Code Green: The Climate-Smart Health Professional – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode we talk with Dr. John Balbus, a tireless climate advocate and the inaugural director of the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity within HHS. In the last year, the climate movement has faced many setbacks requiring more resilience, courage, and joy. In this conversation, we explore how to support this work and these feelings amid uncertainty, while charting through Dr. Balbus' illustrious career. 

Episode Written by Phoebe Cunningham and Elizabeth Whidden, Produced by Natasha Sood, and Edited by Liana Haigis and Dhivya Arasappan. 

In this episode, we bring you “on the ground” interviews from Medical Students for a Sustainable Future’s 2025 Climate Health Equity Day conference. We spoke with medical students, organizers, and advocates about their experiences at the conference, the urgent need for climate-informed health policy, and how future physicians are mobilizing for planetary health justice.

These conversations capture the energy and vision of the next generation of healthcare leaders working to center equity in climate and health.

Episode written and hosted by Phoebe Cunningham and Elizabeth Whidden, produced by Natasha Sood, and edited by Liana Haigis.

Dr. Terry O’Connor, Dr. Nuzhat Islam, and MD-PhD candidate Douglas Fritz walk with us through their clinical case highlighting the impact of climate change on arboviral infectious disease. Check out their written case (adaptable for medical school curricula) at Climate Resources for Health Education here: https://climatehealthed.org/course/arboviruses/

Dr. O’Connor is an instructor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Washington and Director of the Diploma in Climate Medicine at the University of Colorado Climate and Health Program. Dr. Islam is a second year internal medicine resident at the University of California in San Diego and a co-founder of the Planetary Health Report Card. Douglas is a second year MD/PhD student at the University of Colorado and one of the vice chairs for Medical Students for a Sustainable Future.

Hosted by Genny Silva

Edited by Liana Haigis

In this episode, we speak with medical student James Sullivan from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University about the process of creating an integrated climate-health curriculum at the medical school. 

If you want to learn more, check out this journal article about the Cleveland Clinic’s climate-health curricular design: Climate Change and Medical Education: An Integrative Model (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34432714/)

Episode written by Genny Silva, Produced by Natasha Sood, and Edited by Liana Haigis

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Heather Whelan, Kelsey Barter, and Hossein Moein Taghavi about the connections between heat, air pollution, and neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Whelan is a Professor of Medicine at University of California San Francisco, Kelsey is a medical student at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Hossein is a research assistant at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Whelan, Kelsey, and Hossein wrote this case as part of the Climate Resources for Health Education (CRHE) initiative (Case OSS9.2). Join us as we dive into this patient case!
To learn more about CRHE head over to climatehealthed.org. 
Episode written by Genny Silva, Produced by Natasha Sood, and Edited by Liana Haigis

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Gaurab Basu about how climate change, at its core, is a health inequity multiplier and a human rights issue. Dr. Basu is a physician and the founding co-director of the Cambridge Health Alliance Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is also an instructor in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Join us as we discuss all of this and more! To learn about Dr. Basu’s initiatives, head over to: Gaurab Basu | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Hosted by Natasha Sood

Written by Natasha Sood & Sarah Hsu

Edited by Liana Haigis

Referenced Resources:

C-CHANGE | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Climate Change Effects On Public Health | Yale School Of Public Health

From February 13-17th, 2021, Winter Storm Uri devastated much of North America with catastrophic wind, ice and snow. Notably impacted was the state of Texas, which experienced widespread power outages, infrastructure damage and essential resource shortages. Guest hosts Cole Martin and Sarah McWilliam, two students from University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School, examine the effects of the storm on community health and medical practice in today’s episode. They’re joined by Dr. Sarah Scott and fellow medical student Girija Hariprasad to share the experiences of medical professionals during this extreme weather event and what we can do to improve our response to similar climate-related events in the future.

Hosted by Cole Martin & Sarah McWilliam

Written by Cole Martin & Sarah McWilliam

Edited by Liana Haigis

Episode Transcript

Referenced Resources:

The Disconnect: Power, Politics and the Texas Blackout

Planetary Health Report Card

Racial Justice Report Card

Our special Earth Week episode is produced in collaboration with ecoAmerica and Climate for Health! Listen as Rebecca Rehr leads a conversation with Dr. Cheryl Holder and Dr. Boris Lushniak, where they discuss opportunities to support health professional leadership and center health equity in climate solutions. They’ll also check the rear view mirror for any lessons learned in 2020 and places to build synergies and collaboration.

Hosted by Mattie Boehler-Tatman

Edited by Liana Haigis

Episode Transcript

Full Interview and Referenced Resources

How can we best discuss climate change and mental health with our patients, and what steps can we take to deal with our own climate anxiety? Join us as we discuss all of this and more with our special guest Dr. Elizabeth Haase, a founding member of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Nevada in Reno. Producer and host Julia Rothschild also details the latest literature on the intersection of climate change and psychiatry. Special thanks to Dr. Haase and the entire Climate Psychiatry Alliance for helping create this episode. To learn more about the Climate Psychiatry Alliance and ways to get involved, head over to their website at https://www.climatepsychiatry.org/.

Hosted by Julia Rothschild

Written by Julia Rothschild

Edited by Liana Haigis

Episode Transcript

Referenced Resources:

Climate Change and Mental Health Connections

Let’s talk climate change and Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs)! In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Mindy Richlen, Assistant Director of the U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms and member of the Greater Caribbean Center for Ciguatera Research, to discuss:

1. How climate change is contributing to the global expansion of HABs.
   
2. How HABs can cause a debilitating and underdiagnosed illness known as Ciguatera Fish Poisoning.
   
3. What this all means for healthcare providers!

Given the changing geographic patterns of ciguatera due to climate change, we want to make sure all healthcare professionals are well-equipped to diagnose and manage patients with suspected Ciguatera Fish Poisoning. Make sure to catch our Ciguatera case study at the end of the episode!

Hosted by Sarah Hsu

Written by Kelly Williamson

Edited by Liana Haigis

Episode Transcript

Referenced Resources:

U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms

Greater Caribbean Center for Ciguatera Research (GCCCR)