Listener supported, WNYC Studios.

It's the Brian Lair Show on WNYC.

I'm producer Amina Serna, filling in for Brian today.

Welcome back, everyone.

We now turn to our health and climate stories of the week.

As some listeners know, the Brian Lairn Show is building on its climate story of the week series from past years.

It's an effort to keep stories about the

environment and public health from getting lost in the shuffle during Trump's first 100 days in

office. So we'll start now on health. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently completed

his so-called Make America Healthy Again tour, designed to highlight his plan to fight chronic disease and promote a healthy diet.

The tour took place amid massive cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Brian covered them last week with NPR health reporter Selena Simmons-Duffin.

And as the week has gone on, the scope of cutbacks to vital public health

programs has become clear. Kennedy has claimed since his Senate confirmation hearings that

infectious diseases receive far more federal funding than chronic diseases. And yet,

Kennedy's purge of federal workers has halted the very programs

that track public health problems. Joining us now with a roundup of all the news coming out of

HHS is Julie Rovner, Chief Washington correspondent at KFF Health News, and host of the What the Health

podcast. Julie, welcome back to WMIC. Thanks for having me.

In your weekly What the Health podcast episode, you referred to the Health Secretary's

Cuts to HHS as The Great Dismantling. So for listeners that missed the story or missed

Brian's segment last week, Can you refresh our memories?

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