The Podcast, Now in Season 4, is Becoming Part of KFF’s Kaiser Health News
The new season of the “American Diagnosis” podcast will explore the impact of hundreds of years of adversity on the health of Indigenous peoples in America, examining the resilience of the Navajo Nation during the covid-19 pandemic as an entry point into this history.
Early in the coronavirus pandemic, the Navajo Nation made headlines for having the nation’s highest covid infection rates. And yet the Navajo people, also known as the Diné, rebounded spectacularly. They rallied around their elders. They banded together to make sure their communities had the food, water, and protective equipment they needed. And they’ve led the way in getting their people vaccinated.
In “Rezilience: Surviving Manifest Destiny,” a 12-episode series premiering Tuesday, Jan. 18, host Dr. Céline Gounder investigates how covid is but the latest chapter in a long history of Indigenous resilience to adversity—on the “rez” (reservation) and beyond. The series will feature conversations with Indigenous leaders, scholars, health workers, activists, historians, and poets.
With this season, its fourth, “American Diagnosis” is becoming part of KFF’s Kaiser Health News (KHN). New episodes will be available every two weeks here. Topics will include (among others):
- The largest accidental release of radioactive material in U.S. history and why you’ve likely never heard of it
- The push to restore Indigenous food sovereignty
- How greater tribal sovereignty could help protect Native women from gender-based violence
- The extraordinary lengths some go to provide clean drinking water for their community
KHN also created and produces the popular “What the Health?” podcast, in which host Julie Rovner leads a panel of top reporters, all of them women from leading media outlets, in a weekly discussion about health policy news in Washington D.C. KHN also co-produces the podcast “Where It Hurts” with St. Louis Public Radio, which examines health system failures in overlooked parts of America, and “An Arm and a Leg,” a podcast created and hosted by former Marketplace reporter Dan Weissmann that focuses on the cost of health care. In addition, KHN has collaborated with This American Life as well as Reveal to produce episodes of these popular pods.
The Team
Dr. Céline Gounder
Host
She is Senior Fellow and Editor at Large for Public Health with KHN. She is an M.D., specializing in HIV/infectious diseases and epidemiology. Her prior journalistic work includes coverage of the Ebola, Zika, covid-19, and opioid overdose epidemics, which has been featured in such leading outlets as The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. Gounder also hosts the “Epidemic” podcast, in which she interviews experts in infectious disease and public health on topics from the social effects of the coronavirus pandemic to the history and virology of past outbreaks.
@celinegounder on Twitter
Taunya English
Managing Editor
She is senior editor for broadcast innovation with KHN, where she leads enterprise audio projects across the newsroom. She is the showrunner of the “Where It Hurts” podcast, an exploration of the health system in overlooked parts of the country, co-produced with St. Louis Public Radio. Previously, she was editorial director of “The Pulse,” a national health and science radio show.
@taunyaenglish on Twitter
Zach Dyer
Senior Producer, Mix and Sound Design
He is senior producer for audio with KHN. He oversees all levels of production for the “American Diagnosis” and “Epidemic” podcasts from researching story pitches, interviewing guests, managing remote recording, scriptwriting, and the final mix.
@zkdyer on Twitter
Oona Tempest
Digital Producer, Design and Logo Art
She is a digital producer and illustrator with KHN, where she works on the newsroom’s websites and social media. Based in New York, Tempest worked to build the visual vocabulary for Just Human Productions before joining KHN.
@oonatempest on Instagram
About KFF and KHN
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.