Across the globe and in the U.S., environmental crises loom large and threaten our most vulnerable populations.

“There's a lot of dying that's happening now, and it's primarily among poor, Black and Brown people,” says Dr. Cherly Holder, who’s on a personal mission to inspire clinicians to act on climate change.

Holder explains that a person’s health and well-being is directly impacted by the environment they’re surrounded by.

“In celebrating and recognizing the environment, we recognize that this is how we define humanity, and how we create the environment for us to grow and thrive,” she says.

In honor of Earth Day, which is coming up this month, we’re dipping into our archives to bring you a conversation with Dr. Cheryl Holder. She’s now retired, but at the time this conversation was recorded and produced for the Health Disparities podcast in 2021, Dr. Holder was serving as the Interim Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity and Community Initiatives, and associate professor at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University.

This episode was originally published in 2021 with host Elise Tolbert.

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What motivates Joel Bervell, a.k.a. the Medical Mythbuster, to create social media content addressing racial disparities, the hidden history of medicine, and biases in healthcare?

He’s seen how it can literally save lives.

A year after Bervell posted a video about disparities in pulse oximeters for Black patients, a man reached out to share that during the pandemic, he had reported to the hospital with shortness of breath, a fever and COVID symptoms. The pulse oximeter reported 100% oxygen saturation, so he was told to go home.

“But he felt horrible, and he had recently seen my video” showing pulse oximeters can report falsely high oxygen readings in Black patients, Bevell says. “And so he told the doctors.. I want to stay here at the hospital. Is that okay?”

The doctors let him stay, and the man ended up crashing the night, ending up in the ICU with intubation. He’s grateful he survived, and later reached out to Bervell to say, “because of your video, I felt confident being able to say, ‘I don't know if this is accurate for me, I don't feel well. I want to stay.’”

Bervell says this is why he creates videos like these, to help people understand medical issues “so they can feel confident to let their needs be known” to health care providers.

Hear more on this story and the latest adventures of the Medical Mythbuster Joel Bervell, who joined Movement Is Life’s summit as a closing plenary speaker, and spoke with Board member Dr. Erick Santos for this podcast episode.

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Weight bias is pervasive and is one of the most common forms of bias in the U.S.

When it comes to obesity medicine, patients can be their worst critics, says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician scientist, educator, and policy maker at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

“They’re their worst critics because what they’ve heard from their doctors, their family members, their peers is that they have failed,” Dr. Stanford says. “My goal is to help them realize that they’re not, indeed, a failure. There are options. We can treat this disease. We do have treatments available.”

Dr. Stanford is a national and international sought-after expert in obesity medicine who bridges the intersection of medicine, public health, policy, and disparities. She joins the Health Disparities podcast to discuss weight bias, how that bias causes stress, and the role of stress in obesity.

This episode was originally published in 2019 with host Dr. Bonnie Mason Simpson.

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