Podcast Highlights Public Health

BY EMILY NELSON

The “From the Front Row” podcast allows CPH students an opportunity to hone their communication skills, meet thought leaders in the field, and educate the public on important topics.

While Stevland Sonnier was considering graduate schools for public health, several colleagues suggested he look at the University of Iowa. While researching the UI College of Public Health, he discovered the student-produced From the Front Row podcast.

“I listened to a few of the episodes, and one was with Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician who was really at the heart of exposing the Flint, Michigan, water crisis,” Sonnier says. “I thought, ‘Wow, they are talking to one of the key practitioners of the key public health principles at the issue of this crisis. This is a very important conversation that this person gets to have and learn from as a student.’ I wanted to be a part of that.”

Learning Communication Skills

Sonnier joined the podcast team shortly after starting at Iowa and became the executive producer his second year. He received an MPH with an emphasis in policy in 2021 and now works as a federal policy analyst at MITRE, where he says he uses many of the skills that he gained while working on From the Front Row.

“I advise the federal government on health care solutions, and a big part of that is engaging with community members, talking with them, listening to what their needs are, and then translating them into effective recommendations,” Sonnier says.

“Working on the podcast really helped me figure out what effective public health messaging looks like. Science changes, it’s very complicated, etc., but how do you quickly, concisely, and clearly communicate a message to folks from different backgrounds with different viewpoints? That was a critical element that we engaged with in every podcast.”

The podcast began in 2018, and there have been new episodes almost every week since, covering topics ranging from the connection between food production and rural and immigrant health, dealing with the opioid epidemic, delivering mental health and counseling services on a college campus, newborn screening programs, intimate partner violence, and, of course, navigating COVID-19.

“The podcast has been an impressive student-run initiative from the beginning,” says Lexie Just, associate director of admissions and recruitment in the College of Public Health. “Ian Buchta was the first producer and he set the tone on day one. Ian turned the reins over to Steve Sonnier, then Alexis Clark, and now to our current producer, Anya Morozov. They’ve led podcast teams that have put out engaging and informative public health content every week.”

Podcasters Anya Morozov and Radha Velamuri

Introducing Public Health

Morozov, From the Front Row’s current executive producer, also discovered the podcast while trying to decide on graduate schools. And while the school’s strong sense of community is what ultimately swayed her, the podcast didn’t hurt.

“I thought it must be a pretty cool school of public health if they were able to keep a podcast going for so long,” says the second-year epidemiology student.

While the podcast aims to introduce public health topics to the general public, there is another important audience: students and potential students.

It serves as an introduction to the UI College of Public Health—as Sonnier and Morozov know firsthand—but also to the field of public health.

“Why is this an interesting field to get into? Why should you look at this versus any other number of careers?” Sonnier says. “Or, how does it relate to other careers? Other fields are very influenced by public health, so getting exposure to that was a critical driving force for me when we were considering what the vision was for the podcast structure.”

Building Skills

From the Front Row introduces students to more than the technical aspects of producing a podcast— although they get a crash course in that, too.

“Working on the podcast has created many opportunities for students to engage with both local and national public health experts and has allowed them an opportunity to gain invaluable skills, including leadership, interviewing, and networking,” Just says.

Morozov says she’s interested in going into public health at a local, state, or federal governmental level, and, as in any public health field, excellent communication skills are important.

“Whether you’re the public relations officer who’s actually communicating about the topic, or you’re working in a clinic, or you’re doing bootson-the-ground public health work, being able to communicate your work and its value is really important,” Morozov says. “This podcast gives people a unique opportunity to practice that.”

Sonnier agrees. “Meeting people is essential for many different reasons,” he says. “Networking is great, but you also get to know thought leaders in your field. They help shape your perspective of who you want to be and where you want to be as a professional in the public health field. The podcast broadened my horizons as to what public health means and what public health can do.”

Find all the episodes at www.public-health.uiowa. edu/from-the-front-row/

Podcasters Eric Ramos,and Logan Schmidt