The best podcasts about policy, health policy, public health, leadership, culture of equity

I've been working in rural health for over 25 years and prior to that, in urban health. I am a speaker, facilitator, and served as the host of another rural-focused podcast for three years. In other words, I've facilitated a lot of candid conversations! On my new podcast, The Rural Impact, we're bringing you fascinating discussions about policies and how they affect rural communities and people - directly and indirectly. I founded Impact! Communications, Inc. in 1989. Since day one, I have been fully invested in every project, client, and engagement. I strive for excellence, no shortcuts. I am passionate about developing leadership potential, improving organizational culture, evolving communication skills, advancing quality, care, and service. In December of 1996, when my daughter was ten years young, and my son was only 7; in the throes of the holiday season and at a personal crossroads, I received a diagnosis of malignant melanoma. With that one phone call from my doctor, just a few days before my birthday (which is just a few days before Christmas), all the work pressures, book tours, and family dramas that once sat heavily on my shoulders, I now carried on my back in the form of cancer, stage 3B as it turns out. In January of 1997, after a life-changing ‘awake’ experience on an operating room table and several months of physical and emotional recovery, I began my transformation, and that included my life’s work. From this moment on, I believed that everything I had experienced and accomplished; all that I had learned about survival, communications, alliance building, selling and storytelling to this point, were to prepare me for the next chapter. My cancer journey spoke to me loudly, telling my heart that it now belonged to healthcare – helping others in what felt to be a much more meaningful way, for me.

The Rural Impact looks at important topics from several angles. In each series, we begin by presenting a hot topic, be it focused on access to food, education, transportation, broadband, and of course, healthcare, and how policies around these issues impact quality of life. Next, over a few episodes, we’ll talk to experts, authors, thought leaders and policy makers who offer informed insights, data, and details that help us understand what’s important, why it matters, and the policies driving decisions and outcomes.

Rural America gets a bad rap most of the time, and with that, is often left behind. I have worked in over 40 states and been embedded in communities as they fight to keep their only source of healthcare local. I've witnessed what happens when a community loses its hospital and the damaging ripple effects of not having access to transportation, a pharmacy, dental care, and doctors. Economies struggle, people lose hope, and all the while, politicians they elect ask for their votes while stabbing them in the back with policies that diminish the quality of their lives. I want to have conversations that help our listeners connect the dots between policy and rural everything, and with that, work to expose non-rural communities to the critical role that rural vitality plays in their metropolitan, suburban and urban lives.