Each 4 years, somebody says “That is crucial election ever.” However it’s arduous to query the long-term impression Election Day 2024 may have — from the highest of the poll on down.
So the primary 5 episodes of the autumn 2024 season of the “First Opinion Podcast” will grapple with the marketing campaign and its intersection with well being, medication, and the life sciences. I’ll communicate with specialists on points which have come up on the marketing campaign path, subjects that candidates ought to deal with, and what a second Trump or first Harris administration would possibly maintain. Consider it as “First Opinion Podcast Hits the Path,” maybe, besides I’m staying residence within the swing state of Pennsylvania keeping off marketing campaign texts.
For the debut episode, I spoke with Kathleen Kelly Daughety, vp of campaigns and civic engagement for Inseparable, a psychological well being advocacy group with a powerful deal with coverage. “Psychological well being has a protracted historical past of being a bipartisan subject,” she mentioned. “For those who learn Vice President Harris’ speeches, she talks rather a lot about well being not beginning under the pinnacle.” Moreover, the Trump administration targeted on opioid response, whereas each the Trump and Biden administrations have prioritized suicide prevention.
“On the substance, it’s promising,” Daughety mentioned. “However on the tone, it’s not so useful. I feel they’re nonetheless [using] actually stigmatizing language that occurs on the marketing campaign path. And that’s fairly regressive at this level.”
We talked about what questions Daughety wished debate moderators would ask, state and native elections, the suicide and disaster hotline 988, new parity guidelines, and defending your individual psychological well being throughout a fraught marketing campaign. “Nobody objects to saying that psychological well being ought to matter extra, however … it’s arduous to truly get issues accomplished,” she advised me.
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