This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and journalist and consultant Sheryl WuDunn. The prolific husband-and-wife writing team discuss their latest book about a humanitarian crisis happening right here in America. In “Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope”, they explore the decline in life expectancy and the rise of ‘deaths of despair’ in the US. They also examine solutions to address this growing public health crisis.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Rebecca Cunningham, Director of the University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center. Dr. Cunningham is leading a national team of scientists in ground-breaking collaborative research to examine the myriad causes of the gun violence epidemic in this country, now the leading cause of death for America’s teens, and second leading cause of death for American children overall. Congress has recently allocated money for gun violence research after a two-decade drought. Her team is examining social causes, policy requirements and prevention interventions to address the crisis.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Dr. Chad Gehani, President of the American Dental Association which is observing National Children’s Dental Health Month. Tooth decay is the largest unmet health need for children in America, and they discuss the ADA’s Give Kids A Smile program in which thousands of dentists and other dental health professionals provide free dental care to tens of thousands of kids around the country every year. They also discuss the impact of water fluoridation for prevention of tooth decay and the need for expanded access to care for all Americans.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Nancy Oriol, founder of the Family Van, a mobile health clinic on wheels that brings prevention and primary care interventions right into the neighborhoods who need it most. She talks about building a health care network based on trust, saving costs and improving outcomes, and how it’s gaining in popularity in a more user-friendly, prevention-focused health care system.

This week on Conversations on Health Care, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Steven Woolf, Distinguished Chair in Population Health at Virginia Commonwealth University - and Health Equity Director Emeritus and Senior Advisor at the V-C-U Center on Society and Health. He talks about their just-released report – showing a decline in life expectancy among working aged adults in the US – a result of the lingering effects of the recession, the opioid crisis and other so-called deaths of despair. The data show this trend has been underway since the 1980’s and has now hit critical mass.

This week, on the eve of World Aids Day, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter revisit their conversation with Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the quest to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in ten years. They discuss the CDC’s efforts to advance infection prevention in high risk groups through the use of PrEP, better treatment protocols for those already infected, and the ongoing quest to develop an AIDS vaccine.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Louis Philipson, President of Medicine and Science at the American Diabetes Association and Director of the Kovler Diabetes Center at the University of Chicago who addresses the enormous public health threat of 30 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes as well as 70 million more with pre-diabetes. He examines the challenge of helping patients manage their conditions and talks about promising new research on genomics-based precision medicine approaches to treating certain types of diabetes.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California at San Francisco, who recently chaired a committee at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine on the social determinants of health. She discusses their report on ways to incorporate social care into health care, shifting the American health system towards better management of upstream causes of poor health.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Matthew Myers, co-founder and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a leading organization dedicated to reducing tobacco use and harm around the country and the world. He discusses the dramatic decline of teen tobacco use, until the recent rise in vaping and e-cigarettes among the nation's youth - leading to a dramatic increase in nicotine addiction. He discusses the best approach to addressing this public health crisis.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Susannah Sirkin, Director of Policy at Physicians for Human Rights, an organization using the power of medicine and science to document human rights violations in conflict zones around the world. She discusses their recent report on Syria's attack on its own health care system, the banning of land mines and their work documenting trauma experienced by refugees and asylum seekers here and around the globe.

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. David Nash, Founding Dean of the Jefferson College of Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He talks about the need to advance population health through better compensation for primary care clinicians, improving quality training in the medical education setting, and advancing clinician leadership training.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Leah Binder, CEO of the Leapfrog Group, which is dedicated promoting patient safety through better transparency in hospital errors leading to avoidable deaths. She discusses the 161 thousand error-related hospital deaths last year, and the latest Hospital Safety Grade, which scores hospitals on their safety measure performance.

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which is dedicated to eradicating the AIDS Virus as we know it in this country, dramatically reducing new infections within a decade. He also addresses the domestic and global spike of previously eradicated diseases like measles, resulting from a growing anti-vaccination movement.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Neurosurgeon at Emory Clinic and Chief Medical Correspondent at CNN, on his new series, "Chasing Life" which explores areas around the world with exceptional longevity, happiness and wellbeing. He delves into the secrets to healthier lives in those places, and also examines the epidemic of stress in America and how it is leading to poor health outcomes and reduced life expectancy.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Colleen Kraft, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has vocally opposed the separation of immigrant families at the border. She talks about the long term impact of toxic stress in childhood, recommended breastfeeding and vaccination protocols, harm from gun violence, and too much screen time for kids.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Emily Barson, Co-Founder along with former CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt, of United States of Care, a non-profit, non-partisan organization seeking to advance access to affordable health care for all Americans,"putting health care above politics". She talks about their focus on state-based innovations that are improving health care access, and about their Medicaid Buy-In effort seeking to assist states in creatively expanding Medicaid to cover more of their residents.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Pulitzer Prize winning Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, author of "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup", which figures prominently in the current HBO documentary on Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos. It's a riveting account of the scandal he uncovered at the health tech startup, which claimed it's technology would revolutionize diagnostic testing. He uncovered Holmes' widespread deception, detailing how she not only duped high level investors out of billions, but also put patients' lives at risk.

This week on Conversations on Health Care, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Louis Wade Sullivan, Founding Dean and President Emeritus of the Morehouse School of Medicine, and former HHS Secretary under the first Bush Administration. Dr. Sullivan discusses his efforts to build diversity in the health professions through his organization, the Sullivan Alliance, and his contributions to building equity in health systems around the country and the world.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Pulitzer Prize winning writer Barry Meier, author of "Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic," on Purdue Pharma, makers of the narcotic OxyContin, and the pivotal role they played in "the greatest public health crisis of the 21st Century."

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Noelle LaCharite Principal Program Manager for Applied AI and Cognitive Services at Microsoft, and one of the original voice 'skills' developers for Amazon's Alexa. She talks about the promise of applied AI, machine learning and voice technology systems which enable coders, developers or anyone to create their own applications and voice skills to enhance and advance the health care experience.