also have a constructive and effective government, with a willingness to engage in principled compromise and ground decisions in facts and analysis.The fundamental challenge facing our economy is...
When he was sworn in as 25th commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration in February 2022, Robert Califf knew the assignment would be intense because he had held the post before. With its oversight of more than $2.7 trillion in medical products, food, and tobacco—one-fifth of the nation’s economy—the FDA is always under pressure. Today, artificial intelligence, bre...
As the nation’s top doctor, the US surgeon general is uniquely positioned to use his bully pulpit to drive Americans toward healthy decision-making. Jerome Adams is the 20th person to serve in that capacity, where he promotes wellness strategies, warns the public against emerging health hazards, and is a leader of the 6,500-person Public Health Service Commissioned Corps,...
Jeffrey Sachs, named by The Economist as one of the world’s “three most influential living economists” is the author of End of Poverty, Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, and The Age of Sustainable Development. Turning his bold and optimistic eye toward global health, he presents a compelling framework that integrates health with the environment, the economy, t...
As secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres led the global adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. But she was not always so hopeful, and recalls a turning point as she consciously shifted her attitude from despair to stubborn optimism. Jeff Goodell, author of The Water Will Come sits down with Figueres to reve...
America’s robust biomedical ecosystem and the therapeutic advances it has introduced are making remarkable progress against cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other serious illnesses. But much more needs to be done to ensure that all communities can access the treatments and care they need. Prohibitive costs, ingrained biases, healthcare deserts, and distrust in the medica...
Jerome Adams, the US surgeon general and the nation's doctor, joins Patrick Harker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, in conversation. The Federal Reserve researches and works to help strengthen local economies in communities across the country. Through its Economic Growth and Mobility Project, the Philadelphia Fed focuses on turning research into acti...
Two US Department of Agriculture Secretaries, one past, one present, come together to talk about American food policies. Agricultural supports and other decisions made on US soil, and the trade agreements we negotiate around the world, have powerful effects on the global food supply; land conservation; the use of water, nitrogen, and pesticides; and animal and plant diseas...
Scientists and policymakers all agree that another pandemic is inevitable—and that we are still not prepared. Whether it is a COVID mutation, a bird flu, or something entirely unforeseen, the extent of the dangers we will face depends on public health, clinical capacity, the lethality of a new virus, and the ease of its transmission. Early warning systems and an equitable...
The pathway to health sometimes travels through a physician’s office, but economic stability, the physical environment, access to nutritional foods, adequate schools, and social support may be even more important way stations. These and other social determinants of health need to be considered in an integrated fashion, engaging collaborators across disciplines who have not...
How can we unlock the power of entrepreneurship to widen access to health care, close gender disparity, and increase prosperity in the global South? Hear from expert voices and innovators on tools to address social, economic, and environmental challenges in developing economies.
About 40 percent of GDP in the United States is spent on either the health or financial industries, yet workers themselves are in increasingly dire health and financial straits. The plight of a large segment of the American public should be a siren call to sector leaders to align their business goals with actions that enhance household well-being and healthy communities. F...
From academic pressures to classroom shootings, economic uncertainty to climate change, young people are facing more stressors than ever, and it’s surfacing in some terrible ways. In the past 12 months, 62 percent of college students said they had felt overwhelming anxiety at some point, 41 percent were so depressed that it was difficult to function, and 11 percent had ser...
Coastal Louisiana is in crisis. Since the 1930s, the state has lost more than 2,000 square miles of land. Every 100 minutes, a football field of coastal land disappears into open water. That adds up to an area the size of Delaware being swallowed, in small and steady gulps, by the Gulf of Mexico. Can the state’s bold, $50 billion restoration plan save the residents, wildli...
Improved housing offers a tremendous opportunity to boost health. Some of the links between substandard housing and poor health are obvious, if alarming – pests and mold promote asthma, lead poisoning irreversibly damages the brains of developing children, inadequate heating and ventilation increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Less immediately visible is the impact...
To address the food deserts throughout many of New York City’s low-income communities, the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund (LMTIF) leveraged public and private partnerships to build healthy food initiatives focused on contributing vitality, economic opportunity, and health equity. Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) and LMTIF will release new findings on the impact o...
It is no longer possible to separate the health of the planet from the health of its people. Disease patterns are changing as the climate does, and human health is at risk from loss of biodiversity, depleted water supplies, environmental toxins, and collapsing food systems. As the Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health states: “The continuing degradat...
Despite decades of economic growth, the population as a whole — and surprisingly — is slightly less happy. On paper, many have lives that appear awesome, but they're just not feeling it. Even those with great material and financial affluence are not as psychologically well-off as they could be. Laurie Santos, professor of psychology and teacher of Yale's most popular class...
As the second largest minority group in the country, Latinos represent 19% of the population and play a significant economic, social, and cultural role. They also face disproportionate health challenges, including high rates of diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. The absence of adequate health insurance, lack of timely access to care, language barr...
When the US Supreme Court rolled back the 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion, attention immediately turned to the health and economic significance for women forced to carry an unwanted or risky pregnancy to term. Those profound concerns persist, but a year later, numerous unanticipated consequences are also coming into focus. The tentacles of impact stretch in al...