Public health can feel abstract until the moment it becomes personal. It becomes real when an outbreak hits, when a community changes its food environment, or when policy decisions ripple into everyday life. Few people have seen that full picture more clearly than Dr. Tom Frieden.
Frieden led New York City’s health department through some of the most ambitious (and effective) modern public-health initiatives, from eliminating trans fats to implementing smoke-free laws that dramatically reduced exposure to secondhand smoke. He later served as Director of the CDC during the Obama administration and now leads Resolve to Save Lives, working globally to prevent epidemics and improve cardiovascular health.
In our conversation, we talk about what public health actually is and why people so often misunderstand its purpose. We get into the concerns he and eight other former CDC directors raised about RFK Jr.’s leadership and the real risks of sidelining scientific expertise. We also discuss how the CDC is structured and what authority it actually has. As well as whether litigation against food companies is a meaningful lever for improving population health or a distraction from the policy tools that drive real change.
Finally, Dr. Frieden walks through the “see, believe, create” framework from his new book, The Formula for Better Health, and the changes he believes would have the greatest impact on the U.S. public-health system if he could redesign it tomorrow.
Dr. Tom Frieden’s new book, The Formula for Better Health, is available here.
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