How do we go from creating buildings that are sick – to buildings that are healthy? We as humans spend 90% of our time indoors, yet we think very little about the health of our indoor environment.

Dr. Joseph Allen, director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Program, wants to change that. He joins us on the podcast today to share the latest science – which shows that prioritizing building health can not only reduce disease transmission, but improve worker performance, lead to better mental clarity and sleep, and more.

As an Associate Professor at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and a renowned forensic investigator of “sick buildings,” Dr. Allen is the leading expert in transforming our indoor environments with health and well-being in mind. His thought-provoking message – including how to keep your home healthy – is one you won’t want to miss.

He's also the author of the new book: Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Can Make You Sick―or Keep You Well – named a NYT and Fortune Magazine Best Book of the Year: https://healthybuildingsbook.com/

A quick note for our listeners – our fourth season is coming to a close – after over 200 hundred episodes, we are going to pause for the holidays and will be back in the spring with a new podcast format, exploring the intersection of nature, biodiversity, climate, and health. I’ll be back in your feed soon with more details on this exciting new series.

Allison Sesso is the President & CEO of RIP Medical Debt, a non-profit established for the sole purpose of reducing the medical debt burdens of low-income individuals across the country. To date, their innovative model has abolished over $7 billion in debt for nearly 4 million people.

Healthcare costs are the #1 cause of bankruptcy for America’s families. In the past five years, more than half of U.S. adults report they’ve gone into debt because of medical or dental bills. About 1 in 7 people with debt said they’ve been denied access to a hospital, doctor, or other provider because of unpaid bills.

RIP Medical Debt is working to change that. On today’s show, Allison shares how they are able to relieve about $100 in debt for every dollar donated, gives insights into their work with heath systems to prevent debt in the first place, and how philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s transformative gift to RIP is making a difference.

Learn more about RIP Medical Debt and how to donate at: https://ripmedicaldebt.org/

Dr. Marc Harrison is the former President and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare, a Utah-based integrated health system that is the largest healthcare provider in the Intermountain West. Marc left this role in August to start a revolutionary healthcare platform company with General Catalyst, which is still in its early stages.

Ranked No. 26 on Fortune Magazine's annual list of 50 of the “World's Greatest Leaders,” Marc is known for his transformational, founding leadership of the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi – which today delivers the best healthcare in the Middle East.

On today’s show, he shares with us how his own health crisis has informed his leadership and life choices, what made his time at Intermountain “the best job in healthcare,” and what he’s next excited about.

Dr. Ranga Krishnan is the former CEO of the RUSH University System for Health, and currently serves as Senior Advisor to the CEO. He is a national leader in medical education – known for his efforts to reconceptualize traditional medical classroom learning. For four years, he served as dean of the RUSH Medical College, and for eight years led the Duke-N.U.S. Graduate Medical School Singapore, a joint venture between Duke University and the National University of Singapore.

You’ll want to hear his approach for creating an engaging, first-class medical education that significantly lowers costs and reduces barriers to recruiting educators. A psychiatrist by training, Dr. Krishnan also gives his take on the mental health crisis our nation is facing.

Annie Lamont is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Oak HC/FT, where she focuses on growth equity and early-stage venture opportunities in Healthcare and FinTech. One of the most successful women in venture history, Annie has been featured on the Forbes Midas List, and was named one of the top 10 most influential people in healthcare in 2021 by Modern Healthcare.

Annie and I have known each other for a long time, and have had the opportunity to partner on several exciting companies. I have so much admiration for her vision and insightful approach to building impactful healthcare organizations. You’ll want to hear her thoughts on today’s market and how entrepreneurs and investors should be approaching it, as well as her advice for those looking to build a career in venture.

For today’s show, you’re going to hear an engaging, and wide-ranging, conversation between myself and my friend Dr. James Hildreth. We cover health equity, big data, climate change and the healthcare sector, and takeaways from the recent White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.

My co-panelist, Dr. James Hildreth, is the 12th President and CEO of Meharry Medical College, the nation's largest private, historically black academic health sciences center. and in February 2021, Dr. Hildreth was named to President Biden’s Health Equity Task Force.

My conversation with Dr. Hildreth was part of an in-person event hosted on September 30th, 2022 by the Nashville Health Care Council. Established in 1995, the Council is a premier membership association and has provided a foundation for collaboration in healthcare for nearly 30 years.

At this particular gathering, we convened nearly a decade of healthcare leaders who had graduated from the Council’s Fellows program. Each year, a new class of experienced senior leaders from all of health care’s sectors is brought together in Nashville to engage in a nationally unique discussion guided by renowned thought leaders. You can learn more about the Fellows program and how to apply at healthcarecouncilfellows.com.

I want to thank the Nashville Health Care Council for letting us share this event with our listeners.

On September 28, 2022, the White House hosted a landmark conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, the first of its kind in over 50 years. Previously in 1969, a similar White House conference dramatically shifted and shaped the direction of our nutrition guidelines and federal food support programs. There is hope that this convening in 2022 will lead to the development of a national strategy around our nation’s most pressing food challenges.

We are sharing with you today a sampling of the conference. Our show features the panel I moderated, “Evidence to Action: Using research to guide policy and scale pilots.” On the panel, I’m joined by:

• Swati Chandra, Director of the Los Angeles County Food Equity Roundtable,

• Dr. Angela Odoms-Young, the Nancy Schlegel Meinig Associate Professor of Maternal and Child Nutrition and the Director of the Food and Nutrition Education in Communities Program at Cornell University

• And Ross Wilson, the Executive Director of the Shah Family Foundation, a foundation in Boston focused on education, health care and community.

I want to thank the Biden-Harris White House for letting us share this event with our listeners.

• You can watch the full White House Conference here: https://health.gov/our-work/nutrition-physical-activity/white-house-conference-hunger-nutrition-and-health/conference-streaming/

• Biden-Harris Administration National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, Released September 2022: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/White-House-National-Strategy-on-Hunger-Nutrition-and-Health-FINAL.pdf

• A Fact Sheet on new White House commitments related to hunger, nutrition, and health can be found here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/09/28/fact-sheet-the-biden-harris-administration-announces-more-than-8-billion-in-new-commitments-as-part-of-call-to-action-for-white-house-conference-on-hunger-nutrition-and-health/

Dr. Randy Wykoff is the Dean of the East Tennessee State University College of Public Health, and the founding director of the new Center for Rural Health Research. He is a physician trained in both pediatrics and preventive medicine. His research focuses on the inter-relationship of poverty and health, with a specific interest in how to improve the health status of people living in poor and/or rural areas.

Prior to his time at ETSU, Dr. Wykoff served as senior vice president for international operations at Project HOPE. He also spent time in the federal government as the deputy assistant secretary for health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and worked for 11 years in the Food and Drug Administration, holding the positions of associate commissioner for AIDS and special health issues, and, later, associate commissioner for operations.

Dr. Wykoff and I spend the next hour diving into the health challenges facing the people of Appalachia, and the proven solutions that can move the needle on health outcomes in rural America.