# The Dose The Dose is the Commonwealth Fund's podcast that presents fresh ideas, new perspectives, and compelling conversations about where health care is headed. Join host Joel Bervell this season for conversations with leading and emerging experts in health care and health policy. Get the Dose in your inbox: https://thedose.show/signup Page: Feed: --- ## [Doctor Mike on Why Ceding the Internet Is a Public Health Threat](https://dose.show/s10e05) _2026-04-17_ When people receive a medical diagnosis or experience a new symptom, the first thing many of us do is reach for our phone. If a doctor isn't available to provide an answer, someone else is. On The Dose podcast, host Dr. Joel Bervell talks with Dr. Mike Varshavski, a primary care physician with more than 30 million social media followers, about what it takes to fight health misinformation at scale,… [Listen](https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thedose/Bervell_x_Dr_Mike_-_Final.mp3?dest-id=798674) ## [In "Deep Care," the Family Is the Sun Midwives Orbit Around (feat. Dr. Kaytura Felix)](https://thedose.show/s10e04) _2026-04-10_ Dr. Kaytura Felix didn't set out to document the Black maternal health crisis. She set out to find the people who are already doing something about it. On this episode of The Dose podcast, Dr. Joel Bervell talks with Felix, founder of the Black Birthing Futures project, about what she discovered: a constellation of Black community midwives providing "deep care" — clinical, emotional, social, and… [Listen](https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thedose/Bervell_x_Dr__Felix.mp3?dest-id=798674) ## [Fighting Medical Debt? There's an App for That (feat. Jared Walker)](https://thedose.show/s10e03) _2026-04-03_ Four in 10 Americans have medical debt. Most don't know there's a federal law that could eliminate it. On this episode of The Dose podcast, host Joel Bervell talks with Jared Walker about his nonprofit, Dollar For, which has helped Americans erase more than $100 million in medical debt by connecting them to the charity care programs that hospitals are legally required to offer but rarely… [Listen](https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thedose/Bervell_x_Walker_-_Project_10_mixdown.mp3_SUBMIX.mp3?dest-id=798674) ## [The Missing Ingredient in Health Care AI? Community Voices](https://thedose.show/s10e02) _2026-03-27_ Seventy billion dollars is flowing into health care AI, but the people building it and the patients who need it most are rarely in the same room. On this episode, host Dr. Joel Bervell talks with pediatrician, researcher, and tech optimist Dr. Ivor Horn about what responsible AI innovation in health care requires. Drawing on her work building open-access datasets and equity frameworks for machine… [Listen](https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thedose/Bervell_x_Horn_-_Project_08_mixdown.wav_MIX.mp3?dest-id=798674) ## [Lupita Nyong'o Is Done Accepting Fibroids as Normal](https://thedose.show/s10e01) _2026-03-20_ Uterine fibroids may affect up to 80 percent of women in their lifetime, but they remain under-researched, underfunded, and routinely dismissed. Lupita Nyong'o is working to change that. "I could not believe that women were partially or wholly losing their reproductive organs because of this noncancerous tumor situation." On this episode, Dr. Joel Bervell talks with Academy Award–winning actor and… [Listen](https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thedose/Lupita_Nyongo_032026.mp3?dest-id=798674) ## [Reimagining Birth, Restoring Trust (feat. Elaine Welteroth)](http://thedose.show/s09e07) _2025-11-14_ A new movement in the United States is taking shape in maternal care, one that seeks to restore trust, center women, and protect lives. On this episode of The Dose podcast, Dr. Joel Bervell talks with author and advocate Elaine Welteroth about her own struggle finding patient-centered care during pregnancy and how the organization she founded, birthFUND, is funding midwifery care, supporting new… [Listen](https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thedose/DoseElaineWelteroth_v18_EPISODE.mp3?dest-id=798674) ## [A Doula Network That's Saving Lives (feat. Omare Jimmerson)](http://thedose.show/s09e06) _2025-11-07_ Across Oklahoma, a community-powered doula network is reshaping what equitable maternal care looks like. On this episode of The Dose, Dr. Joel Bervell talks with Omare Jimmerson of the Oklahoma Birth Equity Initiative about how culturally rooted doulas, smart policies, and practical supports—from rides to diapers—are helping hundreds of families thrive each year. [Listen](https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thedose/DoseOmareJimmerson_v11_EPISODE.mp3?dest-id=798674) ## [A New Approach to Youth Mental Health (feat. Dr. Kevin Simon)](http://thedose.show/s09305) _2025-10-31_ AI therapy for children with anxiety, mental health training for staff at nonprofits that work with young people, and an "art pharmacy" that prescribes free museum tickets to kids — these are just some of the things Dr. Kevin Simon and his team are doing to help meet the mental health care needs of Boston's children. Simon, the city's first chief behavioral health officer, talks to host Dr. Joel… [Listen](https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thedose/DoseKevinSimon2_v08_EPISODE.mp3?dest-id=798674) ## [Fixing How We Pay for Care (feat. Dr. Mai Pham)](http://thedose.show/s09e04) _2025-10-24_ "The proportion of energy and resources that goes into getting paid instead of taking care of patients is out of whack." That's Dr. Mai Pham's assessment of how we pay for health care in the United States — where all too often the imperative is volume over value, and billing over better care. In the latest episode of The Dose podcast, host Dr. Joel Bervell talks with Dr. Pham about how we can do… [Listen](https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thedose/DosePham_v12_EPISODE.mp3?dest-id=798674) ## [100,000 Bonus Points Await You (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/bjRXDvhFeaN8) _2025-10-24 · **Sponsored**_ Earn 100,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months. ## [Obesity Medicine in the Age of GLP-1s (feat. Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford)](http://thedose.show/s08e03) _2025-10-17_ Medical care for people with obesity is changing rapidly. Body mass index, or BMI, was once considered the gold standard for diagnosis but has proven to be less accurate than once thought. Meanwhile, the advent of GLP-1 drugs has provided patients with treatment options that were unimaginable just a decade ago. Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician, joins host Dr. Joel Bervell on… [Listen](https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thedose/DoseFatimaStanford_v19_EPISODE.mp3?dest-id=798674)