Lawfare Archive: Why Public Health is Critical to National Security
5/24/202657 min
From April 2, 2025: Atul Gawande is a surgeon and a public health expert. He's also the former head of global health at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an agency that the Trump administration has prioritized for dismantling since its first day in office. On today's episode, Executive Editor Natalie Orpett sat down with Gawande to discuss what USAID does, the consequences of destroying it, and why public health is so important to U.S. national security.
Editor's Note: This episode was recorded on March 27, 2025. The following day, the Trump administration announced that USAID would be dissolved by the end of this fiscal year.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
K-pop demon hunters, Saja Boys breakfast meal and Huntrix meal have just dropped at McDonald's. They're calling this a battle for the fans. What do you say to that, Roomie? It's not a battle. So glad the Saja Boys could take breakfast and give our meal the rest of the day.
Natalie Orpett· Host0:13
It is an honor to share.
Speaker 00:14
No, it's our honor.
Natalie Orpett· Host0:16
It is our larger honor.
Speaker 00:18
No, really, stop. You can really feel the respect in this battle. Pick a meal to pick a side. Ba da ba ba ba.
Speaker 20:26
Saja Boys meal until 11:00 AM while supplies last at participating Canadian restaurants.
Speaker 30:29
Amazon has everything for every kind of birthday, whether that's a three-tier cake stand. [inhales] [exhales] Happy birthday. Comet balloons for your son's space-themed party. [balloons squeaking] Or gifts, like a karaoke machine for that friend who never stops singing.
Speaker 20:50
[machine chiming] Happy birthday to you.
Speaker 30:55
From cake stands to karaoke machines- Happy birthday ... shop everything for every party on Amazon.
Marissa Wong1:00
[gentle music] [upbeat music] I'm Marissa Wong, Internet Lawfare, with an episode from the Lawfare archive for May 24th, 2026. On May 19th, the death toll from an Ebola outbreak in Central Africa rose sharply, causing the World Health Organization to express concern over the, quote, "scale