Does public health belong to people with a specific perspective, or is it—as the term implies—for the public at large?

Today’s episode is different. Dean Sandro Galea, Dean and Distinguished Professor at WashU School of Public Health, returns to the podcast to discuss the Purple Public Health Project (PPHP), a new initiative he is launching with Salma. The PPHP aims to start a conversation about how public health thinks, acts, and communicates so we can reach people of all stripes, ideologies, and perspectives. Using concrete examples, they discuss whether public health should be grounded in science or values, or both. They also explore what each one of them thinks success would look like.

Join Salma and Dean Galea as they commit to this process of thinking rigorously in public about public health and contribute to shifting the thinking of the field.

Useful resources:

• Healthier Futures Lab. www.healthierfutureslab.org

Host: Dr. Salma Abdalla Editors: Catalina Melendez Contreras Marketing: Kinkini Bhaduri Music: Eden Avery / Melting Glass from Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/2fqOXWpHab/

The views and opinions expressed by the guest in this episode do not necessarily reflect those of their institution, the funders, or the podcast team.

In global health, evidence, authority, and distance are often deeply entangled.

Dr. Seye Abimbola is Professor of Health Systems at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney. He is a leading voice in debates on decolonizing global health, with scholarship focused on health systems governance and epistemic injustice. He is also the founding editor-in-chief of BMJ Global Health and the author of The Foreign Gaze (2024).

In this episode, Seye joins Salma to discuss his collection of essays interrogating the epistemological foundations of the field currently known as global health—and to reflect on what it might mean to reshape that field. Together, they examine who gets to define global health problems and solutions, noting how the field is often shaped by distant, powerful actors rather than those closest to the contexts in which interventions are meant to work.

They also explore how knowledge is generated and valued in global health, questioning the routine elevation of randomized controlled trials as the gold standard for complex social interventions, unpacking why author affiliations can obscure deeper issues of “gaze” versus “pose,” and discussing how local practices are frequently overlooked or rendered illegible as evidence.

Throughout the episode, Seye and Salma invite listeners to reflect on positionality, take complexity seriously, and imagine what the “field formerly known as global health” could become.

Useful resources:

• Abimbola S. The Foreign Gaze: Essays on Global Health. IRD éditions; 2024.

• Abimbola, S. (2011). Seye Abimbola: David Cameron, homosexuality, and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. The BMJ Opinion. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2011/12/08/seye-abimbola-david-cameron-homosexuality-and-hivaids-in-sub-saharan-africa/

• Abimbola, S. (2019). The foreign gaze: Authorship in academic global health. BMJ Global Health, 4(5), e002068. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2019-002068

Host: Dr. Salma Abdalla Editor: Catalina Melendez Contreras Marketing: Kinkini Bhaduri Music: Eden Avery / Melting Glass from Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/2fqOXWpHab/

The views and opinions expressed by the guest in this episode do not necessarily reflect those of their institution, the funders, or the podcast team.

Will superbugs take over the world, as increasing media articles suggest?

Dr. Sabiha Essack is Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), where she established the Antimicrobial Research Unit, and the South African Research Chair in Antibiotic Resistance and One Health. Dr. Essack’s research focuses on evidence-informed strategies to mitigate antibiotic resistance through prevention and surveillance strategy using a One Health approach, which accounts for the health of humans, animals, plants and the environment.

In this episode, Sabiha joins Salma to discuss antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and its unequal impact on health. While AMR is driven by indiscriminate use and misuse of antimicrobials globally, low- and middle-income countries—with weak health and regulatory systems, limited access to diagnostic tools and alternative solutions, and vulnerable populations—bear most of the burden. Dr. Essack highlights the importance of equitable access to antibiotics, diagnostics, and vaccines, as well as the critical role of governance, financing, stewardship, and environmental controls. They also analyze current AMR communication approaches and question whether fear-based messages are effective and appropriate.

Considering the global and polycentric scope of this issue, with no single right answer, this episode underscores the need for innovative, equitable alternatives to address the growing AMR challenge.

Useful resources:

• Altevogt BM, Taylor P, Akwar HT, et al. A One Health framework for global and local stewardship across the antimicrobial lifecycle. Commun Med. 2025;5(1):414. doi:10.1038/s43856-025-01090-4

Host: Dr. Salma Abdalla Editors: Catalina Melendez Contreras and Zachary Linhares Marketing: Kinkini Bhaduri Music: Eden Avery / Melting Glass from Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/2fqOXWpHab/

The views and opinions expressed by the guest in this episode do not necessarily reflect those of their institution, the funders, or the podcast team.