The CommonHealth
The CommonHealth is the podcast of the CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security. On The CommonHealth, hosts J. Stephen Morrison and Katherine Bliss delve deeply into the puzzle that connects pandemic preparedness and response, HIV/AIDS, routine immunization, and primary care, areas of huge import to human and national security. The CommonHealth replaces under a single podcast the Coronavirus Crisis Update, Pandemic Planet and AIDS Existential Moment.
Produced by Marla Hiller.
1
Book Event: Lifeline by John Donnelly
This episode of The CommonHealth features a live discussion of the recently published book, Lifeline: The Story of PEPFAR, the Greatest Humanitarian Initiative of Our Time, by John Donnelly.
55 min
2
Dr. Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim, Sudan Health Minis...
Dr. Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim, Sudan Minister of Health, speaks to the astronomic scale of health and humanitarian demands in Sudan, the largest globally, three and a half years after the outbreak of war that has featured war crimes by both sides, cleaved Sudan into two de facto partitioned zones, and involves continued intense fighting over contested zones in Kordofan and Blue Nile.
33 min
3
25 Years Since the Anthrax Attacks: Where Are W...
This episode of The CommonHealth features a live discussion on how lessons learned from the 2001 anthrax attacks have been applied to the U.S. biodefense enterprise, and what more is needed to continue protecting Americans from deliberate biological threats.
69 min
4
Drs. Armand Sprecher and Adi Nadimpalli, MSF: o...
Drs. Armand Sprecher and Adi Nadimpalli, MSF, directed on-the-ground operations in Ituri and North Kivu provinces in recent months.
45 min
5
Dr. Megan Ranney, Dean, Yale School of Public H...
Megan Ranney, Dean of the Yale School of Public Health for the past three years plus, reflects on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
27 min
6
Using Drones to Expand Healthcare Delivery
This episode of The CommonHealth features a live discussion with Zipline’s CEO Caitlin Burton reflecting on Zipline’s work to expand its delivery network, the evolution of its partnership with African partner governments and the U.S. State Department, and what the company has learned about the potential for emerging technologies to increase health access and outcomes.
55 min
7
Monisha Ashok, Director of Health Investments, ...
Monisha Ashok, Director of Health Investments, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) lays out how health now figures in DFC's strategy following the late 2025 Congressional reauthorization that increased its investment cap by more than threefold to $205 billion with much greater flexibilities, including equity investments and engagement in high-income countries
30 min
8
Hayley Severance, NTI: The newly released Afric...
Hayley Severance, Deputy Vice President, Global Biological Policy and Programs, Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), walks us through the newly launched Africa Health Security Index.
36 min
9
Aurélia Nguyen, CEPI: "Vaccines will be part of...
Aurélia Nguyen, Dep. CEO of CEPI (Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) shares her unusual personal and career story, including working with Andrew Witty at GSK, and with Seth Berkley at GAVI during Ebola in West Africa 2014-2015 and later during the COVID-19 pandemic when she managed the COVAX facility.
41 min
10
Ken Isaacs, Samaritan’s Purse: "What they need ...
28 min
11
Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director, WHO ...
Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme, spent several weeks in the hot zone in eastern Congo, mobilizing the international response to the late-discovered Ebola outbreak.
39 min
12
CommonHealth Live! with Rep. Ami Bera
In this episode of the CommonHealth Live! series, J. Stephen Morrison sits down with Representative Ami Bera (CA-06) to discuss the future of U.S. global health security strategy in an era of redefined alliances, geopolitical competition, and the rise of transformative but disruptive technologies such as AI.
45 min
13
Dr. Gerald Parker: New World Screwworm arrives ...
Dr. Gerald Parker, an acclaimed biodefense/One Health expert and high-ranking official across several administrations, experienced New World screwworm (NWS) as a boy in Texas while assisting his veterinarian father treat pets invaded by the parasite.
37 min
14
Jamie Bay Nishi, the American Society of Tropic...
Jamie Bay Nishi, the dynamic CEO of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), is absorbed with the question: how do we navigate all the changes in government policy and programs and hold the global health community together?
39 min
15
Declan Walsh, NYT Africa Correspondent: "It all...
Declan Walsh, the acclaimed New York Times Africa correspondent, visited the hot zone of the Ebola outbreak in Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from May 22 to June 12, the "perfect petri dish."
28 min
16
Dr. Salim Abdool Karim, Chair, Africa CDC Emerg...
Dr. Salim Abdool Karim, the renowned South African epidemiologist, chairs the Africa CDC Emergency Consultative Group. In that role, he just completed a visit to Bunia, capital of Ituri province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, site of the dangerous Ebola outbreak.
30 min
17
Strengthening Vaccine Production and Access to ...
Two years since the launch of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA), a financial mechanism that invests in commercially viable manufacturing efforts on the continent, what progress has been made in the effort to produce 800 million vaccines in Africa by 2035?
55 min
18
Dr. Jeffrey Gold, President of the University o...
Dr. Jeffrey Gold, President of the University of Nebraska, details the evolving experience of caring for the 16 Americans evacuated from the Dutch ship, the HV Hondius, following an outbreak on the ship of the Andes strain of the hantavirus.
39 min
19
Professor Rebecca Katz, Georgetown University: ...
Professor Rebecca Katz, Georgetown University, explains the Health Security Operations Center, the remarkable initiative she has spearheaded with others to enhance protection against dangerous outbreaks during the FIFA World Cup June 11-July 19 in the US, Mexico and Canada.
30 min
20
Professor Paul Spiegel, Johns Hopkins Universit...
On May 20, Professor Paul Spiegel presents in Geneva the report of the Lancet Commission on health, conflict and forced displacement, conducted in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health (CHH).
44 min
21
Priya Basu, the Pandemic Fund: "Countries are n...
Priya Basu, head of the Pandemic Fund (est. 2022, based at the World Bank) , reflects on the Fund's origin and evolution. "It exists to solve problems no one else was solving."
36 min
22
A Conversation with Dr. Sania Nishtar, CEO of G...
Gavi CEO Sania Nishtar sat down with Katherine E. Bliss, Director and Senior Fellow, Immunizations and Health Systems Resilience, to discuss the Vaccine Alliance’s ambitious plan of work for the next five years.
47 min
23
The Lenacapavir Partnership and the Evolution o...
Listen to this event from the CSIS Futures Summit on the lenacapvir partnership, how this deal fits into a renewed U.S. strategy for foreign assistance, what challenges lie on the horizon as implementation unfolds, and what additional innovations may scale this effort.
72 min
24
Dr. Eli Cahan: “Human beings are wired for stor...
Dr. Eli Cahan explains how he evolved into both a neonatologist and an accomplished, intrepid journalist, inspired by the likes of Atul Gawande and shaped by experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.
40 min
25
Dr. Benjamin Park, CDC: speed is of utmost impo...
Dr. Benjamin Park is Director of the CDC Division of Global Health Protection that protects Americans against dangerous outbreaks by strengthening partner countries’ capabilities to detect and respond.
33 min