Stan, Clarence, and the Health Chatter team - Diondra Howard, Sheridan Nygard, Erin Collins, Maddy Levine-Wolf, and Matthew Campbell - reflect on the past year and chat about exciting things to come.
Welcome to Health Chatter. And this is a special edition. It's our 2023 Health Chatter Personal Reflections. So on board today, we have a majority of our crew that's with us that's going to chime in on this show. And it'll also give us a chance to really, frankly, reflect. on everything that we've done up to this point on Health Chatter.
So it should be fun, and it should be a nice review for all of you, our listening audience. We have a great crew. I always introduce them because they're special to Clarence and I. Maddie Levine-Wolf, Aaron Collins, Deandra Howard, and Sharon and Nygaard all do our background research for us and do a superb job. Sheridan also provides some marketing expertise.
And then, of course, there's Matthew Campbell. Without him, none of these shows would get out to you in the great form that they are with a little bit of music attached. So we thank him for all his production expertise. And then, of course, there's Clarence Jones, who's my co-host. For all these shows so far, we hope that we have many, many more coming up in 2024.
So Clarence, it's been an absolute pleasure working with you and the rest of the crew. And then finally, Human Partnership. Without them as our sponsor, we couldn't do this. And so thank you very much to them. Great community health organization. Recognizing
everything that really needs to be done for all of us as it relates to health, you can check them out at humanpartnership.org and also our website at healthchatter.org. podcast.com. So thanks to everybody. So let's get this show going. This should be kind of interesting. It's like, where do you start when we've had a myriad of different subjects around health?
And I was frankly thinking about it a little bit. Prevention, chronic disease, infectious disease, et cetera, et cetera. We've done a bunch of stuff. But anyway, Clarence, why don't you start her out?
So let me start this out, because I went back and looked at the shows, and on January the 1st, Dr. D talked to us about this topic around fentanyl. And fentanyl was a, and this was, yeah, January the 1st, so that was the beginning of the year. And it really was important for me to be a part of that because we're dealing a lot with substance abuse disorders.
I was really excited to hear what he had to say as well as to listen to some of the data. And I utilized some of that data in order to help me personally as well as my organization.
position ourselves to try to address that issue in our community so that was the first show for the new year and it was one that was really really important for me and uh you know i was really excited that we were able to to book him yeah you know you know what else really struck me um and perhaps everybody can can remember this is war broke out in in ukraine
And all of a sudden, we put on our public health hats. And we're saying, oh my goodness, what implications does a war have on health? And we did a show on that. And it was quite interesting. I mean, when you think about all the things that transpire in a war, and now we have basically two major wars going on around the world.
The implications for health as it relates, just to start with, clean water or delivery of care, et cetera, became a real issue, heightened. And that really hit home for me during that period of time. Diandra, how about you?
Yeah, I think one of the episodes that... I enjoyed a lot was a very recent one on AI, just because I feel like I'm on social media a lot. And so I'm interacting with a lot of things that are AI, very silly things specifically, like I'm on Twitter and people, you know, make these photos and videos and stuff that are fake and that they are AI where I'm
I know that they're fake and AI and they're funny, but then, you know, I look at the comments and I think it's because of my research background that I always look back at things and make sure things that are, there's validity to them. So, you know, I'll look at something and I'm like, oh, this is funny.
And then, but when I look at the comments and I see people not understanding that it's fake or not understanding that, something is like satire, things like that.
So I thought that was an interesting episode because it just allowed me to learn a little more about it where I, I've only seen it in really social spaces where it's not really being used for anything good or, or, or just not anything, not to say it's not good, but it's not being used, you know, in helpful reasons. Like people are just making random videos of celebrities saying or doing whatever.
And I have a feeling we're going to be doing more shows on AI as we hear more and more about it and its implications in health. But that was a recent show. So Erin, I know that you've been connected with some of the shows, for sure, besides doing some of the background research. But which ones really kind of hit home for you that you can recall?
I have two that really hit home for me. The first one that came to mind was the health and fitness episode with Jen Walter. There were a ton of things that we touched on in that episode, but we really drove home on community. And I think that in our podcast, that's a theme that is kind of overarching a lot of the time. So it was really great to bring that back to something like health and fitness.
It's really important to me. And then the other episode that really stood out to me, I'm was the episode with Senator Marty and the healthcare for all episode. That's just always such an uplifting thing for me to talk about and how advocacy and policy play into public health and equal access and healthcare as a human right is a theme that we really drive home with too.
So it was really great to have him on to get more information out about Healthcare for All Minnesota.
Yeah, I mean, he was really good, you know, and I remember we had to book him way in advance. So it was nice to hear. Matthew. Which ones hit home for you?
Yeah, so I was looking back at our episodes and I really enjoyed the pet episode we did earlier in the year. I thought that was fun. I have two pets and I just thought it was a really fun episode and something that... In public health, I kind of take a very large public health approach. Everything's public health. Everything can be public health.
All the terms, kind of how we build our communities and shape our communities. And I think pets are a really big part of that. And I just think it was an interesting episode that a lot of folks don't think about and the role pets play in our lives. And it was probably one of my favorite episodes we've done.
Yeah, ironically, it was one of my favorite ones as well. It is interesting what we use pets for, I mean, besides companionship, but they also help you on a lot of different things. They tell you through their eyes, it's time to go for a walk, and all these good things that they bring into our lives. So yeah, that was a good episode. Sheridan, how about you?
Any particular episodes that really kind of hit the mark for you?
Yeah, I think the grief and health episodes, because I think we did death and we also did grief. And yes, they are two different things, but I think they had similar themes.
And after tragically losing, like really tragically losing a loved one this year, I think that they were both therapeutic for me to research and talk about and just candidly have a conversation about death is something that we don't do a lot in our lives. society and culture here in America. So I think those were really special for me.
But I think the one that I ended up learning the most from and taken away the most from was the harm reduction episode, or the healthcare and politics with Senator Marty. So really great. My family loved the harm reduction one the most. I know that they were all over that one spreading that
everywhere got them more involved in the community and i think that's really important that's what the podcast the goal of the podcast is to get more people involved in talking about these things so i think that all of those were special in their own way yeah you know um
There's been a couple of episodes that Clarence and I did just by ourselves. And besides the fact that logistically it's a little bit easier, you don't have to link in a guest, but I really liked the episode on trust. The whole idea, and you know, when you think about all of these different subjects that we've talked about over the course of the year, there is a trust component in all of them.
And whether that starts with your primary care physician or how you interact with the medical health field, how you trust one another as friends, colleagues, family. I thought it really had a strong, strong message to it. Clarence?
Yeah, I think... One of the things that I liked about Health Chatter, number one, was the fact that it did allow us the opportunity to engage others into the conversation. It also allowed us to safely take a look at issues that we were personally involved in.
For example, I think that because you and I talk a lot about being more seasoned, Stan, you know, having topics, you know, around aging and having topics around, for me, the topic is around strokes and
And then the one that we did around ethical wills and things like that, it really brings into view a lot of the, really the things that we need to be addressing and that many of our listeners are needing to be addressed. And so I was really excited about the fact that we were able to do that. But even more exciting, I was glad when we were able to get this intergenerational view
A lot of different things that, you know, we look at a thing a certain kind of way. I look at an issue a certain kind of way, but it may not necessarily be the thought patterns of those who are a little bit younger than us. And so it is interesting.
Right. And appreciate it, you know. I will say this. It's like I think in in one show or another, I can't remember which one I might have mentioned the idea of the illusion of immortality. And, you know, obviously, when you're younger, you don't think you don't think about being mortal or dying because it's. way down in the future.
But then you look at, you know, Clarence and I, I mean, we're closer to it, you know, just by virtue of our age. And it does provide a perspective. It really, really does. But a worthy one, definitely a worthy one. We dealt with hard subjects. Mental health issues was, we did a couple of shows on mental health. We did shows on a variety of chronic diseases.
And, you know, it's just kind of easygoing kind of poo-poo on chronic diseases. But guess what? That's what's hitting us, whether it be heart disease, where we did shows on. Um, we did a show on the, uh, on the state plan for, for heart disease and, um, and diabetes and also on, um, on cancer. We also, and we will be soon doing a show on the asthma plan.
Again, this is for the state of Minnesota, but we hope it also, the ideas of the subjects that we talk about have implications for the listening audiences in other states as well.
I think, Stan, I think that one of the things that also I appreciate it about health chatter was it gave us the opportunity to enter into questions that I think that many people in, you know, my sphere of influence are talking about, for example, navigating the health system. I mean, we get a lot of different things. In fact, I thought about Aaron and was that lightning flower.
And I thought about other things that we have to talk about. Yeah. You know, that, you know, we have these assumptions about the health system. You know, we talk about how great or how bad our health system is. But it was just great to enter into that space to be able to talk more freely about it. And then to be able to get some ideas about how we might be able to navigate it.
But also to understand how difficult it can be for others to To navigate and so it was it was just it was just that space of for me of of learning and being able to ask questions that you need to ask and even though you may or may not have the. you know, the personal ability to make changes, at least you knew how to, you knew what other people were thinking.
And I think so many times, I think so many times in these kinds of spaces, people are trying to get you to think a certain kind of way. But I I do know that if we talk about 2023, we got in some areas where we just did not agree or we had some very strong opinions about them. And we were able to navigate that and to disagree respectfully and to be able to talk about some things better.
that well yeah quite personally personally affected us but you know we had to figure out how did it affect us and so i think that part of what i love about the the way in which you know we're trying to do this show is that we're trying to be honest yeah and agree that we can disagree correct and you know i i don't know if i look at the gestalt of all the programs
you know, you look at the list of them and I can honestly say, you know, and I've been in the health field a long, long time, but I really learned a lot. I really, I really, really learned a lot. And, um, and I hope that that's true for, for everyone. It's like, there's, there were like takeaways from just about every show that I thought were, were really good. The, um,
For instance, one of the shows on hearing, for instance, we timed that show when a law was passed here where it's easier for people to get hearing aids over the counter, actually, in drugstores or even in places like Best Buy. And it's like, whoa, okay, what do we need to know here before we proceed with something like that? Another show, even though I was kind of
knowledgeable about it, but I'm not sure that others were, were a show on orthopedic replacements, you know, knee replacements, shoulder replacements. And we had Dr. David Fisher on and who's a really noted orthopedic surgeon. And I know him intimately because he did both my knees and, and, and how things have really progressed, you know, you know, just over, over the course of years.
You know, 35 years ago, the thought of having a knee replaced was not in everybody's psyche. And now you can. And so these are things, medical advancements really became a good subject to talk about. Yeah, Erin.
I kind of going along what you said with like the knee replacement episodes, the most powerful episodes I think were the ones where we had people who experienced certain health situations on the show. So for example, we had a couple of diabetes episodes where we spoke with people who had diabetes. And we also had one with the stroke episode too.
I think those episodes are really powerful for people to hear from people with those very intimate personal experiences.
Absolutely. And I know you were on the show and I thank you You know, for your insights about, your personal insights about diabetes, greatly, greatly appreciated. And I'm hoping that in those kinds of situations, people get a sense of how others can empathize and help. And I think that's really, really important. One thing I came out of is communication. How about that is a theme.
I mean, it's like we, you know, obviously we kind of use these podcasts as a vehicle for communication, but then what we communicate about and when we do it and how we do it. So for instance, we had Jeremy Olson on from the Star Tribune. We had Mike Shomer on from the Minnesota Department of Health. Arkel Georgiou talked about communication as a health advisor on KSTP television.
And timing a messaging, you know, you think about COVID and how we messaged around that. It was really crazy, but we learned a lot as well. And so I think communication was a major theme throughout many of our shows.
And you know, Stan, since you brought that up, I want to tell our listeners a little in-house secret because around communication, because we did have a real struggle with certain topics. Oh, absolutely. There were certain topics that we recorded that we just did not get a full understanding to bring it out, but we know that it was a struggle.
And I want to just specifically, again, don't be mad at me, everybody. I want to talk about cannabis. Cannabis was really a very, very interesting topic that we entered into, but I don't think we got out of that tunnel. But it was something that talks about the struggle that we have around some of these topics and talks about some of the challenges that we have in terms of even trying to
to address them. And so I don't know what the rest of you thought about that. And maybe I shouldn't have brought it up, but I know I should have. But let's talk about that. I mean, let's talk about the fact that we have sometimes some topics, some health topics that we personally struggle with from a variety of different angles.
And we have to be very careful how we present that information to our listeners.
I think that would be an amazing goal for 2024 to get a cannabis episode out. It's so prevalent. in the country, everybody's talking about it. Lots more states are legalizing it. And we attempted to enter that arena and we've kind of slowly kind of put it on the back burner.
So maybe a goal for Health Chatter 2024 would be to revisit that and put out a real solid episode discussing both sides of it. Maybe even a debate style episode could be really interesting.
Yeah, we don't want to shy away from hard issues here. That's for sure. And, you know, we had other issues, too. I mean, we addressed racism, which is a tough... I mean, it's like, you know, you do a show on racism as a title of a show, and kind of the first thing you say is, where do you start? I mean, it's just like, how is it that you encapsulate racism in a show? We also...
did a show on anti-Semitism. Remember that? And so I think we did those shows almost back to back. And these are issues, if you think about today, literally today, what we're really facing with around the world. So And some of these issues, by the way, some people have said, what happens when you run out of topics? I don't think we'll ever run out of topics. That's number one.
But on the other hand, we could go back and revisit some of the topics as well. Yeah, Sheridan.
Yeah, I think, Stan, you just made a good point that you learned a lesson that all of us researchers have learned. Where do you start with some of these topics? There is so much information and data out there on like most of the topics that we have talked about. And where do you start is pretty much always the question we are confronted with when we start our research.
And it's never easy trying to figure out where to start. And that's sometimes why the research is supposed to be quick and easy. But it ends up being pages because these are complex topics with a lot of decisions, opinions. There's just so much information out there that it's kind of hard to funnel it into a bite-sized, you know, episode that people can also engage with that they find interesting.
And I also think that the cannabis episodes as the fact that they were a little more difficult for us, I think represents the controversy that a lot of America is feeling right now with it being federally illegal, but some states are legal and all of this gray area, I think is part of the reason we struggled.
So I think us struggling is just a representation of how America is doing the cannabis topic as a whole.
Yeah. And, and, and to the research, the background research idea, um, Fortunately, you guys, you give us good statistics on where things are at on certain topics, if we can have the statistics, if they're available. And then we make them available to the listening audience on our website. So believe me, the topics or the ideas that come out of the research, believe me, are just fantastic.
the tip of the iceberg on most of these subjects that we deal with. You know, we had Jan Malcolm on, remember? And, you know, Jan was the former commissioner of health and on the concept of leadership. How is it that we deal with leadership overall? And it was really interesting when I talked to Jan about A day before, she said, I don't even know where to start.
I said, Jan, you've been leading for many years. I said, you could do this in your sleep. And I said, not to worry. And I remember the next day she called me up. She says, you know, that was really fun because she didn't feel handcuffed as a leader. She didn't feel handcuffed. She could say what she wanted to say, maybe finally. But at any rate, she made that point.
to me that it was important to her to be able to say the things that she was able to say that she couldn't say before. Yeah, D'Andra.
Yeah, I just wanted to follow up with kind of what Sheridan was saying about the research. I think one really good thing that we have on the team because there's more than one person doing the research is that all of us go into these topics with kind of different perspectives and really different ideas of what we wanna talk about. And I think that kind of complexity and like just that variety
really makes the shows really good because we don't all go into topics thinking the same way. Like I know I've done research and Stan, you've said like, oh, this is not even something, this is not how I thought of this topic, or this is not an idea that I've thought of. And I think a lot of times when I'm looking at the research, it's, there's so much variety and just the discussion questions are
because we just have different people doing them. And so they're not kind of all like the same.
Yeah, yeah. And that's fine. Just so everybody knows, you know, from our listening audience, the research that we use is just kind of a kickoff. It really gives Clarence and I some insight some baseline information that, that we can use when we, when we, especially when we have guests on the show, you know, there was another show that we did on sleep.
And, you know, we, we kind of take a lot of these things just for granted. Oh yeah. Sleep. Yeah. Okay. It's good for you. Well, yeah, it's good for you, but what is it that you really need to know about it in order? You know, I can tell you is as you get older and, you need, apparently you need less sleep and your sleep is often disrupted.
We talked about things like apnea, sleep apnea, which is quite prevalent. We also had, if everybody remembers, Dr. Nico Prank, who was one of the chair people for putting together Healthy people the objectives for the nation 2030, which really put in perspective what we hope to do as a nation.
And then we followed that up with a variety of the state plans, like I mentioned, that complemented some of the objectives for the nation. So we were hoping that just like a state of Minnesota, for instance, can complement what's going on nationwide. Yeah, Clarence.
Yeah, you know, I think one of the things that I found exciting and interesting about the work was the discoveries that we made after we entered the topic. For example, what came to my mind specifically was this issue around long COVID.
Yes.
That people are... People are being affected by this long term. And then what really threw me for a loop was the fact that the speaker said that there are like 200 symptoms of long COVID. I'm like, my goodness. You know what I mean? So we're into this new phase of diseases and we still don't know a whole lot about them. Exactly. It was just great to have information available.
To have information available.
Yeah, and as somebody who's suffering from what I consider to be, personally, what I consider to be a long COVID symptom, namely loss of taste and smell, I was reading an article just the other day that they're anticipating that some people will have that loss for up to three years. And I'm thinking, oh, no.
I can't taste a good piece of key lime pie or a piece of chocolate is really gonna not be fun. But we've got great shows that also focused on things like just what I would consider to be kind of like ancillary from chronic disease per se, but we looked at things like pain or people that are suffering from disabilities
as just things that are just part of their everyday life for many people, but how we, how we deal with them. We also looked at things like CPR and how people, you know, should be trained in CPR and how to effectively use automated external defibrillators, AEDs. So, I mean, these, these topics are,
I think are near and dear to our hearts, but some are closer knit into our souls because of where we are, whether a disease that we might be dealing with specifically or what have you. I thought maybe we could talk about just for a minute some of the shows that we can be looking forward to in 2024. Okay? So to get to whet the appetite for our listening audience. So here's some of the topics.
And there's actually quite a long list. Narcissism, climate, kids' health, loneliness, poverty, infant mortality, health and traveling, which Believe it or not, it's a big issue right now. Toxic relationships, fake news, food insecurity, organ donation, shots, all the different kinds of shots.
And believe it or not, it seems like every day there's like a new shot that's coming in you need to get vaccinated for. And so people are getting reticent on how many should I be doing and just injecting my body with. Love. Love. and passion and what it means for us as human beings.
Stress, we're gonna be talking about weight loss drugs, which is, it's almost like a fad right now, but what implications does it have going forward? We're gonna be looking at hospice, the idea of hospice and hospice care. I think Clarence, if I'm not mistaken, clean water. Wasn't that the one that you had mentioned?
And then also a special guest that's already been booked for early January is Patty Wetterling. And she'll be talking about all the things that she's gone through in her life since her son was abducted and killed. And she's a great colleague and a wonderful, wonderful person. So that'll be a special episode as well. Clarence.
Yeah, I don't know. And maybe I missed it. My internet is kind of unstable here. Can we talk about fake news this coming year?
Fake news? Yeah. You can't hear me. Yeah, we're going to be looking at fake news. And frankly, what is the definition of it even going forward? So, you know, it's just like.
I think it's anything that they don't agree with me.
All right. I think that kind of wraps up our show on personal reflections. As I think, I'm hoping that the audience recognizes is that as much as we hope that you're learning and chatting and getting informed on these subjects, guess what? We did too. And we enjoy chatting about it. We enjoy presenting the information to all of you in an open and honest way.
We invite you, by the way, if you have any particular subjects that you would like us to have a show on, let us know through our website. We'll get those going as well in 2024. So with that, I want to wish all of you a happy holiday season and happy and healthy new year. And we will see you in 2024. So with that, keep health chatting.