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Health & Veritas Podcast

Howard Forman and Harlan Krumholz, two Yale physician-professors, discuss the latest news and ideas in healthcare and seek out the truth amid the noise.

Health & Veritas is produced with the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of Public Health.


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About the Hosts

  • Howard P. Forman (Co-Host)

    Professor Forman is a Professor of Diagnostic Radiology (and faculty director for Finance), Public Health (Health Policy), Economics, and Management. Professor Forman directs the Health Care Management program at the Yale School of Public Health and teaches healthcare economics in the Yale College Economics Department. He is the faculty founder and director of the MD/MBA program as well as the faculty director of the healthcare focus area in the School of Management’s MBA for Executives program. He is the co-founder and special advisor to the Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership program. He co-hosts the Health & Veritas podcast with Dr. Harlan Krumholz.

  • Harlan M. Krumholz (Co-Host)

    Harlan Krumholz is a cardiologist and scientist at Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital. He is the Harold H. Hines, Jr. Professor of Medicine, and Professor in the Institute of Social Policy Studies, of Investigative Medicine, and of Public Health (Health Policy), and the Director of the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. He is a leading expert in the science to improve the quality and efficiency of care, eliminate disparities and promote equity, improve integrity and transparency in medical research, engage patients in their care, and avoid wasteful practices. Recent efforts are focused on harnessing the digital transformation in healthcare to accelerate knowledge generation and facilitate the delivery of care aligned with each patient’s needs and preferences.

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Browse and listen to some of our featured episodes below. Check out the links in the right-hand column for a full list of episodes.

Albert Ko: A Journey in Public Health

Episode 82 - May 25, 2023

Howie and Harlan welcome Yale’s Albert Ko back to the podcast to discuss the state of the COVID-19 pandemic and his career as an infectious disease specialist and public health researcher. Harlan reports on a breakthrough in pacemaker technology; Howie reflects on the complex relationship between obesity, social media, and mental health for young people.

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Links:

“A Dual-Chamber Leadless Pacemaker”

Health & Veritas, Ep. 14: Albert Ko: A Wider View of COVID-19

“What’s Going On With Covid Right Now?”

Weill Cornell Medical School: Warren Johnson

Berkeley Public Health: Lee Riley

WHO: Social Determinants of Health

“The role of dieting, happiness with appearance, self-esteem, and bullying in the relationship between mental health and body-mass index among UK adolescents: a longitudinal analysis of the Millennium Cohort Study”

“Surgeon General Issues New Advisory About Effects Social Media Use Has on Youth Mental Health”


Megan Ranney: What’s Next for Public Health?

Cary Gross: Effective Cancer Screening

Episode 76 - April 13, 2023

Howie and Harlan are joined by Cary Gross, professor of medicine and public health and director of the National Clinician Scholars Program at Yale, to discuss his creative approach to research and his sometimes contrarian stances on cancer screening and not holding medical conferences in states that ban abortion. Harlan explains the nuances of new research about mortality risks tied to weight loss in older adults; Howie discusses his concerns over courts interfering with FDA drug approval processes arising from two cases tied to the medical abortion pill mifepristone.

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Links:

“The Relation between Funding by the National Institutes of Health and the Burden of Disease”

“Allocation of National Institutes of Health Funding by Disease Category in 2008 and 2019”

“Too Many Older Patients Get Cancer Screenings”

National Cancer Institute | National Cancer Act of 1971: “Holding Medical Professional Society Scientific Meetings Only in States That Protect Abortion Rights—Clinical and Ethical Considerations”

“Associations of Change in Body Size With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among Healthy Older Adults”

“Judge Invalidates F.D.A. Approval of the Abortion Pill Mifepristone”

“Democratic state attorneys general sue Biden administration over abortion pill rules”


Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith: The Systemic Roots of Inequities in Health


Episode 55 - November 12, 2022

Harlan reports on three negative—but striking—trials presented at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting; Howie reflects on the victories for health in Tuesday’s election. And they’re joined by Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a Yale internist and nationally known expert on healthcare equity, to discuss her service in the Biden administration and the need for a broad approach to tackling racism in healthcare and systemic inequities in health.

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Links:

“Another Fibrate Fails to Show Cardiovascular Benefit”

“DCP: HCTZ vs. Chlorthalidone in Improving CV Outcomes in Elderly Veterans With HTN”

“TRANSFORM-HF: Loop Diuretics Show No Difference in Mortality and Hospitalizations for Heart Failure”

“Nunez-Smith to lead Biden health equity task force”

Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership at Yale University

“Voters will have a say on abortion in 5 states with high-stakes ballot measures”

“South Dakota votes to expand Medicaid”

Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses—2021


Beating the Outbreaks


Episode 45 - August 4, 2022

Monkeypox, polio, and COVID-19 have all received the World Health Organization’s rarely used global health emergency designation. Howie and Harlan offer a needed sense of proportion alongside health information, updates on research, and policy developments for the grim trio of diseases.

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Dr. James Hamblin: Should You Stop Washing?


Episode 44 - July 8, 2022

Howie and Harlan talk with Dr. James Hamblin, a journalist and a lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health. They discuss his approach to communicating about public health, his prescient February 2020 article on COVID-19, and why he’s quit taking showers.

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Links:

James Hamblin: The Body

“You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus”


Teresa Chahine: The Social Entrepreneur's Guide to Making Change


Episode 43 - July 21, 2022

Howie and Harlan are joined by Teresa Chahine, the Sheila and Ron ’92 B.A. Marcelo Senior Lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship at Yale SOM. They discuss how social entrepreneurs use an interdisciplinary, iterative, community-centric approach to innovation to create self-sustaining solutions to problems in public health and other areas.

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Links:

“Tirzepatide Once Weekly for the Treatment of Obesity”

Teresa Chahine: “Toward an Understanding of Public Health Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship”

Teresa Chahine: Social Entrepreneurship: Building Impact Step by Step, 2nd Edition (December 2022)


Gregg Gonsalves: An Inspiring Nonlinear Path to Impact


Episode 39 - June 23, 2022

Howie and Harlan are joined by Yale epidemiologist and MacArthur ‘genius’ Gregg Gonsalves to discuss his non-traditional route to improving responses to global public health challenges.

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Links:

Eric Topol on COVID reinfections

Harlan’s Twitter thread on insurance debt

“Health Savings Accounts No Longer Promote Consumer Cost-Consciousness” Sherry Glied in Health Affairs

The Best Little Boy in the World


Your Co-host’s Remarkable Career


Episode 38 - June 16, 2022

Harlan interviews Howie about his life as a doctor and teacher, including how a radiologist without a PhD got to teach economics at Yale, why he engages in the daily battles that come with speaking out on Twitter, and the extraordinary return on investment from time spent mentoring young people.

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Links:

Arnold Schwarzenegger on deaths attributable to pollution

“Intravenous Vitamin C in Adults with Sepsis in the Intensive Care Unit”

“Climate Change, Fossil-Fuel Pollution, and Children’s Health“

Merriam-Webster on the origin of the word “doctor”


Jason Schwartz: Building a Better Vaccine Policy

Dr. Gail D’Onofrio: Grappling with the Opioid Epidemic


Episode 32 - May 5, 2022

Howie and Harlan are joined by Dr. Gail D’Onofrio, Yale's Albert E. Kent Professor of Emergency Medicine. They discuss the medications available for opioid addiction and the policy changes needed to allow those treatments to save more lives.

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Links:

“Sex-Specific Risk Factors Associated With First Acute Myocardial Infarction in Young Adults”

“Medication for Opioid Use Disorder After Nonfatal Opioid Overdose and Association With Mortality: A Cohort Study”


Melinda Irwin: Can Nutrition and Exercise Improve Cancer Outcomes?

Edward Kaplan: What Does Wastewater Reveal about COVID-19?


Episode 26 - March 24, 2022

Howie and Harlan are joined by Yale operations expert Edward Kaplan, who uses mathematical models to understand a variety of processes. They discuss Kaplan’s ongoing research tracking COVID-19 infections through sewage, which bypasses the biases inherent in data from testing and even hospitalization.

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Dr. Ijeoma Opara: Partnering with a Community


Episode 22 - February 24, 2022

Howie and Harlan talk with Dr. Ijeoma Opara of the Yale School of Public Health about the impact of persistent violence on mental health among urban youth and the power of community-based participatory research.

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Dr. Emily Wang: Mass Incarceration and Health


Episode 20 - February 10, 2022

Howie and Harlan are joined by Dr. Emily Wang, director of Yale's SEICHE Center for Health and Justice, to discuss the health effects of mass incarceration on the imprisoned and their families and communities.

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Dr. Akiko Iwasaki: Is Long COVID One Disease or Many?


Episode 19 - February 3, 2022

Howie and Harlan talk with Dr. Akiko Iwasaki about her research trying to understand the cause or causes of long COVID, which has over 200 reported symptoms.

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Nathan Grubaugh: Genomic Surveillance


Episode 17 - January 20, 2022

Howie and Harlan are joined by Yale epidemiologist Nathan Grubaugh. They discuss the utility of rapid antigen tests and Grubaugh's work tracking the evolution of COVID-19 variants.

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Dr. Albert Ko: A Wider View of COVID-19


Episode 14 - December 23, 2021

Howie and Harlan are joined by Dr. Albert Ko, a Yale epidemiologist who has advised Connecticut governor Ned Lamont. They discuss the state of the pandemic, rebuilding global public health infrastructure, and what omicron tells us about future variants.

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