New Season of “American Diagnosis” Podcast to Explore the Resilience of Indigenous Peoples in the Face of Adversity, Social Inequity, and Health Injustice

The new season of the “American Diagnosis” podcast will explore the impact of hundreds of years of adversity on the health of Indigenous peoples in America, examining the resilience of the Navajo Nation during the covid-19 pandemic as an entry point into this history.

Early in the coronavirus pandemic, the Navajo Nation made headlines for having the nation’s highest covid infection rates. And yet the Navajo people, also known as the Diné, rebounded spectacularly. They rallied around their elders. They banded together to make sure their communities had the food, water, and protective equipment they needed. And they’ve led the way in getting their people vaccinated.

In “Rezilience: Surviving Manifest Destiny,” a 12-episode series premiering Tuesday, Jan. 18, host Dr. Céline Gounder investigates how covid is but the latest chapter in a long history of Indigenous resilience to adversity—on the “rez” (reservation) and beyond. The series will feature conversations with Indigenous leaders, scholars, health workers, activists, historians, and poets.

With this season, its fourth, “American Diagnosis” is becoming part of KFF’s Kaiser Health News (KHN). New episodes will be available every two weeks here. Topics will include (among others):

• The largest accidental release of radioactive material in U.S. history and why you’ve likely never heard of it
• The push to restore Indigenous food sovereignty
• How greater tribal sovereignty could help protect Native women from gender-based violence

The extraordinary lengths some go to provide clean drinking water for their community

KHN also created and produces the popular “What the Health?” podcast, in which host Julie Rovner leads a panel of top reporters, all of them women from leading media outlets, in a weekly discussion about health policy news in Washington, D.C. KHN also co-produces the podcast “Where It Hurts” with St. Louis Public Radio, which examines health system failures in overlooked parts of America, and “An Arm and a Leg,” a podcast created and hosted by former Marketplace reporter Dan Weissmann that focuses on the cost of health care. In addition, KHN has collaborated with This American Life as well as Reveal to produce episodes of these popular podcasts. You can check out these other podcasts produced by KHN here.

About KFF and KHN

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.