Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode

Long before “Make America Healthy Again,” or MAHA, existed, there was Rep.  Chellie Pingree (D-Maine): A self-described hippie, back-to-the-lander, certified organic farmer, and the first woman ever elected to Congress from Maine's first district. Since taking office in 2009, she has relentlessly fought pesticide preemption, championed SNAP benefits and school nutrition programs, and pioneered legislation on food waste and organic agriculture. She’s been fighting for healthier lives long before MAHA was a movement. Now MAHA has arrived, promising to achieve in a news cycle what Pingree has spent decades trying to accomplish legislatively. MAHA Action's president recently sent a memo to Republican Party leadership calling the movement “a once in a generation political gift to the GOP" and pledging $100 million to elect Republicans in the midterms. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  once a prominent voice against toxic pesticides, now celebrates executive orders by President Dinbaly Trump expanding glyphosate production, even as former pesticide lobbyists take key positions at the Environmental Protection Agency. MAHA was pitched as a bipartisan effort – but reality tells a different story. In today’s episode, Ken talks with Pingree about the contradictions between what the administration says on MAHA and what it’s actually doing on policy. And that’s the real divide: between those doing the difficult work of governing and achieving real results, and those packaging that work into snappy branding and social media posts. One is measured in years of policy fights and incremental wins. The other is measured in headlines and clicks. Yet only one of them changes the law to protect the public. For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:Make America Healthy Again? Let’s see if they’re serious Chellie Pingree 1st District of Maine In betrayal of MAHA, House GOP farm bill exposes kids to pesticides For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:Make America Healthy Again? Let’s see if they’re serious Chellie Pingree 1st District of Maine In betrayal of MAHA, House GOP farm bill exposes kids to pesticides Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week. @kencookspodcast www.ewg.org @environmentalworkinggroup    

Most people heard about Project 2025 during the 2024 presidential campaign. Far fewer understood what it actually was. The Atlantic’s David Graham wrote the definitive book explaining the sweeping conservative policy blueprint. In today’s episode, David speaks with Ken on how what seemed like a Republican policy wishlist was actually a meticulously engineered, four-part plan for seizing control of the federal government. They discuss how DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) helped accelerate the wrecking-ball agenda, why the architects of Project 2025 always assumed Congress would capitulate to their plans, and whether the damage being done to American institutions can ever be undone. The conversation helps us understand what the 2028 presidential election could mean for the project’s next chapter. For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:https://www.theatlantic.com/author/david-a-graham/ https://www.davidagraham.com/work https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-project-how-project-2025-is-reshaping-america-david-a-graham/afe80d453ffedb79?ean=9798217153725&next=t&next=t&affiliate=2186 Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week. @kencookspodcast www.ewg.org @environmentalworkinggroup

Many people find EWG while seeking information  about pesticides. In today’s episode Ken is joined by our in-house Senior Toxicologist, Dr. Alexis Temkin whose research establishes safety guidelines to help people (including children) minimize their exposure to toxic crop chemicals. In the second half of today’s episode Ken is joined by renowned pediatrician Dr. Phillip Landrigan whose decades of research and advocacy  is integral for understanding the effects of pesticides in children. We see this episode as Pesticides 101, to help give our audience agency over how they (and their families) are exposed to pesticides. Our government isn’t doing enough to protect us from harmful chemical  residues often found in healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. Until that changes, we’re grateful for the work of Dr. Temkin and Dr. Landrigan that has helped  people, including parents and caregivers, better understand how they can take steps to reduce their exposure to pesticides while eating plenty of healthy fruits and veggies. Want a deeper dive on today’s episode? Check out the links below:EWG’s 2024 Dirty Dozen EWG’s 2024 Clean 15EWG’s Dirty Dozen Guide to Food Chemicals: The top 12 to avoidEWG’s YouTubeAlexis Temkin, Ph.D.EPA warns farmworkers about risks of Dacthal60 Minutes (CBS; 2/26/1989)National Research Council (US) Committee on Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children Food Quality Protection Act Signing Safe Drinking Water Act Signing Children and Environmental Toxins: What Everyone Needs to Know® Project 2025's "Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise (contributed by NPR) Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week. @kencookspodcast www.ewg.org @environmentalworkinggroup

We’ve all seen the headlines about micro and nanoplastics. It’s clear that the public is uneasy with the ubiquity of plastic particles in our food, soil, and water. The plastics and petrochemical industry claims that concerns are overblown. A growing group of scientists and researchers disagrees. Multiple interdisciplinary studies are beginning to discover the impacts micro and nanoplastics may have on cardiovascular and brain health. Ken is joined by Matthew Campen, PhD, MSPH, the Director of the New Mexico Center for Metals in Biology and Medicine at the University of New Mexico, to discuss his findings and to help unravel what the science says. For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:Matthew J Campen, PhD, MSPHBioaccumulation of microplastics in decedent human brains‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human bodyMicroplastics and Nanoplastics in Atheromas and Cardiovascular Events Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week. @kencookspodcast www.ewg.org @environmentalworkinggroup

48 million Americans are food insecure, congress just cut $200 billion from SNAP, and the upcoming farm bill could make things even worse. But Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) believes we have an opportunity to fight back. McGovern joins Ken in today’s episode to break down what's really happening with America's food assistance programs, why new work requirements are kicking struggling families off benefits, and how farm subsidies enrich corporations while small farmers go bankrupt. Whose interests is Congress really serving? While special interests are already lobbying hard for the next farm bill, McGovern believes people power is more powerful than the people in power.If we can find billions for bailouts of Argentina and tax cuts for billionaires, but claim we're too broke to feed hungry Americans, we should probably check our math.For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:EWG’s Farm Subsidy Database ‘City slicker’ farm payments top $2B – and House GOP bill would make problem worseThe cruelest farm bill everKen Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.@kencookspodcastwww.ewg.org@environmentalworkinggroup 

Motherhood was a wake-up call for Hilary Swank, as she learned about the toxic chemicals lurking in everyday products we trust to keep our babies safe. In today's episode, Ken sits down with the two-time Academy Award-winning actress and film producer to discuss how becoming a mom transformed her understanding of just how toxic our world is for the most vulnerable among us. Last year, Hillary joined Ken at the California State Capitol to fight for passage of SB 646, a crucial prenatal vitamin safety law. She opens up about the shocking moment she learned that prenatal vitamins aren't required to be tested for heavy metals, her partnership with Healthy Baby (the first EWG VerifiedⓇ diaper), and why she'll show up “time and time again” to protect not just her children, but all children. From her first-ever lobbying experience to helping pass the groundbreaking SB 646 in just six months, Hilary is on a mission to make the world safer for the next generation.For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:EWG Skin Deep - Healthy Baby Gov. Newsom signs nation’s first law to require tests of prenatal vitamins for heavy metals EWG Area's of Focus: CaliforniaKen Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week. @kencookspodcast www.ewg.org @environmentalworkinggroup 

Just one year into the Trump administration, the onslaught of attacks on the environment and public health is staggering. The Environmental Protection Agency is leading the deregulatory charge with policy actions that will lead to more pollution. To help understand the full scope of the damage, Ken in this episode speaks to environmental law expert Joe Goffman. He served as assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation during the Biden administration. Goffman also played a key role in writing the landmark 1990 Clean Air Act amendments that strengthened U.S. air quality law. With his work on virtually every major air quality law and rule over the past 35 years, Goffman is uniquely qualified to unravel the full extent of damage that the EPA is doing to our air, water, and health.For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:Joseph Goffman, Executive Director of Harvard Law School's Environmental & Energy Law ProgramMAAHA: EWG’s ‘Make America Actually Healthy Again’ agenda for EPA Administrator ZeldinTrump’s EPA Could Limit Its Own Ability to Use New Science to Strengthen Air Pollution RulesEPA’s Goffman lashed out at ethics chargesKen Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.@kencookspodcastwww.ewg.org@environmentalworkinggroup

Julia Belluz, co-author of "Food Intelligence: The Science of How Food Both Nourishes and Harms Us," joins Ken to dismantle everything you think you know about nutrition, metabolism and weight loss. Julia is an award-winning health journalist, contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and former senior health correspondent at Vox. She's a Knight Science Journalism Fellow from MIT and currently lives in Paris, France.Julia explains why our struggles with food aren't personal failures. They are the predictable result of living in toxic food environments designed to make us overeat. Drawing on decades of nutrition science research conducted with co-author Kevin Hall at the National Institutes of Health, she reveals what people get wrong with food despite thinking they’re doing it right. Julia compares France's deliberate cultivation of healthy food environments to America's chronic disease crisis. She discusses California's groundbreaking legislation defining ultra-processed foods, the promise and failures of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s "Make America Healthy Again" agenda, and why we need systemic change to how we approach food.For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:Food Intelligence: The Science of How Food Both Nourishes and Harms UsEWG's food policy work California's ultra-processed food lawKen Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.@kencookspodcastwww.ewg.org@environmentalworkinggroup

Something unprecedented just happened at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A newly reconstituted advisory committee voted to recommend delaying hepatitis B vaccination for most babies. The vote overturns a 30-year policy that led to a massive decline in infant infections.In today’s episode, Ken talks with former CDC Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Dr. Demetre Daskalakis. Daskalakis spent decades fighting on the front lines of America's toughest public health battles. He brought HIV testing to the communities that needed it most. He stopped a meningitis outbreak in its tracks and he led the national Mpox response. He left the CDC in August.Demetre breaks down the recent shake-up at the CDC and why the best sign that federal public health efforts are working are that they’re not in the news – unlike today.For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:Dr. Demetre’s InstagramKen Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.@kencookspodcastwww.ewg.org@environmentalworkinggroup 

Are you susceptible to cult-like thinking? According to author Jane Borden, everyone might be, especially Americans.In today’s episode, Jane talks with Ken about how the Pilgrims and Puritans essentially founded America as a "high-control doomsday group" and that those patterns never went away.In her book, "Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America," Jane identifies the warning signs: worship of a charismatic leader who can't be criticized, apocalyptic crisis narratives, conspiratorial thinking that explains away inconvenient facts, and promises to return to a "pure" past. Sound familiar?The “Make America Great Again” and “Make America Healthy Again” movements check many of these boxes even while acknowledging that the health threats many Americans face are very real. Are we addressing those threats through evidence and accountability, or through cult-like devotion to leaders who promise easy answers?For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:Jane Borden’s WebsiteKen Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week. @kencookspodcast www.ewg.org @environmentalworkinggroup