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The Healthy Project Podcast

The Healthy Project Podcast

De: Healthy Project Media
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The Healthy Project Podcast explores the powerful intersection of health, society, and equity through real conversations with changemakers on the front lines of social impact. Each episode features thought leaders, researchers, and advocates who unpack how social structures — from policy to culture — shape the health of communities. Topics we explore include: Health equity and structural determinants Community-driven research and innovation Lived experiences of marginalized populations Public policy, systemic bias, and health outcomes Whether you're a public health professional, social science researcher, policymaker, or community advocate, this podcast brings you grounded insights, bold ideas, and practical tools to drive change where it matters most.© 2023 The Healthy Project Podcast Ciencias Sociales Higiene y Vida Saludable Psicología Psicología y Salud Mental
Episodios
  • Why Your Zip Code Might Be Killing You — Iowa's Cancer Crisis Explained

    Why Your Zip Code Might Be Killing You — Iowa's Cancer Crisis Explained
    Mar 23 2026
    Some things are true whether we talk about them or not. Iowa has one of the highest cancer rates in the country. The people most affected by it are often the last ones to hear about it. And the systems that were supposed to catch it early — the clinics, the screenings, the outreach programs — are losing funding right now, quietly, in ways most people won't notice until it's too late. This episode is about all of that. But more than anything, it's about people.About This ConversationCorey sits down with Jason Semprini — a public health economist, a lifelong Iowan, and somebody who has spent his career translating complex data into something that can actually change how communities live. What started as a conversation about economics turned into one of the most honest, grounded discussions about health, place, and power that The Healthy Project Podcast has ever had.This one isn't for researchers. It's for anyone who has ever wondered why their community looks the way it does — and whether anybody in power is paying attention.What We Get IntoThe cancer rate nobody's talking about: Iowa ranks among the highest states in the nation for cancer. It's not a fluke. It's not a bad data year. It's consistent, it's climbing, and it's being driven by a specific set of cancers shaped by where people live and what surrounds them. Jason breaks down what the numbers are actually showing — and why the story is more complicated than any headline has captured.Agriculture, jobs, and the health trade-off nobody wants to say out loud. Iowa's ag economy is the backbone of this state. It provides livelihoods, identity, and community for generations of Iowa families. It is also, according to clear and compelling research, contributing to adverse health outcomes, including cancer. Jason doesn't flinch from that tension. Neither does Corey. Because pretending it doesn't exist isn't protecting anybody.What happens when the money disappears? Pop-up mammography clinics. Free screenings. Community health workers are going door to door. These programs exist because some people don't have a regular doctor — and for them, a pop-up clinic isn't a backup plan, it's the only plan. When federal funding gets cut, these are the first programs that feel it. Jason shares what colleagues on the ground are experiencing right now. It's not abstract. It's hitting real people in real communities today.Prostate cancer, Black men, and what the system keeps missing. This part of the conversation hits close to home for Corey — founder of Save the Homies, a prostate cancer awareness initiative through My City My Health. It's not always that Black men in Iowa are getting prostate cancer at higher rates. It's that they're getting diagnosed later. The navigation to quality care is broken. The trust isn't there. The access isn't there. Jason connects this to a framework about biology and health systems colliding — and why fixing it requires more than a screening event.The real cost of data we're not using. One of the most practical takeaways in the whole conversation: collecting health data you're not acting on isn't neutral. It costs money, it burdens patients, and it pulls resources away from interventions that would actually move the needle. If your organization is drowning in surveys nobody reads, this part is for you.What a job well done actually looks like. For Jason, success isn't a published paper. It's a policy change. An updated screening guideline. An insurance expansion that took twenty years to become the Affordable Care Act. The work is long. The patience required is real. But the outcomes are lives — and that's the only metric that matters.About Jason SempriniJason Semprini is a public health economist and researcher whose work focuses on cancer, health policy, and the systems shaping health outcomes across Iowa. A lifelong Iowan, Jason's path to this work ran through AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, and the University of Chicago — where he developed the research and economic skills he now applies to the most pressing health challenges facing this state. His work sits at the intersection of data, policy, and real community impact.Find Jason on LinkedIn explore his research.If This Episode Hit For You — Here's What To Do NextShare it. Send this episode to somebody in your life who needs to hear it. A friend, a coworker, someone at your church, your health department, or your organization. The more people who hear this conversation, the more it can do.Subscribe to the Live. Work. Play. Pray. Newsletter This is where Corey goes deeper every week — health equity, the social determinants shaping our communities, and the stories that don't always make the headlines but absolutely should. Written for real people, not just professionals. Free to subscribe. 👉 https://substack.com/@coreydionlewisWork With Healthy Project Media. If you're a health organization, nonprofit, community health center, foundation, or health plan doing ...
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    29 m
  • Youth, Homelessness, Mental Health & Showing Up: A Conversation with Community Advocate Royce Wright

    Youth, Homelessness, Mental Health & Showing Up: A Conversation with Community Advocate Royce Wright
    Mar 16 2026

    Quad Cities advocate Royce Wright gets real about youth mental health, the homelessness crisis, and what it means to show up consistently for kids and communities that the system keeps overlooking.

    SHOW NOTES:

    Some of the most important public health work doesn't happen in clinics or conference rooms. It happens on street corners, in shelters, and in honest conversations with kids who just need somebody to show up.

    This week on The Healthy Project Podcast, Corey Dion Lewis sits down with his cousin Royce Wright — a community advocate based in the Quad Cities who has built a reputation for doing exactly that. Royce works with at-risk youth navigating mental health challenges, behavioral issues, and identity crises, while simultaneously raising his voice about the growing homelessness crisis in his community. His approach is rooted in lived experience, patience, and an unshakeable belief that trust is the foundation of everything.

    In this conversation, Royce shares what it's really like to work with kids who are struggling, why the family unit matters just as much as the child, and how a chance encounter while filming a TikTok video led to a viral moment — and a GoFundMe — aimed at opening emergency overflow shelters and youth spaces across the Quad Cities.

    What We Cover:

    Youth Mental Health & Advocacy

    • Why are so many at-risk kids caught in an identity crisis and performing toughness they don't actually feel
    • How adverse childhood trauma shapes behavior — and why patience is the most underrated tool in youth work
    • What it means to be authentic with young people who can read you in seconds
    • The importance of modeling behavior, not just preaching it
    • How to advocate for youth mental health even if you're not on the frontline

    Homelessness in the Quad Cities

    • How policy changes around shelter placement have pushed the unhoused out of safe spaces
    • Why people become homeless faster than most of us realize — and why warm weather doesn't solve the problem
    • The viral TikTok moment where Royce connected with a young man who had just become homeless and didn't even know a local shelter was open
    • Why abandoned buildings in the Quad Cities are at the center of this conversation

    Royce's Mission & How You Can Help

    • How Royce went from passing out coats from his storage unit to becoming a community voice
    • The GoFundMe campaign: Creating Safe Spaces for the Unhoused and At-Risk Youth
    • A $100,000 goal to fund emergency overflow shelters and additional youth spaces in the Quad Cities

    Resources & Links:

    🔗 Royce Wright's GoFundMe — Creating Safe Spaces for the Unhoused and At-Risk Youth

    Follow Royce Wright:

    • Facebook
    • TikTok
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • LinkedIn

    About The Healthy Project Podcast The Healthy Project Podcast is hosted by public health storyteller Corey Dion Lewis. Each week, Corey brings honest, community-first conversations about health equity, mental health, social determinants of health, and the people doing the real work in underserved communities across the country.

    🎙️ Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.

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    32 m
  • When the CDC Dies, Who Actually Dies?

    When the CDC Dies, Who Actually Dies?
    Mar 9 2026

    The CDC is being cut by more than 50%. Over 100 public health programs are being eliminated. And the communities that will feel it first — and hardest — are the same ones who've always been at the back of the line. In this solo episode, Corey breaks down what's actually being dismantled, why the framing of "cutting DEI" is designed to make you look away, and what it means for Black and Brown communities when the safety net has a hole cut through the middle of it.

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    14 m
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