Disasters leave more than physical damage. They carry lasting financial consequences for the people, businesses, towns, and cities they impact. A new report from the New Jersey Office of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP) lays out in stark terms storms, flooding, and rising recovery costs are increasingly putting pressure on the state’s infrastructure, housing markets, and municipal finances. In our Season 3 finale, NJ DEP Chief Economist unpacks the report’s findings—from shrinking tax ...

Rural communities are the backbone of America—growing our food, fueling our economy, and sustaining traditions that reach far beyond county lines. But in Pennsylvania, as in much of the country, rural health is under strain. Provider shortages, rising rates of chronic disease, and shrinking access to specialty services like obstetrics (maternal health) leave families and entire towns at risk. Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health Director Lisa Davis has spent more than 30 years working to addre...

PTSD is often called the “invisible wound” of military service. For many veterans, it shows up in nightmares, sudden triggers, or the feeling of being constantly on edge, making everyday life feel like another battlefield. But there’s hope: PTSD is treatable, and recovery is possible. Since 1989, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD has been the world’s leading resource for understanding and treating this condition. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Paula Schnur...

As storms grow stronger and insurance becomes harder to access, Floridians are looking for answers—and support. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) is working to stabilize the insurance market while giving homeowners the tools to build resilience before disaster strikes. Florida Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky discusses the launch of new wind mitigation resources, the expansion of the My Safe Florida Home program, and how Florida is investing in smarter, safer homes th...

Stories around substance use disorder (SUD) have too often been framed around crisis and moral failing. But SUD is a health condition—no different from heart disease or cancer—and it deserves public response rooted in care, not stigma. San Francisco is working to change that narrative. Through evidence-based treatment, innovative telehealth programs, and groundbreaking stigma-reduction campaigns like Living Proof, the city is reimagining recovery and how public health can meet people where th...

Palm Beach County, Florida, was the epicenter of the state’s opioid crisis for many years as pill mills and malfeasance plagued the county’s communities. Since 2017, the county has been addressing the crisis, forming an advisory committee, appointing a drug czar and shifting its response toward a strategy centered on long-term recovery. With opioid settlement money to allocate over the next 20 years, the latest plan looks to spend 90% on social determinants of health—like job training, stable...

How do you turn complex environmental health data into something people can actually use—and trust? In this episode of Empathy Affect, we talk with Matthew Montesano, senior director of data communication at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Bureau of Environmental Surveillance and Policy. Matthew leads the team behind the city’s Environment & Health Data Portal, a public-facing platform that unpacks key environmental health topics—like air quality, heat, ...

On the battlefield or in an emergency, military health professionals must make life-or-death decisions under extreme pressure. So how do they prepare to step into a high-pressure trauma scenario without putting real lives on the line? Enter medical modeling and simulation, where virtual reality, augmented reality, high-fidelity mannequins, and other cutting-edge technology are integrated into training to give military health professionals the reflexes and experiences they need to save lives w...

Americans rely on safe roads, railways, and transportation infrastructure every day, so what goes into keeping them resilient and reliable both on the day-to-day and during emergencies? We explore this question with Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Assistant State Emergency Operations Coordinator Matt Needham, learning how his team protects Georgians during snowstorms, hurricanes, and other emergencies in collaboration with agency partners. Learn what it takes to keep our communiti...

Disasters like the wildfires in Southern California have destroyed homes, displaced people, and are costing the country hundreds of billions of dollars to recover. It raises the question: how can we proactively invest to protect our communities from the impacts of extreme weather and natural hazards? Washington State has looked to answer this question through its Climate Commitment Act (CCA). Passed in 2021, it has generated and reinvested $500 million across the state to reduce emissions and...

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) created its Veterans Experience Office (VEO) in 2015 with the goal of integrating a customer experience (CX) approach to veteran care, benefit, and service delivery. Since the office’s launch, VA has measured that veteran trust in the department has grown from 55% to 80%. Because of VEO’s collaboration with VA's administrations, veterans have been able to more easily navigate VA websites, have more streamlined and empathy-driven medical care, and m...

Although the United States has made great strides in reducing tobacco-related disparities, commercial tobacco use is still the leading cause of today’s biggest health challenges. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) has been leading tobacco prevention, cessation, and control. The office's director joins us to discuss the progress the team has made in decreasing tobacco use, as well as the challenges and work ahead. While CDC ha...

The 2024 election season brings fresh and complex challenges to election systems across the country—from mis- and disinformation to threats to security. The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) serves as a federal election hub, providing resources, training, grants, and support to our state and local election administrators, helping them prepare for this election so that voters can cast their ballots with confidence. For our Season 2 finale, EAC Commissioner and current Chairman Ben Hovland d...

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women behind skin cancer, with approximately 13.1% of women estimated to receive a diagnosis of breast cancer at some point in their lifetime. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is pioneering research to understand how we can better prevent breast cancer and promote risk reduction. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, NCI Division of Cancer Prevention Breast and Gynecological Cancer Research Chief Dr. Brandy Heckman-Stoddard about cutti...

The federal government is the United States’ biggest employer, with more than 2.1 million Service members and over 2 million civilian employees. Behind those millions of professionals, federal human capital leaders provide resources, benefits, programs, and growth opportunities to uplift our civil servants, so they can uplift our country. In this episode, we get a behind-the-scenes look at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the U.S. House of Representatives to learn how these institutions...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s policies have been key to keeping our country's people and environment healthy and safe. The agency's Office of Policy has been hard at work with some new updates though, taking new steps to strengthen climate adaptation, resilience, and emission reductions. Office of Policy Associate Administrator Vicki Arroyo walks us through these updates, as well as how her and her family's first-hand experiences with environmental disasters have informed how sh...

The warming climate is having an impact on our health, both physically and mentally. So, what do we need to do to protect our health and the planet's wellbeing? The Department of Health and Human Service's Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE) and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication (Mason 4C) are each doing their part to understand and address climate change and health at their crossroads. We speak with OCCHE Director Dr. John Balbus and Mason 4C Dire...

For the last 8 years, Dr. Joshua Gordon has served as director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)—the leading federal agency in mental health research. Next week, Dr. Gordon will depart NIMH and continue the next step of his career at Columbia University. As he wraps up his tenure, we sit down with Dr. Gordon to talk about the arc of progress in mental health research, how NIMH is translating evidence-based solutions to the treatment setting, and what's next for the director as...

The 2019 Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act—or Evidence Act—aims to improve federal programs applying data, evidence, and evaluations in decision-making. Five years later, how are agencies meeting the requirements of the legislation, and how has the act improved how our government accomplishes its mission? We explore these questions looking into evidence and evaluations at one agency, the Department of Health and Human Services with its evaluation officer, Dr. Susan Jenkins. ...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) longest-running tobacco public education campaign, The Real Cost, is marking its 10th anniversary this year. The campaign aims to prevent youth from using tobacco through powerful messaging and real-life stories, but how has The Real Cost remained relevant as the media landscape, young people, and the market of tobacco products all evolved rapidly? In this episode of Empathy Affect, we explore these questions and dive into the methods and public h...