Stan, Clarence, Barry, and the Health Chatter team reflect on over 2 years of Health Chatter episodes in this 100th episode special.Join the conversation at healthchatterpodcast.comBrought to you in support of Hue-MAN, who is Creating Healthy Communities through Innovative Partnerships.More about their work can be found at http://huemanpartnership.org/
Hello, everybody. Welcome to Health Chatter. It's a special show. Actually, all our shows are special, but this is a celebratory type of show because we are going to celebrate our 100th show today. And we're going to be talking with all of us who have been involved with Health Chatter for the last, oh, what, two and a half years, two and a half plus years. So it's been a wonderful ride.
Thank you to everybody. And and I can't underscore this enough by saying that without our crew behind the scenes and also who are part of our podcasts from time to time, we would not be where we are now. They are really second to none and wonderful, wonderful people. So Maddie, Levine Wolf, Aaron Collins, Deandra Howard, Matthew Campbell, Sheridan Nygaard, Barry Baines. Thank you.
Thank you so much for everything you've done for Health Chatter up to this point. And of course, there's Clarence. And, you know, I keep thinking back, Clarence, when you and I met over breakfast and we were just talking about this show, the possibility of even doing a podcast.
And frankly, neither one of us knew what the hell we were doing, but we thought it would be kind of exciting in a new way to effectively communicate with the public around a variety of health issues. And I remember Clarence saying to me, well, let's just do it. I mean, it's just like, and of course, you know, my reaction is, well, what do you mean just do it?
You know, of course, you know, there's a lot of logistics to it all. But his excitement really underscored us going ahead with it. So Clarence, your initial thoughts.
Well, you know, I think when we first started discussing this, Dan, I thought about the possibilities and the potential of being able to have an honest conversation about a lot of these different issues. We sometimes have, we seem to have conflicting values around things until we talk about them.
And, you know, especially around health, I mean, there's a lot of perceptions and myths and things like that. There's a lot of things that We don't know. And I speak as a community member. I try not to be on the show. I try to be very much a community member and ask the questions that I've heard other people ask.
So for me, it was a great opportunity to be able to sit down with you and then to see some of the magnificent partners and people and guests that you brought along, but also to see the crew. the crew was phenomenal and it was just great. I mean, we didn't know what we were doing, but we all came together and we were willing to try. And, and that's my thought. I mean, I like, it was amazing.
And it's been amazing.
Yeah. You know, you have always carried the torch of how is it that we can just have some open, honest discussions, conversations about all these topics in, in health. And, and in a way that people feel comfortable and can ask questions and become knowledgeable about these particular subjects. And I don't know about you guys, but I've certainly learned a lot.
I also have to thank the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. Without them, we would not have been able to identify our, our gang who, who basically all we did, Clarence and I, all we did was we put out a notice, Hey, is there anybody at the school of public health that might be interested in being part of developing and doing a podcast? And, Oh my God.
I don't know if you remember Clarence, but we got a lot of interest. I mean, it was, I mean, it was hard to go through all the different resumes and letters of interest, but I will tell you this, that the people we defined, it really was not hard to say, boy, they really rise to the top. And you could just tell that their minds were always clicking
that they had opinions of their own that we knew would add to the show. And maybe more than anything, they had the energy and also the talent to be able to do some of the things that we knew had to be done. So it was really a treat to get them all. I'm going to go around the horn here a little bit.
One of the things I'd really like us all to consider here is where we have been and where we hope to go next.
So a few things I wanted to reflect on. I came into the team a little bit later than everybody else. I mean, obviously, Barry's latest addition. So at least I'm middle of the pack now. But I just felt so welcomed and immediately respected for my expertise in marketing and communications. And I just feel like we all collaborate really well together.
We all have our own things that we are maybe experts on or maybe know more about others. And one thing I've really valued about our hosts, Stan and Clarence, is they've always made me feel like an expert in my own right. And they've always valued my opinions. And I think that being a younger person and just getting out of you know, your degree in education, it can be a little scary.
It can be a little bit hard to get started. And I think all value of these connections, the networking, the advice, some of even just our chats before and after each podcast episode. It's really a great group of people. I love doing the holiday parties together and stuff. Truly, we have a lot of shared values, but we also have a lot of differing opinions. So it's really beautiful to
be respected for the differing opinions and even being so young and you guys have so much experience. So it's really, it's really a beautiful place to have open dialogue conversation about things that are hard to talk about and be okay. It feels okay to make mistakes in these conversations and learn from each other. And I think you don't get that too many other places other than
educational settings where it's okay to make some mistakes. Once you get out into the real world, it's a little bit more scary to make mistakes. So I really, really value this platform. I think podcasting has always been an interest to me. And now knowing some of the
ins and outs and the deeper workings of it i have an even deeper respect for people that do podcasts um and i and i really really value how much time effort and attention goes into putting out each individual episode and how much it takes to run a podcast as a whole so i think that's me reflecting on where we've been and then where we're going Public health is endless. It is timeless.
I can't see us running out of ideas. We talk about that a lot, that we'll never run out of ideas. I can see us revisiting different topics over and over again. I can see certain things coming up around election cycles and certain things kind of fading into the background.
And I'm kind of just excited to even see what comes up in the next year, two years, however long we continue this, just to see where things go. And even to start taking a bigger lens on things. I know we've focused a lot on Minnesota, a lot locally, a lot on the US, but even we can start looking at things globally. And I'm just really excited to see where we go.
You know, thank you. You know, one thing I could say for sure, Sheridan, is you for sure, and others as well, but you for sure have brought in life experiences and a personal sense of passion to our shows that I greatly appreciate. For all of you, I know that there are some personal things that you are willing to share on some of these shows.
Like for instance, Aaron, I remember when we were doing our shows on diabetes, and you are really connected with that topic for sure. Just death and dying, I remember, Sheridan, you were involved with that. Relationships, I know, you know, Maddie, you've been involved with that. And so it's like everybody's got passions that they're willing to share, which I greatly, greatly appreciate. Clarence.
Yeah, you know, at times I'm just, flabbergasted, I guess that's a good word to say, that's an old word, but anyway, at the level of intellect and the level of maturity that came out of my group. I mean, you know, for me, I was always interested in knowing what the next generation was thinking.
And I've learned so much from them because they were willing to be, as you said, they were willing to be vulnerable and open. So I do appreciate them. And like you said, Sam, there have been some times where I've just, I've been in awe of some of the responses that they said, but I've also been surprised some stuff I've said. So it's been a great ride.
Yeah, yeah. Maddie.
Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot to reflect on. I think one thing I was thinking about in terms of where we've been, I think it's been, what, like a little over two years now from the beginning. I personally, you know, I think I started, I joined my second year of grad school, and I don't think, in full transparency, I don't think I thought about I would stay beyond graduation.
I thought maybe it would just be like a nice experience to have while I was in school. And I can't seem to let go. Not that I've been trying to let go, but it's just like I it's just been a really meaningful and impactful and exciting part of my life as I've graduated from grad school and and, you know, gotten into a full time job. So, you know, on the one hand, it's it's
it's exciting to have kind of like a finger on the pulse of things that are going on in the public health world with all of our, um, incredible guests that we bring on and that we get to talk to. Um, but also I really love kind of what Sheridan was saying. I love the team. This is a great group of people.
Everyone has really diverse backgrounds and experiences and it's, it's nice to come together and to, and to kind of bring all of that, um,
together um and to apply those different lenses and perspectives to different topics so um yeah it's just it's just a it's a it's a feel-good thing um and in terms of where we're going I think just kind of to echo what Sheridan said and what Matthew had said earlier about you know one of the cool things about public health, for better or for worse, I guess, is that
Episodes that we did in the early days, you know, a year or a year and a half ago, we could talk about again and things would be totally different. So before we started recording, we were talking about we did an early episode about homelessness like over a year ago or maybe a year ago.
And if we had if we bring on a new guest or the same guest and we talk about it now in 2024, I'm sure there'd be a lot, you know, there'd be. different things to say. So in that way, I think the fact that public health is like iterative is really exciting for us to kind of dive into and unpack.
And yeah, I think there's just, you know, there's an endless amount of topics that we can experiment with. And I think the fact that this crew is so open to kind of leaning into that and open minded to talking about and learning about and leaning into different areas of public health and kind of stretching all of our understandings is a super cool opportunity to be a part of.
So I'm really grateful for where we have been and I'm excited to see where we go from here.
Thank you. You've been a truly special member. For our listening audience, Maddie started out here where we record in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but now lives in Chicago and is still intimately involved with our shows. One thing I've come to realize is that as we've developed the shows over these years, everybody falls into a particular niche of responsibility, and they're really good at it.
And so, you know, thank you all for that. So Erin, are you there?
I am here. And I have to be honest, I don't have anything really new to add to the conversation on where we've been. I think everybody has really wrapped up what we've done really well. I think for me, I'm more forward thinking on where I think health chatter is going. And I think We have a lot of tough topics that we still haven't talked about and dove into.
I think one where we've struggled with is cannabis and THC legalization and policymaking. And I'm really excited to try and get something going with that topic. I'm really looking to try and do another top episode on harm reduction. and harm reduction in our community in Minneapolis, which is really struggling with opioid addiction.
And then I think the episode we did on politics was so timely, and I think that we probably could squeeze another one in in November, and that would be something that people would be really interested in listening to, especially as we get closer to everybody getting to place their ballot. They want to know the candidates' opinions on public health issues, and I think that could be a really
exciting episode as well so although we've done hundreds now of episodes there's still so much more that we can touch on and um that is really exciting thank you again um aaron you know you've been on since since day one and um you're a great great team member let's go to um How about Matthew? Matthew is our production person.
Without him, the shows would not get out to you, the listening audience, all the editing, putting in music, making sure that everything is clear. Matthew is second to none. So Matthew, take it away.
Yeah, of course. So When I think about this, I think about how new our early episodes were, how new I was to podcasting and kind of what that meant. We were still trying to figure out the technology side of things. We were trying to figure out, you know, kind of where to post, what to post, how to post, all of the different things.
But it seems like we've got our rhythm down a little bit on that and we've kind of figured it out. One of the things that I've really enjoyed over the past couple of years with Help Chatter is just the amount, of topics we get to kind of touch on.
I feel like in public health sometimes, or at least for me in grad school, I was kind of siloed into like specific topics or certain kind of areas or, you know, where you work, that kind of, and then you get to know that really, really well, but you kind of lose sight of the bigger picture of how all these topics kind of come together and how everyone's doing their own part in their little section of public health to, you know, to reach the greater good.
And so I kind of think, health chatter. And what I really like about our podcast is it kind of brings these topics together in a way that we get to kind of put the whole puzzle together. How does each individual topic fit into the larger public health arena and overarching wellbeing? And so when I think about kind of moving on into the future, I want to continue to do that.
I kind of like kind of what Sheridan was saying about how looking at nationally and globally, instead of just like here in Minneapolis or the state, because I think some of these topics obviously transcend. I also am kind of excited for all the different topics that we could touch on, because there are so many things that we've yet to get to. But I'm just excited to continue to grow.
I kind of mirroring what Maddie said, I didn't know if I would stick around after graduating. But Health Chatter has been such a great place. I love the people. I love working with you all and posting the episodes. And here we are two years later and for many years to come.
Well, you know, thank you. You know, one thing that kind of came to mind when you were speaking, Matthew, is how interconnected all of these subjects are in health. all of them have some impact for all of us. Doesn't matter what the subject is. It might not be touching you directly, but knowing about the subjects even indirectly is important. So thanks. Diandra.
Hi, yes. So I guess I'll go and say kind of one thing I think I really like about this podcast. Obviously, I enjoy working with everyone. I think it's really fun when we can all get together and talk and catch up.
I think the main thing I really love about this podcast, though, is that we are in such a time right now where, you know, with social media and just everything, you know, debate shows and things like that are so popular. I think it's refreshing to have a podcast where these aren't debates.
We're, you know, talking with professionals who are working in these topics that we're talking about, you know, starting these grassroots programs. And we're really getting, you know, like a feel for like what they're doing on a daily basis. And we're just kind of getting like that, information that people want without just back and forth and super heavy, maybe bias or opinions.
And I think it's totally fine that people have bias and opinions and everyone should be heard, but it's kind of nice to just you know, listen to something that, you know, is really just information-based and just kind of, you know, these people are talking about their experiences, what they're doing and, you know, just like their personal and professional lives.
So that's one thing I've come to really enjoy about working on this podcast.
You know, and you bring up a really important point, you know, it's okay to disagree and you can still be civil to one another and learn from one another. And I think that certainly has been true with Health Chatter. All right, Barry. So Barry was brought on as our medical advisor. Clarence and I realized that at some point that, excuse me, we aren't, you know, physicians.
We come at it with a public health lens. And many of the topics had clinical aspects to them where we say, boy, wouldn't it be good And it turns out that Barry was on our show. How many shows did you do, Barry, with us? Was it three shows?
You made me audition three times.
Yeah, okay. So there were three shows that he did with us. And we said, boy, you know, Barry would be really good. So, again, I remember having breakfast with Barry and Clarence, and it was kind of like, Slam dunk. Let's just do it. And Barry said, hey, yeah, let's give it a try. And it's been going strong. So, Barry, thanks for your insight. So your perspectives on this so far.
Sure. If I say as the newbie, although, you know, boy, February, we're already in September. I know. Time moves quickly. So I actually I was as I was listening and beforehand just jotted a few things down. The first thing, though, is I want to thank everybody for inviting me into the health chatter tent. I think being a part of this enterprise has been a lot of fun.
It's been certainly very, very educational. That's for sure. And so I kind of jotted down a few points about sort of where, quote, we've been from my shorter perspective. And these are mostly about things that I really come away very impressed with. I think that one of the strengths of Health Chatter is that as a group, we are intergenerational. And I think that's extremely important.
There's the old folks, me, Clarence, and Stan. And then there's the younger folks. And I think that really helps us to have more balance and perspective in terms of what we do. What I've liked in particular is that as a podcast, we're out to both seek and share knowledge with our, not only our listening audience, but with among ourselves.
I mean, how many times do we just learn like so many things when we're all doing the podcast work? you know, in and of itself. I think the topics and the guests we've had have been amazing. And it's been very stimulating having, you know, folks on to talk about these, you know, these topics.
And the other thing I, you know, I always had this thing when I was, you know, in more active practice, you know, when people ask questions, if you don't know what you don't know, you don't know what to ask. And so I think the research that the other folks here have provided for us has been unbelievable because it really enables all of us to sort of, now we know
So obviously we can know more, but now we know what questions to ask. And I think that makes a lot of our shows very interesting because we have that fundamental research on these topics so that we know what kind of questions to ask. And it sort of gives us a firmer footing. So those are the, you know, sort of the main things about, you know, sort of the where we've been. perspective.
And it does go beyond public health. I remember when we first met, we talked about, well, maybe, Barry, you can come on when they're more clinically oriented. Either fortunately or unfortunately, the way my mind works, I'm able to wrap my head around making just about any topic have some relevance to try and to be on the show because there are these topics that we cover.
Uh, it's not, I think as, uh, you know, Matthew was talking about, sometimes you get pigeonholed into something and the topics that we cover, uh, actually extend beyond that into all spheres, whether it be, you know, the community, whether it is a clinical practice, but it's politics and policy. It, it just, uh, you know, covers such a wide, a wide range of things.
So again, I, you know, thank you for inviting me in and, uh, I also would like to continue with that. For moving forward, there's just a few points that I was thinking about when we teed up this agenda. The topics that we've already covered and the topics that are still on our list will sort of keep us in business for a long time to come.
And I think a number of people have already touched on this, that because the topics are timely, but they're also dynamic, especially some of the public health topics where public policy changes, which changes what happens about some of the topics that we've talked about. I think we touched on the case of homelessness as one example. where things even at a local level here in Minneapolis and St.
Paul have changed quite dramatically, depending on the, you know, the latest election of city council people and, you know, dealing with different aspects of homelessness. So I think moving forward, it's almost like we should, you know, sit down, you know, before we're on the air,
And look through those lists that may have had more policy impact over the past couple of years or that there have been changes where we'd want to revisit. I think that would be very helpful. I don't think it's like, oh, here we are again talking about the same old thing.
Because actually, again, back to the research, so many of the research information that we've had going into shows, we usually only cover maybe a quarter you know, of the research points that were brought out. So it's still fertile ground for doing that. But I would like us to, you know, more rigorously kind of pick out some topics where there's been the most change to revisit.
And like I say, I don't think we'll ever run out of topics to bring out. And then, you know, the flip side of that, that's sort of, you know, what we've done, but moving forward, I'm always, you know, although I'm not a big social media person, but, you know, people are always communicating every time you buy something, you get, you know, 10 evaluations and suggestions that companies ask you for.
I am just very curious what, it's sort of like what topics from our listening audience do you wish that we would you know, bring to the table to talk about. Obviously, it's a podcast that we record and then we, you know, we publish it and people can listen to it and comment on it.
But I just, you know, wonder if there is with our listening audience, and it's not only the people that listen to us, but I would say, well, if you're a listener, talk to your friends and ask them what kind of, you know, topics might be good for the for the platform that we've created. I would find that very stimulating and challenging.
I hope the folks who are doing the research don't want to hit me over the head.
There's always been an ongoing list. Our listening audience should know that we have an ongoing list of topics And it's also interesting, and I'm sure all of you can reflect on this a little bit. There were, you know, many of our shows we have guests, but then it got to the point where we said, you know, some of these shows, let's just have us talk about this.
And there were a few of those, and those were quite engaging as well. I'd be remiss in not... recognizing human partnership. And to that point, I want to circle back to Clarence and have him share a little bit about human partnership as our sponsor and how they are involved.
All right, thanks, Stan. I didn't think I was going to do this, but anyway, human partnership is a coalition of collaborators who work together on public health issues that the community identifies as important. And with that, we go out and we try to find the research to find the data so that we can add that information to the narrative so that the community can have a story and data to tell.
But one of the reasons why we are so excited about the podcast really is that this really is what we believe public health is about, is that we're learning a lot of different things and we're involved in a lot of different things. We have to find a way to disseminate it in a way that people can really take action. And so, oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead and cut this out.
There's an ambulance going past right about now. But our whole goal has really been to find the allies and to have the transparent conversations that we can have in order for people to take action. And so, health chatter was just another way, another form for us to be engaged
in a way where we bring together not only the research, the missions, the academic community, government, but also the community so that we can have a place where we can get to actually talk. So that's one of the reasons why it's so great and very used the term intergenerational.
It's so great to have the opportunity to be in a space where we have people that can address issues in a very, very informative way. But human is really about helping our communities become healthier. And how we can do that, how creatively we can do that, you know, we want to make that happen.
You know, I think human, just so everybody knows, is spelled H-U-E-M-A-N. And, um, I was always drawn to, to the idea behind that. And in the idea that, you know, it doesn't matter what color your skin is. We all have health issues that, that we need to talk about and be aware of. And so, um, thank you to human partnership.
They've been a wonderful, wonderful partner, um, and engaged with, um, with health chatter, you know, um, one thing that, that I've realized, you know, okay, so yes, you know, I'm, I'm retired, but on the other hand, um, I see health chatter as a really interesting, engaging way to have continuing education, uh, to be update updated on many of these issues that, um, we still, we still face.
And, um, I don't know about you guys, but I'd, I've really learned a lot. And I reflect on doing some of these shows where I sit back and I just listen and say, wow, you know, I never thought of it, whatever it was, that way. And in many ways, it's been very, very special.
One thing I'd also want to bring up is, you know, it was really easy on the front end to just think of health chatter as the alpha really oriented issue, whether it's a chronic disease or infectious disease, but we also got involved in a lot of, um, of a lot of other issues, social issues, um, gun violence. Um, I remember as one, we got into the ideas of, um, racism and antisemitism. Um,
And mental health, we did a whole series of shows on mental health issues. And so it's like how all these things kind of interplay. We did a show on poverty, on homelessness. So they're all intertwined and we've learned much, much, much. Going forward with... With Health Chatter.
We have topics that, first of all, you in the listening audience, if you have some ideas that you'd like to hear about or chat about, feel free to let us know on our website, which is healthchatterpodcast.com. By the way, circling back, you can check out Human Partnership at humanpartnership.org.
But some of our shows coming forward are going to be focusing on climate, veterans' health, children's health, reproductive rights. We'll probably land up doing another show on what we'll call shots, okay, or vaccinations. And there's a lot of them. The idea of love and passion. We want to look at issues surrounding men's health, women's health.
um, long-term care insurance, um, planned parenthood, um, as, as an organization that we can, uh, we can discuss stress and anxiety, um, LGBTQ. And like Aaron said, uh, we'll be doing a show on, uh, on cannabis. So again, the list keeps expanding. So, um, To you, the listening audience, thank you. Thank you so much for being part of our journey for our 100th show here.
It's been special to us, and we hope it's been special for you as well. So for all of you out there in listening land, keep health chatting away. Thank you.