Tag Archives: Health

Africa once again has an Ebola outbreak. At this point, it is centered in the so-called Greak Lakes region, with the largest number of cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Uganda has also seen several cases. Sadly this is not new news. But it takes place in the context of a weakened World Health Organization, with the US withdrawal, and a stark memory of the Covid outbreaks. It also is exacerbated by the shuttering of USAID and severe cuts in health funding from the Trump Administration. The United States is insisting that any American that tests positive for the virus would be treated outside of the country, provoking protests in East Africa such as in Kenya. So is the Ebola outbreak a potential pandemic? What has been the most effective means to treat these kinds of outbreaks. And how does it influence the current intense discourses about health care delivery and wellness in the United States. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Heather Wipfli is Professor and Clark Leadership Chair in Global Health at the University of Maryland. She is the co-author of Investigating global mental health: Contributions from political science and Network influences on policy implementation: Evidence from a global health treaty. And she has extensive experience in Uganda.
Lawrence Gostin is Faculty Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and is the Founding O’Neill Chair in Global Health Law at Georgetown Law. He is the co-editor of Global Health Security: A Blueprint for the Future and Global Health Law & Policy: Ensuring Justice for a Healthier World (2023). And he is working with the WHO and the Intergovernmental Negotiation Body (INB) to draft a Pandemic Treaty. His opinion posted in Washington Post titled – “Don’t tell Trump, but the U.S. is still a WHO member” and in The Hill where he co-authored “America’s wrong and unlawful response to Ebola must pivot“.
Amesha Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is the author of Recognition and Management of Infectious Bio-threats and Emerging Pathogens and AI and the Future of Medical Countermeasures to Protect Against Biological Threats. He has served on US government panels tasked with developing guidelines for the treatment of plague, botulism, and anthrax in mass casualty settings, the system of care for infectious disease

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker and Sudd Dongre.

Health, Infectious Diseases, Public Health and Safety, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Trauma Experienced by Children from School Shootings – May 24, 2026

May 24, 2026 host

Mass shootings in the Unites States are unprecedented in advanced industrial democracies. We explore the psychological impact of these shootings on the survivors and witnesses, with a particular attention to the children who experience this trauma. What are effective actions to confront the traumas experienced by the children who survive school shootings? Overwhelming the response of mass shootings is to “do something.” But what should we as a society and as an electorate do in response to these mass shootings? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Karla Vermeulen is the Deputy Director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health and an Associate Professor of Psychology at SUNY New Paltz.She is the author of Generation Disaster: Coming of Age Post-9/11 and co-editor of Disaster Mental Health Case Studies: Lessons Learned from Counseling in Chaos.
Robin Gurwitch is a Professor in the Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and is Senior Advisor for the Terrorism and Disaster Program of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. She is the co-author of Children in Disasters and Trauma-Directed Interaction (TDI): An Adaptation to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for Families with a History of Trauma. Resource – National Child Traumatic Stress Network – Talking to children about shooting.
Heather Littleton is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado, at Colorado Springs, and Research Director at the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience. She is the co-author of “PTSD near and far: Symptom networks from two to 12 months after the Virginia Tech campus shootings.” And “Can people benefit from acute stress? Social support, psychological improvement, and resilience after the Virginia Tech campus shootings” as well as numerous publications on sexual violence and the trauma of the LGBTQI+ community.

More resources are available at:

https://www.newpaltz.edu/idmh/

https://www.nctsn.org/resources/talking-children-about-shooting

This panel was recorded on June, 2022.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

Health, Society and Culture, Mental Health, Childhood, Schools

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – SCOTUS Allows Access to Medication Abortion Pill Delivery by Mail – May 17, 2026

May 17, 2026 host

In 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, which guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion. But previously the Court had allowed restrictions on abortions, making access quite challenging in a large part of the country. In response to these restrictions, women had gained access through prescription drugs, or what is called medication abortion. This involves two prescription drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol. Last week, a federal court issued an order disallowing mifepristone to be prescribed via telehealth and then distributed by mail. As we record today, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on this federal court order. So on today’s show, we take account to the status of access to medication abortion and what it means both for reproductive rights and health and for the law on this issue. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Rachel Rebouché is Professor of Law at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Abortion Rights as Human Rights and co-author of The New Abortion Battleground and Abortion Pills (with David S. Cohen and Greer Donley).
Carole Joffe is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe v. Wade and the co-author of After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court ended Roe but not Abortion with David Cohen.
Natalie Fixmer-Oriaz, F Wendell Miller Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Gender, Woman’s the Sexuality Studies at the University of Iowa. She is author of Homeland Maternity: US Security Culture and the New Reproductive Regime (2019) and Doing Gender Justice: Queering Reproduction, Kin, and Care (2025; with Shui-yin Sharon Yam).

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.

Health, Medicine, Reproductive Health, Courts, Feminism, Mothers

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Health care disparities on the basis of race in the U.S.- February 15, 2026

February 15, 2026 host

Health care outcomes in the U.S. differ substantially depending on race. How much are health care discrepancies based on structural and historical racism? What needs to change to promote health justice in the U.S. and what kinds of policies are needed to promote this change? How important is diversity of health care providers in building a more just healthcare system? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Keisha Ray teaches Bioethics and Humanities as a tenured associate professor in Texas. She is the author of Black Health: The Social, Political, and Cultural Determinants of Black People’s Health.
Ruqaiijah Yearby is the Judge Clifford Scott Green Chair in Law at Temple University Beasley School of Law. She is also Co-Founder of the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity and one of the Co-Founders of the Collaborative for Anti-Racism & Equity. She is the book chapter author of “Gender Bias, Mental Health Inequities, and Health Justice” in the book Mental Health Equity.
Dylan H. Roby is the Chair and Professor of Health, Society, and Behavior at UC Irvine. He is the co-author of Ending Structural Racism in the US Health Care System to Eliminate Health Care Inequities.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.

Health, Politics and Activism, Medicine , Racism

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – US orders withdrawal from WHO ; Jimmy Carter’s Legacy – January 26, 2025

January 28, 2025 host

The United States has announced its intention to leave the World Health Organization. What does this mean for the US, for the WHO and for campaigns to maintain global health? [ dur: 29mins. ]

Sofia Gruskin is a Director of IIGH and Distinguished Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences and Law at USC. She is a co-author of Listening is Believing: Can Oral History Catalyze Greater Investment in Health and Human Rights?.
Laura Ferguson is a Director of Program on Global Health & Human Rights Associate Professor, Population and Public Health Sciences at USC. She has co-authored Are Rights-Based Services Important? An Adolescent PrEP Demonstration Project in Brazil

Then, Jimmy Carter died last month. Perhaps his greatest impact is the advancement of human rights and the near eradication of the Guinea Worm. We look at his legacy both as President and as post-President. [ dur: 29mins. ]

Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin. He holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the co-author of “Problems with President Records are Not Just About Trump” with Kenneth Osgood. He is also the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office. He is the host of the podcast This is Democracy.
Jill Sohm is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Director of the Program at the University of Southern California. She is the co-author of Microbial mats of the Dry Valleys: oases of activity in the cold desert and The distribution and relative ecological roles of autotrophic and heterotrophic diazotrophs in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Abortion/reproductive rights & access post presidential election – November 17, 2024

November 17, 2024 host

In the 2024 election, voters reaffirmed the right to abortion in many states while the nation still elected an anti-abortion president, and anti-abortion majority in both the senate and the house of representatives. What does this mean for abortion rights in the US.

Aziza Ahmed is Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law. She is the author of The Future of Facts: The Politics of Public Health and Medicine in Abortion Law, Informed Decision Making and Abortion: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Informed Consent, and the First Amendment, and Medical Evidence and Expertise in Abortion Jurisprudence .
Carole Joffe is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe v. Wade, Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients and the Rest of Us and co-author of Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America.
Robin Marty is Executive Director for the West Alabama Women’s Center and a freelance reporter. She’s the author of Handbook for a Post-Roe America and co-author of The End of Roe v. Wade: Inside the Right’s Plan to Destroy Legal Abortion.
Rachel Rebouché is the Interim Dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law and the James E. Beasley Professor of Law. She is the author of Abortion Rights as Human Rights, co-author of “Eugenic Abortions” and the Problematic Popularity of the Reason-Based Ban and The New Abortion Battleground.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – We examine post Roe world of Women’s health care – July 10, 2022

July 11, 2022 host

Women have lost their constitutional right of bodily autonomy and the right to an abortion in the United States. We discuss the impact of the overturning of Roe v Wade with an emphasis on the future legal struggles, as well as, the social challenge of ensuring reproductive health and equality. How has the discourse around abortion shifted? What has altered about the way we think and talk about abortions and the right to abortions? We look at Crisis Pregnancy Centers and their impact. Also, we explore the role of the federal government. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Greer Donley is an Associate Professor of Law at the University Pittsburgh Law School. She is the author of Medication Abortion Exceptionalism, and co-author of Abortion, Pregnancy Loss, and Subjective Fetal Personhood (with Jill Wieber Lens) and The New Abortion Battleground (with David S. Cohen and Rachel Rebouché).
Carole Joffe is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe v. Wade, Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients and the Rest of Us and co-author of Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America.
Aziza Ahmed is Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law. She is the author of The Future of Facts: The Politics of Public Health and Medicine in Abortion Law, Informed Decision Making and Abortion: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Informed Consent, and the First Amendment, and Medical Evidence and Expertise in Abortion Jurisprudence .
Cary Franklin is a Professor of Law at UCLA and the Faculty Director of UCLA’s Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy. She is the author of Roe As We Know It, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt and What It Means to Protect Women and Living Textualism.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, Melissa Chiprin, and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Trauma on Children from School Shootings – June 5, 2022

June 5, 2022 host

Karla Vermeulen is the Deputy Director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health and an Associate Professor of Psychology at SUNY New Paltz.She is the author of Generation Disaster: Coming of Age Post-9/11 and co-editor of Disaster Mental Health Case Studies: Lessons Learned from Counseling in Chaos.
Robin Gurwitch is a Professor in the Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and is Senior Advisor for the Terrorism and Disaster Program of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. She is the co-author of Children in Disasters and Trauma-Directed Interaction (TDI): An Adaptation to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for Families with a History of Trauma. Resource – National Child Traumatic Stress Network – Talking to children about shooting.
Heather Littleton is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado, at Colorado Springs, and Research Director at the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience. She is the co-author of “PTSD near and far: Symptom networks from two to 12 months after the Virginia Tech campus shootings.” And “Can people benefit from acute stress? Social support, psychological improvement, and resilience after the Virginia Tech campus shootings” as well as numerous publications on sexual violence and the trauma of the LGBTQI+ community.

More resources are available at:

https://www.newpaltz.edu/idmh/

https://www.nctsn.org/resources/talking-children-about-shooting

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Women’s Reproductive Health post-Roe – May 15, 2022

May 15, 2022 host

As the US Supreme Court indicates its likelihood of overturning the landmark decision enshrining women’s reproductive control on abortion, Roe v. Wade, women throughout the country are wrestling with strategies to ensure continued abilities to terminate unwanted pregnancies. This legal development has been anticipated. The drastic shift to the right of the Court has, for years, compelled abortion advocates to develop alternative strategies for women. If Roe v. Wade is in fact overturned, what will women do to maintain sovereignty over their own bodies? What will a post-Roe world mean for women’s reproductive health?

Can reframing reproductive rights influence how people understand the issues related to abortion? Would the phrase “reproductive justice” offer a more accurate view than previous frames such as “reproductive rights” or “rights to privacy?”. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Rachel Rebouché is the Interim Dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law and the James E. Beasley Professor of Law. She is the author of Abortion Rights as Human Rights, co-author of “Eugenic Abortions” and the Problematic Popularity of the Reason-Based Ban and The New Abortion Battleground.
Lina-Maria Murillo is Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa. She is the author of Birth Control, Border Control: The Movement for Contraception in El Paso, Texas 1936–1940 and Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.
Robin Marty is the Communications Director for the West Alabama Women’s Center and a freelance reporter. She’s the author of Handbook for a Post-Roe America and co-author of The End of Roe v. Wade: Inside the Right’s Plan to Destroy Legal Abortion.

Community of Womens’ Health advocates:

Repro Legal Defense fund – https://reprolegaldefensefund.org
If/When/How – https://www.ifwhenhow.org/ , lawyers for reproductive justice

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Why Strong Leaders in Democracy are not the best Leaders; Critique on Pharma, Patient and Doctor Relationship – January 16, 2022

January 15, 2022 host

First, our guest argues that strong leaders are not necessarily the best leaders, particularly for democracies. What does history tell us about the best kind of leader for society? This is part one of a two part interview. [ dur: 21 mins. ]

Archie Brown is Professor Emeritus of Politics at Oxford University. His books include The Myth of the Strong Leader: Political Leadership in the Modern Age, The Gorbachev Factor and The Rise and Fall of Communism.

Then, on the scholars’ circle panel, many observers argue, that the economic forces are corrupting medical care and eroding the trust between patients and their doctors. The problems in health care delivery have wide implications related to how health care should function particularly when there are limited resources. We examine the ethics of medicine and healthcare, and the modern day issues that complicate them. [ dur: 37 mins. ]

Thomas Pogge is the Director of the Global Justice Program and Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University and King’s College. His books include World Poverty and Human Rights and Freedom from Poverty: Who Owes What to the Very Poor?.
Martin Wilkinson is Professor of Political Studies and Deputy Head of Department of Politics & International Relns at the University of Auckland. His books include Freedom, Efficiency and Equality and Ethics and the Acquisition of Organs.
Richard Cookson is a Reader and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York. His books include The Humble Economist: Tony Culyer on Health, Health Care and Social Decision Making and Jonathan Bradshaw on Social Policy: Selected Writings 1972-2011.

The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Tag Archives: Health

Scholars’ Circle – Ebola Outbreak, WHO and US CDC Policies on Infectious Diseases – June 7, 2026

Scholars’ Circle – Trauma Experienced by Children from School Shootings – May 24, 2026

Scholars’ Circle – SCOTUS Allows Access to Medication Abortion Pill Delivery by Mail – May 17, 2026

Scholars’ Circle – Health care disparities on the basis of race in the U.S.- February 15, 2026

Scholars’ Circle – US orders withdrawal from WHO ; Jimmy Carter’s Legacy – January 26, 2025

Scholars’ Circle – Abortion/reproductive rights & access post presidential election – November 17, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – We examine post Roe world of Women’s health care – July 10, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Trauma on Children from School Shootings – June 5, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Women’s Reproductive Health post-Roe – May 15, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Why Strong Leaders in Democracy are not the best Leaders; Critique on Pharma, Patient and Doctor Relationship – January 16, 2022

By Maria Armoudian